Customer Reviews

Barbara Cook's Broadway

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

 

 

With each successive release it gets harder to think of new adjectives to describe Cooks prowess. She is continually improving, ever growing. On this live recording she not only reaches the bar of excellence she has set before, but surpasses it. She is by turns, tragic, comedic, bitter, and tender yet she never looses a beguiling sense of youthfulness.

If you saw her recent appearance on 60 Minutes you'll know how seriously she takes her craft. Yet that seriousness never restrains the songs she sings. In fact they seem to fly to heights and areas you'd never have thought of before. This CD is full of such moments. Especially on the songs "The Gentleman Is A Dope", "This Nearly Was Mine" and " A Perfect Relationship".

Cook takes time between some songs to relate her thoughts and experiences on Broadway. During one such moment she tells of her dream to have her name in lights. Not just lit up mind you, but in real bulbs. DRG was kind enough to style the CD cover with her name rendered in light bulbs as a consolation until such a time when that dream is realized. I hope she realizes that to all her fans new and old her name will always be in lights.

OK .. here we go. I am a FAN. No question, no apology!
I "discovered" Ms. Cook late in life. I was 26 in 1976. Sorry it took me so long. Unabashedly, I have been her's ever since. This latest CD is just another superb example of why I love Barbara.
Who else can or will sing with just a piano and a bass? Not just a piano, but Wally Harper. Thank you Mr. Harper and Mr. Donovan.
Just listen to "This Nearly Was Mine", "His Face", and "In Buddy's Eyes." I challenge you to not be moved. The rest of the selections are icing on a delicious cake. Barbara Cook never disappoints. As I have said before, she is simply the BEST.

An absolute MUST for musical theatre lover. A trip down memory lane with songs and wonderful anecdotes by one of the last remaining divas of Broadway's golden age. Her rendition of "The Gentleman is a Dope" should be required listening for any cabaret or art song singer- it's simply amazing!

I was very fortunate to have seen Barbara Cook perform this show at the Gielgud Theatre in London. It was a memorable afternoon and this CD captures the show perfectly. Ms Cook just gets better and better every year and she performs a host of unforgettable songs. My favourites include "Wait Till Your'e Sixty Five", "Tonight At Eight", "Perfect Relationship" and "His Face". There is expert backing from her musical director and pianist Wally Harper and the CD has a very generous running time of 77 minutes.

I was pleased to find that many of Barbara's anecdotes between songs have been captured on CD as she tells them in such a warm, engaging and informal style. As the majority of tracks start with the song, one can easily move on to the next tune and bypass the stories if required.

I cannot praise this CD highly enough and certainly recommend it - it is a class production from a top class act.

I had the pleasure of seeing Barbara Cook in concert last evening, and I'm still amazed at how incredible this performer is. She just turned 78 and her voice is virtually unchanged, bringing to mind the voice of a woman in her thirties. And her dramatic instincts have never been better or stronger: a way with a lyric that's a how-to in show song interpretation; great taste in material and presentation that's a how-to in concert performing. Her selection of Broadway theatre songs is notable for some gems that only hard-core musical fans might know: from "Wait Til We're 65" (On A Clear Day You Can See Forever)to wonderful material from Carnival, Mack & Mabel, etc. And when she sings "In Buddy's Eyes" from Follies---well, you just shake your head at the end of the song in the realization that it doesn't get much better than this. I would highly recommend this collection as a good place to begin if you've not heard her perform. And if she does a concert in your city or anywhere nearby, by all means, just go buy a ticket. You'll feel privileged to have experienced the magic of her incredible talent.

