Search - Stephen Sondheim :: Saturday Night (2000 Off-Broadway Revival Cast)

Smashing

Jeffrey Bores | Minnesota | 06/27/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This New York revival cast recording of Stephen Sondheim's first show as composer and lyricist is a must-own for any Sondheim fan. Even if you own the 1998 London cast recording of Saturday Night, you will want to purchase this recording for several reasons. First, this recording is more complete. It includes such songs as "Montana Chem.," which clearly gives hints and previews to quintessential Sondheim "dialogue songs" to come in later shows such as Company. Second, the orchestrations are far superior, including many more strings and four trumpets. Third, unlike the London cast, this recording does not torture the Brooklyn accents (and the fake Southern accent in "Isn't It.") Fourth, the cast is sensational, especially Australian David Campbell as Gene. Saturday Night is a sweet musical and this recording will have you singing along. The enclosed book includes the complete libretto, a history of the show, and poses the intriguing question of where Sondheim's career may have gone had Saturday Night actually been produced in 1954 and particularly whether the show might have been successful or not. With this recording and Kathleen Marshall's off-Broadway production, it is hard to imagine in retrospect that the show could have failed. This recording certainly does not."

Awww.... what a cute little baby!

efrex | New York, NY USA | 06/22/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sondheim referred to watching the recent production of "Saturday Night" as analagous to seeing his baby pictures... nowhere in this sweet, simple little musical is there a trace of the man who for the next four decades would turn the musical theater world on its head with its most ambitious material.The craft is there already, though... the wordplay, the structure, the wonderful melodies can be seen even in this 45-year old material. And it's not just an intellectual exercise, either: "Saturday Night" is a charming show in its own right, and it's hard to believe that it took this long to stage. The story, centering on a group of young men trying to a) get a date, and b) strike it rich, is charming, and the snippets of dialog introducing the songs sound great.The songs themselves include "What More Do I Need"? (The ultimate New York City valentine), "So Many People" (perhaps Sondheim's best pure ballad), "That Kind of a Neighborhood" (how many odes to Brooklyn have YOU heard recently, let alone one which can find a rhyme for "delinquents"?), and "Montana Chem," which could have been a Loesser song out of "How to Succeed." Speaking of "Montana Chem", it's one of four new songs on this recording which were not on the previous Bridewell company cast recording. This recording also features Jonathan Tunick's brilliant (as always) orchestrations, an overture, and a reprise or two not previously recorded.The sound is a bit less "edgy" than that of the Bridewell recording, and most of the Brooklyn accents have been softened here (with one notable grating exception: in "In The Movies," Valentino is mentioned as 'wearing a poiple toiban')...Lauren Ward and David Campbell are more than capable as the leads in this sweet engaging romantic comedy. A separate booklet of liner notes, complete with eye-catching black-and-white production photos, complete lyrics and a well-written plot summary, round out a great overall package. If you haven't gotten the Bridewell cast recording, skip that one and go right to this one. If you have the Bridewell cast, you still need this one. No musical theater buff should be without this one."

"EARLY" SONDHEIM WAS AHEAD OF HIS PEERS IN WIT AND DEPTH

JUST ME | USA | 06/21/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"At last, the full score with that long-lost "dinosaur" of musical preludes- an OVERTURE! This American original NY cast does beautifully by Sondheim's very first score originally written in the mid-1950's yet tragically unproduced due to the sudden loss of its producer. It just might have been a little ahead of its time in musical construction and sophistication, but it would have been a kick to see how its cleverness would have fared with some of its peer musical scores of the day that were considerably less witty and smart. Although the British cast did a valiant job with the New York American dialect, this recording has the accent down pat, which is so integral to the score, story, and timeline. One would think that such a mundane topic as a bunch of guys struggling to get a date and ultimately enter the sophisticated realm of cafe society in a time and place where social status mattered deeply (and once again does, as much, if not more) would not be the stuff that intense, comically dramatic musicals are made of, but Stephen Sondheim, with this score, showed for the first time, that plunging into the depths of the yearning human psyche with highly intelligent and apt wit, could turn a simple story into one of great insight. This just wasn't a common event in musical theater of the 1950's, (or 1960's) for that matter. Plunging the depths of human emotion, yes, but the complications of the mind, not so much. So it is a pleasure to have this definitve "early" Sondheim musical on disc, at last. But not just because it's his long-lost first show, but because even in his youthful first go at a musical, Mr. Sondheim was not in such an "early stage" at writing the kind of score he has so many years later become famous for. Saturday Night is not "early Sondheim," it is SONDHEIM "written early!" "What can you do on a 'Saturday Night,' alone, alone?" Listen to this recording and learn the answer!"