Music Review: Some Like It Hot (Official Broadway Cast Recording) by Marc Shaiman and others

Some Like It Hot (Official Broadway Cast Recording)
music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman, and a book by Matthew López and Amber Ruffin (Hoopla Music, and hopefully on CD eventually)

The 1959 film Some Like It Hot, directed by Billy Wilder and starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, is considered by many film critics and fans to be among the greatest films ever made, a certainly one of the best Comedy films of all time. This stage musical, which opened on Broadway in 2022, is scheduled to close before the end of 2023, and features much of the same plot as the film, but has been expanded to explore issues of racial disparity and gender identity.

 

Joe (Christian Borle) and Jerry (J. Harrison Ghee) are best friends and musicians, trying to break into a big-name club in Chicago during prohibition. Though do they receive a break, they then witness a gangland slaying and have to go on the lam to avoid being rubbed out by the mobster whose club they were performing in. Desperate, they decide to impersonate women, and join the all-girl band Sweet Sue and Her Society Syncopaters, leaving Chicago and traveling by train to California. Joe becomes Josephine, and Jerry becomes Daphne. Joe falls for Sugar Cane, a young woman with dreams of California stardom. When they reach San Diego, the Syncopaters are booked to perform at the glamorous Hotel Coronado, owned by quirky eccentric millionaire Osgood Fielding III, who immediately finds himself attracted to Jerry’s alter-ego Daphne.

 

Sue, Sugar Cane and Jerry/Daphne are all portrayed by actors of color in this production, and some of the new songs refer to the societal hurdles they face as musicians and performers. Jerry also finds himself far more comfortable in the skin of Daphne than he does of himself, and Osgood reveals that he likes Daphne, no matter who s/he is. The arrival of the pursuing mobsters leads to chase sequences and the revelation of Joe and Jerry’s actual identities…but it’s all okay in the end.

 

Featuring music by Marc Shaiman with lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman (both of whom did the music for the musicals Hairspray, Catch Me If You Can and the film Mary Poppins Returns), this musical is filled with rousing song-and-dance numbers as well as more introspective, pensive songs. The musical opens with the fast-paced “What Are You Thirsty For?” and “You Can’t Have Me (If You Don’t Have Him)”. I particularly enjoyed “At the Old Majestic Nickel Matinee”, “Let’s Be Bad”, “Dance the World Away” and “Ride Out the Storm”. And, of course, the title song “Some Like It Hot” is really catching as well. Personally, I enjoyed listening to this on CD, with a booklet that included extensive liner notes that helped explain what’s going on.

 

This is definitely a 21st Century take (with updated societal views) on a 64-year-old film masterpiece. Both are excellent in their own separate ways. I’ve been a fan of actor Christian Borle for many years, and while he does a terrific job as Joe/Josephine, it is J. Harrison Ghee who steals the show as Jerry/Daphne, and won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actor in a Musical.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the original classic film starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, or Hairspray by the same creative team as this musical.)

 

( Wikipedia entry for the Some Like It Hot musical )

 

See Donna G.’s review of the film Some Like it Hot in the March 2011 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Music Book Review: Attack of the Monster Musical: A Cultural History of Little Shop of Horrors by Adam Abraham

Attack of the Monster Musical: A Cultural History of Little Shop of Horrors
by Adam Abraham (Music 782.14 Abr)

In light of the recent Lincoln Community Playhouse production (September 23-October 1, 2023) of the musical Little Shop of Horrors (and the library book list that came out in support of it), I was intrigued by this detailed examination of the the development and history of this dark-humored theater staple, and decided to give it a look.

 

While at times a bit dry and academic, I still found Attack of the Monster Musical to be a fun look back at the origins of Little Shop of Horrors, starting with the creation of Roger Corman’s 1960 low-budget b&w horror film, which was the inspiration for the musical over 20 years later. There’s lots of juicy historical tidbits about the different stages of the musical’s development, including the background of creators Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, how the various Audrey II puppets were created, the changes to the story that were required for the filming of the movie version, and the many musicals that were inspired by Little Shop in the years since. This was definitely an enjoyable read, and I learned a lot about Little Shop of Horrors I had not been aware of before. I do wish that there were more illustrations — the book has about a dozen or so black-and-white photos or drawings, but Little Shop is such a visual-oriented show, I would have loved to have seen more pictures in this.

 

This book should absolutely appeal to anyone who is a Little Shop of Horrors fan, but even if you’re just a musicals fan who’s not so familiar with Little Shop, you should appreciate the detailed background info about what it took to create a quirky off-Broadway show.

 

( Wikipedia entry on the Little Shop of Horrors stage musical ) | ( official Adam Abraham web site )

 

See Scott C.’s review of multiple versions of Little Shop of Horrors in the October 2018 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!
See the Recommended Reading List for fans of Little Shop of Horrors among the Lincoln Community Playhouse booklists here on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Check out this, and all the other great music resources, at the Polley Music Library, located on the 2nd floor of the Bennett Martin Public Library at 14th & "N" St. in downtown Lincoln. You'll find biographies of musicians, books about music history, instructional books, sheet music, CDs, music-related magazines, and much more. Also check out Polley Music Library Picks, the Polley Music Library's e-mail newsletter, and follow them on Facebook!

