Customer Reviews

Sweet Charity: A New Musical Comedy (1966 Original Broadway Cast)

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Arguably the greatest of Broadway's leading ladies, Verdon shines in this original cast album of the beloved and bittersweet SWEET CHARITY. One of the magical qualities of this particular musical is its ability to tell the story of the down-on-her-luck but ever optimistic taxi dance through the music. And Verdon is the consummate storyteller! You can almost see her while you listen to the music... Thank goodness this was recorded for posterity, because it is leaps and bounds (literally!) beyond the dismal Shirley MacLaine film version. A treasure!

I have never been able to work out why this CD is freely available but the OST Shirley Maclaine/Sammy Davis Jr version isn't. Surely that would be more popular? Surely someone else wants to hear it? But apparently not - it was released on vinyl, but not CD. In the meantime, there are a few other versions of Sweet Charity on CD, and this is the best. Bob Fosse's wife Gwen Verdon is a sweet singer, and conveys Charity's tarty/good-girl thing well. It's a great album, the songs are cool, funny, the version of Big Spender is pretty flawless. Rhythm of Life is one of the best songs ever, and this version misses the scat diversions of Sammy Davis Jr's version in the movie, but is still a great track. Also, the CD contains songs that weren't in the movie, and lots of them are nice. There's gotta be something better than this is fabulous. It is good, it is worth buying, I do play it a lot. But I think I'd like to have Shirley Maclaine's recording more. .