CDs: A Lady Named Vienna

The recent off-Broadway musical Johnny Guitar was based on the notorious, Nicholas Ray-directed 1954 film of the same title. Of starring in this Republic Pictures Freudian Western, star Joan Crawford later stated, "I should have had my head examined. No excuse for a picture being this bad or for me making it."

Crawford was perhaps being overly harsh, as Johnny Guitar holds a place in the hearts of camp followers everywhere. Which indicates the central, built-in problem of the stage musical version: The show's tongue-in-cheek approach to its source film couldn't hope to match the unintentional hilarity of the original. There was something pointless about attempting to kid that which is already so ludicrous.

Opening at the Century Center in March of 2004 and flopping out in May after seventy-nine performances, Johnny Guitar managed to take an Outer Critics Circle Award for outstanding off-Broadway musical in a weak season for the genre. The work of Nicholas van Hoogstraten book, Martin Silvestri music, and Joel Higgins lyrics, music, direction, Johnny Guitar came from the same team responsible for the West End calamity The Fields of Ambrosia, in which Higgins co-starred with Christine Andreas.

To ensure the possibility of future productions, Johnny Guitar was recorded immediately after its closing, with the CD issued by the show's production company, Definite Maybe Productions. Backed by a four-piece band, the show's combination country-western and '50s-pop score was delivered by a quartet of strong lead singers, notably Judy McLane currently in Mamma Mia! in Crawford's role of heroine Vienna.

McLane's vocals are the most impressive element here, and she carries much of the recording. As a torch singer setting up the narrative, she opens the CD most effectively with the title number. She's also in powerful voice on Vienna's "Let It Spin," "Branded a Tramp," and the attractive "Welcome Home." As the eponymous hero, Steve Blanchard Beauty and the Beast has the appealing "Old Sante Fe" and the heart-on-sleeve "Tell Me a Lie."

Playing Vienna's suitor, the Dancin' Kid, Rob Evan Jekyll & Hyde, Little Shop of Horrors leads "The Gunfighter" and the Spanish-flavored "What's In It For Me?" As Vienna's deeply conflicted rival, Ann Crumb Aspects of Love has the embittered waltz "Who Do They Think They Are?"

As traditional off-Broadway scores go these days, this one is undistinguished but fairly pleasant. And it actually comes across better on disc than in the theatre. For one thing, where the show was overextended and ultimately wearying, the CD runs a breezy thirty-eight minutes.

Then too, the songs tended not to advance the action of the show very much, and that's because they were for the most part written in a sober, straightforward manner and thus in a different style from the arch, joky script surrounding them. This stylistic discrepancy is less noticeable on disc, where, even with a smattering of dialogue included, the songs are the thing.

BARBARA COOK SINGS FROM THE HEART DRG

In the late '50s, around the time she was starring on Broadway in The Music Man, Barbara Cook released two solo LPs on the Urania label. The first one, issued in 1957, was truly esoteric: composer Seymour Barab's art-song settings of poems by Dorothy Parker, in an album called Songs of Perfect Propriety. The other Urania album, from 1959, was a more conventional choice, From the Heart, featuring songs by Rodgers and Hart.

Both of these albums became sought-after collector's items. To this day, Songs of Perfect Propriety has never been reissued. In 1988, From the Heart got its first CD release, on the Moss Music Group label. Now it's back again, this time on Cook's regular label, DRG. Unlike the '88 reissue, the new one reproduces the original sleeve cover. The DRG version also includes some new, brief notes from Cook.

In those notes, Cook maintains that she would now delve into a song's text more than she does on these '59 recordings. But this disc demonstrates that much of her interpretive power was already in place at the time of From the Heart. In the twelve-song program, Cook concentrates on plaintive, wistful ballads; even the usually spritely "Dancing on the Ceiling" is slowed down. The voice is exquisite, the singing pure, radiant, and full of the sensitivity Cook has continued to evince throughout her career.

"I Didn't Know What Time It Was," "Ship Without a Sail," "It Never Entered My Mind," and "He Was Too Good to Me" are outstanding. But the entire disc, from opening "You Have Cast Your Shadow on the Sea" to closing "Where or When", is a gem. It's good to have it back.

JESSICA MOLASKEY: MAKE BELIEVE PS Classics

Jessica Molaskey's previous solo albums for PS Classics have had her performing songs of the '20s and '30s Pentimento and jazz material associated with Peggy Lee A Good Day. Before all of that, though, Molaskey was a regular in musicals, with stage credits including Tommy, Dream, Parade, and Songs for a New World.

For her third PS Classics disc, Molaskey returns to theatre songs, but with a jazz ensemble including her husband, guitarist-vocalist John Pizzarelli. Molaskey opens with "I Cain't Say No," in honor of her first New York job, a spot in the chorus of the 1979 Broadway revival of Oklahoma! She swings the title song of Guys and Dolls, admirably spins out "So Many People" and the gorgeous "Right as the Rain," and shares "Glad to Be Unhappy" with Adam Guettel, grandson of the song's composer.

The most unusual choices here are "Growing Pains" from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and a rapid, intense "Stepsisters' Lament" Cinderella. As a duet for Molaskey and Pizzarrelli, Jason Robert Brown has fashioned an arrangement combining "Getting Married Today" with the venerable jazz ditty "Cloudburst." The only number that doesn't really fit in is "Cradle and All," a brand new song written by Molaskey and Ricky Ian Gordon.

Jazz treatments of show tunes aren't my favorite things. But Molaskey's singing is notable for its superb intonation, seamless register transitions, and careful attention to lyrics.