Amazon.com
Although Robert Preston and Barbara Cook put in stellar performances, it’s the music that’s the star of this hugely successful document of the 1958 Broadway smash. Written entirely by Meredith Willson, it drew from memories of his childhood in a small Midwestern town. Preston plays a traveling salesman/con artist, while Cook is the dull spinster “Marian the Librarian,” whose love for Preston’s character makes her come alive. “Seventy-Six Trombones” has become a marching band… More >>
For all of Robert Preston’s talent, the show itself is very limited – strictly a ‘valentine’ for turn of the century, small American towns. For one such as myself, who prefers the polish of the “musical play,” the Music Man is far too “county fair.”
A few of Robert Preston’s numbers are humorous and wry, and his delivery cannot be topped. Most of the rest is only for highly nostalgic tastes.
This CD would be a fine gift for those who enjoy barber shop quartets, highly sentimental love songs, and a bit of a laugh at the “snake oil” type of con man. There are far more appealing selections at Amazon.com for those with more sophisticated tastes in musical theatre.
Rating: 3 / 5
That’s odd. There was music here the last time I saw this broadway. I guess some of it was too good to be on this CD. That’s right! I mean, who wants to listen to the ballet sequences in Marian, the Librarian and Shipoopi? Who wants to hear the Entracte at the beginning of act 2? WHO IN THE WORLD WOULD WANT TO HEAR ANY OF THE SCENE CHANGE MUSIC? You know what, I WOULD! But it’s not here! There was a little more music in the new recording, but it is still not all there. But of course every one of the people cast in their roles was cast accordingly. The boy’s lisp was very funny. I imagine he has to produce a large amount of saliva to produce such as drooly and spity sound from his mouth. Robert Preston was good (what else is new). The barbor shop quartet beat out the one in the new recording by a loooooong shot. The recording quality is good, and there’s a cute little book to go along with the CD.
Rating: 3 / 5
The score of The Music Man is not nearly as good as many people insist; A grating overture and some rather gratuitous barbershop-quartet songs, as well as composer Meredith Wilson’s penchant for patter songs (this show has something like five of them) detract from the better elements. But on this recording, even the virtues of those elements are in doubt. Rock Island, a very clever (although rather long) number, is very hard to listen to- each salesman seems to have been in a different room of the recording studio, with all the parts spliced together later. The numbers featuring the full company (especially Iowa Stubborn) are annoyingly tinny-sounding (and as a side note, I dont know what the conductor was thinking during that number- the tempos are hiarious.) And Robert Preston, a great performer, does sound tired in many spots- when he chimes in in Till There Was You, it sounds as though his mind is somewhere else. The best thing about this record is Barbara Cook, in fine form (as always.) Oh, and I rather like the orchestrations.
Rating: 3 / 5
The only reason to prefer this version over the sumptuous film soundtrack is the voice of Barbara Cook in her Tony Award winning role as Marian. For the rest it sounds tinny with poor orchestrations and a rushed, unformed performance from Robert Preston. Stick with the superior soundtrack.
Rating: 3 / 5
This is one of the last really great Broadway musicals, and musical it is. There is more music per square inch in this show than just about any “musical” that has come along since. The musicals today are vastly different. They are interesting; they tell a story, and they contain good music, but they’re not fun the way musicals like this were fun. It’s great to be able to pop this CD on the player and remember how musch fun it was.
Rating: 5 / 5