Two Words, One Answer.
Lauren Adams
 Applause (Original 1970 Broadway Cast) $18.98 A few months ago, I raided a dollar bin and was lucky enough to get a copy of Promises, Promises. I immediately fell in love with the old/new mix of this score: Bacahrach's love ruminations were not rock, but polished torch song, informed by rock. So, I have been slowly wading into musicals of this period, and picked up Applause. True, this does have some pop/rock mannerisms, circa 1970. But where on Promises, these sound organic to the theme of the show, on Applause, they feel completely grafted onto what is otherwise old school broadway scoring. On "But Alive," the band jumps from a typical show tune number to a horn interlude that could be from Beyond The Valley of the Dolls. As soon as these rock shadings catch the attention, they are gone without a trace, and it is back to old school stage shtick Bacalls singing has a strange growl to it. Listen to "Who's that Girl." the lyrics are a bunch of cleches "daddy-o, jumpin jive," as is the music. Bacall shouts out the words in a nicotine voice, as if she does not know whether to sing them natrually, or with a tough gal raz mataz persona. Compare this to the emotional fluidity Jill O'Hara displayed on Promices: O Hara sounds like a real person, singing about a real person's romance problems. She is communicating with you. Bacall sings in broadway cleches to sing about broadway cleches. You can feel the stage, and yourself in the audiance pit. There is nothing to connect with. I don't claim to know a lot about classic Broadway musicals, and so perhaps there is something about this i am missing. Maybe i don't understand the whole asthetic. But I really, really don't like this. **p.s. It is 3:30 am on the east coast and i am tired, but I have to play Promices Promices, so i can get Applause out of my head before I crash--bill 7/4/09. Good Morning**  Come Early Morning $19.95 I enjoyed the movie alright .. had an okay story line .. but of course this doesn't have in-depth charactors .. and so .. its pretty fair to watch one time but normally would have rated it and routed it on .. but the reason I actually bought this movie ... is because my husbands sister is in one of the bar scenes .. and so I had to buy it for him ... |
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