Give Yourself SOMETHIN' REAL SPECIAL for Christmas

I am a major fan of PS Classics. This should come as no surprise, considering how often I write about their fascinating, varied and welcome choices of material. In order to "celebrate the heritage of Broadway and American song," PS Classics and executive producer Tommy Krasker resurrect and restore the scores of lost shows, record our cultural history, and offer a living archive not just of individual musicals, but of fabulous voices, composers, lyricists and orchestrators in solo albums and songbooks. Where else would Rebecca Luker get to do an album of Jerome Kern or fourteen Broadway stars take on the songs of Georgia Stitt? Where else will you find cast recordings of shows as disparate as Maury Yeston's 2011 Off-Broadway Death Takes a Holiday, the 2012 Encores! version of Merrily We Roll Along, and the adorable and wonderful Sweet Little Devil, a 1924 show with music by George Gershwin that was otherwise lost in time?

That's just the tip of the PS Classics catalog. Krasker has been very clear that he isn't trying to create  a complete collection of anything; he is simply working with whatever he likes best. "Somethin' Real Special: The Songs of Dorothy Fields," the new PS Classics album from Philip Chaffin, covers songs with lyrics by Dorothy Fields, but not necessarily a representative sample, not necessarily the best known, not necessarily the award winners. The songs on "Somethin' Real Special" are instead the ones that spoke to Chaffin and Krasker, the ones they wanted to spend time with.

Philip Chaffin and Dorothy Fields, circa 19??

The result is indeed something special, something Maury Yeston, who wrote the liner notes, describes as "elegance, exuberance and effortlessness." He's talking about both Fields' lyrics and Chaffin's voice, and he hits the target with that comment, I think. There's elegance and wit in the love songs, exuberance and fizzy charm in bouncy tunes from the 1920s, and an effortless flow throughout the album.

Chaffin has previously done three solo albums for PS Classics, including "Where Do I Go From You?," "Warm Spring Night," and "When the Wind Blows South," with songs from Irving Berlin, Gershwin, Jerry Herman, Michael John LaChiusa, Alan Menken, Frank Loesser, Cole Porter and a host of other composers. "Somethin' Real Special" is his first album with a focus like this, limited to one lyricist. That's interesting not only because Fields was so different in her time, as a successful female lyricist whose work spanned decades and styles, but also because she worked with such a varied group of songwriters. Chaffin's collection of songs shows what Fields' work was like with flowery, fizzy Sigmund Romberg as well as Jerome Kern in an airy, romantic mood, jazzy Jimmy McHugh or brash Cy Coleman. Fields navigated all those twists and turns and came up with, well, something really special.

Chaffin's warm, honeyed voice sounds just right on Fields' Oscar winner "The Way You Look Tonight," written with Kern for the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers' movie Swing Time, but it's paired here with a torchy Harold Arlen song called "Let Me Look at You" that brings out a fresh side of the more familiar movie tune. And the result is exquisite, dramatic, moving.

You will also recognize "I'm in the Mood for Love," a popular McHugh song from 1935. "Mood for Love" is given a lush big-band treatment as it glides into a 1932 McHugh piece called "Don't Blame Me" that is positively bewitching. When Chaffin sings "I'm under your spell," I dare you not to think, "Right back atcha."

McHugh was also responsible for the music of "Diga Diga Doo," a crazy little ditty -- about Samoa, Fields wrote "Talking there is not the mode. They palaver in a code" -- from a revue called Blackbirds of 1928 that bounces to a Roaring 20s/faux-primitive beat that makes me wish I knew how to Charleston, or, you know, dance the Diga Doo, as well as "Then You Went and Changed Your Mind," an adorable, jazz-infused piece from 1933 that kicks along from ukulele to tuba and trombone in the most infectious way, and "Exactly Like You," another sweetie pie from the 30s that Chaffin elevates to something more with sincerity and affection.

There's also a pair of Romberg songs from Up in Central Park, a 1945 Broadway show set in 19th century New York City. These are "Carousel in the Park," a melody that sounds pretty and sweet at first but devolves into something more ominous as Fields' lyrics move the carousel from daytime to night, and "April Snow," as light and delicate as the snowflakes -- and the love affair -- it describes.

Nine different orchestrators -- Matt Aument, John Baxindine, Doug Besterman, Jason Carr, Glen Daum, David Loud, Joseph Thalken, Jonathan Tunick and David Wolfson -- did the arrangements for individual songs, but somehow there's a unity here, flowing smoothly from song to song. I found "I'm in the Mood for Love/Don't Blame Me" and "Alone Too Long" from Daum, Carr's arrangement of "Then You Went and Changed Your Mind" and Baxindine's work on "Let Me Look at You/The Way You Look Tonight" especially affecting.

