Search - Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Christine Andreas :: On Your Toes (1983 Broadway Revival Cast)

A Beautiful Show Beautifully Recorded

Alfonzo Tyson | 02/05/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I fell in love with On Your Toes when I saw it in 1983 and time has done nothing to diminish my memories of it. The score is spectatular with the original Spialek orchestrations and this recording makes them sound even better than before. Anyone who likes Rogers and Hart should add this to their collection."

A Swell Recording of a Classic Score

Ms. Mazeppa | Chicago, IL | 05/09/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I saw this musical twenty-five years ago, and I remember distinctly sitting in the mezzanine watching--listening to--absorbing through every pore--the title song, "On Your Toes". It was the classic eleven o'clock number. And I'll tell ya, I remember just as distinctly thinking to myself, "This would be a perfect time to die because nothing will ever be as wonderful as this moment."



Okay, in retrospect, I am mostly glad that I didn't die just then. God knows in Midtown Manhattan in 1983 there were innumerable ways to die, and none of them were good. Besides, if I'd died then, I would never know what it's like now to have this much fun with nostalgia. To be crystal clear: On Your Toes is serious fun. The production was a faithful recreation of the 1936 original (dropping a few jokes that just couldn't translate over time). Same director. Same choreography. Same orchestrations. Two pianos even--`thirties style.



I had to listen to this recording again after a couple of days of listening to Kelli O'Hara's new release. On a couple of her tracks, she reminds me of the female lead in this production, Christine Andreas. Christine Andreas has two duets and a solo as well as a solo section in the title number. And she is something else. After twenty-five years, I still remember vividly the warmth and charisma she imbued to this production. It's a warmth that carried over to the cast recording beautifully. There's a purity in Christine Andreas' voice that's unmistakable. (It's still there, incidentally. I just heard her a few months ago, and her voice is still a joy.) You can easily hear her smiling through the cozy standards, "It's Got to be Love" and "There's a Small Hotel". You can feel the shudder of her plaintive heart in "Glad to be Unhappy". Hearing Christine Andreas is the first reason why I ever listen to this recording--and primarily why I bought the CD. (The album I bought back in 1983 was purchased then as a way to relive that quintessential eleven o'clock number.)



But there's much more to this recording. Dina Merrill does a terrific character turn with her numbers and brings the perfect professional delivery to Lorenz Hart's clever lyrics. On this recording are some of the sharpest lyrics he wrote. Take the second act opener with Dina Merrill and Lara Teeter: "Mother begged me, don't drink with any guy/ So I was made/ on lemonade/ The heart is quicker than the eye". Any student of musical theater should get this recording to understand not only how to structure a comedy song effectively, but how to deliver a comedy song. Merrill and the legendary George S. Irving did it right in this show.



In fact, a student of musical theater would do well to study the structure of this whole production. It can be gratifying to explore just how a fairly intense jazz ballet can be successfully incorporated into an otherwise frivolous musical comedy. "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" was truly ground-breaking in the 1936 production, and it's a seventeen and a half minute stunner of an instrumental dance finale here. (What you really ought to do, if you're serious about studying musicals, is dig up Walter Kerr's review of this production for the New York Times. I think he figured out just how an aging, thinly plotted musical like this could thrill a modern audience. Something I wish more directors of the current generation of musicals could figure out.)

Anyone hesitant to bother replacing their aging LP of On Your Toes should know that George S. Irving's gentle, soulful reprise of "Quiet Night" is included here, having been cut from the original recording. The ballets are finally unabridged as well. Furthermore, every photo and all the liner notes from the LP, including the plot synopsis, is nicely incorporated into the CD package. If you care about that sort of thing. Which you probably do if you're reading this.



Look, it's going to be a long, hot, miserable summer. You're going to get a stack of bills you can't pay, and life is going to stay infinitely more complicated than it was for you twenty-five years ago. You could probably give yourself some distraction listening to your original cast recordings from Spring Awakening or Into the Heights. But I promise you, On Your Toes is what you really need. You need songs that will inspire you dance around the kitchen. Songs that you can learn and subsequently use to charm the pants off of anyone with a heart. Songs with clever lyrics that make you grin and give you a taste for lemonade. You're not getting any younger, and life is challenging enough; get On Your Toes.

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