Customer Reviews

The Nervous Set (1959 Original Broadway Cast)

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A fun recording to have on CD. Very beatnik oriented musical from 1959 with such interesting names in the cast as Tom Aldredge (Into the Woods, Passion) and Larry Hagman!? The song "New York" is a lot of fun. The best of the rest the score include "The Ballad of the Sad Young Man" sung by Tan Seitz and "Laugh, I Thought I'd Die" sung by Richard Hayes. Larry Hagman has one song, "Travel the Road of Love" and although he doesn't embarrass himself, thank God "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Dallas" were still be come. He definitely did not inherit his mother's singing ability. In fact, I think his mother was performing in "The Sound of Music" during the short run of this show.

The songs in this musical are simply wonderful! Canny, passionate, "beat," and sardonic. The story, its characters, and the lyrics are classic Greenwich Village of the late 1950's. This CD features talented singers and actors (including a very young Larry Hagman),a great lyricist, lush and complex music. To reiterate, it's just WONDERFUL! I ruined my LP long ago, and am THRILLED to find this CD replacement.

It's fascinating to discover what passed for sophisticated in 1959 as the musical sought new forms. This album is a cultural landmark, of sorts -- a show that broke a lot of barriers and paid for it with a short run. The songs have the feeling of Nichols and May improvisations. Certainly it's worth picking up for people who want complete OC collections, especially since it wasn't available in vinyl in the 1970s except for lots of cash at out-of-print record shops in Manhattan (remember them?). And you can't pass up Larry Hagman singing. Still, the score simply doesn't match up to the evident aspirations of the writers; it anticipates "Company," but Sondheim's songs are so much better than the ones here. Still, there are a couple of gems, including "Night People" and "A Country Gentleman."