On the Town (1992 London Concert Cast)

Three sailors on shore leave chasing after women in the Big City--that's the premise for On the Town, the brilliant, innovative, and electrically vibrant 1944 show by Leonard Bernstein (and Jerome Robbins, Adolph Green, and Betty Comden) that literally overflows with great songs and dance music. This version features a strong cast and three numbers cut from the New York premiere. It's well worth a visit. --David Vernier Amazon.com

Opera voices don't work for musical theater

I had to force myself to listen beyond Sam Ramey's first "I feel like I'm not outta bed yet"... why?... it comes down to two things:

1) When listening to opera singers performing musical theater I always have difficulty understanding "what" they're singing about. Sure, I can hear the words, but the purified sound sands down everything that was gritty and emotional. It's almost like a Musak treatment, taking the raw energy and vitality of the original and softening it for easier listening. This is usually never a problem with original cast recordings which may have less-than-perfect vocal production, but are 100% locked in with singing-saying what the music and words mean TOGETHER.

2) I find these type of recordings patronizing to the great number of extremely talented musical theater artists who would each bring better interpretations to the studio because they'd have actually performed the parts, on-stage, dancing and acting, for many shows in a row. From an interpretation POV, this recording sounds like it was banged out after a few coachings, a few rehearsals, and a lot of engineering time. That approach seems to belittle the dedicated contributions of music theater artists.

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This is supposed to be American Musical Theater, a little rough around the edges, packed with physical/musical/emotional vitality, intelligence, wit, etc. This recording does not convey those attributes at all. It is physically revolting for me to listen to this homogenized, purified, sanitized, corrected, over-engineered, and nonexpressive recording. I'm glad I borrowed it from the library. September 15, 2006

Great Score But A Bit Dated

A wonderful score from Leonard Bernstein detailing three naval soldiers' day of leave in New York City. Even if some of the songs are a bit past their prime, there are still great catchy tunes:

New York, New York
Taxi Number: Come Up To My Place (a very catchy duet)
Ain't Got No Tears Left
Some Other Time

This recording, however, is not the greatest. Its poor quality just reminds you of how dated some of the music is, so I recommend you get a different version. March 19, 2006

Operatic voices take away the verve and excitement

Bernstein started a bad trend with his crossover West Side Story, in which Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras were painfully miscast. But that version has sold very wel over the years, so now we have MTT condcuting a big symphony orchestra and singers like von Stade and Hampson who try their best but feel all wrong. This is a great score, but here the whole sense of naive sailors on shore leave in the big city, plus the special jazziness of Bernstein in the Forties, doesn't come across. These are very sophisticated people trying to ham up WW II period charm--no thanks. September 21, 2005

Good Recording

This is a good recording of this very enjoyable work. The quality of singing is fine and the orchestral work is particularly good. The music itself is really fun and well above the level of the great majority of Broadway musicals, including better known works like Oklahoma. This is the first of a group of excellent musicals; On The Town, Wonderful Town, and West Side Story, written by Bernstein and collaborators in the 40s and 50s. All are excellent and incorporated music and dance in innovative ways. West Side Story is the best known and most performed but I believe that the music in On The Town is the best of the group. All of these musicals, in one way or another, celebrate New York City. August 19, 2002

Highly competent studio cast recording of the show

While the vocal performances here do not match the re-assembled original cast recording of 1960 in terms of dramatic and comedic interpretations, Tilson Thomas' reading of the score is every bit as good as Bernstein's himself in the 1960 recording. In terms of tempi, rhythmns, dynamics and sound this orchestral reading is the twin of Bernstein's. So one asks oneself, why assemble a studio cast to do it over again when the original is so exceptional??? We may never know the answer but the reading which was simulcast on PBS was amusing at moments, thanks to Comeden and Green's narration and filling in synopses of the dialogue lines skipped over, and the performance was well received by the audience. Here it is re-recorded without the audience.

The only thing I can point to is the inclusion of three numbers dropped out of town before the show's opening - Gabey's Comin/Pickup Song, Ain't Got No Tears Left, and The Intermission's Great. These make up for 7:54 minutes rightfully deemed unworthy of inclusion in the frozen show (especially the latter which is stupid beyond belief - although R&H stole the concept for their Intermission Talk in ME AND JULIET). The nightclub numbers So Long, Baby and I'm Blue are extended 31 seconds and 19 seconds respectively (they were shortened by these 50 seconds to fit onto the 1960 LP release.

So what do you have here that you don't have on the 1960 cast album? 50 seconds of the original show and 7:54 minutes of songs never used and of less than stellar quality.

Very little reason to prefer this over the original, especially with the vocal performances not up to par. Small wonder it went out of print rather quickly. Stick to the 1960 recording.

(For purists, that original LP release was unable to fit two numbers recorded for it onto the two sides of vinyl - DO RE DO and I UNDERSTAND. The former was added when the LP was re-released (to accompany the 1971 revival) and when it made its debut on CD, I UNDERSTAND joined it for a complete recording.) June 13, 2002

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