Customer Reviews

Milk and Honey: The Original Broadway Cast Recording

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Jerry Herman made an impressive Broadway debut with his score for this musical set in Israel. Although the show ran 543 performances, it never quite developed into a blockbuster and was quickly forgotten once it closed. RCA Victor reissued the cast album on CD in 1994 but unfortunately the master tapes had been lost and the sound quality of the CD is less than perfect: you can hear noise and drop-outs from time to time.

Nothing can dim Jerry Herman's delightful score, however, and Robert Weede, fresh from his Broadway triumph in MOST HAPPY FELLA displays his warm baritone in "Shalom." Molly Picon is wonderful with her "Hymn to Hymie." The title song becomes a brisk march, similar in style to the title number in Herman's DEAR WORLD. You'll also hear some of Jerry Herman's trademark love songs in "Let's Not Waste a Moment" and "As Simple a That."

The booket has a detailed synopsis, a history of the production and biographies of the stars as well as photos of the recording session.

The CD has gone out-of-print and copies often sell for $50 or more...if you can find one for sale.

"Milk and Honey," Jerry Herman's first Broadway musical shows the promise of the wealth of hummable, memorable scores he would compose, with "Hello, Dolly!", "Mame," "LaCage Aux Folles," "Mack and Mabel," etc. in the future. Like all of Mr. Herman's scores, the songs remain in your head long after you have put the CD back in its jewel case. This is a mature score, always a deeply melodic score, sometimes deeply emotional, other times, wonderfully funny, but always touching.

I loved the score the first time I heard it, and still love it today.

Finally the CD has been re-released to this magnificent, if somewhat forgotten gem of a musical. Jerry Herman's first Broadway show has a score full of stunning ballads, marvelous comedy numbers and hummable ensemble pieces. The songs performed by Robert Weede and Mimi Benzel (and there are several) are fantastic, Molly Picon's numbers are witty and catchy and there is a ballad, I Will Follow You sung by Tommy Rall (he of the numerous MGM musicals) that causes goosebumps, it is so beautiful. Though the show had a respectable run of over 500 performances, it wouldn't be until years later, after Herman's success with Mame, Hello Dolly! and La Cage Aux Folles, that people began to take a look at Milk and Honey. If ever there was a show deserving of a revival, this may be it!!
A wonderful CD even if the recording technique at the time is annoying today, having the vocals move back and forth between tracks to create (what they thought at the time) a live performance feel, a stereo style that mercifully did not last too long!! I wish they had remixed this release to eliminate that annoyance.

This musical was written in 1961 and is instantly recognisable as a Jerry Herman. A mixture of his catchy plinky-plonks and his trademark waltzes. It has an interesting background in that it became impossible to find a copy of the show. I located a secondhand copy on eBay with an asking price of $160 a couple of years ago, but nothing at a reasonable price. I wrote to the record company and presumably others did too. The result was this remastered joy. Buy it, enjoy it, tell your friends.

It is a delight to have this early Jerry Herman show in my collection again, as it was going at quite a steep price at one time..I had the original 61-62 version in my collection for years and recorded it on CD and then recently bought the new CD...The music is very good and captures quite well the esscence of the story of the show...You really cannot go wrong with a Herman Score...the stories often don't work, but the music is a delight!! This is one of his that I have never seen staged, and of course, did not see the original version..We get a bonus track of Robert Goulet singing his version of Shalom from the show and it is quite good!! He did a series of Broadway Albums, which this song comes from, some of them not very well known, but quite tuneful!! He was in a show called the Happy Time, and that is another wonderful score by kander and Ebb..and sometimes is hard to find, but worth the trouble...At any rate I would recommend Milk and Honey to anyone who loves fine music of an earlier era..

Milk and Honey is an old musical that is in short supply and I was so pleased to find one on a CD. I have copy on a phonograph record that a friend put on a CD for me and I enjoyed listening to the music, but to today's ear, it was scratchy. What a pleasure to have a copy which is so easy to listen to. Thank you Amazon.com.

A little rough, a little ethnic, but a good, solid score with good performances. Plus, the opportunity to hear the great Molly Picon. Hummable tunes and clever lyrics, always associated with Jerry Herman, are here in his first Broadway effort. Some of the selections are ponderous, but they can be forgiven - the others are wonderful.