CDs: Someone in a Tree

Based on his 2000 New National Theatre of Tokyo production that was seen in New York at the 2002 Lincoln Center Festival, Amon Mayimoto's 2004 Broadway revival of Pacific Overtures had a two-month run, courtesy of the Roundabout, a non-profit company that can afford to mount full-scale musical revivals for brief engagements.

Two months is probably about all one could have expected for Pacific Overtures, a show that's likely to remain one of Stephen Sondheim's less popular efforts. Then too, while Pacific Overtures is a brilliant work with a brilliant score, Miyamoto's staging at Studio 54 was underpowered and failed to make the best possible case for a difficult piece.

With the decline in cast recordings by major labels like Sony BMG and Angel, we're fortunate to have new labels like Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight and PS Classics to take up the slack. The 2004 Pacific Overtures could easily have gone unrecorded, but PS Classics, which had already preserved the recent New York stagings of Sondheim's Assassins and The Frogs, recorded the new Pacific Overtures immediately following the closing.

This is the show's third cast album. RCA's 1976 Broadway cast recording has cuts in several numbers, notably the opening and "Welcome to Kanagawa." The 1987 London premiere by the English National Opera got a complete, dialogue-and-all, double-CD recording on TER. Reissued last year on JAY was the single disc of highlights from that performance, sixty-nine minutes and featuring complete versions of several numbers abbreviated on the Broadway set.

At seventy-nine minutes, PS Classics' new Broadway cast recording is the longest and most comprehensive single-disc version of the score. It favors complete sequences with dialogue included i.e. "A Bowler Hat", and also includes a fair amount of underscored lead-in dialogue.

The obvious drawback of the new set is that it's accompanied by the same seven-piece orchestra that the production had in the theatre. Although four musicians have been added for the recording, this Pacific Overtures still possesses a thinner sound than the first Broadway recording, not to mention the lush-sounding ENO version. Original '76 orchestrator Jonathan Tunick did the reduction, and original '76 conductor Paul Gemignani is back to conduct it.

The Reciter B.D. Wong has a greater presence here than on the first Broadway recording, and Wong comes across better on disc than he did at Studio 54. Wong certainly has a more attractive voice than the original Reciter, Mako, and Wong's interpretation is more ironic, less severe than his predecessor's.

Just as Pacific Overtures is more about ideas than people, this is not a score that allows for a great deal of dramatic interpretation. But in addition to Wong, there's good work from Michael K. Lee, Francis Jue, and Paolo Montalban. Back from the original '76 cast are Alvin Ing, repeating his role as the Shogun's Mother, and Sab Shimono, shifting from Manjiro to Lord Abe.

Those familiar only with the first Broadway recording will note revised lyrics here and there "Kanagawa," "Someone in a Tree" as well as a suitably updated "Next" finale. This production dropped the "Lion Dance," a number that can only be heard on the complete ENO recording. But PS Classics has provided a valuable bonus track of a song cut during the show's tryout, "Prayers," with original director Harold Prince narrating and Sondheim singing and playing.

This is a solid if not particularly distinctive performance. One never expected to have a second Broadway cast recording of Pacific Overtures, so Sondheim collectors will welcome it, even if they're likely to also require the other two recordings.

SONDHEIM SINGS: VOLUME I PS Classics, Inc.

For many years, demo tapes of Stephen Sondheim singing and playing his scores have circulated among collectors. These are fascinating not only for Sondheim's interpretation of his material but for the chance to hear unfinished or early versions of many of the songs. While a few of these demos have snuck out i.e. on the most recent reissue of the Broadway cast recording of Anyone Can Whistle, one never expected to see formal commercial releases of these demos.

But now PS Classics Inc. has issued the first of what is a promised series of such releases. Sondheim Sings: Volume I covers material from 1962 to 1972, or roughly from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum through A Little Night Music. Future volumes will reach back as far as 1946.

For the most part, these demos were recorded by Sondheim at the home of a friend, on reel-to-reel tape, in monophonic sound. As Sondheim himself says of his performances, "I tend to sing very loudly, usually off pitch, and always write in keys that are just out of my range." But that is to overlook the tremendous vitality with which Sondheim performs his material, and the fascinating glimpse into the creative process that these demos afford. All but two of the tracks are demos; "The Glamorous Life" is heard in an excerpt from a live reading, and "Send in the Clowns" is a 1980 birthday-gift tape.

The material included on Volume I can be roughly divided into four categories, the first of which is cut songs. We get two from Forum, both rejected opening numbers, "Invocation" part of which wound up in The Frogs' opening number and "Love Is in the Air." There are two cut-outs from Company, "Multitudes of Amys" and "Marry Me a Little," the latter recently restored to the show. From Follies, there's "Pleasant Little Kingdom." And from Anyone Can Whistle, there are "The Lame, the Halt, and the Blind" replaced by "The Miracle Song", and "A Hero Is Coming" replaced by "There Won't Be Trumpets".

"Pretty Little Picture," "Broadway Baby," and "The Glamorous Life" are heard in versions which would later be significantly revised. "Don't Look at Me" is heard in a far more elaborate and expansive version than the one we know from Follies.

Two tracks rank as Sondheim rarities. There's "Truly Content," from The World of Jules Feiffer 1962, written for the "Passionella" segment. When Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick took over "Passionella" for the third act of The Apple Tree, they would write a song parallel to "Truly Content," "Oh, to Be a Movie Star." The other obscurity: "No, Mary Ann," from the unproduced The Thing of It Is 1969.

Finally, there are several songs that were more or less unchanged in their final versions. These include "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid," "Everybody Says Don't," "Losing My Mind," "Anyone Can Whistle," and "The Miracle Song."

While some of this material is available elsewhere, Sondheim singing all of it makes for gripping listening. Sondheim fans will enjoy this disc and look forward to future volumes in the series.