The Most Happy Fella (2000 Studio Cast) [Extra tracks, Original recording remastered, Cast Recording]

Emily Loesser, Don Stephenson, Richard Muenz, Karen Ziemba, JAY Masterworks Editions, Louis Quilico, Jo Sullivan Loesser, Frank Loesser, The Most Happy Fella (Related Recordings), Nancy Shade | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 8, 2000)
• Original Release Date: July 11, 2000
• Number of Discs: 3
• Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered, Cast Recording
• Label: Jay Records
• ASIN: B00004T6PR
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #202,622 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #44 in Music > Broadway & Vocalists > Musicals > Revivals

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Overture

2. Scene: Thank you...

3. Ooh! My Feet!

4. Scene: Hey, where's what's her name?...

5. I Know How It Is

6. Scene: It's Jewelry...

See all 37 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Prelude

2. Fresno Beauties Part One

3. Cold and Dead

4. Fresno Beauties Part Two

5. Scene: Ma che brutta sorte!...

6. Love and Kindness

See all 38 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. Prelude

2. Abbondanza Reprise

3. Scene: Fellas? Hey, fellas...

4. I Like Everybody

5. Scene: Folks! Before the party begins...

6. Song of a Summer Night

See all 43 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not perfect, but a must-buy nonetheless, August 10, 2000

By 

Michael A. Benedetto (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Most Happy Fella (2000 Studio Cast) (Audio CD)

Given how much is wonderfully right with this recording, it's a shame that enough is wrong with it to deny it the fifth star. The problem lies mainly in the casting. Everyone sings beautifully, as one might expect from the albums of this series. But the book scenes rarely register with the proper impact because of the lack of chemistry between the leads and the lack of suitability of the leads for their roles. (Tony winner Karen Ziemba comes across as sweet and winsome, for instance, where the role of Cleo requires a genuine force of nature.)

Still, the album is gorgeous from start to finish. The fine singing, the luminous stereo sound, the numerous restored cut songs (one performed by original Rosabella Jo Sullivan Loesser), the thick and elaborate booklets (essays, photos and libretto), and the signatures of both Loesser women (available to the first 100 people to buy the album through Amazon) are all major pluses. Emily Loesser is radiant as Rosabella, and the recently deceased Louis Quilico offers an excellent take on Tony.

This album cannot replace the definitive and very complete original cast album, which stands as perhaps the best representation of a classic score as it appeared in a show. But it is still an invaluable supplement to that album; people familiar with the original will want to hear a longer and sonically superior take on it, and people unfamiliar with it might find the newer one a better place to start.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars God bless Jay Records and the Loessers, August 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Most Happy Fella (2000 Studio Cast) (Audio CD)

I waited over a year for this recording to come out, since I first heard that Jay was going to make it. So, obviously, my expectations were quite high, and I am happy to say that the finished product met every expectation and then some. The late Louis Quilico shows great passion and emotion. His voice can make you feel whatever Tony is feeling. This recording is a great final work for a great voice that will be sorely missed. Emily Loesser gives a vibrant freshness to Rosabella that is as equal to her mother's in the original production. And the added bonus track of "Wanting to be Wanted," sung by Jo Sullivan Loesser is a great bonus that brings the whole shows history back around to its beginnings. Frank would be very proud to know that his show has been so brillianly preserved the way it should be heard.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great CD, December 25, 2005

By 

Mark Falconer (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Most Happy Fella (2000 Studio Cast) (Audio CD)

Of course, I guess any full recording of this great score would be worth owning, as long as the cast members aren't completely awful. Of course, it's not the OBCR, but what is? Louis Quillco has a darker timbre than Robert Weede, but that's not a problem. The biggest problem with Quillco's performance is that he fails to delve sufficently into Tony's character arc - this is a man whom we are told is shy and easily intimidated at first, but by the third act's "She's Gonna Go Home With Me," Tony is forceful and commanding. Quillco hit all the right notes of the character, but his choices seem completely seperate. It's like he understands each scene, but not how one leads to another. This doesn't make the ending as powerful as it could be. Emily Loesser, in her mother's role of Rosabella, is quite good, I think. For never having played the character, she seems to coalesce right into this group of actors and she generally finds new and interesting character choices. She doesn't have that powerful lonliness that Jo Sullivan had - her "Somebody Somewhere" doesn't match her mother's at all. But for the rest of the show, I think she does quite nicely, especially after she realizes she loves Tony. Her "Warm All Over" is quite distinctive and very good. Karen Ziemba has been criticized as being too nice as Cleo, but personally, I think this makes Cleo a more human character and less "comic relief." I don't quite understand a few of her choices, but overall, I really like her. She seems to have real chemistry with Don Stephenson, too. Although their "label scene" is, I think, a little too over-the-top. I like Stephenson's Texas twang, and he's committed to the part. "Standing On The Corner" is kind of slow, though, and the harmonies are oddly balanced (the bass part is a lot louder than the melody.)

Now we come to the worst and best cast members. Worst: Richard Muenz. Sorry, I love you, but you are far far far too old for Joe, and you sound it. I really do think that Muenz is terrific in the '79 video, but he sounds like an old man, which really makes a lot of the ending of the first act silly. He used to have a bright, brilliant baritone, and now he quavers on the top notes of "Joey Joey Joey." Not his fault, but they should've used a younger actor. Best: Nancy Shade. She plays Tony's sister Marie, and she is the only cast member on this recording that surpasses the original, Mona Paulee. The liner notes talk about how Marie is often played as an unhappy spinster, and to my ears, Paulee does just that. Also, it's slightly unbelievable to hear her completely American accent contrasting with her "brother"'s heavily accented English. Shade uses a slight accent, but her real triumph is using her desperate love for Tony and her real belief that Rosabella will never love Tony as well as she does. This makes the final confrontation in Act Three powerfully moving.

Of course, Shade has a secret weapon: the bonus tracks. Three of the bonus tracks are cut sequences for Marie that work together to create a fully three-dimensional character. Loesser's original first Tony and Marie sequence, that culminated in "No One Is Ever Going To Love You," is incredible. When I heard it, I immediately went back and listened to it again. And then I did it again. BRILLIANT. That man is brilliant, and that song is brilliant, and this show is brilliant. That 50$-plus CD is worth it alone for that one bonus track. And the CD ends on an up note: Jo Sullivan's recording of "Wanting to be Wanted," the song that "Somebody Somewhere" replaced. "Somebody Somewhere" is a better song, but Jo Sullivan sounds so good for her age! Possibly, even better than she sounded back in the 50s (I always thought she was a bit shrill on the OCR), and her acting is just as amazing now as it was then.