BWW Album Review: PRINCE OF BROADWAY Honors Broadway Royalty

Among the Broadway names of the past several decades, producer and director Hal Prince surely stands as one of the greatest. His name has been attached to some of the most iconic musicals of all time: She Loves Me, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Company, Evita, Sweeney Todd, and The Phantom of the Opera, just to name a few. The musical Prince of Broadway featured an all-star cast taking audiences on a journey through some of the highlights of Prince's career, and the cast album is a best-of-the-best compilation, preserving some of the brightest performances and clever takes on these well-loved songs.

The album presents us with a (mostly) chronological scattering of Prince's shows, making it easier than ever to discern phases and patterns - and, moreover, to extrapolate from those patterns to take a journey through the trends and styles of Broadway as a whole. Chuck Cooper opens the album with "Heart" from Damn Yankees, full of old-fashioned charm and verve. And while Tony Yazbeck acquits himself nicely on a West Side Story duet with Kaley Ann Vorhees, it's clear that he's more a born showman than the subject of a tragedy, which is why his glorious "The Right Girl" is a highlight: you can almost visualize the classic showmanship (and what, I assume, was a glorious dance break). And the pair of songs from She Loves Me, sung by Brandon Uranowitz and Bryona Marie Parham, are perfectly chosen to highlight why that musical is among the most perfect musical comedies in the canon.

From the light and bright comedies, we move into a more serious section, anchored by selections from Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, and Company. Cooper returns with a big, broad "If I Were A Rich Man" full of character that really understands the specific, slightly dark and slightly joyful humor of the song. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that Cabaret is probably one of the most-performed scores but also taken out of context most of the time - but not here. On the title song, Parham gives us all the grit and self-deluded glamour of Sally Bowles, despite an oddly slow tempo in some sections. And the inclusion of "So What," a bitterly humorous song sung here by the excellent Karen Ziemba, indicates Prince of Broadway's refusal to fall into the trap of grabbing the catchy Cabaret songs and ignoring the dark, edgy context.

A shout-out must also go to Janet Dacal for an impeccable Evita on "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" and to Cooper for a simple, unadorned "Ol' Man River." It may seem strange to mention these two together, but they're both dignified showcases from very different eras. "Ol' Man River" is one of those pre-Golden Age beauties full of gravitas and calm. While "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" has developed a reputation as an over-sung diva song, a closer listen and a vocal performance like Dacal's pushes the grace and emotion to the forefront over the pure vocal pyrotechnics.

Perhaps the most emotional rich pair of songs on the album are the two selections from Company: Emily Skinner's rendition of "Ladies Who Lunch" and Michael Xavier on "Being Alive." Both performers dig deeply into the complex emotions and language of the Sondheim classics until you just want a Company revival with the two of them front and center. These two songs represent opposite ends of Sondheim's genius, with "Ladies Who Lunch" chock-full of incredibly specific images, dense lyrics, and an eye for picking out the details most ripe for a cutting lyric, while "Being Alive" is exquisite in its simplicity and universality.

The album ends with the ensemble uniting on a new song, written by Jason Robert Brown, called "Do The Work." Brown's music somehow captures the flavor of many of the songs previously heard on the album, while bringing his own style to it. It's a fitting wrap-up to a fitting tribute for one of Broadway's finest.

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