SOUND OFF: PROMISES Made, FAMILY Broken

Today, in honor of the Tony Awards on Sunday, we close out the season with the last two recordings related to the 2009-2010 Broadway season with an exclusive First Listen to the PROMISES, PROMISES Broadway Revival Recording starring Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth courtesy of the kind folks at Sony, as well as the Original Broadway Cast Recording of THE ADDAMS FAMILY starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. These recordings certainly offer strong proof of the best - and worst - that Broadway has to offer in the modern age. Everything old may be new again in the case of PROMISES, but everything new is tired old-hat as far as ADDAMS goes as we will soon see.

I'll Fall In Love Again

PROMISES, PROMISES - Broadway Revival Cast Recording

SCORE: 8.5/10

Of all the cast albums of the 1960s, perhaps none is more plagued with audio issues and pitch issues than the Original Broadway Cast Recording of PROMISES, PROMISES. Jerry Orbach and Jill O'Hara - as well as Tony-winner Marian Mercer in the one-song role that has brought Kate Finneran much acclaim this season in the revival - were apparently wonderful onstage, but their vocal gifts are, to be kind, an acquired taste as evidenced on that recording. The Original London Cast Recording starring Tony Roberts and Betty Buckley is technically far superior but still no great shakes. The Burt Bacharach-Hal David score has always deserved the very best that the recording industry has to offer given their place in the pantheon the great pop songwriters of the twentieth century, but - until now - that was never the case. Finally, the promise of a great cast album of this effervescent score arrives courtesy of Sony Masterworks and as the first reviewer and listener to critique the album I must say it is a joy and a privilege to do so. It is a PROMISES, PROMISES perfected.

The album begins with the absolutely thrilling and revelatory orchestrations by the esteemed Jonathan Tunick who, with this score, in many ways honed the Bacharach sound that became a touchstone of the 1960s not just in recorded music, but in culture at large. The pit voices are lush and their sonorous syncopations instantly likeable and lovely to listen to as a true pure vocal instrumental accompaniment in the rawest sense abetted the score to a great degree in setting the mood, style, tone and timbre of the sounds of the score. After that, the first thing that becomes clear is that Sean Hayes is no Michael Crawford or Robert Goulet, but he can certainly put over a number plainly and pleasantly - as he gamely performatively proves with his cheery opener "Upstairs" - and in the case of this score, a light touch is actually preferable to a big, brassy belt and brusque bravado. Indeed, Hayes is an enchanting delight, instantly winning our affections with his affable, openhearted portrayal of Chuck Baxter.

"You'll Think of Someone" has perhaps never sounded better than it does thanks to the high-wattage star presence of Kristin Chenoweth who wrings new meaning - and a whole new style and sound - from her as-written problematic character of Fran Kubelik. No, the role does not fit her like a glove, but it is refreshing to see and hear a musical theatre actress stretch to play one of the more strange - and suicidal - characters in the musical theatre canon when she has previously been known for significantly sweeter roles. She infuses her material with a soothing pop sound that is totally welcome in this pure-pop confection of a score and she brings ticks and tessitura to the material that makes the character more memorable and moving, at least as is evidenced by this album - this isn‘t a review of her performance in the theater, after all. Also, this is not Kristin as Cunegonde or Glinda or Lucy, it's precisely what Chenoweth makes it to be and it is a valid and totally new take on the character. The addition of two more songs certainly doesn't hurt to give the character a new angle or two. "I Say A Little Prayer" is a lilting and lusty inclusion and it works well in and with the score. Less so "A House Is Not A Home" - I would have much preferred "One Less Bell To Answer" or the famous Barbra Streisand medley, recently re-enacted by Chenoweth and Matthew Morrison on GLEE with much success. As far as Hayes‘s material goes, it goes quite fantastically: "It's Our Little Secret" sounds just like a song from a cast album from the Golden Age in its production and performance-style, which is a sure credit to the warm - if a bit empty at times - sound of the album. On the note of the less endearing elements: that song is one of the weak links in a surprisingly sparkling and strong score - especially given it was so in-the-moment when it was written over forty years ago. One thing is for sure: the harmonies are heavenly, here and hereafter, and they bring up the songs that may lag or become a bit laborious or lumbering. "She Likes Basketball" - like "The Grapes of Roth" and "Turkey Lurkey Time" - is more a choreographic showpiece than a show-stopping song in its own right, though all three are treats and handled with aplomb where they could have gotten repetitive or static. "Knowing When To Leave" is a bit more traditional sounding in its unabashed in its simple pop sensibilities than some of the other numbers hear, but Chenoweth smoothes out the syncopations sensitively - particularly given the odd and intricate intervals of this deceptively tricky character song. "Where Can You Take A Girl" is a fun frippery if rendered a bit less effective on disc than onstage given its content and context onstage, though the featured cast members are all given a change to shine and they take that opportunity and run with it, for sure - Brooks Ashmanskas, Peter Benson, Sean Martin Hingston and Ken Land. "Wanting Things" leaves us wanting little thanks to Tony Goldwyn who sounds like something out of a 40s MGM musical along with the sumptuous orchestra. I am not a fan of the redone "Turkey Lurkey Time" and think the original version is untouchable and so exciting and I am astounded that it is not being used here. Nonetheless, overall the first act is a definite winner.

