If you want to get a piece of the REAL Great American Songbook, it’s going to be pretty hard to beat this 12 cd collection put out by Sony Masterworks. It includes everything that the classic team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein collaborated on. Most of them are the original Broadway cast recordings, while you’ve also got a Broadway revival (The King and I-still with Brynner), a Lincoln Center cast recording (Carousel), a TV cast recording (Cinderella-with Julie Andrews!) and a 2009 studio cast recording (Allegro-an obscure ringer!).
Classics like The Sound of Music (with Mary Martin), State Fair (with John Davidson & Kathryn Crosby) and South Pacific (with Martin and Ezio Pinza)are shows that you’re going to listen to over and over again, and with a renewed excitement as these versions are incredibly exciting and enjoyable. The television show presentation of Cinderella has an iridescent Julie Andrews while the mysterious Carousel includes strong performances of not only Eileen Christy and Susan Watson, but a nice role by Edward Everett Horton.
The more obscure pieces are definitely worth delving into, and jazz fans will definitely find some songs here that could be brought out of the cobwebs and into a performance repertoire. The Flower Drum Song, Pipe Dream (with impressive voice by Helen Traubel) and Me and Juliet all have strong moments, and make you wonder why there hasn’t been a movie version of them. The fairly recent Allegro is the first complete recording of this collaboration, and the material is surprisingly strong. It would be nice to have a show to go along with it, but hopefully that is in the preparation.
A 100 page book accompanies the collection with some great photos, biographies and even a timeline to give you everything you ever wanted to know about these timeless shows. Encore!
Sony Masterworks