My conclusions? I don't know enough about Dorothy Fields, but this is a good start. Oh, and Philip Chaffin's ability to interpret a song is amazing, PS Classics is a national treasure, and "Somethin' Real Special" is about as special as it gets.

"Merrily" Keeps Rolling in PS Classics Cast Recording

When Stephen Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along" played earlier this year as part of New York City Center's Encores! series, PS Classics got to work almost immediately to capture the performance by way of a cast recording. That was great news for Sondheim enthusiasts unable to make it to New York to see it in person.

Even better, this two-disc "Merrily" is the usual top-notch PS Classics production, "complete with 52-page full-color booklet with essay, synopsis, lyrics, production photos and an expansive note...by Jonathan Tunick."

Part of the note is reproduced here at the PS Classics site so you can see some of Tunick's inside scoop as a special treat even before you get the cd.

And make no mistake -- you need to get this cd. "Merrily We Roll Along" is one of those special Sondheim shows that fans adore and other people tend to just not get. It goes backwards. It has an unhappy ending (that comes at the beginning) as we see exactly where Franklin Shepard, the talented guy at the center of the show, went wrong. It features talented people (Frank and his two best pals, Mary and Charley) who can't seem to find a way to truly share their talents or keep their friendship going because of the kind of compromises, mistakes, and loss of ideals that pretty much happens to everyone. Wasted talent. Broken friendship. Middle-age ennui. All unwinding backwards, from that middle-aged low point through trial and tribulation, frustration and betrayal, past fledgling success and early steps in the right direction, till we're back with Frank, Mary and Charley before it all began, as fresh, starry-eyed kids, ready to take on the world.

So, yes, "Merrily We Roll Along" is bittersweet, and it's fair to say that critics and audiences have not always embraced it. The original "Merrily" Broadway production, the one in 1981 with Jason Alexander and Liz Callaway in the cast, ran for 52 previews and only 16 performances, with New York Times critic Frank Rich calling the show a shambles. He began his review, "As we all should probably have learned by now, to be a Stephen Sondheim fan is to have one's heart broken at regular intervals."

Still, the show has been produced in London, Washington DC, LA, and back in New York, Off-Broadway at the York Theatre in 1994. Oh, and in Central Illinois. I've seen one in Bloomington-Normal and at least two in Champaign-Urbana.

But the Encores! production was something special. With Jonathan Tunick rethinking the orchestrations (as he mentioned in that note linked above), with James Lapine once again directing, with conductor Rob Berman leading a 23-piece orchestra, with stars like Colin Donnell, Celia Keenan-Bolger and Lin-Manuel Miranda playing Frank, Mary and Charley, it was a "Merrily" a lot of people had been waiting for.

The PS Classics cast recording, produced by Tommy Krasker with his usual attention to detail and a clear love for the material, comes off beautifully. It looks good, with enough pictures and a detailed synopsis to give you a real feel for the production, plus pieces of dialogue to enhance the music.

And, oh, the music. "Merrily We Roll Along" has several standout songs, like the beautiful and sad "Not a Day Goes By," which sounds as haunting as ever from Donnell, Keenan-Bolger and especially Betsy Wolfe, playing Beth, Frank's first wife. Miranda adds the warmth and charm I expected to all of his numbers, but especially "Franklin Shepard, Inc." And Keenan-Bolfer surprised me. After her performance in "25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" as soft, sweet Olive Ostrowski, I wasn't sure she could go caustic and cranky enough for Mary in "Merrily." But she sounds just fine when that's what's called for ("That Frank"), and she adds a sweet neurotic side to Mary in the early going that is quite endearing.

"Opening Doors" is another highlight, and by the time they got to "Our Time," the bright, shiny end of the show, I was a believer in all three of Donnell, Keenan-Bolger and Miranda.

To be perfectly honest, I was already in love when Berman and his orchestra began the overture. All of "Merrily We Roll Along," all the yearning, dashed hopes and yes, the spark of optimism, that these kids may just make it out okay, is right there.

The "Merrily We Roll Along" cast recording was released July 10, and it is available directly from PS Classics. You gotta have this. You know you do!

