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Première Preview: InconnuPremière: jeudi 11 février 1999Dernière: dimanche 14 février 1999
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1999-02-New York Concert Cast
Stars:Date de sortie:1999-02-??Type de CD:Concert Cast •Nombre de CD:1 pour un total de 17 tracksArtistes:Melissa Rain Anderson, Kate Baldwin, Matthew Ballinger, Kevin Cahoon, David Campbell, Erin Dilly, Peter Eldridge, Christopher Fitzgerald, Justin Greer, Scott Irby-Ranniar, Pamela Jordan, Damon Kirsch, Mark Lanyon, Joanne Lessner, Daniel C. Levine, Perry Laylon Ojeda, Tina Ou, Amanda Paige, Josh Prince, Noah Racey, Sharon Richards, Ben Saypol, Amber Stone, Jessica StoneTracks:01. Overture
02. Where or When
03. Babes in Arms
04. I Wish I Were in Love Again
05. Light On Their Feet
06. Way out West
07. My Funny Valentine
08. Calhoun's Follies (Intro)
09. Johnny One-Note
10. Johnny One-Note Ballet
11. Imagine
12. All at Once
13. Peter's Journey Ballet
14. The Lady Is a Tramp
15. You Are So Fair
16. The Lady Is A Tramp (Reprise)
17. FinaleCommentaires:Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's Babes in Arms, a musical about the children of vaudevillians who put on a show, ran for eight months on Broadway in 1937 and was loosely adapted into a 1939 movie starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney that retained only two songs from the score. For the most part, record companies were not recording original cast albums or original motion picture soundtracks in the 1930s, but several songs from Babes in Arms were recorded shortly after the show opened, with "Where or When" becoming a chart-topping hit and "The Lady Is a Tramp" also scoring in the charts. In later years, "My Funny Valentine" and "I Wish I Were in Love Again" joined the ranks of standards. In the early 1950s, Columbia Records and RCA Victor each produced studio cast versions of the show on 10" LPs (and, for what it's worth, the film soundtrack has turned up on vinyl as well). But it wasn't until New York's Encores! series of concert versions of vintage musicals revived Babes in Arms in 1999 that an opportunity for a real cast album came up. Encores! specializes in restoring original orchestrations, which in this case means that Hans Spialek's charts were heard for the first time since 1937. That helped with one of the challenges any revival of Babes in Arms faces: How to re-acquire those familiar songs from generations of nightclub performances by classic pop singers and make them sound fresh. Another advantage going back to the original score gave the revivers was that the songs are longer in their initial versions, with "Where or When," for example, having two introductory verses (for each part of what was a duet originally) that are not usually heard. But clinching the success of the production was the decision to follow the original idea of the show and cast it with new, young talent. Names like Erin Dilly, David Campbell, Melissa Rain Anderson, Christopher Fitzgerald, and Jessica Stone may not have rung any bells on opening night, but that enabled them to approach the material without the audience having any preconceptions. All those positive aspects of the revival carry over to the cast album. Snippets of dialogue and plenty of long-unheard ballet music rejoin the familiar tunes, along with some Rodgers & Hart obscurities that deserve to be better known, especially "All at Once," a song about the quick maturing of children, and the hilarious comparison between the West and New York, "Way Out West" ("on West End Avenue"), which contains lines like, "There's not much buffalo, but lots of bull." Meanwhile, songs like "My Funny Valentine" and especially "The Lady Is a Tramp" (with several extra verses) sound as good as ever. Rodgers & Hart usually are remembered for their songs, not their shows, but this recording of Babes in Arms goes a long way toward making a case for them as writers of whole musicals, while re-confirming the appeal of their tunes. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi All Music Guide
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Généralités: Histoire, thèmes et particularités
Résumé
A group of teenagers, whose parents are out of work vaudevillians, stage a revue to keep from being sent to work on a farm. Unfortunately, the show is a flop. Later, when a transatlantic French flyer lands nearby, they are able to attract enough publicity to put on a successful show and build their own youth center.
Synopsis complet
Historique du musical
Génèse du musical
Babes in Arms opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre on April 14, 1937, transferred to the Majestic Theatre on October 25, 1937, and closed on December 18, 1937 after 289 performances.
In spite of rave opening-night reviews, the ticket agencies showed little interest in Babes In Arms, maybe because of the verdict rendered by Variety's out-of-town correspondent: "No nudity, no show girls, no plush or gold plate may mean no sale," a put-down not dissimilar to one that would be pinned to the first Rodgers and Hammerstein show some years later. During April and May, receipts were just about the break-even mark, sometimes below it.
In June, Wiman cut fifty cents off the top ticket, but sales continued to slide. Then all at once, as if by divine intervention, every competing show on Broadway folded. On July 17, Babes in Arms became the only musical on Broadway. The following week's takings jumped 50 percent; after that, the show never looked back.
