Here's the good news about these CDs. Nathan Gunn and Audra McDonald sing on them. And they are very good, although there is a bit of dialogue that feels as if NG forced it. Not the music, never the music. But the dialogue...well, I'm still trying to understand what happened there. Feels a bit fake, feels a bit forced.I've had the CDs since their release date but I waited a couple of weeks before I would allow myself to review it. Why? I wanted to give it a fair chance. It's an old work, never done more than a handful of times, and it shows its age. By that I mean it is definitely a product of the time in which it was created.
While in high school, one of my younger sons was very involved in the drama department. The reason I bring this up is that they did a stage production of the Jean Shepherd book "Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories". (Jean Shepherd also wrote the perennial favorite "A Christmas Story".) The play was done with the entire cast speaking the narrative, then the 3-4 leads would say their lines individually. No sets, just all the cast in white shirts and khakis and they moved around the stage in various configurations as the action was played out. I immediately flashed on this when listening to Allegro.
The story centers around Joseph Taylor Jr.'s life from growing up to growing wise. Sort of follows his rise and fall and then redemption, if you will. Nathan is only in a few songs and bits of dialogue and the chorus figures largely in the storytelling. Audra McDonald sounds wonderful - I can't say enough good about her songs and her dialogue.
It feels so dated that I can't imagine seeing this as an actual stage/movie production, but I suppose it would be possible. The story is as old as time - kid does good, makes it big, meets a woman who has other ambitions for him, he plays along for awhile, finally gets his head on straight, remembers where he came from and goes back there. Nothing new, nothing anyone hasn't seen before.
And now for the brutal honesty. The songs aren't that good - there is nothing catchy or memorable...due to the talking/chorus nature of the work, it's really an ensemble that has no breakout numbers. That is not to say that Nathan's voice isn't good, you know it is, but the songs he sings are not anything to write home about. Marni Nixon sings the grandmother parts and she is very much past her singing career. Sorry, Marni, you know I love you, but it is just not happening for me. (In case you don't know her, Marni Nixon did the singing for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady and for Natalie Wood in West Side Story, among others.) Judy Kuhn, the voice of Disney's Pocahontas and a longtime stage/concert performer is good as is Patrick Wilson who sings the lead.
The lack of fire, the lack of anything memorable or catchy is probably why this piece lay dormant for 50 years, and why it probably won't go much farther. To quote Dennis Miller, that is just my opinion of course, I could be wrong.
If you are a Nathan Gunn lover, you can buy this, but if I were you I'd go to Amazon.com and download the mp3s of the tracks that he is in if you feel compelled to have them. They won't make much sense since they are not set up by the singing chorus, but you'll get to hear him and that is NEVER a bad thing. It'll cost a lot less and won't make you want to hit yourself in the face for wasting money on the two disc set.
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