CDs: Das Chicago Song

These days, the term "revue" is often applied to a bookless songbook, offering the catalogue of a singer or songwriter, or to a show in which the sketches and songs are linked by a common theme, as in Forbidden Broadway or I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.

Back in the heyday of the Broadway revue, the term referred to an evening of new, original songs, dance numbers, and sketches spoofing current events and the arts, the material contributed by a variety of writers, the cast made up of stars and/or gifted newcomers.

Beginning in 1934, producer-director Leonard Sillman sponsored seven New Faces revues on Broadway, each presenting promising young personalities and fresh music and words. Sillman's shows introduced such talents as Henry Fonda and Imogene Coca.

By the 1950s, the traditional revue was virtually dead, a victim of the ready availability of television variety-show entertainment. But an occasional revue continued to turn up on Broadway, the best of them Sillman's fourth New Faces, the 1952 edition, which introduced Eartha Kitt, Ronny Graham, Alice Ghostley, and Paul Lynde. That edition was followed by New Faces of '56, '62, and finally '68.

The New Faces series produced three cast albums. RCA Victor's New Faces of 1952 now a Jasmine CD is a series of delights, from the song hit "Love Is a Simple Thing" and the production number "Lizzie Borden" to Kitt's "Monotonous," Ghostley's "Boston Beguine," Robert Clary's "Lucky Pierre" and "Miss Logan," and June Carroll Sillman's sister's "Penny Candy" and "Guess Who I Saw Today."

Yet to make it to CD is RCA Victor's cast recording of New Faces of 1956, a fun outing dominated by the inspired female impersonations Bankhead, Davis, Hepburn of T.C. Jones. There are the wonderful voices of Inga Swenson "Boy Most Likely to Succeed" and John Reardon "Tell Her"; brash Virginia Martin with the Monroe spoof "Talent"; a send-up of Ziegfeld-style production numbers, "Isn't She Lovely"; Jane Connell's amusing "April in Fairbanks"; and the equally droll "One Perfect Moment," introducing none other than Maggie Smith.

New Faces of 1956 was to have been a two-LP set. When it was cut down to a single LP, eight recorded numbers were omitted, and these valuable tracks were latter issued on an LP entitled Forgotten Broadway. One hopes that when New Faces of 1956 finally makes it to CD, these eight tracks will be included along with the rest of the score.

Now we have from DRG the CD debut of New Faces of 1968, a production that opened at the Booth Theatre on May 2, 1968 and closed after just fifty-two performances. Not only did Sillman take credit for conceiving and staging the entire production, but he also made his first Broadway appearance in twenty-five years by appearing in the final New Faces as host/narrator. The program stated "standby for Leonard Sillman: David Merrick."

With two exceptions, the cast members of New Faces of 1968 failed to thrive in the theatre. Although Brandon Maggart did appear in Applause two years later, and Marilyn Child continued to understudy leading roles in musicals, the only '68 performers who took off were the abundantly talented Madeline Kahn and Robert Klein, both of whom were already on their way by the time of this production.

With the accompaniment of a small five-piece orchestra, the '68 New Faces is by far the least interesting of the New Faces cast albums. In fact, there's only one first-rate number, and that was a last-minute recycling: Near the end of previews and to show off the performer who was emerging as the strongest, a number Kahn had sung in the 1966 Upstairs at the Downstairs revue Mixed Doubles was inserted into New Faces of 1968. This was the hilarious Michael Cohen-Tony Geiss spoof of Brecht-Weill material, "Das Chicago Song," and it's the one track on the recording that's truly a winner, aided immeasurably by Kahn's deadpan delivery.

Although it's not up to their contributions to the '52 edition, the June Carroll-Arthur Siegel "Where Is Me?" is an attractive ballad, well sold by Child. And Rod Perry's "The Girl in the Mirror," in which a father sees his daughter off to her first day of school, is decent. There are a couple of funny lines in Ronny Graham's spoof of Oedipus as a pop "Hullabaloo at Thebes." And the closing track, imagining a Mozart opera based on Jack Gelber's junkie play The Connection, at least allows Kahn to show off her coloratura soprano.

But the pickings are otherwise slim, with poor Maggart stuck with an unfunny running gag about letters and numbers that requires explanation of the visuals delivered by Gloria Bleezarde, the requisite dumb blonde of the '68 edition. And there are several very weak numbers, like Michael K. Allen's "Evil" about words spelled backwards and Bleezarde's "#x9RL220." Although Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire are billed among the songwriters, their one contribution, a closing number, did not find its way onto the recording. Also note that, because the cast album includes none of the spoken sketches, the full impact of Klein and Kahn in the show isn't felt on the recording.

New Faces of 1968 was originally a Warner Bros.-Seven Arts LP. If DRG has access to the Warner Bros. show catalogue, one would much prefer to have a CD of A Time for Singing.

KLEA BLACKHURST: AUTUMN IN NEW YORK-VERNON DUKE'S BROADWAY Ghostlight

Singer Klea Blackhurst has built a reputation on the basis of two well-received cabaret acts, a 2001 salute to Ethel Merman entitled Everything the Traffic Will Allow, and Autumn in New York: Vernon Duke's Broadway, a salute to the gifted but flop-prone theatrical composer. I've not heard the CD of the Merman show, but, on the basis of Ghostlight's new CD of the Duke show, I'd like to.

Duke's biggest theatrical success was Cabin in the Sky. But there were far more shows like The Lady Comes Across, Dancing in the Streets, Two's Company, Zenda, The Pink Jungle, and Sadie Thompson.

Blackhurst, who has appeared off-Broadway in Oil City Symphony and Radio Gals, is equally at home in upbeat "Not a Care in the World," "I Like the Likes of You," "Poor as a Churchmouse," "Taking a Chance on Love" and mellow "I Can't Get Started," "Autumn in New York," "Sailing at Midnight" moods. And she performs several rarities, like "Indefinable Charm" and the title song from Dancing in the Streets the road-closer that Mary Martin turned down Oklahoma! to do and "You Took Me By Surprise" from the equally disastrous The Lady Comes Across.

The lyrics are by such top-notch folk as Howard Dietz, John Latouche, E.Y. Harburg, and Ira Gershwin. For her encore on the disc, there's one non-Duke song, the Gershwins' "Swanee," a song that, as explained in Blackhurst's liner notes, had major impact on Duke.

Michael Rice is the fine arranger, orchestrator and conductor, with Blackhurst accompanied by eight musicians. This is a studio recoring, so it does not include any of the informative patter which reflects Blackhurst's thorough research into her subjects.

Blackhurst has a very distinctive sound that may not be to all tastes, but it gives her singing considerable personality and zest. She's also blessed with excellent pitch and diction. I was happy to make her acquaintance, and look forward to hearing her live.