Music Book Review: Musical Theatre for Dummies by Seth Rudetsky

Musical Theatre for Dummies
by Seth Rudetsky (Music 782.14 Rud)

I’ve been a fan of both Seth Rudetsky, and the “…for Dummies” series of books for years, so this was a perfect combination! I regularly listen to Rudetsky as he hosts the “On Broadway” program on SiriusXM radio, playing Broadway music, interviewing fellow Broadway stars, and dishing about Broadway history. And, since the inception of the “For Dummies” series in 1991, I can easily say I’ve read at least 20 “For Dummies” volumes on topics as widely diverse as Guitar Playing, Wine Basics, Digital Photography, various computer software packages, and Playwriting.

 

Seth (with his co-authors Ryan M. Prendergast and Bill Jenkins) breaks the world of Musical Theatre into three major sections (with multiple sub-sections) — Getting Started With Musical Theatre, The People Who Make Musical Theatre Happen, and The Blood, Sweat and Tears of Theatre Life. He follows this up with an extra, fourth, section “The Part of Tens”, covering “Ten (Plus) Songs You Didn’t Realize Came From Musical Theatre” and “Ten Celebs Who Started in Musical Theatre”. Seth uses the typical format of the “For Dummies” series to include sidebar articles marked with little icons: “Seth Speaks”, in which he shares tangential stories; “Tip”, in which he highlights useful tips for those wanting insider info; and “Remember” for his most important points.

 

Two of the most enjoyable things about listening to Seth on the radio are his encyclopedic knowledge about all things Broadway (and his inherent love for the subject matter), and his brassy, sassy, over-the-top personality. Both of those come through in this volume in spades. For anyone only vaguely familiar with the wild and crazy world of musical theatre — from Broadway to small community theatres — Musical Theatre for Dummies may feel a bit like an overdose. But for anyone who has a passion this field, reading this will feel like sitting in on a multi-hour dish session with one of the most knowledgeable Broadway insiders you’re ever likely to encounter — and not someone with a dry “informational/educational” tone, rather someone who simply loves musical theatre and can’t wait to tell you all about it.

 

(Reading all the tidbits Seth shares in this book may make you wish to read more books about Broadway history and the shows made famous there — our Polley Music Library on the second floor of the downtown library has tons on this topic. I also recommend Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway (no longer in the libraries) and Singular Sensation: The Triumph of Broadway by Michael Riedel.)

 

( official Seth Rudetsky web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Check out this, and all the other great music resources, at the Polley Music Library, located on the 2nd floor of the Bennett Martin Public Library at 14th & "N" St. in downtown Lincoln. You'll find biographies of musicians, books about music history, instructional books, sheet music, CDs, music-related magazines, and much more. Also check out Polley Music Library Picks, the Polley Music Library's e-mail newsletter, and follow them on Facebook!

Compact Disc Review: Music Man - The 2022 Broadway Cast Recording

Music Man: The 2022 Broadway Cast Recording
by Meredith Willson (Compact Disc 782.14 Mus)

I’ve been a huge fan of the actor Hugh Jackman for years, and have really enjoyed his performances in such musical films as Les Miserables and The Greatest Showman. Similarly, I’ve enjoyed what performance by Sutton Foster that I’ve had the chance to see and hear, including her multi-season fun on Younger, and her contributions to soundtrack albums like Young Frankenstein, Anything Goes and The Drowsy Chaperone. But I’ve never had the chance to see either of them live, in person, in a stage show. None-the-less, I had high hopes for enjoying them as the leads in the soundtrack to the 2022 Broadway version of The Music Man, the classic American musical.

 

This soundtrack is fine, on its own, and is particularly rewarding as a two-disc set, which includes a LOT more music than has been on the single-disc releases associated with earlier stage and film productions. And, I actually did enjoy listening to it in the end. Both Jackman and Foster are enthusiastic performers and more-than-capable singers. BUT…and it’s a big but…as someone who grew up listening to the soundtracks to both the 1957 Broadway production and the 1962 feature film version, Jackman and Foster simply do not inhabit the characters of Harold Hill and Marian Paroo like Robert Preston did for both stage and screen, and Barbara Cook and Shirley Jones did for the stage and screen versions. The late Robert Preston simply IS Harold Hill, and Jackman was a mere pretender.

 

For Broadway soundtrack fans, I do still recommend this 2022 version…its got an infection sense of energy, and some of the tracks featuring group performances are outstanding. And if you’ve never heard the songs of The Music Man before, you may end up loving this version. But for someone well-versed in the history of Broadway music, this one ultimately falls a bit short. Its main selling point, for me, is the fact that there’s twice as much music represented as in previous production albums.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to see if you can find the soundtracks to both the 1957 Broadcast Cast Album, and the 1962 movie version of this story. But by all means, avoid the 2003 TV-movie version, starring Matthew Broderick, as it is far inferior to all other versions.)

