Customer Reviews

Oh, Brother! (1981 Original Broadway Cast)

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

 

 

And really, what more could you ask for from a musical comedy? Almost every single song in Oh, Brother! is top-drawer material, in both music and lyrics. Composer Michael Valenti manages to draw lush ballads ("How Do You Want Me?" "I To The World") as well as raucous comedy numbers for the chorus ("Revolution" and "It's A Man's World") from this material every bit as well as Richard Rodgers did back in the 1930s with The Boys From Syracuse. The music covers a variety of styles, from barbershop to pop, mixed with a twinge of "Eastern" sounding music.

The lyrics, by Donald Driver, are just as clever. Somehow Driver manages to be funny and completely true to the characters. For instance, in "How Do You Want Me," Saroyana's pathos and desperation come through in such hilarious lines as "How do you want me - pale or pink/Upon the hour? Up on the sink?" Yes, we laugh, but it's really quite sad that this woman is reduced to begging her man to love her.

And the cast is simply incredible. Full of Broadway stars back when they were just beginning their careers, Judy Kaye, David Carrol, Harry Groener, and Mary Mastrantonio are all terrific in this show. There are a few cases of overacting among the supporting roles, but it's excusable in a show of this nature.

I know that it's difficult to take a chance buying a show album unheard (what if you end up with another Walking Happy?), but I promise you that this CD is completely enjoyable.

Okay, the reviewers trashed this show, but the matinee preview audience I was seated with LOVED it. Fast, loud, and funny with an attitude exemplified by the first night program title page in ARABIC! That attitude pervades every number in the exceptional score presented by the entire exceptional cast. The score is bright, the lyrics witty and knowing and the performances stellar. Of particular note is the 11th hour number "A Loud and Funny Song," and the title song. It's fun, full of great performances (can enough be said about Judy Kaye?) and well worth the investment.

A fun musical that is not afraid to be silly while it is both musically clever and cute. The Valenti/Driver team has done us all a disservice by not following-up this true musical comedy with many others.

Track Lisitng:

1. When I Am Movin'
2. Don't Let Another Night Go By
3. Clara's Dancing School
4. I Don't Want To Hear From You This Way
5. Only One Person's Opinion
6. Horse Of A Different Color
7. I Can't Find My Way Out
8. He's Not Home Yet
9. Relax With Me Baby
10. I've Got A Boyfriend Now
11. The Coffee Shoppe
12. The Non-Affair Affair
13. I Escaped Without Any Injuries
14. Face To Face
15. The Love Of My Life
16. I Still Love You Darling

Oh, Brother! Donald Driver and Michael Valenti's Persian Gulf musical with a nod to Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors is perhaps not "pc" but it is hilarious! The cast includes the late David-James Carroll(Chess, Grand Hotel, Lola, etc), Harry Groener(Crazy For You), Joe Morton(Salvation, Raisin, etc), Alan Weeks, the ever-dependable Judy Kaye(On The 20th Century, Magdalena, What About Luv?, Anastasia Affaire, etc) and Mary Mastrantonio. After a prologue, we hear the lovely infectious quartet "I, To The World" beautifully sung by Carroll, Groener, Morton and Weeks. Kaye doesn't disappoint with the plaintive "How Do You Want Me" and "What Do I Tell The People This Time?". Morton smoothly intones a jazzy "My World's Comin' Unwrapped" while Mastantonio in "That's Him" reveals her remarkable soprano range. Groener has his jazz turn in "Everybody Calls Me By My Name" followed with the ballad "Opec Maiden" with the male ensemble. Kaye, Mastrantonio and Alyson Reed hilariously carp the trio "It's A Man's World" and later "A Loud And Funny Song" after which the full company sings the title song as the finale. All involved have created something quite special. If you like Olympus On My Mind, Eating Raoul, Ruthless and the ilk, then you will appreciate the clever tongue-in-cheek humor of this show.

I saw this show in NYC at least a dozen times as a guest of a member of the pit. I laughed every night. It may seem "politically incorrect" but the times were different in 1981 and the U.S. had other "enemies". Too bad we cannot enjoy poking fun at ourselves as well.

Beg to differ, but this was one of the most unintentionally insulting Musicals ever written.

While the story of two sets of twins separated at birth is clever (the plot is as clever as any from the "Arabian Nights:" Naturally, it would be, seeing how it was based on Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors"), the lyrics are juvenile and very politically incorrect, while the music is mostly forgettable.

Songs like "Opec Maiden" and especially "Revolution" will have you hoping that no one else knows you're listening to this insensitive material. Even the names of the characters will have you cringing: "Fatatatatatima?" "Ayatollah?" Even the show's tagline is odd: ". . . . Musical Comedy Breaks Out in the Middle East!"

By the way, this show closed after three performances. The critics were right about this one.

But I'll bet the "camel" in the show (played by Steve Warner) was pretty amusing . . .