Eatonville's Norm Lewis is among the performers on the 'Sondheim on Sondheim' cast recording.
The original Broadway cast recording of “Sondheim on Sondheim” is out today, and I had the chance to listen to an advance copy.
It’s an interesting mix of songs and Sondheim narration — especially if you’re a fan of backstage stories. For example, you get to hear all three songs written to open “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” (Can you imagine that show without “Comedy Tonight”?)
Sometimes, that comes at the expense of better-known songs… For example, a song cut from “Gypsy” after one performance is performed, but none of the show’s more famous songs — “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” or “All I Need Is the Girl.”
Strangely, “Sweeney Todd” isn’t represented on the double-CD set at all. I didn’t get to New York to see the show during its run this spring. Does anyone know why “Sweeney” got the chop, so to speak?
I had recently talked with Norm Lewis, who grew up in Eatonville, about the CD — he’s one of the featured performers and does a swell job on “Being Alive” from “Company.” [Click to read that interview with Norm Lewis, in Les Miserables in London]
He also sings with 83-year-old Broadway legend Barbara Cook, who won a Tony Award for her role in “The Music Man.” The two perform a sequence from “Passion,” including the song “Is This What You Call Love?” as Lewis’ character tells off Cook’s.
“I basically get to yell at Barbara,” Lewis told me with a laugh. ” I thought I was going to get some hate mail, but I made it through luckily.”
Lewis said he felt honored to perform with Cook, and with Vanessa Williams; they sing the love duet “So Many People” together. That song was composed for the show “Saturday Night” back in the 1950s, but wasn’t produced until 1997.
Williams sounds lovelier than ever, especially using her rich alto on “Losing My Mind.” And Cook’s voice, which shows signs of her age, works to great effect on the bitterly reflective “Send in the Clowns.”
The tidbits from Sondheim are fascinating as well, the way he just casually mentions that his mother didn’t like him, or his revelation that his show he’s most pleased with is “Assassins.”
I know it’s the age of iTunes and mp3s and I’m hopelessly old-fashioned, but if you get the CD set, it is beautifully packaged by record label PS Classics. Besides the libretto — so you can read all Sondheim’s carefully chosen words — there’s great photography.
But best of all, the booklet that very smartly lists all the songs in CD order (with the name of the performers who sing them), and then lists all the songs, by show, chronologically. Brilliant.