 

( official Music Man on Broadway 2022 web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

New Lincoln Community Playhouse Booklist on BookGuide for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

  

The classic 1979 Broadway hit Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is currently on stage (March 10-19) at the Lincoln Community Playhouse, neighbor to the Lincoln City Libraries' own Gere Branch Library. As we usually do, a new booklist was created to accompany a book display at the Gere Branch, featuring books that should appeal to fans of this macabre masterpiece from Stephen Sondheim.

The booklist is available in two formats -- a simple single-page PDF listing titles only, and a more elaborate web page featuring a description of the history of this musical, plus descriptive blurbs and catalog hotlinks for each of the included books, CDs and DVDs (and this version has a few more titles than the shorter form).

You can "check out" these two variations on the Sweeney Todd booklist at the following hotlinks:

Sweeney Todd (1 page - printer-friendly)

Sweeney Todd (more detailed, web-based)

Music CD Review: Back to the Future: The Musical - Original Cast Recording by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard

Back to the Future: The Musical – Original Cast Recording
by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard (Compact Disc 782.14 Bac)

The original time-travel film Back to the Future came out in 1985, telling the tale of teenager Marty McFly using the massively-altered Delorean gull-wing car-turned-time-machine by his friend, eccentric scientist Doc Emmet Brown, to travel back to 1955. When trapped there, Marty enlists the assistance of the younger Doc Brown to figure out how to refuel the time machine to return himself to 1985. But first, Marty must help his parents to fall in love — his arrival in 1955 caused their original meeting to go off-track — or he and his two siblings will cease to exist.

 

The original film engendered two immediate sequels in 1989 and 1990, the first of which threw the characters forward from 1985 to 2015, and the second cast them back in time to the Old West. A later animated TV series (2 seasons totally 26 episodes) continued their story. As early as 2004, producer/writer Bob Gale hinted at a desire to turn Back to the Future into a stage musical. In 2012, it was announced that this project was a reality and was aimed for a 2015 premiere (to tie into the time Marty and Doc traveled to in the 2nd film. Delays pushed this project back repeatedly, and it finally premiered in the UK in 2021 (with plays to premiere on Broadway in 2023).

 

This soundtrack features the cast of the 2021 British production, including Olly Dobson as Marty McFly, Roger Bart as Doc Brown, Hugh Coles as George McFly, Rosanna Hyland as Lorraine Baines, Cedric Neal as Goldie Wilson/Marvin Berry, and Aidan Cutler as Biff Tannen. The producers’ goals for this musical were to create mostly all-new songs to retell this popular story. In fact, out of 25 tracks on this CD, only five feature music associated with the movie — Alan Silvestri’s instrumental theme (now given lyrics in “It’s Only a Matter of Time”), “The Power of Love” and “Back in Time” (both pop hits for Huey Lewis from the film’s soundtrack) and “Earth Angel” and “Johnny B. Goode” (performed at the school dance near the end of the story). All other tracks are new tunes, collaborations between original soundtrack composer Silvestri and Glen Ballard. Some are better than others, but there aren’t any real stinkers. Most major characters get a song focused on them and their goals. Doc Brown gets several, including “It Works”, “Future Boy”, “21st Century”, and the marvelous “For the Dreamers”. Marty’s wishy-washy father George gets “My Myopia” and “Put Your Mind to It”. Marty’s suprisingly man-hungry mother (as a teenager) gets “Pretty Baby” and “Something About That Boy”. And, of course, Marty McFly has many moments to shine.

 

Olly Dobson does a remarkably good job of recapturing the sound of a young Michael J. Fox as Marty. Hugh Coles is eerie in recreating the unique voice of Crispin Glover as George McFly, and both Hyland and Cutler do a good job inhabiting the roles of Lorraine and Biff. The slight disappointment for me was Roger Bart as Doc. I’ve really enjoyed Bart’s vocal performances in other musical soundtracks — he’s terrific as Victor Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein. But he’s very “on again/off again” as Doc.

 

None-the-less, despite some unevenness, I thought that these songs very effectively retold the well-known plot of the film. A few changes were made — swapping plutonium poising instead of Libyan terrorists for Doc’s 1985 death, etc. Just like the film, which mixes genres, this soundtrack bounces between 1950s and 1980s song stylings very effectively. Overall, Back to the Future: The Musical sounds like it would be a terrific show. I hope once it premieres here in the U.S. it is a smash success. Based on descriptions of the technical needs of this show (a flying Delorean car!), it’s unlikely to be a show feasible for community or high school theaters to perform, so catch it on Broadway if you can!

 

(If you enjoy this, obviously, this is tailored to fans of the original film trilogy. I’d also recommend viewing the quirky animated series, also available on DVD from the libraries.)

 

( official Back to the Future: The Musical web site ) | ( official Alan Silvestri web site ) | ( Wikipedia entry for Glen Ballard )

 

Recommended by Scott C.

Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!