Customer Reviews

Two on the Aisle (1951 Original Broadway Cast)

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

 

 

One of the last and best revues. Bert Lahr and Delores Grey are in fine form. Comden and Green's lyrics (especially their reviews of the other shows on Bway) are particularly sharp. Not my favorite CD, but a worthy addition to my collection.

"Two on the Aisle" was the first show Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne wrote together, and it is a humdinger! The show, first presented in 1951, is actually a revue with some of the most memorable songs the trio ever wrote. Starring Bert Lahr and Dolores Grey, it has forgotten gems that will make you laugh out loud. This was the last of the star-powered extravaganzas such as Ziegfeld used to produce with lavish spectacle, enormous choruses and sets that went for for days, if not weeks. Still, the quality of the music and lyrics cannot be overlooked. The show has pretty much fallen into complete obscurity, but anyone with a love for musicals and respect for the revue form will greatly enjoy listening to it over and over again. (Submitted by staff member Stephen J. Finn)

The only reason for my 4-star rating is Bert Lahr's extraordinary number, "The Clown." In this three-minute tour-de-force, Lahr's unparalled comic genius left me laughing snd happily replaying it twice. A pity Decca didn't have the understanding that this was Lahr's show (not Dolores Gray's) and didn't record the baseball sketch. I saw Lahr do it on TV when I was a kid and it is indescribably wonderous. In that sketch, written by director Abe Burrows, Bert Lahr had one of the crowning moments in his career. If a kinescope exists, I hope it is released on video. The score has no standards and is second-tier (except when Lahr has his way with "The Clown") Julie Styne and Comden and Green, but expertly sung by Dolores Gray. Nonetheless, this is all we have of the last great Brodway revue and worth the buy for that. However, without Lahr's "The Clown," I would have rated it 2-stars. If they had only recorded all of the sketches, this would be one of the greatest of Broadway albums. Or is that comedy albums. If you are Lahr fan, this an absolute must--he shows up in a few other numbers and manages to be heard to good advantage. Excellent liner notes, including the chapter about "Two On the Aisle" from John Lahr's biography of his father, "Notes On A Cowardly Lion." If you haven't read it, get a copy of one the best biographies I've read, which includes the full script of the baseball sketch. "Don't eat 'em, kids. They'll kill ya'." That's Lahr's basball punch-line, which I still try do as Lahr did. Never even come near the master.

Decca Broadway have brought back into the light another of those fabulous musical rareties, TWO ON THE AISLE. Grab this recording if only for the sublime performance of Dolores Gray.

Yes, Dolores Gray is the only real reason you should buy this cast-album. Her songs are fantastic, with her wit and high-wattage talent easily evident in numbers like "There Was Never a Baby Like My Baby", "Hold Me, Hold Me, Hold Me (Hold Me Tight)", and her 2 show-stoppers "How Will He Know?" and "If".

Bert Lahr STILL sounds like the Cowardly Lion from THE WIZARD OF OZ, and his numbers are comical if nothing else. I particularly enjoyed his "The Clown", but, like another reviewer has said, he just doesn't come off well in recordings.

The score, by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne, is average if anything. Decca Broadway's remastering of this album is quite patchy, with quite a bit of hiss and excessive surface-noise. During Gray's "How Will He Know?" there is quite a bit of hiss in evidence.

However, die-hard Broadway fans will get a kick out of listening to Dolores Gray's 'summer-of-1951 hit.

Two On The Aisle is not really a Broadway (book show) musical; it was conceived as a recreation of the old musical reviews of an earlier era. As such, it probably worked then on stage. But without the jokes and sketches, I doubt if it ever worked as an original cast recording.

The songs, though they are the products of the first Styne, Comden and Green collaboration, could have been lifted from any generic 1940's movie musical. (I admit the lyrics are pretty clever in spots!)

The true asset of the CD reissue is also the briefest. The selling point of whole show was the great Bert Lahr and since he was a top comedian he only appears in two of the show's twelve numbers. (The Clown being done is his classic Cowardly Lion style)

Delores Gray, who was really a great Broadway performer, delivers the rest of the songs. Unfortunately, the recordings of her numbers sound like those done by most of the pop-recording vocalists of the time. In other words -- with very little Broadway style!

The CD is a collector's item for Bert Lahr's performance, but just so so as a Broadway Cast Recording.

A forgotten revue that played a half-season on Broadway. Even at the time it was pleasant though unsensational entertainment. The recording has long been out-of-print and has never generated the same demand as other forgotten flops. Without the comic sketches which were the show's high points, the album is curiously flat, and contains a great deal of filler. "Everlasting" has to be one of the most boring love songs ever written for the Broadway stage. Grey shines in her big number "If You hadn't But You Did" and shares the spotlight with Lahr for "Vaudeville ain't dead/Catch our act at the Met."

It should be said that the music is far from jule Styne's best and Comden and Green's lyrics are nothing special.

Delores Grey? Bert Lahr? How exciting this release seems.
Until you listen to it. Disappointing. There is only
one song (Ms.Grey) that is worth the listen and that song is IF.
Lahr doesn't translate well to recordings which is a shame. To bad they didn't have videotape back then.

However, if you want to know what a generic pedestrian 50's review was like this is it. Jule Styne (without a Sondheim or a Bob Merrill prodding him) is at his near worst. It's worth a listen for a Broadway Musical Don't lesson from the fifties.

Absolutely tedious. Hardly any songs of even passing merit--this is Styne at his most generic. Worse, Bert Lahr hardly appears; this is very much the Dolores Gray show, and who wants that? Lahr's one number is indeed entertaining, but not worth the cost of the disc.