Search - Various Artists :: Wish You Were Here//Paint Your Wagon

2 great London cast albums make their CD premiere!

Byron Kolln | the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood | 12/22/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This fabulous CD from Sepia presents 2 great (ultra-rare) London cast albums on compact disc for the very first time.



WISH YOU WERE HERE had been a success on Broadway (mainly for the novelty of featuring an actual pool onstage), and a charming score by Harold Rome. It played for 282 performances at the London Casino. Most recognisible from the cast is Shani Wallis, immortalised oncreen as the tragic Nancy in OLIVER!, here playing the pert secondary female lead. Elizabeth Larner and Bruce Trent play the central couple. Standouts in the score are "Ballad of a Social Director", "They Won't Know Me", "Where Did the Night Go?" and "Could Be". Shani Wallis delights with her playful "Shopping Around". The original Broadway cast album of WISH YOU WERE HERE (on the RCA label) has been out-of-print for a while now, but the London cast is more than ample compensation.



PAINT YOUR WAGON had been a sound success on Broadway for it's composer and lyricist (Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner), offering fine roles for James Barton and Olga San Juan as father-and-daughter Ben and Jennifer Rumson. The London production was very interesting because it offered the dynamic of a real father and daughter in the roles. Bobby Howes was joined by his lovely daughter Sally Ann Howes (in her first big role). She's a smashing Jennifer, though the recording (originally made to fit 4 sides of a set of 78's), denied Howes the chance to lay down her rendition of "What's Going On Here?". Nevetheless fans of Sally Ann will find this recording indispensible. Bobby Howes (in one of his last great performances) is a fantastic Ben.



This CD is filled out by Sally Ann Howes' performance of "I Love Him As He Is" from the original London cast of BET YOUR LIFE (the rest of the album can be found on Sepia's `Julie Wilson in London with Friends' ). Also included are 6 numbers from GUYS AND DOLLS recorded in 1953, performed by Jerry Wayne and Lizbeth Webb (who played Skye Masterson and Sarah Brown in the original London production)."