Customer Reviews

Mexican Hayride (1944 Original Broadway Cast)

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Cole Porter's 1944 Broadway hit MEXICAN HAYRIDE was pretty much forgotten as soon as it closed. Decca's mini-album covered eight of the hit songs by stars June Havoc, Wilbur Evans and Corrina Mura. For some reason teh show's comic lead Bobby Clark was not invited to the recording sessions. His big number "Count Your Blessings" is sung here as a solo by June Havoc, and "Girls" is sung here by Wilbur Evans. (Such changes were common in the early days of original cast recordings.) To fill out this short selection Decca has included a rare album of Mary Martin sining Cole Porter. All in all a worthwhile package though hardly essential listening.

MEXICAN HAYRIDE isn't Cole Porter's finest hour (KISS ME KATE is most definitely his masterpiece) nontheless this score offers some charms. June Havoc, in one of her rare recorded musical theatre roles, is dynamite with "There Must Be Someone for Me". "Abracadabra" is quite good too. Corrina Mura and her lush operatic voice suits the intriguing "Sing to Me, Guitar". MEXICAN HAYRIDE opened on Broadway in 1944 and ran for a solid 481 performances (Havoc left the show early to take the lead in the musical version of SADIE THOMPSON).

Decca Broadway has filled out the CD with `Cole Porter Songs Sung by Mary Martin', an early album of Miss Mary which features her incantory renditions of "I Get a Kick Out of You", "Let's Do It" and a recreation of her star-making number "My Heart Belongs to Daddy".

With a booklet and explanation of what did this show at its time, the first 23 minutes of this nice cd are the rests of what announced the great Kiss me Kate in Cole Porter's career. The last 24 minutes are Porter's standards sung by an artist of the time, with new arrangements.