Search - Lorenz Hart :: A Connecticut Yankee (1955 Television Cast)

Sound is bad but the cast and songs are swell.

A. Andersen | Bellows Falls, VT USA | 09/11/1998

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Although the booklet notes go to great pains to point out that this is the 1943 revival version of the 1927 show (including six new songs and retaining six of the original), nowhere does it clearly mention that this is the soundtrack to the kinescope of a 1955 television performance of the show. You have to sort of piece that together from clues in the notes. Sound is poor but the performances from Eddie Albert, Janet Blair and Boris Karloff are fresh and the songs are well done. This needs a fresh studio cast recording as this is the only record of the show we have. Worth purchasing for fans of musical theater and Rodgers and Hart but rough going for those who haven't grown a dedicated "ear.""

Good sound, desecrated show

Joseph Hart | Visalia, CA United States | 01/09/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The sound on this recording is excellent. I don't see what the other reviewer was complaining about. However the show was bowdlerized. Damns were changed to hecks. And other innocuous puerile substitutes. For instance: He sings: Come sit thee near./Place thyself upon my knee./Put an an end to thy fear/For I live but thee in Camelot. She sings: Oh no not here/Where observed by all we'll be./Should my mother appear/She would surely scold and damn a lot. "Damn a lot" was changed to "nag a lot." I never should have bought it.



Karloff tells her she's been married "thrice." Then she sings a song about having been married 7 times. That's half the song. There are two more choruses she does not sing. She's been married 15 times. Of course I'm referring to "To Keep My Love Alive," a brilliant and riotous number, and also Hart's last lyric, as everyone knows. She leaves the verse off too.



1955. Television. Family values. I should have known. The kiddies (mustn't pervert and corrupt the kiddies) wouldn't be watching a show like this anyway. And the grownups - ?



I've now had 3 CDs (all R&H) put out by AEI. And they've all been lousy. A Connecticut Yankee. Dearest Enemy. And (this is an exorbitantly overpriced piece of garbage) I Married an Angel. AEI is not responsible for what was televised (except that they put Angel together), but 3 out of 3 is not a good average.



This thing cost me if I recall $17. I threw it away. And I'm angry and disgusted."