Customer Reviews

Big River: The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (1985 Original Broadway Cast)

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are going to be audacious enough to try and make a musical of Huckleberry Finn, then choosing Roger Miller of "King of the Road" fame to write the songs is certainly an inspired move. "Big River," the Tony Award winning musical, owes as much to Miller as it does to Mark Twain for writing the classic story in the first place. Of course when you are talking Roger Miller you are talking fun songs, from John Goodman's ripping diatribe on "Guv'ment" as Huck's Pappy and Tom Sawyer's (John Short) "Hand for the Hog" to the two songs by the King (Bob Gunton) and the Duke (Rene Auberjonois), "When the Sun Goes Down in the South" and "The Royal Nonesuch" ("She's got one big breast in the middle of her chest/And an eye in the middle of her nose/So says I, if you look her in the eye/You're better off looking up her nose"). Even when Miller offers us the tender country ballad, "You Oughta Be Here with Me," Mary Jane Wilkes (Patti Cohenour, who later went on to play Christine in "Phantom of the Opera" on Broadway) sings the song to her father's coffin. "The Crossing" is a nice spiritual, but clearly the best songs are reserved for the Huck (Daniel Jenkins) and Jim (Ron Richardson): "Muddy Water," as they shove off on a raft for Freedom, "River in the Rain" as they spend their last moments alone on the river, and "World's Apart" as the recognize the gulf that exists between them. They also do a trio with Mary Jane on "Leavin's Not the Only Way to Go." The only shortcoming of this musical comes at the end, when we get to the greatest passage in American Literature, when Huck declares he will help Jim to freedom even if it means going to hell; Miller offers a reprise of "Waitin' for the Light to Shine" rather than coming up with a new song to capture this epic moment. Similarly, Jim's "Free at Last" echoes too much of the old spiritual instead of offering something more unique. However, while this is somewhat disappointing it is not entirely unsatisfying, and I do not mean to downplay Miller's monumental success with this score. After all, Leonard Bernstein never came up with a final aria for Maria at the end of "West Side Story," and that did not take away from the greatness of that musical. At the end of "Big River" what stands out are the moments between Huck and Jim captured in song; those are the ones you are going to want to hear over and over. With his wide variety of songs for this show, Miller perfectly matched the breadth of Twain's writings. It is a monumental achievement and a lasting legacy for Miller, who proved himself to be a writer of much more than novelty hits.

BIG RIVER, which is based on Mark Twain's HUCKLEBERRY FINN, is a wonderful musical, and the original Broadway cast album is a delight from start to finish. Roger Miller created a country/western-style score that, even if it doesn't quite capture Twain's distinctive wit, is evocative, touching, and a joy to hear. The album is dominated by the partnership of Daniel Jenkins as Huck and Ronald Richardson as the runaway slave, Jim. Jenkins has a characterful tenor voice, while Richardson's sound is dark and mellifluous. Their three duets, "Muddy Water", "River in the Rain", and "Worlds Apart", are beautifully and emotionally sung. Twain's characters, from Huck and Jim to Tom Sawyer ("The Boys", "Hand for the Hog"), Pap Finn ("Guv'ment"), and the "Duke" ("When the Sun Goes Down in the South", "The Royal Nonesuch") come to life in Miller's songs and in this recording. As Mary Jane Wilkes, on whom Huck develops a crush, Patty Cohenour has a warm, pure soprano voice and sounds lovely in her songs, the bittersweet "You Oughta Be Here with Me" and "Leavin's Not the Only Way to Go" (a trio with Huck and Jim). The recorded sound is outstandingly clear. The editorial reviewer has it right: BIG RIVER is a "dazzling" achievement!

The only reason I purchased a copy of the BIG RIVER soundtrack is because I wanted to incorporate some of the songs into a unit plan I was developing on Mark Twain and THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. I knew that the musical had won the Tony for Best Musical in 1985, but I honestly didn't think I was going to like the album that much. I was wrong. I've love the music from start to finish. The songs include a wide variety of styles from country to jazz to gospel. However, most of the tunes cannot be pigeonholed as one style of music or the other because Roger Miller has done a beautiful job of blending several types of music into one coherent whole on many of the songs. The company of this production of BIG RIVER includes such stars as Rene Auberjonois and John Goodman. Some of my favorite tunes from the album include:

"Do You Want to Go to Heaven"

"I, Huckleberry, Me"

"Muddy Water"

"The Crossing"

"Worlds Apart"

"Waiting For the Light To Shine"

"Free At Last"

Besides the beauty of the music itself, I was also impressed by how well the dialogue and lyrics complement Mark Twain's original text. Some changes have been made, of course, but not many. I'm really glad that I have purchased the ablum and know it will be a valuable part of my lessons whenever I teach about THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN.

I saw the Deaf West Theater production of this and they were absolutely amazing. So I bought this CD and I love it, but I do wish the Deaf West Theatre would do a recording I loved it on stage and with the sign language...wow it was stunning. This CD is great the voices arn't quite as good as the people I saw on stage, but at least its a recording of this amazing music. The only complaint I have is that some songs are way to short. I wish most of them would be longer, but I guess that's a good problem to have. Anyway buy this CD, it is an amazing musical and it's sad not more people have heard of it.

It has been almost 20 years since this beautiful score was created and it's still just as wonderful as Mark Twain's humor! We saw the play and heard the music in a dinner theatre last night and it was just terrific. I think it's time for Broadway to bring it back to the stage and to re-promote this CD.

