Customer Reviews

Call Me Madam (1995 Broadway Concert Cast)

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

 

 

Its nice to read so many reviews here by Ethel Merman fans. Indeed, it is hard to listen to Ethel Merman singing Irving Berlin and not believe those two were perfectly matched. Merman had a voice made for beltin' it out to the balconies and Berlin gave her plenty of wonderful opportunities,

Still, I hope I do not speak heresy to say that Ethel Merman lacked a certain subtlety. It is refreshing to hear some of these old Berlin standards given a slightly different spin. WhatTyne Daly lacks in volume and lung capacity, she makes up in wit and tenacity. She doesn't sing like Merman, but she is better with a gag line. Sometimes she makes Berlin seem more like Cole Porter.

Like the new Bernadette Peters version of Annie Get Your Gun, this is a great addition to the Irving Berlin catalog. Enjoy!

Ethel Merman had an exclusive contract with Decca. However, RCA Victor had the rights to the cast album, and Decca wouldn't let Merman sing for RCA Victor. So RCA Victor hired one of their biggest stars, Dinah Shore, to sing all of Merman's songs. Merman, in turn, made her own album entitled "Ethel Merman: 12 Songs from Call Me Madam." Dick Haymes accompanied her.

I recommend finding the Merman-Decca release of 12 Songs from Call Me Madam, whereupon you can hear the greatest Berlin interpreter, Merman, singing the songs she made famous on the Broadway stage. However, having the original orchestrations is some consolation for the substandard, though competent, Daly renditions.

Daly has vocal chutzpah, but she's no Merman. Not even a reasonable facsimile thereof; get the Call Me Madam rerelease, but you'll prefer the tempi and orchestrations of this album.

This CD is a real treat for any Irving Berlin fan. It is full of lesser known hits by the master songwriter, but many of them are comparable to some of his best stuff. In particular, I like "Hostess With the Mostess'" and "Can You Use Any Money Today?". Tyne Daly does a great job; she falls nicely in between the brassiness of Ethel Merman and the softer lyrical style that is popular today. This one comes highly recommended.

All right, so Tyne Daly doesn't have the sheer vocal heft that her role (written for Ethel Merman) needs. But she's a smart performer who makes the most of the vocal equipment she's got, and who pays the music the compliment of taking it straight without mannerism or exaggeration. This is Irving Berlin's last great score, filled with his usual combination of deceptive simplicity and surprising sophistication. The performance is first-rate all around, and, by restoring the original orchestrations by the great Don Walker, it makes the music sound better than ever--better, certainly, than the boring "pop" arrangements accompanying Merman's "12 Songs From Call Me Madam" disc. This is definitely one to get.

I couldn't let one review spoil the chances of this superb recording. I have been to see light operatic society productions of many musicals of this era and Call Me Madam is one of my favourites with so many memorable numbers. When I heard a recording with Ethel Merman I was devastated to think this was all that was available. It may have been written for her but I found her voice overpowering and strident.

How refreshing then to find a recording with ALL the songs from the show, a beautiful sound from the band and Tyne Daly giving her all. I would rate her voice as the ideal "show" voice, powerful, brash enough but not too much. The rest of the voices on the recording are super too. Thank you very much - this took me back to my show-going days and brought back some happy memories.

IT IS JUST TOO BAD THAT DECCA WOULDN'T RELEASE ETHEL MERMAN TO RECORD THE ORIGIANL BROADWAY CAST ALBUM. EVEN THOUGH THE SCORE FROM CALL ME MADAM IS VERY GOOD WITH A LOT OF GREAT MERMAN SONGS, TYNE DALY RUINS THIS OTHER WISE NICE CAST ALBUM. THE REST OF THE CAST IS VERY GOOD AND ALL THE SONGS ARE HERE, EXCEPT MERMAN. THATS WHERE THE TROUBLE IS. I KNOW TYNE DALY IS A VERY GOOD ACTRESS, BUT SHE IS VERY LIMITED IN THE VOICE DEPARTMENT. SHE DID A FINE IN GYPSY BECAUSE THE SONGS WHERE NOT AS CHALLENGING. SHE COULD TALK MOST OF THE SONGS. NOT HERE AND IT SHOWS AND SPOILS THE WHOLE ALBUM. THEY SHOULD HAVE USED RITA McKENZIE. SHE DID A GREAT JOB WITH EHTEL MERMAN'S BROADWAY AND SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT ON THIS ALBUM. IT'S TOO BAD IT IS THE ONLY CAST ALBUM OF THIS SHOW ON CD. THE DECCA ABLUM OF MERMAN SINGING THE SONGS IS GOOD, BUT NOT THE WHOLE SCORE AND NOT THE WAY IT WAS SUNG IN THE ORIGIAL SHOW. THE RCA CAST ALBUM NOT ON CD HAS DINAH SHORE DOING THE LEAD AND SHE IS JUST AS BAD AS TYNE DALY, ONLY SHE HAS A NICE VOICE, BUT SANG THE SONGS LIKE SHE WAS SITTING BY A PIANO IN A LOUNGE. MAYBE SOMEDAY THEY WILL RECORD ANOTHER CAST ALBUM WITH SOMEONE WHO COULD SING. I GUESS WE WILL JUST HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE OLD DECCA ALBUM FOR NOW, OR MAYBE THEY WILL RELEASE THE ORIGINAL MOVIE SOUNDTRACK ON CD.

CALL ME MADAM was a hit on Broadway in the 1950s starring Ethel Merman, but has been sadly neglected since then. In 1995, the musicals-in-concert series Encores! staged CALL ME MADAM and placed Tony-winner Tyne Daly in the lead role of Sally Adams, the "Hostess with the Mostes' on the Ball"!

Tyne Daly's voice sounds much better here than on the 1989 revival-album of GYPSY (where she again played an Ethel Merman-originated role), and is at her best with "The Best Thing For You", "The Hostess with the Mostes' on the Ball" and "You're Just in Love" (the score's singular hit song).

Also in the cast are Melissa Errico (still one of Broadway's most under-rated stars), Lewis Cleale, John Leslie Wolfe, Christopher Durang, Ken Page and MacIntyre Dixon.

As usual, Rob Fisher conducts the Coffee Club Orchestra beautifully, while the sound-quality is superb. This was the first Encores! cast-album released in the series.

If you haven't ever heard CALL ME MADAM before, you'll hardly be surprised to find out that there's a paean to Dwight David Eisenhower among the songs. Really, was there ever a musical more square than this one? While Sally Adams is about as risqué a character as Mamie herself, and you'll have to put up with some ghastly stuff like "Washington Square Dance" (not Irving Berlin's finest moment musically).

But still, there are some real treats here, and not just "It's a Lovely Day Today" and "You're Just in Love," either. Both "Lichtenberg" and "The Ocarina" have extremely haunting melodies, despite their dorky lyrics, and the "Mrs. Sally Adams" song is extremely bouncy and catchy. The cast has some real delights in it, like Melissa Errico (whose lovely silver voice is always welcome), but Tyne Daly just isn't up to the vocal demands of the leading role. She has some real charm at moments, but the lower register of "Can You Use Any Money Today?" doesn't showcase her very well, and her Southwestern accent comes and goes.