Customer Reviews

Sugar (Original 1972 Broadway Cast Recording) [Enhanced CD]

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

 

 

SUGAR was a stage musical incarnation of Billy Wilder's snappy comedy SOME LIKE IT HOT, the story of two hapless musicians on the run from the Mob who masquerade as members of an all-girl jazz band.

The score was penned by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill who had previously collaborated for FUNNY GIRL, and would reunite several seasons later for the cult flop PRETTYBELLE. SUGAR proved to be a lukewarm success, delivering fine performances from Robert Morse and Tony Roberts as the hapless musicians, as well as great turns from Cyril Ritchard (PETER PAN) in the role of Osgood, and Elaine Joyce in the title role of Sugar Kane.

Standout numbers include Elaine Joyce's showstopping "Hey, Why Not!" as well as "We Could Be Close", "It's Always Love" and the Title Song.

This marvellous cast album has now been reissued on the Rykodisc label and sounds fabulous. Sound quality is deep and lush, amazing considering its circa 1972 (other cast albums from the same period don't sound half as good).

Later SUGAR would resurface in London starring Tommy Steele, under the original movie title SOME LIKE IT HOT. Regardless of critical opinion, the cast album of SUGAR is a particular delight, and well worth tracking down.

This is Bob Merrill's sixth and second to last show. This time he provided just the lyrics to Jule Styne's music - as he had to great acclaim with FUNNY GIRL. Although the show was a boxoffice hit, running over 500 performances, and was nominated for three Tony Awards (Best Musical, Best Director- Champion, and Best Actor - Robert Morse), the reasons stemmed more from the burlesque drag quality of the plot (the hit film SOME LIKE IT HOT), than from any inherent quality in the musicalization. The 11 songs are quite mediocre with two exceptions (the title song, SUGAR, and PENNILESS BUMS). This is more the innocuous style Styne used in his early shows, most notably GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, which also had a mediocre score surrounding three superb songs. The music is pleasant and often brassy, but brainless and the lyrics are uniformly uninspired. What carried this show was its farcical nature and Morse's inspired and over the top performance in the Jack Lemmon role. If you're a Styne or Merrill or Morse fan, then this belongs in your collection. For the average fan of Broadway musicals, this is not worth the purchase.

A wonderful score -- missing for far too long. Seems ripe for revival...(the English rendition of this show retitled - is simply dreadful). Recorded sound is splendid

This musical is argueably the best score of any of the David Merrick musicals (and there have been a lot of them). The overture alone is worth the price of the CD, and is probably in the top 5 of all musical comedy overtures recorded.

When I was a kid, Broadway cast albums were pretty much all I listened to, and for a time, "Sugar" was one of those records that barely left my turntable. Even then I knew it was a second-rate score, due mostly to Bob Merrill's dreadful lyrics. (In what alternate universe does "softly" rhyme with "coffee?") That said, I have great affection for "Sugar." Another reviewer was spot on when he noted that Jule Styne's melodies have the same feel as those he wrote for "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." The Roaring 20s seems to bring out the best in him, 'cause the songs here are bright, catchy and loads of fun. And the overture -- presumably arranged by that great master of orchestration, Philip J. Lang -- has to be one of the best ever compiled. The show's success was due mainly to the wonderful clowning of Robert Morse and Cyril Ritchard, and the ever reliable skills of director/choreographer Gower Champion. Of course only the former are evident on this CD, but if you close your eyes and open your mind, you can pretty much imagine what Champion brought to such production numbers as "Sun on My Face" and "When You Meet a Man in Chicago." I can't see "Sugar" being revived anytime soon, not even by an organization like New York's Encores series, which is devoted to revisiting the great forgotten musicals -- because it simply isn't. But listening to "Sugar" brings me back to a time when I was a young starry-eyed kid, holed up in my bedroom, having hopeful fantasies of my own Broadway success. For me, that's a marvelous feeling to recapture.

That this show flopped is in no way the fault of the score. It's varied, creative and quite melodic. (I haven't received the CD yet, but I was in the show once, and there's a show-stopping song that's almost rap-like called "Tear This Whole Damn Town Apart" which is not listed. I'll post when I receive it to let you know if it's there.)

FOLLOW-UP: No, the song is not there, and it's barely mentioned in the show, but in our production it was a show-stopper, albeit a melody-bereft one.

This is a great musical! The songs are very catchy and addictive! I performed this musical for my high school and I loved it! I toe-tapped my whole way through it, and I think you will too!...the music is still better than ever! "Penniless Bums", "November Song", and "Beauty That Drives a Man Mad" are great songs and I am never ceased to be amazed how often I get the urge to sing them! I love this musical!

"Sugar" is a wonderful idea that suffers from lukewarm execution. Based on the classic Billy Wilder comedy, "Some Like It Hot," it's the story of two, self-described 'penniless bums,' who find themselves members of an all-girls band while on the run from gangsters. Things get out of hand as soon as they let their, um, gut feelings fly.

The score, however, doesn't live up to expectations. It includes some pleasant tunes -- "Sun on my Face," "Sugar," "It's Always Love" -- but none that capture Wilder's brittle hilarity. Many songs feature appropriately bright and churpy music by Jule Stine, but Bob Merril's mediocre lyrics consistently bog get them down.

The show, judged on its own terms, is a pleasant-enough comic musical, of a sort that no longer seems to get written. I won't linger on unfair points -- obviously Ellen Greene is no Marilyn Monroe. This CD belongs in the collections of musical fanatics, but for anyone else, I'd instead recommend "She Loves Me," which is of similar tone, but greater merit, and is also based on a classic film comedy -- "The Shop Around The Corner".

I've heard this one but it's almost impossible to own it: rare and very expensive. Please, Mr. Editor, try this one in a re-mastered edition ASAP. Thanks beforehand.

It's possibly the worst thing Styne ever wrote. It's hard to say what the worst thing Merrill wrote was because they're all so bad. Jimmie Rodgers sang some of his jingles (and made hits of them) in the late 50s. My favorite Merrill show (and I like it a lot) is "Take Me Along" - words and music both by Merrill. One line in the score (introducing the boys in drag) goes "A thousand pounds of paradise from head to toesy." This is supposed to be the combined weight of the two men. Just how much did each of them weigh? Another line: "I will lay in a chair til/I am medium rare, til -". It should be "lie in a chair". When I heard that my last illusion about Bway crumbled. Styne, Champion, Morse and above all Ritchard - none of them knew word one about English grammar. "Penniless Bums" was a good catchy tune I thought, and the courtship song of Morse by Ritchard was a riot - but only because of the performances. I never saw this show. Wanted to but didn't. I don't recommend this album to anyone for any reason whatsoever.