So far, so good - and so goes the similarly successful second half of the show as well. Katie Finneran steals the show onstage by many accounts with "A Fact Can Be A Beautiful Thing", but to my ear she is a tad over-the-top on the recording - but perhaps that's part of what's slaying them in the aisles on Broadway every night. Whatever the case, it's not an easy number to really do justice to on an album as it scores much better in the theater than it does on an album. "Whoever You Are, I Love You" is imbued with emotive yearning and tearful disenchantment due to fruitless years gone by and in this song more than any other Chenoweth finds the tragic heart of Fran. She's transcendent on this song and it is the best recording it has ever received. Tony-winning stage veteran Dick Latessa is delightfully lecherous on the late-second-act specialty number "A Young Pretty Girl Like You". "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" is perhaps the score's most well-known - and certainly the most well-worn - chestnut and Chenoweth and Hayes bring it new gravitas and emotional gravity where it could have come off as cutesy or forced. Hayes and Chenoweth are masters of comedy and they traverse this tricky material terrifically well and bring it just the right amount of dramatic weight. "Promises, Promises" is engaging and sweet, with just the right amount of spice. The last song of the cast album is further enlivened by Hayes's effortless ebullience shining through full force, with Chenoweth's golden tones the perfect compliment to that warm and cheery front. Their musical marriage is mellifluous and marvelous, as is the entirety of this promises-fulfilled valentine to 60s pop that we call the score of PROMISES, PROMISES as it is represented on this truly treasonable trove of tracks.

Mad/Sad

THE ADDAMS FAMILY - Original Broadway Cast Recording

SCORE: 2/10

Composer/lyricist Andrew Lippa was responsible for the far-inferior Off-Broadway adaptation of Joseph Moncure March's seminal narrative poem THE WILD PARTY - the superior and quite dazzling Broadway version was by Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe and was nominated for seven Tony Awards - and his score for THE ADDAMS FAMILY is far inferior to even that mildly amusing, if baldly anachronistic and largely wrongheaded and wrong-hearted, score. This cast deserves a lot better material than they are given here. A lot better. The score just leaves no impression at all and the shoddy album production - for instance: why is Jackie Hoffmann, of all people in this starry cast, so loudly miked? - certainly goes nowhere in helping the cause. Nathan Lane tries his best and perhaps "Happy/Sad" is a showstopper of sorts onstage given the dearth of quality in this deathly score and that‘s not a compliment, but it just comes off as THE PRODUCERS‘s "Betrayed"-lite. He is such a strong performer and has proven on the cast albums of revival of A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM and both versions of THE FROGS that he can reign-in his theatrics for a recording, but you certainly would not know that from the hammy performance he gives here. It's not his fault, he's just making the best out of what he has been given and overcompensating for the shoddy, disappointing score he is trying his damndest to sell us on. Kevin Chamberlain is another strong performer, but to say his material is sub par would be being far too kind to his misguided, boring lunar-themed material. Bebe Neuwirth perhaps gets the worst song of all and the sounds she produces on this recording are not pleasant by any stretch of the imagination. Truly, the only musical theme that will stick with you after you listen to this recording and I don't suggest you do is the theme from the TV show and that, of course, was not even written by the composer/lyricist of this show. I suppose Carolee Carmello and Terrance Mann escape relatively unscathed, but when you have two performers as strong as they are and you still can't make their material leave any sort of impression on the listener, you know you are in trouble. That's Trouble that starts with a T and rhymes with G and stands for Ghoul. Ghoulish, indeed - and garish. Gruesome, surely, too.

In an anemic season with few original scores - truly, only MEMPHIS can claim to have an entirely original score since FELA and AMERICAN IDIOT both use pre-existing music - there is nothing more I'd love to do than lavish praise on the underdog and champion the little show that could by a new Broadway talent; but this is not that score and THE ADDAMS FAMILY is certainly not that show. It's a hit, in spite of the reviews, so they can cackle all the way to the blood bank over that. That's the only blood to speak of though in this truly bloodless, passionless, and, well, anemic, score. No heart, no soul, no nothing. A truly dire, deadly disappointment in nearly every way. What could have been, what could have been... but it isn't. Snap-snap.