Customer Reviews

42nd Street (1980 Original Broadway Cast)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

42nd Street is an oldie, dating back to the days when Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler played the director and ingenuous wanna-be musical star. In 1980, this version opened on Broadway, with some updated lines and songs added to make it relevant to present-day audiences. It featured a talented ensemble of performers, including stage musical veterans Jerry Orbach and Tammy Grimes. (An interesting sidenote: This was Orbach's last role in musical theater until he provided the voice of Lumiere for Disney in 1990; he also blamed his contract for this show for costing him a stab at a movie career!)

The tale is old and well-traveled to anyone familiar with old films about stage shows: A troupe is assembled, a play thrown together, someone coughs up backing dough, and all seems lost until the misfit saves the show. It's old as dirt and still strangely fresh, appealing to most people's hope for a happy ending. Toss in great songs written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, and dance routines choreographed by the great Gower Champion, and the result is infectiously fun.

The story centers on the efforts of fallen director Julian Marsh to produce a musical during the Depression, no small feat considering that most of society has hit rock-bottom financially. Salvation of a sort comes in the form of faded star Dorothy Brock, who is over the hill but has a rich sugar daddy willing to back a show---provided she's the star. However, auditions have unearthed a sweet young thing with real star potential named Peggy Sawyer, who suffers from terminal klutziness and an ability to get in Julian's way. Nonetheless, he shows her compassion and hires her as an extra. Trouble starts when Dorothy's old flame Pat Denning appears on the scene and Julian fears that her rich boyfriend will yank his support out from under the show. From then on, it's all up in the air as to whether or not the musical will happen.

There's plenty of fun and great song and dance numbers, such as "Go Into Your Dance", "We're In The Money", "Shuffle Off To Buffalo", "42nd Street" and the best one of all, "Lullaby Of Broadway". The singers were perfectly cast for their roles: Jerry Orbach shone as Marsh, Tammy Grimes breathed life into the fading but still proud Dorothy, and newcomer Wanda Reichert was wonderful as the awkward yet talented Peggy; her cracked voice was reminiscent of Ruby Keeler's. In his last live musical role, Orbach had far less to do than in his earlier shows, but his strong voice had lost none of its virility and power to reach the balcony. In a rare video clip shown on TV one night, our children got to see him and the original cast sing and dance to "Lullaby Of Broadway" and were wowed; he and Wanda Reichert dazzled the crowd, right along with the ensemble.

One last piece of stranger-than-fiction stuff: Orbach's first role on Broadway (The Fantasticks was off-Broadway) was as Paul in Carnival, which was choreographed and directed by Gower Champion; so was his last. And it was on opening night of 42nd Street that the infamous David Merrick, who also produced both musicals, came out and announced to a stunned audience and cast that Champion had just died a few hours earlier of a fatal illness. To Jerry Orbach, the whole episode was awful, a sordid trick pulled by Merrick to garner ticket sales for the show, as if the musical didn't have enough merit to pull in an audience. Listen to this CD and realize that no publicity stunts were needed---42nd Street is terrific, and remains fresh even now. Enjoy!

The original Broadway production of 42ND STREET marked a renaissance following the 'wilderness years' of the 70's. The classic movie musical translated effortlessly to the stage, with a few extra songs thrown in, not to mention superb direction and choreography from Gower Champion, who fatefully died on the morning before opening night.

The original cast includes Tammy Grimes (THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN) as the flamboyant diva Dorothy Brock, Wanda Richert as the young and naive Peggy Sawyer, Jerry Orbach (CARNIVAL!, CHICAGO, THE FANTASTICKS) as the washed-up director Julian Marsh and Lee Roy Reams (APPLAUSE) as the handsome hoofer Billy Lawlor.

Carole Cook impresses in the comical role of Maggie Jones, whilst Karen Prunzik (GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES) is delightful as Anytime Annie.