There simply aren't enough superlatives for Barbara Cook. She has produced, over a 30-year span, the finest series of live recordings by any performer, ever. One would have thought that there could be no adequate follow-up to "Mostly Sondheim", her revelatory celebration of Stephen Sondheim. But Miss Cook continues to amaze. At 77, her voice is showing a few signs of age - but precious few. It's hard to think of anyone else that's sounded this good at 77. More incredibly, it's hard to think of anyone who sounds this good at any age! Her interpretive gifts continue to deepen, her song introductions and discussions of life in the musical theater world are funnier, wiser and more apt than ever, her voice retains its purity and power, and she is clearly having a ball. The songs here are songs from the "Golden Age" of musical theater (the late 1940's to the 1960's). She was one of the most glittering ornaments of that era, but apart from the "She Loves Me" songs and a far too brief snatch of "Till There Was You", these are not songs from the shows that made her famous. (There is apparently a send-up of "Glitter and Be Gay" in the show that must have worked far better live than on record -it's not on this CD). Instead she has chosen songs that she loves from the shows of that era, some very well known, others less so. Her performances include an upbeat "It's Not Where You Start", an ecstatic "Wonderful Guy", and a glowing "Mister Snow" that is as lovely as her 1973 Carnegie Hall rendition (one of my all-time favorite performances), but even more vulnerable. The "She Loves Me" quartet is marvelously sung, particularly the title song, and there are moments of inexpressible beauty in "Among My Yesterdays," "His Face", "In Buddy's Eyes", "This Nearly Was Mine" and the medley of "What'll I Do/Time Heals Everything". Interspersed between the songs are her reflections of life in the Golden Age of musical theater - and these are just as delightful as the music. This is a wise woman, happy with her past, present and future, and willing to share it with us. When she closes with a quiet "The Party's Over," you wish it never had to end. Remarkable.

Mere mortals half her 75 years would walk on hot coals to have the voice Barbara Cook still commands today.
You need proof? Just listen to how effortlessly she negotiates Rodgers and Hammerstein's deceptively difficult "This Nearly Was Mine".

Diction coaches everywhere must swoon in quiet delight when they hear the way she totally commands the English language.
You don't believe me? Then you try wrapping yourself around all those words Jerry Herman squeezes into "Look What Happened To Mabel".

Voice? Sure. Diction? Absolutely.

But singing, real singing, as Miss Cook demonstrates, is far more. It's about heart and it's about soul. And she has both. In abundance. Almost embarrassingly so.

But, of course, we already knew that. After all, she's Barbara Cook. And Barbara Cook, as we've all known now for something approaching half a century, ain't no mere mortal.

She's Barbara Cook.

Like Don, I attended Barbara Cook's concert November 12 at the Haugh Auditorium. We first became aware of her in the original cast of She Loves Me on Broadway almost 50 years ago. She sang like an angel then, and still does. I is hard to believe that a 78 year old could sing so beautifully. As she wanders around the stage, shuffling a bit, you realize she isn't a young woman, but to hear her you would think so. We've seen her in concert a lot of times on her visits to Southern California. The CD is a treasure for those who can't see her in person and a reminder for hose who have.

As an avid Barbara Cook fan I can only add to the praise of her other fans. This CD has music from Broadway shows of the Golden Era. She knows how to pull an audience in with each word she sings. There will never be another like her.
The patter between numbers describing her career and other show business luminaries is wonderful.
My only regret is that she did not sing the entire "Til There Was You." A small price to pay.

Folks, don't walk, but run to buy this cd. It doesn't get any better than this.

Ms. Cook is at her absolute best on this cd. While I didn't have the opportunity to catch this concert I did see her at the Strathmore Center in Rockville, MD and she was nothing short of extraordinary. Sure, she may forget a word or two but to hear her phrasing and witness that power that she commands is a sight to behold. Like another reviewer, I practically fell to my knees when I heard her sing In Buddy's Eyes. No one can sing this song like her. The Gentleman is a Dope should be required listening for any vocalist, bar none. It sets a standard for communicating a story through song that people will be speaking about for years.

One of my favorite male vocalists, David Campbell, took a class from her in Australia. When he asked her what "he needed to change"? She remarked that he "had it" and didn't need to change a thing. I would encourage you to check out David's album, Taking The Wheel, that he recorded here in the states about 10 years back.

Anyway, getting back to Ms. Cook. All I have to say is buy the dang cd and you can all envy me since I get to see her in DC with Audra McDonald in a few months.