Bob Merrill - Sugar Original 1972 Broadway Cast Recording (13 tracks) +Album Reviews

A second-rate score performed by a first-rate cast

Byron Kolln | the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood | 03/03/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"SUGAR was a stage musical incarnation of Billy Wilder's snappy comedy SOME LIKE IT HOT, the story of two hapless musicians on the run from the Mob who masquerade as members of an all-girl jazz band.The score was penned by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill who had previously collaborated for FUNNY GIRL, and would reunite several seasons later for the cult flop PRETTYBELLE. SUGAR proved to be a lukewarm success, delivering fine performances from Robert Morse and Tony Roberts as the hapless musicians, as well as great turns from Cyril Ritchard (PETER PAN) in the role of Osgood, and Elaine Joyce in the title role of Sugar Kane.Standout numbers include Elaine Joyce's showstopping "Hey, Why Not!" as well as "We Could Be Close", "It's Always Love" and the Title Song.This marvellous cast album has now been reissued on the Rykodisc label and sounds fabulous. Sound quality is deep and lush, amazing considering its circa 1972 (other cast albums from the same period don't sound half as good).Later SUGAR would resurface in London starring Tommy Steele, under the original movie title SOME LIKE IT HOT. Regardless of critical opinion, the cast album of SUGAR is a particular delight, and well worth tracking down."

Definately Underrated!!

Jeff Skogsbergh | Santa Monica, California USA | 08/22/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This musical is argueably the best score of any of the David Merrick musicals (and there have been a lot of them). The overture alone is worth the price of the CD, and is probably in the top 5 of all musical comedy overtures recorded."

Back at last!

Byron Kolln | 11/07/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A wonderful score -- missing for far too long. Seems ripe for revival...(the English rendition of this show retitled - is simply dreadful). Recorded sound is splendid"

Brassy musical version of SOME LIKE IT HOT

A. Andersen | Bellows Falls, VT USA | 10/20/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is Bob Merrill's sixth and second to last show. This time he provided just the lyrics to Jule Styne's music - as he had to great acclaim with FUNNY GIRL. Although the show was a boxoffice hit, running over 500 performances, and was nominated for three Tony Awards (Best Musical, Best Director- Champion, and Best Actor - Robert Morse), the reasons stemmed more from the burlesque drag quality of the plot (the hit film SOME LIKE IT HOT), than from any inherent quality in the musicalization. The 11 songs are quite mediocre with two exceptions (the title song, SUGAR, and PENNILESS BUMS). This is more the innocuous style Styne used in his early shows, most notably GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, which also had a mediocre score surrounding three superb songs. The music is pleasant and often brassy, but brainless and the lyrics are uniformly uninspired. What carried this show was its farcical nature and Morse's inspired and over the top performance in the Jack Lemmon role. If you're a Styne or Merrill or Morse fan, then this belongs in your collection. For the average fan of Broadway musicals, this is not worth the purchase."

Sweet, But Low-Cal

David Cady | Jersey City, NJ USA | 09/02/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"When I was a kid, Broadway cast albums were pretty much all I listened to, and for a time, "Sugar" was one of those records that barely left my turntable. Even then I knew it was a second-rate score, due mostly to Bob Merrill's dreadful lyrics. (In what alternate universe does "softly" rhyme with "coffee?") That said, I have great affection for "Sugar." Another reviewer was spot on when he noted that Jule Styne's melodies have the same feel as those he wrote for "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." The Roaring 20s seems to bring out the best in him, 'cause the songs here are bright, catchy and loads of fun. And the overture -- presumably arranged by that great master of orchestration, Philip J. Lang -- has to be one of the best ever compiled. The show's success was due mainly to the wonderful clowning of Robert Morse and Cyril Ritchard, and the ever reliable skills of director/choreographer Gower Champion. Of course only the former are evident on this CD, but if you close your eyes and open your mind, you can pretty much imagine what Champion brought to such production numbers as "Sun on My Face" and "When You Meet a Man in Chicago." I can't see "Sugar" being revived anytime soon, not even by an organization like New York's Encores series, which is devoted to revisiting the great forgotten musicals -- because it simply isn't. But listening to "Sugar" brings me back to a time when I was a young starry-eyed kid, holed up in my bedroom, having hopeful fantasies of my own Broadway success. For me, that's a marvelous feeling to recapture."

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