"I Simply Scream When I Hear La Boheme..."
Mitchell Ivers | New York | 11/14/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I have cherished this long out-of-print album since I first heard it back in 1971!
It is worth it alone just to hear her do Sheldon Harnick's "Backers Audition," in which her character has written a musical a la Kismet, with "original music...well, orginally by Tschaikowski." Her performance is hysterically funny and just remembering Harnick's words and lyrics to Tschaikowski melodies still makes me laugh out loud.
My other favorite from the album is John La Touche's "A Nail in the Horsehoe at the Opera"--dementedly silly, with Charlotte deliciously mispronouncing classical composers' names:
Now I may sound fussy,
But I don't like De-bussy.
And I simply scream
When I hear La Bo-heme.
And things by Massenet
Just simply do not fasci-nay
This little birdy,
Not one thing by Ver-di
Or Puccini
Not one teenie-weenie.
I don't like Beethoven!
Or Mozart! Or Schubert!
(Though I do like Victor Hu-u-bert!)
Then there are a few more well-known songs she does flawlessly, including comedy songs like Cole Porter's "The Physician" and ballads like Rodgers and Hart's "Why Can't I?" She also does a dead-on imitation of Marlene Dietrich doing Vernon Duke's "The Seagull and the Ea-gull." And a parody of the Gabor sisters.
And two witty, campy songs by Marc Blitzstein that will surprise and delight you if you know him only as a serious composer.
So for people who know her only as Mrs. Garrett, welcome to Charlotte Rae, the great comic actress."