CDs: The Song That Goes Like This
The victim of a mucous membrane disorder, William Barfee Dan Fogler owes some of his spelling skills to his "magic foot." Logaine Schwartzandgrubenierre Sarah Saltzberg, the lisping daughter of a pair of gay dads, is the youngest competitor in the bee. Last year's winner, Chip Tolentino Jose Llana, is currently a victim of raging hormones. Her mother off in an ashram in India and her father busy at work, contestant Olive Ostrovsky Celia Keenan-Bolger is alone at the bee, and lacks the entrance fee. The home-schooled Leaf Coneybear Jesse Tyler Ferguson was only a runner-up in his district bee, and favors going into trances when it comes time to spell. Marcy Park Deborah S. Craig speaks six languages and is tired of being an overachiever.
These are the six adolescents all played by adult actors competing in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and, as you're probably aware, they're joined on stage by a quartet of audience members selected prior to each performance, as well as by three officials of the bee: Vice principal Panch Jay Reiss; former bee champ and local realtor Rona Peretti Lisa Howard; and Mitch Mahoney Derrick Baskin, who comforts the departing losers with hugs and juice boxes.
In a season of self-aware, tongue-in-cheek, spoofy musicals, Spelling Bee is an island of sweet sincerity. After a highly praised run at off-Broadway's Second Stage Theatre, Spelling Bee was picked up for Broadway by Wicked producer David Stone, among others, and is now at Circle in the Square. Cleverly reconceiving that space to resemble a school gymnasium, Spelling Bee puts to admirable use an unconventional venue where one would expect the show to remain for some time.
The happiest thing about Spelling Bee is that it marks the return to Broadway of composer-lyricist William Finn. Best known for the Marvin musicals In Trousers, March of the Falsettos, Falsettoland, and the combination of the latter two into Falsettos, Finn's highly individual voice hasn't seemed particularly applicable to more conventional narratives. That may explain the failure of such Finn projects as The Royal Family and Muscle to get produced in New York.
So it's good that a wholly unexpected subject and set of characters came along, in the form of a partly improvised play by Rebecca Feldman that Finn and book writer Rachel Sheinkin reconceived as a musical. Finn's quirky, idiosyncratic style in words and music proves to be a perfect fit for the material of Spelling Bee.
Ghostlight's Broadway cast recording includes forty-nine of the intermissionless show's 102 minutes. The song titles aren't listed in the show's Playbill, probably so as not to reveal which contestants survive to the end of the bee. So it should be noted that the Bee recording not only includes the song titles but also reveals the winner of the bee. Those still intending to see the show may therefore wish to hold off on listening to the CD.
In the theatre, Bee is accompanied by five musicians; that number has been doubled for the recording, which also features a number "Why We Like Spelling" that's not heard in the show. Musically speaking, the strongest pieces are the opening/title song and the haunting trio "The I Love You Song" for Olive and her absent parents who are sung by Rona and Mitch. Other attractive items include Rona's recurring "My Favorite Moment of the Bee"; Olive's "My Friend, the Dictionary"; and Leaf's "I'm Not That Smart."
Finn's lyrics are sometimes stronger than his music here; melodically speaking, the Bee score isn't quite in a class with that of Falsettos or A New Brain. But the recording makes the score seem more attractive and substantial than it does in the theatre, where it can sometimes feel incidental.
Superbly directed by James Lapine, Bee is performed by a perfect cast of nine, all of whom contribute strongly on the CD. And if its individual pieces don't alway soar, the score functions beautifully as part of the season's most endearing new Broadway musical.
MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT Decca Broadway
The season's biggest musical hit has produced its oddest cast recording. When I discussed Spamalot a few weeks ago in this space, I noted that I found the score somewhat negligible. And so it remains on Decca Broadway's excellent cast recording.
The score and the CD are every bit as silly as the show from which they derive. To an extent, it's a score that goes in one ear and out the other. But there are several catchy tunes, in addition to the pre-existing toe-tapper "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from the Life of Brian film. Most of these tunes involve Sara Ramirez's Lady of the Lake, and they include "Come with Me," "Find Your Grail," and, of course, "The Song That Goes Like This," shared with Christopher Sieber's Galahad. The latter number features the strongest melody, and that's as it should be, because it's deployed to spoof the soaring, insistent melodies of pop-opera master Andrew Lloyd Webber. If the score has a more full-bodied sound on disc than in the theatre, it may be because the orchestra has been augmented by ten strings for the recording.
Indeed, it's Ramirez who also has a "Diva's Lament" who gets the greatest showcase in this recording. David Hyde Pierce has his five minutes in the spotlight with his one big number, "You Won't Succeed on Broadway." Tim Curry is deadpan perfection in several spots, notably "I'm All Alone." The third star, Hank Azaria, doesn't have much music to deliver. Michael McGrath's Patsy scores leading "Bright Side," and the versatile Christian Borle is heard to good effect as Prince Herbert "Where Are You?" and Not Dead Fred "He Is Not Dead Yet".
Like The Producers, Hairspray, and Movin' Out, the cast recording of Spamalot was made between the tryout and the commencement of New York performances. Like the Producers CD, the Spamalot album gives away several of the show's jokes, notably in "Finland" and "You Won't Succeed on Broadway," so this is another cast album you may wish to postpone listening to until after you've seen the production.
If the Spamalot album is more a good souvenir of the show than a satisfying hour of theatre music, one can at least credit it for sounding unlike any other cast recording I can think of. It may leave some wondering how so much music can amount to so little. Still, the recording is cheerfully absurd and pleasantly giddy. If it's not a distinguished score, it makes for lively listening.