Tammy Grimes' husky, velvet voice is perfectly-suited to the role of Dorothy Brock, Wanda Richert brings a glowing innocence and sincerity to the role of young Peggy.

The luscious score includes "Young and Healthy", "Shadow Waltz", "Go Into Your Dance", the elegant eleven o'clock number "About a Quarter to Nine", as well as the showstopping Title Number.

In addition, I also recommend the FABULOUS Broadway revival cast album featuring Christine Ebersole and Kate Levering, which in many ways tops this recording. Highly recommended.

I saw 42nd Street in Washington DC and it was awesome! This soundtrack is great. All of the music is so catchy. If you like 42nd Street and you enjoy the music, buy this CD!

Adapted from a 1930's motion picture, "42nd Street" (starring Jerry Orbach and Tammy Grimes) is a choreographer's dream musical.
Besides the great dancing, however, the musical comedy contains several classic tunes, including:

You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me
We're In The Money
Lullaby Of Broadway
Shuffle Of To Buffalo
42nd Street

While the music is a bit dated for my taste, these are classic songs & are great seen within the context of the show.

When I was a kid, anytime our local theatre company would put on musicals, my Mom would always buy me the soundtrack prior to the show so I could know the songs. This is easily one of my favorites. There are a few songs on it that everybody knows like, "We're in the Money," and "Lullaby of Broadway." Others are hardly known at all like "I'm Young and Healthy," which I sang in my first grade talent show. But I really get a kick out of the dialog about Allentown, spoken by Wanda Riechert and Jerry Orbach prior to "Lullaby of Broadway."

I bought this cd to help me learn the songs for a play. I did find it helpful. If you are buying it just to listen to the music, be warned that it is from a play with tap dancing.

I absolutely LOVE the 1980 Broadway Cast Album of 42nd St.! It's great! I just saw a wonderful performance of it at a theater-in-the-round, which is why I wanted the CD & movie, which is ALSO great. This is the way music & Broadway used to be and should STILL be!

"42nd Street" was the first Broadway show I saw when it was on its national tour and I was 16. I have been in love with it ever since. The songs are all classics from the 1930s and are melodic and lyrical. They are all excellently performed, with a lot of energy and enthusiasm by the cast. The three major leads, Jerry Orbach, Tammy Grimes, and Wanda Richert turn in outstanding performances that, for me, are definitive. Unfortunately, due to this album being recorded before the era of the CD, where you could put much more music in the recording, much of the dance music is missing and a couple of the songs have been truncated to make them fit into the 40-somethng minutes of music an LP allowed. This show was recorded toward the end of an era where great care was given to cast album recordings and major labels recorded them. The deterioration of this shows on this album. The recording is very "live" and echoey (is that a word?). The voices and orchestra seem far away and somewhat sound like they were recorded in someone's garage rather than RCA's professional recording studio. The precision tap dancing that the show was known for suffers also as it has turned out sounding sloppy. It can be distracting, but once you get into the music and the performances you forgive the poor engineering. This is an excellent investment and you should not hesitate in buying it.

My father paid premium prices for balcony seats to a show that none of us really wanted to see but Jerry Orbach was so amazingly handsome and bossy that he could dazzle even the nosebleed seats. He was such an authentic and true New Yorker. With that height, the pompadour, that DEEEEP voice ... he was just too much. The show was a chore for me to get through but I still remember Jerry as just being so delicious that decades later, I immediately understood when someone mentioned that they had met him when L&O used their apartments to shoot scenes - I instantly "got it" - that Jerry Orbach is so nice, so fine a New Yorker. The only other entertainer who could shoot sunlight all the way back and up to the balcony is Leonard Nimoy. It must be a generational thing. There is no way to imitate how New York Jerry Orbach was. I'm probably going to get this musical just for his performance even though I can't recommend this production. It's worth it to me.

If you like 42nd Street, you'll love this recording. If you're not familiar with the music, listen to some clips. You get what you hear.