Search - Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Erin Dilly :: Babes In Arms (1999 City Center Encores! Cast)

Only with reservations

Barnett Serchuk | 11/27/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of my favorite scores, and as much as I wanted to love it, I came away with very mixed feelings. Like other shows of the 1930s, we are not left with any original cast albums. We have old playbills and souvenir programs, an Al Hirscfield drawing, perhaps a snippet of a silent movie that was taken during performance. Sometimes we are even luckier. With BABES IN ARMS we have an actual radio recording made by original cast member, Wynn Murray, performing two of her songs from the show: Way out West and Johnny One Note. But what did the show mean to the audiences of its day? Probably a great deal if one looks at the people associated with it: Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and Gorge Balanchine (before he became Mr. B.) But what does this recording say to us today? Here is the problem. Unlike the previous recording of 1990, this recording lacks any consistent tone. We get of to a rousing start with the overture. But then the singing starts! I am sorry to say that the two leads, Erin Dilly and David Campbell have no sense of style or feel for these songs. They exhibit a 1990s pop feel which distracts from the emotional value of their songs. Thus the haunting and piercing WHERE OR WHEN and MY FUNNY VALENTINE remain vapid and fail to register on a visceral level. On the other hand, Melissa Rain Anderson does give us an exciting JOHNNY ONE NOTE and the Coffee Club Orchestra lets go with a wonderful rendition of ALL LIGHT PEOPLE (a revised title of what we would consider a politically incorrect song.) Another plus to this recording: all the dance music is recorded so balletomances can have a field day imagining what Balanchine did with it. I would recommend this recording only with reservations. Listeners should also get the 1990 version with Judy Blazer and Judy Kaye."

A fabulous music comedy with real music and comedy

F. Behrens | Keene, NH USA | 11/17/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Back in the days when musical comedies had both music and comedy and most of the cast was left alive at the end so you could go home feeling good, there was a miracle called Rodgers and Hart. Hart's marvelous lyrics never let Rodgers' music get as soapy as it was going to become with Hammerstein's lyrics (e.g., "Sound of Music") because they were intelligent, witty, biting, and actually better in their way than those of W.S. Gilbert. Compared with the "one song" musicals of today, we have in (say) "Babes in Arms" no less than four songs that became standards and two, which are clever parodies on love and western ballads. There are two excellent recordings of and I find it difficult to choose between them. The earlier release on New World Records boasts Judy Blazer and Judy Kaye and a good supporting cast. The DRG release (94769) is a tad less well sung but contains more material. This set wisely gives us some of the dialogue that leads up to the songs and does include the now politically incorrect number "All Dark People." Nevertheless the producers decided to shear off the offending stanza and call it "Light on Their Feet." But the results are just fine and this is a highly recommended recording, comparisons with the New World version aside. Personally, I will play both of them many many times in the years to come."

A breath of fresh air

Michael A. Benedetto | New York, NY USA | 02/25/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It might be sacrelige to say so, but this album stands head and shoulders above the one from New World Records that represents the ten-year-old Avery Fisher concert. The Encores! version is zippier, zestier, and altogether more fun.Part of the fun is in the casting: while it's hard not to love the cast of the other album (most of whom are members of the Varese Sarabande/Fynsworth Alley stable of performers), this cast is made up of young people that someday you'll be proud to have known about before they were big. David Campbell appears likely to become one of the stage's preeminent leading men (assuming he doesn't abandon theatre for TV, movies or pop music) -- his singing is gorgeous, his acting confident. Erin Dilly is every bit as good, and registers more strongly because she has better songs (including "The Lady is a Tramp" and "My Funny Valentine"). Everyone else sounds fine and appears to be having fun; supporting leads Christopher Fitzgerald and Jessica Stone stand out. Everyone sounds *young*, a trait appropriate to the characters but not present on the last album.An additional treat is the inclusion of scraps of dialogue to set up the tracks. We've all heard many of these standards many times before, but it's much more interesting to have them set up by lines from the book -- the fight that precipitates "I Wish I Were in Love Again", the story that provokes "Johnny One Note", et cetera. It makes the album sound like a show and not a collection of randomly assembled pop standards.And standards they are. That's the main reason one should want to own either album -- the songs are without exception so delicious that I often finish playing it and want to put it back on immediately. The DRG album gets the edge over the New World album here, too, as it preserves the music and the more innocuous lyrics of the lovely but no-longer-PC "Light On Our Feet".All that remains to be said -- all that needs to be said -- is that the album is pure magic. If you haven't gotten around to buying it, give it a chance."