CDs: Langston in London

I didn't see the 1957 Broadway musical Simply Heavenly, but I fell in love with it via the next best thing, a 1959 "Play of the Week" television adaptation that featured most of the original cast. The show was based on some short stories by Langston Hughes 1902-1967, the black poet and author who was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Those stories were about Jess Simple, a decent young Harlem everyman for whom things never seem to go right but who continues to dream and to try to do the right thing.

A folk play set in contemporary Harlem, Simply Heavenly had a book and lyrics by Hughes himself. Hughes' previous musical-theatre credits included two Broadway operas. One, Street Scene 1947, with music by Kurt Weill, was a richly ambitious work, and a piece now regularly mounted by opera companies. The other is utterly forgotten: The Barrier, which played four performances on Broadway in 1950 and concerned the relationship between the illegitimate, mulatto son of a white plantation owner and a black housekeeper in Georgia.

Simply Heavenly was not an opera; it was an intimate show, more a play with songs than a full-bodied musical. The music and orchestrations were the work of David Martin. But in addition to the songs, the actor playing Simple was given several poetic monologues that came straight from the original stories, a couple of which were preserved on the Broadway cast album.

Simply Heavenly first opened off-Broadway, at the 85th Street Playhouse, in May of 1957. The reviews were mostly good, especially for Mel Stewart's Simple and Claudia McNeil as a domestic called Miss Mamie. In The New York Times, Brooks Atkinson suggested that "if it were a tidier show, it probably would be a good deal less enjoyable." Walter Kerr in The Herald-Tribune called it "rambling, sometimes ramshackle, but always utterly delightful....in its unpretentious and not at all sleeked-up way, sets a certain small but irresistible standard of its own. It is direct observation, warmly recorded and glowingly preserved." In The Saturday Review, Henry Hewes called it "the best good time I've had in the theatre all year." In The Journal American, John McClain described it as "a brilliant off-Broadway offering."

When its off-Broadway house was condemned by the fire department, Simply Heavenly transferred to Broadway's Playhouse, which used to be located across the street from the Cort on West 48th Street. For Broadway, the show got new producers, a new set, and orchestrations for eight players instead of the original twin-piano accompaniment.

The Broadway run was only sixty-two performances, after which the show went back off-Broadway, this time to the Renata Theatre, for another two months. In 1958, it had a brief run at London's Adelphi Theatre, with Stewart repeating his role opposite Bertice Reading Valmouth.

Among the best black musicals written by black writers, Simply Heavenly is sweet, charming, and funny, with endearing characters, pleasant songs, and a memorable hero. In the scenes set in the local hangout, Paddy's Bar, the show managed to put on stage an entire community and period in black history. Columbia Records recorded the original cast album, and, as indicated, the show was later recreated for television.

In spite of its brief Broadway run, Simply Heavenly is a work whose original reception and subsequent reputation indicate that a revival would be in order. One might have expected George C. Wolfe to try it at the Public Theatre. Instead, it fell to London's Young Vic company to mount a 2003 revival that was sufficiently well-received to transfer to the West End, winding up eventually at the Trafalgar Studios.

And now, while Columbia's Broadway cast recording of Simply Heavenly has yet to make it to CD, First Night Records has released a London cast recording. The first thing to note is that the tunestack differs substantially from that of the Broadway set. Each version includes four songs not to be found on the other recording. It's not clear whether the London version employs a revision of the show, or whether the London production interpolated Martin-Hughes songs from other sources.

In any case, the London CD is lively and enjoyable, with good work from Ruby Turner as warm-hearted Miss Mamie, Clive Rowe watermelon vendor Melon, Rhashan Stone hero Simple, and Nicola Hughes man-trap Zarita. And I like the fact that the lovable but sometimes forgotten Simply Heavenly got a West End revival and a new recording; one never expected to have a London cast album of Simply Heavenly, particularly as the old Simply Heavenly recording remains obscure enough to be among the last Columbia show titles still without a CD release.

One does, however, prefer that old recording for its period charm, something that the London set inevitably lacks. That first recording is something of a trip back to another era, so one hopes that DRG or some other label will eventually get around to reissuing Columbia's Simply Heavenly.