The Revival: Rodgers and Hart's Babes In Arms has never been quite what everyone thinks it is. It was the hit of the season when it opened in 1937, running nearly 300 performances, but essentially vanished thereafter. Little thought was given to the preservation of musicals in the 30's; a show either hit or missed and it was on to the next one. Between 1934 and 1940, three years to either side of Babes In Arms, Rodgers and Hart wrote nine Broadway musicals and four film scores, so there wasn't much time for looking back. Most of us were introduced to Babes In Arms by the 1939 Mickey & Judy movie, which retained only the title and two songs from the Broadway original (and one of them merely as underscoring). In the late 50's an entirely new book was written with the songs reordered, and that version has been performed ever since. Several attempts have been made to rework the original book into a more contemporary view of the 30's, but have either failed or never seen the light of day. Last year we were approached by Aubrey Berg, Chair of the Musical Theatre Department at the esteemed University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
He wanted to present the original 1937 version of Babes In Arms, as he so succinctly put it, "in all its unwieldy splendor." Berg hadn't determined what the musical should be but wanted to rediscover what it really was. That notion appealed to us immediately. CCM musical director Roger Grodsky, with restoration expert Larry Moore and R&H Director of Music Bruce Pomahac, began coordinating and assembling Hans Spialek's original 25 piece orchestration, a meticulous process that took the better part of a year. When a few of us trouped out to see the show in January of ‘98, it proved to be quite a revelation. We knew that this quintessential "Hey, kids, let's put on a show!" musical boasts one of the greatest scores ever written, including such standards as "My Funny Valentine," "Where Or When," "The Lady Is A Tramp," "Johnny One Note" and "I Wish I Were In Love Again." What we didn't know was that the book, which is wildly satirical, surprisingly topical and a bit peculiar, still works like gangbusters.
Babes In Arms is about a group of youngsters who ply their showbiz aspirations in an attempt to avoid being sent to a work farm for the summer. One of its many fascinations is the way in which the more raucous virtues that typify musical comedies of the 30's are peppered with socio-political satire that has continued to resonate for six decades. For instance, the son of a wealthy Southerner agrees to bankroll the kids' production on the condition that the two black kids (roles created by the legendary Nicholas Brothers) not appear in the show. Of course the rich kid gets his comeuppance. And in an ongoing and hilarious riff on socialism, one of the boys is all for "sharing the wealth" when he's broke, denounces the notion as soon as he has a couple bucks, and ultimately returns to his Bolshevik convictions when his fortunes fade once more.
The Cincinnati premiere of the new/old Babes In Arms was greeted with cheers by critics and audiences alike. The Cincinnati Enquirer enthused, "The show is charming, the numbers sizzle, what more can you ask?" while Playbill-On-Line opined, "We're lucky to have a ‘new' version of Babes In Arms." We thought everyone should be so lucky, and are therefore making the original version of Babes In Arms available for production for the first time. It's possible that another show this fresh and youthful may come along some day, but who knows where or when?
Détails
Liste des chansons
"Babes in Arms"
"I Wish I Were in Love Again"
"Light on Our Feet"
"Way out West"
"Imagine"
"All At Once"
"Johnny One Note"
"The Lady Is a Tramp"
"My Funny Valentine"
"Where or When"
"You Are So Fair"
Liste des rôles
THE PRESS AGENT - Introduces us to the theatre, the company and to the revue at the close of the show.
TERRY THOMPSON - Young apprentice who is sexy and tries a heavy seduction routine on first Lee Calhoun and then Steve, as though she were a mature woman - but she is still a kid in her affections toward Gus.
GUS FIELDING - A clumsy, daffy but endearing apprentice, who is a naive, romantic kid in Terry's eyes.
PETER, BETTY, BOB, LIBBY, ANN, DON, NANCY - Young starry-eyed apprentices who work in terrible conditions for the love of the theatre.
VALENTINE WHITE - Mature, responsible apprentice, to whom the others look up, and not just because he has written and composed their revue. He is very attractive to the girls and though dazzled by Jennifer, he eventually realises that Susie is his real love.
SUSIE WARD - A young apprentice who is totally devoted to Val. She idolises him in a real younger-sister way. But the optimism and determination with which she succeeds in getting the revue performed proves she has a very mature side, which eventually wins Val over.
SEYMOUR FLEMING - A hard-hearted, penny-pinching man who makes enemies easily, while trying to ingratiate himself with important people.
BUNNY BYRON - A mousy lady who is pushed around by Fleming but very popular with the kids and secretly harbours ambitions to act and generally 'let rip'.
LEE CALHOUN - A small-town Southern playwright who is alone in thinking a lot of himself. He hams his way through everything and alienates everybody with his conceit.
JENNIFER OWEN - Beautiful young actress, ex-child movie star, she is smothered by her mother and fights for the time and space to be herself - preferably in male company.
PHYLLIS OWEN - A real 'stage mum' living her life through her daughter, while totally disregarding her. She herself is a melodramatic actress, often faking sickness to get sympathy and her own way.
STEVE EDWARDS - A young producer who uses his great charm to full effect. The brother of Susie, he has an open heart and is very supportive of the revue.
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