BIG RIVER is the only country music musical I know other than THE ROBBER BRIDE GROOM. This show won the 1985 Tony Awards for Best Musical & Best Actor. I DON'T EVEN LIKE COUNTRY MUSIC (no offense to those who do), and I really love this show! This classic story of Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer and Huck's runaway slave Ben (which won that actor the Tony Award).

The music is wonderful. Hysterically comic songs like "THE ROYAL NONESUCH", "ARKANSAS" & "A HAND FOR THE HOG", fun up-tempo songs like "MUDDY WATER", spirituals like "THE CROSSING" & "FREE AT LAST", beautiful ballads like "WORLD'S APART" & "RIVER IN THE RAIN", and the love songs "YOU OUGHT TO BE HERE WITH ME" & "MAYBE LEAVING'S NOT THE ONLY WAY TO GO". Hell, 9 out of 10 songs on this cast recording are great!

No big names fill out the lead roles, only great performers. Actually, John Goodman, before he did ROSANNE, plays the small role of Huck's mean spirited Pappy and sings the funny solo "GUV'MENT".

If you can remotely like country music (as only Kenny Roger's THE GAMBLER did for me), you will adore this show. Give it a try! I am really glad I did.

I never had the opportunity to see this on the stage, but yet this CD ranks among my favorites. Most everyone is familiar with the story, so not seeing the production is no hinderance to enjoying the tunes.

Big River is a phenomenal effort, and I would be hard pressed to think of anything much better to spend an hour of someone's "free time" listening to.

This would be a great "gateway CD" to get friends who are not interested in musicals to perk up their ears.

at the same time. I agree completely with other reviewers who wrote of how only Roger Miller could have perfectly complimented Mark Twain's perfect American novel, Huckleberry Finn. The wit, the irony that requires one to listen to the songs for hidden meanings and at about the time you think you really know where Roger Miller is going with the song, a phrase you'd taken for granted comes to mind and you have to reconsider - nothing is ever really straight-forward and I think that that is the profound tender meaning behind the musical itself - life is presented in the form of the meandering muddy Mississippi River and even with its bitter twists and turns we still love it so. Life is seldom completely happy or sad, just as Miller's songs are seldom what they seem at first. For example, the lovely ballad, "You Ought to be Here With Me" sounds like something Linda Rondstant could have had a major hit with, a love song, right? ...only it is sung to a dead person. "Dad Gum Government" sung (belted out)by John Goodman is a showstopper if there ever was one. "River in the Rain" and "Worlds Apart" are both lovely and too sad for words. "When the Sun goes Down in the South" and the "Royal Nunsuch" are just plain fun - good ole Roger Miller songs loaded with puns. I saw this musical at a particularly hard time in my adult life and its bittersweet message was so profound to me as I struggled through - no other Broardway music has impacted me like this music has and I've seen a LOT of Broadway productions. Miller never sugarcoats his message - he puts it out there with grace and allows the listener to draw as much or as little from it as he desires. Yes, this is the same guy who made us all laugh at his homespun humor in the 1960's (Dang Me, King of the Road, etc) but this music is from the mature artist who has known sorrow and his poetry is sublime, his humor never misses and the music is quite lovely. Perhpas the hallmark accomplishment of the score is the beautiful transition of "Arkansas" into the two verses of "How Blest We Are". This is a wonderful bit of Americana - it begins with the country boy singing his heart out about visiting Arkansas and this moves into a stately funeral hymn sung by a white congreagation ("How Blest We Are" -verse 1) followed by an African-American spiritual adaptation for verse 2. Just as the river symbolizes life, the blending of these styles might be a musical melting pot of cultures that has become America. The thing is, Roger Miller pulls this off with great beauty and charm and I don't know if anyone else could have approached the perfect job he does here. Mark Twain would be proud to have seen this show performed and when the old gent made his way out of the theater, I'm sure that for once he'd have been at a loss for words.

I saw a production of this play recently and bought this soundtrack the first chance I got. It is GREAT! It's got gospel, hillbilly humor, and a few wonderful ballads. Point your little mouse up to that purchase button and buy it now!

I am a great fan of Mark Twain, especially Huck Finn, which is by far his best book. The whole idea of "reducing" it to a musical is at the very least an intriguing idea.

Roger Miller wrote very nearly the perfect score for this story - his down-to-earth, folk-ish country music especially suits Huck, his pap, and pretty well everyone but Jim. I would have liked Jim to have at least one song with a bit more of a bluesy feeling, but what we have is very nice, at least so far as it goes.

My main disappointment with the musical is the way it adapts Mark Twain's original. Now a completely unbowdlerised "Huck Finn" probably wouldn't work on the stage - it is in some ways a very bitter book, and the satire at times has the savagery of a Viking warrior in a berserk rage. An example is Finn senior's drunken rant against "the govment". Listen to the engaging, quite funny song in the musical, and then read the passage from the novel (in Chapter 6 - from the passage beginning "Call this a guvment ...") and you will see what I mean. Twain mocks Pap, but he despises him far too much to laugh with him (as opposed to at him) even for a moment. The character in the musical (at least in so far as he is portrayed in his one lyric) is really quite benign ("alternately comic and frightening") compared with the filthy monster, without the least shadow of a redeeming feature, of the novel - a sort of personification of everything Twain wants to attack in his satire.

But all this is a quibble - I am definitely NOT a country fan - but I really love this CD. I can't understand why we don't hear more of this musical - what about a revival?