BRIGADOON JAY

JAY's new Brigadoon was recorded in 1995 and has now been released in the label's "Music Theatre Hour" series. Running sixty-four minutes, this appears to be an abridgement of an unreleased, double-CD, complete recording. All songs are present on the highlights disc; what's missing are the substantial "Come to Me, Bend to Me," wedding, sword, and funeral dance sequences.

George Dvorsky is Tommy, preserving a role he has sung with New York City Opera. As Charlie "Go Home With Bonnie Jean," "Come to Me, Bend to Me", Maurice Clarke sings a role he previously recorded on First Night's 1988 London revival cast recording. The leading ladies are both named Kelly: Fiona is Janis Kelly, soprano heroine of TER/JAY's Street Scene and Show Boat, while Megan Kelly is Meg.

The outstanding performance here is Janis Kelly's lovely Fiona, followed closely by Dvorsky's handsome, if somewhat restrained, Tommy. Clarke is a pleasing Charlie. The disappointment here is Megan Kelly's Meg, pleasant enough but puny compared to the recorded Megs of Susan Johnson and Judy Kaye. The original Ted Royal orchestrations are happily present, although Martin Yates' tempi are sometimes sluggish.

Of course, if one wants a contemporary, comprehensive, single-disc Brigadoon, there's the John McGlinn-conducted, 1992 Angel recording, which is fifteen minutes longer than JAY's and includes all of the dance music absent here. And the Angel recording features Broadway-regular leads in Rebecca Luker, Brent Barrett, and Judy Kaye, all of whom sang their Brigadoon roles at City Opera.

Still, the JAY Brigadoon qualifies as an attractive performance of a grand score.

KRISTIN CHENOWETH: AS I AM Sony Classical

When I receive a review copy of a new CD, I usually skim the press materials that accompany it. But I don't rely on that material too much, as it's clearly meant to put the most positive spin on things.

But in the case of Kristin Chenoweth's second Sony solo disc, I was grateful for the press release and biographical information provided, as Broadway star and Tony-winner Chenoweth has chosen for the new disc a highly personal program, mining an area with which I am entirely unfamiliar.

Chenoweth grew up singing in a Southern Baptist church in her native Broken Arrow, Oklahoma; when she was twelve, she performed a song called "I'm Four Foot Eleven and I'm Going to Heaven" for the Southern Baptist Convention. On her new CD As I Am, she is celebrating her faith by performing an assortment of inspirational material, ranging from hymns and gospel to contemporary Christian pop.

Of the latter, she performs songs associated with Faith Hill "It Will Be Me", Trisha Yearwood "The Song Remembers When", Amy Grant "There Will Never Be Another", and Sandi Patti "Upon This Rock". Chenoweth also introduces a pair of pop numbers, "Borrowed Angels" by Diane Warren and "When You Abide In Me" Jerry Wise.

The traditional material includes "Poor Wayfaring Stranger," the hymn "Just As I Am," and "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee," the latter based on Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." "Because He Lives" and "Word of God Speak" fall into the gospel category.

Of course, recitals like this one raise a pair of obvious questions: Will the star's theatre fans want to hear her in this music, and will fans of this music be sufficiently familiar with Chenoweth to seek out the CD?

But by returning to her spiritual roots, Chenoweth has made a heartfelt album. If the material is somewhat beyond the purview of this column, Chenoweth delivers it all with simplicity and conviction, the vocals expectedly solid and versatile but also pure, fervent, and unadorned.

The only concession to Chenoweth's standard concert material comes in a final bonus track. It's "Taylor, the Latte Boy," the comic Zina Goldrich/Marcy Allison Heisler number that has become a staple of the star's live performances.

Chenoweth is a busy lady these days, what with her role on TV's "The West Wing," appearances in the films Bewitched, The Pink Panther, Rapunzel, Stranger Than Fiction, and Running With Scissors, and the starring role in Encores!' The Apple Tree.

But that's not all. The press release for As I Am notes that, in conjunction with the new CD, Chenoweth will appear at a series of Women of Faith events, to be held throughout the U.S. These two-day arena affairs, attended by as many as 20,000 women, include inspirational speakers and music, and Chenoweth will be the special guest performer.