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Reviews of some new music

By JOHN FLEMING
Published November 12, 2006

A Chorus Line

(Masterworks Broadway)

Why we care: When A Chorus Line debuted in 1975 and went on to have a record-setting 15-year run on Broadway, it was advertised as the best musical ever. No argument here. Now it's back in a revival that essentially duplicates Michael Bennett's brilliant production for a new generation.

Why we like it: The greatest backstage musical of all, A Chorus Line remains as thrilling as ever when director-choreographer Zach (the excellent Michael Berresse) puts his company of dancers through a combination of steps in rehearsal and then has them break into One (Singular Sensation). Charlotte d'Amboise plays Cassie, a once-featured dancer on the skids who tells her story in The Music and the Mirror.

Reminds us of: Another dance musical from the same era, Chicago, whose runaway success the second time around probably inspired this revival.

Read this: Donna McKechnie (the original Cassie) has just published a memoir, Time Steps: My Musical Comedy Life (Simon & Schuster). Also recently released is an updated version of a collection of oral histories of the 19 original cast members, On the Line: The Creation of "A Chorus Line" (Limelight Editions), by Robert Viagas, Baayork Lee and Thommie Walsh.

Download these: Dance: Ten; Looks: Three, What I Did for Love

Grade: A

The Wedding Singer

(Masterworks Broadway)

Why we care: Better than you might think, the musical made from the Adam Sandler movie has loads of junky charm, plus it rocks pretty hard in a Broadway sort of way.

Why we like it: Laura Benanti's performance as the waitress who wins the wedding singer, the party-hearty Saturday Night in the City ("Being young and stupid is what Saturday is for") and the exquisite four-part harmonies of Single.

Reminds us of: Jersey Boys (for the Garden State setting), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (for the cheesy, synthesizer-dominated, pop-rock sound).

Download these: It's Your Wedding Day, Someday, Single

Grade: B

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

(Ghostlight)

Why we care: It's composer-lyricist David Yazbek's followup to The Full Monty, as well as another movie-turned-musical, this from the 1988 comedy that starred Michael Caine, Steve Martin and Glenne Headley as flim-flam artists on the French Riviera. Plus, the show's coming to Tampa this week.

Why we like it: Yazbek's witty way with a lyric is on display in John Lithgow's stylish renditions of Give Them What They Want and All About Ruprecht. Norbert Leo Butz has a comic tour de force in Great Big Stuff, listing a con man's dreams ("A house in the Bahamas/Paisley silk pajamas/Poker with Al Roker and our friend Lorenzo Lamas"). Bonus tracks include Yazbek singing the original rough demos of several songs and Sherie Rene Scott in a jazzy version of Nothing Is Too Wonderful To Be True with Bill Charlap at piano.

Reminds us of: Cole Porter (Kiss Me, Kate) for verbal dexterity and Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls) for razzmatazz.

Download these: Give Them What They Want, Great Big Stuff, All About Ruprecht, Nothing Is Too Wonderful To Be True

Grade: A

[Last modified November 10, 2006, 10:01:38]