A Little Night Muzak

“The Musical Musical” is either genius or the worst tagline, but definitely just an euphemism for “operetta” which is what this is. But with songs “based on themes by” Rachmaninoff that’s maybe a good thing - certainly, the recording sounds great for a 16 performances flop. Definitely because of the Rachmaninoff, but also a lot of credit goes to Don Walker’s orchestrations, (I assume with an expanded orchestra for the cast recording) that truly sound symphonic - the Choral Prelude, just the ensemble bellowing out “Anya” over and over to the strains of ... honestly I don’t know my Rachmaninoff well enough to say, but I’m sure its a famous piece, and it is absolutely thrilling. 

It’s probably a bit unfair to credit the orchestrator first, before Forrest and Wright, who developed Rachmaninoff’s themes, motifs, passages into Broadway/Operetta-numbers, and while this might not be their best entry into their cycle of doing just that with whatever other classical composer they liked (Arguably, their best work is Kismet) it is also not their worst. And to be honest, with full offense to Ahrens and Flaherty, I prefer this musicalisation of the Anastasia-story over theirs - though that might not actually be their fault but rather the writers’ of the awful awful film, but i digress.

Constance Towers, as Anya, is good, but a bit too operetta for me - does she ever get anything but yearning ballads? I forgot since I am finishing this ~review 2 months after listening to it. 

Cast-wise, the high point certainly is Irra Petina, the contralto who used to turn up in all these flop-operettas (including, more famously, Candide),here once more in top form, and getting her greatest moment in the unbelievably stupid spoken opening of “That Prelude!” - “Chernov, play something gay”, she tells the pianist, and as he goes into the most mournful Prelude in C sharp minor, Petina responds with “That’s niiiice” in her heavy accent, and somewhere Patti LuPone gets her wings. Also good to have in the cast is Michael Kermoyan, the rare bariton in a musical who actually gets some really low notes, which I always find hot.

Wahey, I reached the 50. Which I think at this point is like a tenth of my collection lol I have a problem.

Well anyway! 

This was just released a bunch of weeks ago. The soundtrack to the eponymous film - first a flop, then forgotten, then suddenly a cult classic, now also reaching the West - which in turn was based on a concept album of the same name (trying to track that down for a fair price...) it is fun j-...rock/punk/new wave I guess? Musically, it is all over the place (here to be read as a good thing), although all songs have in common that they are great fun. The film matches that energy and unlike some other cult classics it also doesn’t go on for too long, although the story is slight. The film mostly lives on its creativity and the songs., performed by people who are singers first and not actors, which works very well here and on the album especially. 

The release comes as a 12′’ disc with a 7′’ single of the films title song and another song from it on the back - on one hand a cute choice, on the other they also omit those two songs from the main album, which I think is hm, questionable. I appreciate that the single has the films biggest bops on it so I can listen to them easily on their own but I still wish they’d also been on the 12′’ disc so that’d have the full experience.

Honestly - my album of the year? And I don’t expect anybody to share this assessment, but no, really, I think it is the record I’ve played the most this year. It just brings me so much joy and is just a great listen. For me, at least.

So. Who is this strange dude tangled in Christmas lights film, I hear you cry. Well. He is a voice actor, basically, and by chance, one of the three leads in that German audioplay series that also pops up on here infrequently. But aside from doing that, this dude has a hobby, and that is: old films, especially Hitchcock. So as a side gig he sometimes does live readings of novels that served as the basis for Hitchcock films. Just him on stage, performing the novel, and always with a soloist and their instrument, everything from double bass to harp to accordeon, for instrumental interludes and, to end the evenings, one song he felt fits the essence of the story he just read. And this album then is a collection of songs from his various live readings, with small band arrangements, a bit of back up occasionally and yeah. 

He is not a *great* singer, but his voice has charme and the selections made for this are great, taking in title songs from Doris Day films, Audrey Hepburn films, even a James Bond theme; basically, mostly 60s music. Not all songs are bops, and the opening song especially might even be kinda off-putting to some, but the overall picks are just so good, that even I enjoy the slower, quieter numbers which I otherwise rarely do on any album.

My main issue is that the mixing is sometimes a bit ... well, bad, as nothing, not even his voice, stand out and becomes more of a sound wall. But otherwise, like I said, I love this album deeply, and if you think you might be into this kind of thing, give it try. Although I wouldn’t blame you if you aren’t.

Honestly? I like this recording better than the original. There, i said it. Legendary as the leads in the original may be (and they are, and they should be) I just... prefer this. Bebe Neuwirth kills, I do love James Naughton’s voice, Joel Grey’s Mr Cellophane is the best (second best would be Fred Ebb’s tbh, sorry Dad from Seinfeld.... you’re ok too)... Ann Reinking I have mixed feelings about but hey. Also Marcia Lewis is good as Mama (though Queen Latifah, of course, will always be Mama of My Heart) hm yeah. And also just the overall sound of this compared to the original cast recording from the mid 70s.... It’s so weird because so many Cast Recordings from that time sound so good (see: Sondheim’s OBCs from the 70s to 80s, except Follies) but the Chicago OBC just doesn’t quite cut it, yknow. Plus it’s nice that this has more playtime, of course... I think one of the best things of the show is the Finale - and its just such a tragedy that they didn’t record it originally but went for a simple reprise of “All That Jazz” that Gwen Verdon isn’t even part of, GODDDD why.... bad choices... No but on this we get it, and here, Ann Reinking’s weird voice (I like weird voices) works wonders because is there anything funnier on any recording than her delivery of “AAAAND for what America stands FOR”....

Yeah. This is a good recording. Also I am glad that it’s available on vinyl and also that it looks like this:

Actually I didnt listen to this on October 10th, I just took a pic of the next five albums I listened to til then but forgot on which day I actually played em. Well anyway.

The score of Parasite was, i think, instantly iconic with its piano-driven opening (”dark yet upbeat”), it’s folkish yodelesque pieces, its more dramatic string and synth bits and one of the best end credit songs I’ve heard in a while. Which is why it’s also my Favourite Track on this - “소주 한 잔 (Soju One Glass),” sung by  Choi Woo-shik, words by Bong and according to Jung Jaeil’s notes for this release, the demo version he recorded initially, which they used because he couldn’t recreate the roughness of it. Ugh. So good.