Monday, October 10, 2011

CD OF THE WEEK: ANYTHING GOES

The score of this musical is classic Broadway and one of the best written by Cole Porter. As you all know, there have been several recordings of it through the years. Ethel Merman, created the character of Reno Sweeney on the original Broadway production, but other followed, among them the likes of Patti Lupone, Elaine Paige and Kim Criswell. Now we have a new cast recording, this time with Sutton Foster in the leading role and, guess what? This is my favorite rendition of the score.

I know many people don’t like Foster that much, but I’m not among them. I think her Reno is livelier than any other of the ones I heard before and she brings an energy to this recording that is missing from some of the previous recordings. Just listen to her in the title song or belting “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” and you’ll understand what I mean. At her side, Joel Grey is perfect as Moonface Martin. Together they deliver a really comic “Friendship”. As the romantic couple, Colin Donnell and Laura Osnes sound loving in “Easy to Love” and “All Through the Night”; they also give us a lovely “It’s De-Lovely”.

One of my favorite songs is the funny “Buddie, Beware”, sung with delight by Jessica Stone. I’m also very fond of “The Gypsy in Me”, here sung by Adam Godley.

What this new CD has more than any of the previous recordings is dance music. And I love that! The new dance arrangements by David Chase are really exciting; “Anything Goes” never sounded better and “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” never sounded less religious and more sexy.

I know we probably didn’t need another recording of this score, but when it’s as good as this one, I don’t mind. Give it a try; it’s kind of contagious!

4 comments:

  1. You just have to come to NYC and see this show in person, it is so you!
    - Humberto

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  2. Hi Humberto,

    I'm sure I would love to see this, but I don't think I will.

    Things in Portugal are getting worse. Our government is asking (ordering) us to make a lot of sacrifices (each day there's a new one), but it seems they don't do any. People are starting to get angry and I don't know how this will end.

    Let's hope for the best. But I doubt we'll be traveling to New York in the next years. Please keep me posted about the show you see, it means a lot to me.

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  3. Anything Goes, to me, is the epitome of sheer Broadway musical fun at it's very best. The book is silly but completely hilarious. The score is heavenly. I have loved this show for a very long time. I was fortunate to be part of a university production in which I played a sailor. What fun! I saw the Lincoln Center revival with Patti Lupone which simply blew the roof off the theatre. I missed this most recent revival, with Sutton Foster, but I did catch the touring company, with Rachel York as Reno, when it came to Toronto last summer. It was simply wonderful. Kathleen Marshall's direction and choreography were amazing. One expects brilliant choreography in the big numbers like Anything Goes and Blow, Gabriel, Blow and Marshall certainly delivered. But even the smaller numbers such as All Through The Night and Buddy Beware and Friendship had wonderfully inventive and entertaining dances. I never tire of seeing this musical, especially when it is performed as well as this. Having listened to the wonderful Sutton Foster/Joel Grey CD for a year before this production reached Toronto, I was afraid that I might be disappointed by the tour. I was not. It was top-notch, first-rate and perfectly delovely!

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  4. I never saw this who live on stage and I'm almost sure I would love to see Sutton Foster in it. It's one of Cole Porter's best scores.

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