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Also, there is nothing in the show that has not been done before by Sondheim, and better at that. Follies did a much better job, for instance, at using musical pastiches to enhance the score and demark the characters than Assassins does, with its mix of everything from Sousa marches (the comical "How I Saved Roosevelt," which guarantees that you will never view a 4th of July parade without quoting the song's deliciously warped lyrics), mountain folk music ("The Ballad of Booth" and "The Ballad of Czolgosz"), barbershop quartets ("The Gun Song"), and even a fusion of The Carpenters and Donna Summers ("Unworthy Of Your Love," a tender love ballad made chilling by having its performers, Alexander Gemignani as John Hinckley, Jr. and Mary Catherine Garrison as Squeaky Fromme, singing it to the objects of their obsession, Jodie Foster and Charles Manson, respectively). Sweeney Todd did a much better job of humanizing a homicidal maniac. And Pacific Overtures more strongly depicts a historical event and its repercussions on society. That said, it is amazing how powerful Assassins is, even when divorced by visuals or the majority of its book scenes, as evidenced by its most recent recording, the original Broadway cast album of the recently closed Roundabout Theatre Company's production. The album does a remarkable job in preserving this year's Tony winner for Best Revival, and in many ways it surpasses the original 1991 Off-Broadway cast recording. Snippets of spoken book scenes preface more of the numbers, thus providing a greater understanding of the triggers that set off the assassins. Also included on the disc is Sam Byck's (Mario Cantone) second monologue, thus preserving at least a portion of a part that is almost entirely spoken. The album also provides the first recording of "Something Just Broke," written for the London production of Assassins that was directed by Sam Mendes at the Donmar Warehouse. Michael Starobin, who won a Tony this year for his orchestrations, has done a remarkable job fleshing out his original 1991 arrangements by adding several character defining instrumental 'grace-notes' into the piece, such as Italian folk music licks into "How I Saved Roosevelt" and a wonkily dissonant Cakewalk undertone to "The Ballad of Guiteau." While the Broadway cast is, as a whole, not as vocally strong as those on the Off-Broadway recording, as the latter cast included Patrick Cassidy, Victor Garber, Annie Golden, Terrence Mann and Debra Monk, there are quite a few standouts on this disc, including Marc Kudisch's creepy portrayal of the Proprietor, Neil Patrick Harris' effective (and sometimes tongue-in-cheek) rendition of the Balladeer, Michael Cerveris' impassioned performance of Booth (which is even more incredible on disc than on stage, which in this case is saying a lot) and my personal favorite, Becky Ann Baker's off-kilter portrayal of would-be assassin of President Ford, Sara Jane Moore. Denis O'Hare, who was at times too over-the-top on stage with his portrayal of Charles Guiteau, is much more effective on disc (his manic giggling on "The Gun Song" is one of the most riveting moments on the album, in fact). Even with its disregard for historical accuracy (not to mention temporal possibility) and a lack of insight into what makes these men and women tick (not to mention explode), Assassins is a powerful look at a group of people who have confused the right to pursue happiness with that of obtaining it. Given recent world events in general and the tragedy of 9/11 in particular, the reminder that these two statements are not interchangeable is timely indeed.
The album also contains five premier recordings, all of which are worthy of future attention. In addition to providing arrangements and keyboards for the album, McGovern contributed a true New York City love song to the album, a tender number on missed opportunities entitled "Across 9th Avenue." Egan, who provided the voice for Meg in Disney's Hercules, shines on a number cut from the film, "I Can't Believe My Heart," which is a textbook example of a song being better than any actually appearing in the final film, but cut for stylistic reasons. "Oh, How I Loved You," a new number by Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich (whose anthem to baristas, "Taylor, The Latte Boy" is also perfectly realized by Egan, one of the few performers to infuse the song with the over-the-top excitement of blossoming love - or lust), is a beautiful song of loss that will reduce anyone going through a break-up to a blob of emotional Jell-O. Two other premier recordings, "There Are No Words" (by David Evans and Faye Greenburg) and "Sing Me A Happy Song (Georgia Stitt) are destined to break out of the 'coffee house' and enter the cabaret repertoire quickly. The album, like all coffee house performance nights, even contains an oddball number that is not quite aligned with the reality of the rest of the 'world,' in this case a cover of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" that is a bit jarring in its fragmentation (while I applaud anyone for dipping into the Kate Bush oeuvre, as I feel she is woefully undiscovered by cabaret and vocal artists, I can not help but feel that one of her more linear storytelling numbers, such as "Babooshka," "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" or given world events, "Army Dreamers" might have been a better choice). Overall, however, this is an incredibly strong and delightful album that ranks as one of this year's "must-have" gems.
To a person, the cast is incredible: Matt Bogart (playing the charming philanderer, Nicky), Leslie Kritzer (as Nicky's girlfriend, Heidi), Chad Kimball (as Alan, their friend and pad-crasher, who has held a longstanding crush on Heidi), Lauren Kennedy (as the "Samantha"-esque Pepper with whom Nicky has an affair), and Danny Gurwin (as her gay best friend, Charlie, who is struggling with his feelings of heterosexuality). This is definitely a writing team to keep one's eye on, and I Sing! is worth getting not only as a benchmark for their talent, but as a highly enjoyable listen as well.
There are some numbers worth looking into by performers looking for comic material (especially "I Love To Sing," which provides a laundry list of examples as to why said person should not do so in public) but overall the album is neither weird nor wonderful enough.
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