Search - Al Carmines, Maria Irene Fornes :: Promenade (1969 Original Off-Broadway Cast)

Good, interesting "Indie" musical

Byron Kolln | the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood | 09/11/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"PROMENADE was a strange - but ultimately profitable - collaboration between the Reverend Al Carmines and Maria Irene Fornes. It opened at the off-Broadway Promenade Theatre in 1969 and ran well into the following year, to glowing reviews.The plot follows two prisoners on the run from jail, and their encounters with several strange characters. From time to time, the action onstage is interrupted by a bedraggled old lady, looking for her baby...The amazing cast includes Alice Playten (OLIVER!), Shannon Bolin (DAMN YANKEES), Florence Tarlow, Michael Davis, Anthony Falgo, Margot Albert and Gilbert Price.Though the liner notes depict several pictures of Madeline Kahn (one of the original cast-members and later star of ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY), she had left the show before the cast album was recorded. Alice Playten stops the show with her bravura rendition of "Capricious and Fickle", while Florence Tarlow is a comical cutup in her song "Chicken is He".A great cast album, now sadly out-of-print."

One of the best ever

Robert M. Hall | Athens, GA USA | 04/05/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For some reason I feel the need to contribute my opinion about this 1969 musical "comedy", which I initially heard on LP 40 years ago now. Yes, it is a strange show, with strange songs. However, strangeness is not necessarily a drawback; and for those of us with open ears, it can be most welcome. It is impossible for me to say which song from this show will be most impressionable to any given listener, as they are all so completely different from each other. But for me, the standouts are "I Saw a Man", with its bluntly forthright verse ("I have to live with my own life, whether you like it or not"); and still what I consider to be one of the greatest theatre songs ever written and performed, "Capricious and Fickle". It is really tragic that the recordings of this show, whether on LP or CD, are so rare now and so expensive. An overlooked treasure."