Search - Various Artists :: Broadway Musicals of 1964

1964 it was an OK year

Daniel B. Mcvey | Los Angeles, CA 90019 | 07/16/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This entry in the series of Town Hall Broadway By the Year cds is quite entertaining and somewhat enlightening. It is a mix of the familiar (FUNNY GIRL/FIDDLER ON THE ROOF/HELLO DOLLY) with the not so familiar (SOMETHING MORE/FOXY). The performances are mostly good--Alix Korey oversings on most of her solos choosing to go "Star Search" at unfortunate times. Tom Anderson strains a little on his ballads (but is surprisingly fun on his up-tempo songs), the great Liz Callaway, Sharon McKnight and Craig Rubano are all wonderful on their songs. My favorite moments are "Talk to Me Baby" from Foxy sung by Liz Callaway and Tom Anderson with wonderful pathos, a couple of songs from ANYONE CAN WHISTLE also by Callaway and Anderson and Sharon McKnight doing the Shirley Temple parody "You Mustn't Feel Discouraged" from FADE OUT FADE IN, and "A Room Without Windows" from WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN? again by Callaway and Rubano. Richard Skipper and Steven Brindberg lend a nice touch in numbers from FUNNY GIRL and HELLO DOLLY. This edition isn't quite up to the best (1943 and 1933 in my opinion) but I don't think it was the greatest year. My main criticism of the series is that I wish they would put the introductions on seperate tracks from the songs--you can listen to a song over and over but you don't necessarily want to her the spoken intro--as interesting as it is the first time. It is definitely a plus for any show collector and for Liz Callaway alone it is worth it."