Looking for Rainbows: Two "Finians" for St. Patrick's Day

When Encores announced "Finian's Rainbow," a Broadway hit from 1947, as part of its 2009 season, I wasn't really sure what to think. Joy for an exciting new revival? Horror that they'd unearthed that old chestnut? Not really either. More curiosity, I guess.

"Finian's Rainbow" was a bit of a curiosity, even in 1947, mixing an old Irish gent with a stolen crock of gold, the leprechaun he stole it from, a mysterious girl who dances instead of talking and a bunch of poor sharecroppers in "Missitucky" who are looking to better their lives with a better brand of tobacco.

Like many people, I'd never seen a stage production of the show, and my only knowledge of it was the 1968 movie version, directed by a young Francis Ford Coppola. (Let's be honest here. It's a Fred Astaire movie. Of course I've seen it. I mean, duh. It's FRED ASTAIRE. Anyone who knows anything about me knows how I feel about Mr. Astaire.)

My main recollection of the film was Fred being charming and doing his best not to get sucked down by the creepiness of the subplot involving Keenan Wynn in blackface. But that's the thing about "Finian's Rainbow" -- the blackface that looks bizarre and horrific to us now was actually part of its message of racial tolerance. It's the bigoted cornpone senator who gets turned into a black man to show him what the racism he's been spouting feels like. It's still blackface, however. And that was problematic for me, even in 1968.

The weird thing is that I didn't remember much of the score from the Coppola movie, even though he included most of it. I'm used to Hollywood gutting the songs when they put stage musicals on screen, but "Finian's Rainbow" got a different treatment, what Coppola called the "road show" approach, where it played as much like a night out at the theater as possible. In fact, everything but "Necessity" seems to be there.

So how is it possible I had no memory of "Old Devil Moon," "Look to the Rainbow," "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" or "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love" as being part of "Finian's Rainbow"?

When I first played the cast recording from the Encores production that moved to Broadway, I kept saying "THAT'S from 'Finian's Rainbow'?" every few minutes. I think the difference is in who's singing these gorgeous songs and the overall style.

The movie has a 60s hippyish sort of feel in some places, especially when Petula Clark gets all folk-pop on "Look to the Rainbow" and when Dorothy Jeakins' costume design pulls in that seriously hideous wedding ensemble. I don't know who thought a veil made of fishnet trailing little daisies was a good idea. It wasn't.

And then there's Tommy Steele. Again, I don't know who thought it was a good idea to cast a cheesy pop, almost Music Hall performer like Steele as the show's sweet little leprechaun, but he is completely at odds with the more down-home, laid-back style of the rest of the film.

In contrast, the Broadway revival went back to 1947 in terms of the look and the sound. So Kate Baldwin's clear, bright soprano hits the perfect mood, as does Cheyenne Jackson's smooth baritone. Together, they make "Old Devil Moon" swoony and sexy and just plain beautiful. Sweeping me off my feet? You bet.

Kudos to Warren Carlyle, who directed and choreographed this new "Finian's," and also to musical director Rob Berman, for sticking with the 40s feel and making it sound so good. Carlyle's decision to cast a black actor as Senator Rawkins' double (avoiding the blackface problem) is also most welcome.

The funny thing is that even "Necessity" and "The Begat," the most old-fashioned songs in the score, sound fresh and new here. Even the "Dance of the Golden Crock," a total snoozefest of easy listening in the movie, is fun and engaging performed as a harmonica instrumental on this fizzy, fabulous cast recording.

It's tough for me to put aside my feelings for Fred Astaire and recognize that someone else fits the role better, but Jim Norton really does make a better Finian. I still love Fred, but Norton's "When the Idle Rich Become the Idle Poor" is more mischievous, more fun and more Irish.

Meanwhile, Christopher Fitzgerald's Og beats Tommy Steele's in so many ways it's not even funny.

When this new "Finian's" closed in January, I was dismayed that I hadn't managed to get to New York to see it in time. The good news is that PS Classics and executive producer Tommy Krasker recorded it for posterity. Krasker has not only brought the score to life, but he's included enough dialogue to make the story work and added a terrific little booklet offering pictures, complete lyrics, a synopsis and notes about the history of the show. PS Classics sweats the details and I couldn't appreciate that more.

So, no, I didn't get to see the revival. But I know what it sounded like, what it looked like and, yes, what it felt like. This cast recording is just that good.

To order the cd -- and you really should order this cd -- you can visit PS Classics. You might also want to take a look at some of their other offerings, including "Nine" done right and lesser-known gems like "Kitty's Kisses" and "Fine and Dandy." Yes, it's true. I love PS Classics. But they are completely deserving of that love.