CDs: Walk Like a Man

As was the case with the recordings of such other hit musicals as The Producers and Hairspray, the cast album of what looks to be the season's biggest hit so far, Jersey Boys, was recorded prior to the commencement of Broadway previews, and released a few days before the opening. Because the CD was made and issued early, the accompanying booklet contains no photos of the production, just a few shots of the recording sessions, but it does feature a substantial essay by Charles Alexander on the history of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and how it has been dramatized in Jersey Boys.

At the August Wilson Theatre, Jersey Boys is played by nine musicians; for the recording, an additional seventeen musicians have been added, no doubt to evoke the sound of the old Four Seasons' recordings. As in the theatre, a number of the songs are heard only in fragmentary form. The recording was produced by Bob Gaudio, one of the Four Seasons and the composer of many of the group's songs.

A CD like Jersey Boys raises two questions. Is there a reason to own it when one could just as easily acquire the real thing, the actual recordings of the Four Seasons performing their hits? And does the CD sound like a show recording, or does it come off as a random collection of pre-existing pop songs?

The good news is that an attempt has been made to make this a reasonably theatrical disc, one that includes occasional excerpts from the show's narration which is performed alternately by the four leads and dialogue. So the CD at least suggests the arc of the show's narrative and offers a taste of the flavor of the Marshall Brickman/Rick Elice book.

Also helping matters is the fact that the voices of the four leads are dandy, especially the sweet falsetto of John Lloyd Young as Frankie. Presumably the joint performances by the four leads sound a good deal like the old recordings of Frank Valli and the Four Seasons performing their hit songs. As I am unfamiliar with those recordings, I'm not qualified to judge this issue.

Even with the new CD's bits of dialogue, it really all comes down to those songs, and they're undeniably appealing pop, redolent of the years in which they were introduced. Because this music doesn't mean to me what it quite obviously means to others, this is not a cast album I expect to play very often. And it's equally obvious that this music is readily available to be enjoyed in the original Four Seasons' renditions. Still, fans of Jersey Boys will find this CD an enjoyable souvenir.

VICTOR/VICTORIA: GERMAN CAST Bremer Theater

Recorded live in April 2005, the Bremen, Germany cast recording of the 1995 Broadway musical Victor/Victoria stars in the title roles Helen Schneider, a strong American vocalist who has headlined German productions of Cabaret, Anything Goes, Evita, and Sunset Boulevard. Opposite Schneider in the role of Toddy is Helmut Baumann, a major producer/director/actor in Germany whose Albin is particularly wonderful on the German cast recording of La Cage aux Folles. Baumann also directed and designed sets for this German Victor/Victoria. The choreography is by Hardy Rudolz, who also plays King Marchand.

Surprisingly, Baumann's big opening number, "Paris By Night," is unheard on the CD. The reprise of the song, sung on Broadway by a female streetsinger, is included here, but performed by the same man who sings the male solo in "Le Jazz Hot." Also omitted on the German recording is much of the title-song finale, along with "Louis Says," a number that was eventually cut from the Broadway production. None of the songs added on Broadway for Liza Minnelli or Raquel Welch is featured here.

This disc serves to remind one that the Henry Mancini-Leslie Bricusse score of Victor/Victoria was somewhat disappointing, with a couple of clinkers in "Paris Makes Me Horny" and "King's Dilemma." But the title song is a toe-tapper; the Frank Wildhorn-Bricusse "Living in the Shadows" is quite nice; and the film songs that remain work well enough.

On this German recording, two onstage numbers, "Le Jazz Hot" and "Chicago, Illinois," are sung in English. Less explicable is the fact that the book song "Crazy World" is also sung in English.

Schneider has a throaty, powerful voice, and belts her songs in a manner quite unlike Julie Andrews in the Broadway version. Schneider is exciting in "Crazy World" and "Living in the Shadows," the latter unfortunately without its emphatic reprise.

For the record, let's note that the Broadway production of Victor/Victoria was preserved on both CD and DVD, and that there's also a commercially released video of a Japanese production. Italian television aired a tape of a live production of a different Victor/Victoria stage musical, based on the same underlying property. And there's a Greek cast LP of yet another stage musical version of Victor/Victoria.

THE ODD POTATO 6-10 Productions

Based on incidents from her own family history, Eileen Bluestone wrote a picture book called The Odd Potato. Eileen book and lyrics and her sister Gail Bluestone music then made the book into a musical. On this new CD, dubbed "the Broadway album," twenty Tony Award-winning talents sing and act the story, the disc a fundraiser for the children's charity Variety.

The Odd Potato tells the story of the Levy family's adjustment to the first Hanukkah since their mother's death. Through an odd-looking potato that reminds them of their mother's favorite Hanukkah story, Rachel and Sammy Levy manage to rekindle in their father the holiday spirit.

As heard on disc, where it's narrated by Judd Hirsch and accompanied by Jay Kerr's piano, The Odd Potato is simple, sweet, and pleasantly scored, with the gifted performers helping greatly. Highlights include "My Mother's Menorah" Judy Kaye, "Don't Forget the Pepper" Debbie Gravitte, and "A Little Imagination" Maryann Plunkett. Hal Prince introduces the title song, and, as she so often does, Elaine Stritch gets the last word.

There are also appealing contributions from Jim Dale, Dan Fogler, Sutton Foster, Boyd Gaines, Ron Holgate, Cady Huffman, John Mahoney, Donna McKechnie, Michele Pawk, Dick Latessa, Hal Linden, Priscilla Lopez, Lillias White, and Scott Wise. The Odd Potato is available from Borders Books, Tower Records, and from www.theoddpotato.com.

BOLCOM, MORRIS, MORATH & WHITE SING GUS KAHN Original Cast Records

Gus Kahn 1886-1941 was a lyricist who worked mostly in the pop field. But he did a number of Broadway shows, including Whoopee 1928, music by Walter Donaldson and Show Girl 1929, with George and Ira Gershwin. He also contributed to such films as Ziegfeld Girl, Flying Down to Rio, and A Day at the Races.

This new CD is a live recording of a Kahn concert presented by the White Barn Theatre at off-Broadway's Lucille Lortel Theatre in June, 2004. Assembled and staged by Donald Saddler, the songbook show featured four distinguished performers: classical and popular tenor Robert White; ragtime pianist and singer Max Morath; and William Bolcom and Joan Morris. The latter husband-and-wife pair together form a piano-vocal duo on disc and the concert stage. On his own, Bolcom is the composer of such operas as McTeague and A View from the Bridge.

On this disc, Bolcom and Morath are at the piano, while all four performers handle the vocals. There are songs from Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley, including such time-honored items as "My Baby Just Cares for Me," "My Buddy," "I'm Through With Love," "Carolina in the Morning," "San Francisco," "Liza," "It Had to Be You," "Toot Toot Tootsie," and "Yes Sir, That's My Baby."

Although all four artists do nicely, the sensitive, unadorned singing of Morris is the outstanding feature of this pleasingly nostalgic survey.