It's delightful, it's delicious, it's dlevy!
Powered by Disqus
insidemysanity Asks:
itsdlevy Said:
If you are really all that concerned with what percentage of your money goes to the people who actually made the album as opposed to those who provide the infrastructure for you to get the album, may I suggest buying the New Broadway Cast Recording directly from PS Classics?
No matter how you rationalize it, you’re not going to convince me that somehow it’s righteous to steal an album when you could own it legally for $10 - $15.
I saw the very first public performance of The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess, and despite some reservations about the revisions, I was won over by the show, and particularly by the performers. I’ve had the privilege of seeing Audra McDonald live a few times — in concert, in shows, and even in conversation — and she’s never failed to thrill me. In my estimation, she is our generation’s Broadway legend, worthy of her spot in the pantheon alongside Merman, Martin, and very few others. The rest of the cast was excellent as well, particularly Phillip Boykin as Crown, who’s got me rooting for him come Tony night.
So, despite having seriously curtailed my purchasing of cast recordings (thanks, Spotify), I pre-ordered the new recording of Porgy & Bess the day PS Classics started taking orders. (And, to be honest, I love PS Classics so much that I have similarly pre-ordered their forthcoming albums of Merrily We Roll Along and the lost Gershwin show Sweet Little Devil.) My loyalty was rewarded by receiving the album before it hits stores.
I’ve listened to the entire two-disc recording a few times and I’m not sure I have a fully-formed opinion yet. On the one hand, I don’t think any of the leads thrill me quite as much on disc as they did in the theater (although I’m not sure any recording could possibly be as thrilling as some of those theatrical moments were). On the other hand, some of the things that bothered me about the revisions to the score bother me less on the album, and I’m not sure if that’s because further work was done on the show after I saw it, or under Tommy Krasker’s masterful guidance it sits better on disc. I definitely want to compare certain elements to a recording of the original orchestration to see if my criticisms are of Gershwin’s work or Diedre L. Murray’s adaptation (and William David Brohn & Christopher Jahnke’s orchestrations).
But in the meanwhile, I am totally taken with Joshua Henry’s performance as Jake. He gets one of the best-known numbers in the shows, “A Woman is a Sometime Thing,” but this track, “It Takes a Long Pull To Get There” is my favorite. (It was a favorite moment in the theater as well.) It’s probably not a song you’ve heard before if you’re not a Porgy & Bess scholar, but it captures the best of the non-operatic elements of the score. Plus, as you may have noticed, I’m a sucker for good vocal arranging, and the quartet of fishermen backing him up don’t disappoint. Purists probably hate the overuse of harmonica in the band — it’s cliche shorthand for “folksy” — but not knowing what the song is “supposed to” sound like, it’s fine by me.
He didn’t answer my question, but nonetheless I find his responses really interesting.
PS Classics is having their annual holiday sale. Most CDs are $9.99. Some of these are a little more, but all are marked down, and half the profits will be donated to The Trevor Project. (And let’s be honest - the other half of the profits go to making sure that this fantastic record label, which gave us so many Sondheim albums that I couldn’t fit them all into a Tumblr photo set, can continue to exist and record more glorious show music.)
And no, I didn’t buy any of the above-pictured CDs. Because I already own all of them. Instead, I ordered Sweet Bye and Bye, She Loves Him, and Boom! (Although I really should have also ordered Death Takes a Holiday, but I’m trying to show a little restraint!)
If you’re looking for suggestions, my favorite PS Classics albums that I’ve bought in the last year or so are Kate Baldwin’s Let’s See What Happens and the studio cast albums of Strike Up the Band and Kitty’s Kisses.
In 1991, Tommy Krasker produced a glorious, two-disc recording of the Gershwins’ Strike Up The Band. That recording included the entire 1927 version of the score, which was heard in the show’s failed out-of-town tryout, with an appendix of cut songs and songs added for the revised version of the show that debuted on Broadway in 1930 for a healthy run. The liner notes promised that the appendix was but a taste of the forthcoming album of the 1930 version of the show.
Forthcoming was a bit of a understatement. The initial album didn’t make any money, and the Gershwin estate and/or the Library of Congress, who were funding this project, decided to release other Gershwin gems (Pardon My English, Oh Kay, and Lady Be Good) rather than revisit Strike Up the Band. Rumors circulated about how much work was left on the 1930 version… and whether it would ever see the light of day.
TWENTY YEARS LATER Krasker has completed that project and released it under his own label, PS Classics. I am sitting here now, at age 33, reveling in this gorgeous American Masterpiece, that I have been waiting for SINCE I WAS IN JUNIOR HIGH.
Totally worth the wait.
(And made extra sweet because it was a gift from my friend Stephanie, who plucked it from my Amazon wish list after I joked about the 20th anniversary of my Bar Mitzvah. God bless my friends, and god bless the internet.)
Seriously, folks. If you love American Musical Theater, snap up this album right away.
