Customer Reviews

Of Thee I Sing/Let 'em Eat Cake (1987 Studio Recording)

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OF THEE I SING was the first musical comedy to win the Pulitzer Prize. It is easy to see why it won when you listen to this incredibly fine concert version from 1987, fifty years after the show was originally produced on Broadway. It is also interesting that in the Gershwins' satire there are targets which still crop up today: the Supreme Court meddling where it does not belong; voters depending on a spinmeister to choose them a candidate; ("He's the one the people choose/loves the Irish and the Jews"); The President's sex life getting more publicity than what he actually does for his country, etc. In case this all sounds heavy going, there is song after song by the incomparable George and Ira Gershwin including "Love Is Sweeping The Country," "Who Cares?" and the jubilant title love song.

There is plenty of comedy too in Vice President Throttlebottom played by wonderful Jack Gilford and President Wintergreen's intended, Diana Devereaux, played and sung terrifically by Paige O'Hara. The President chooses to marry all-American Mary Turner instead of the sexy, French Devereaux because of the way Mary makes corn muffins which causes a rift in American/Franco relations. Wintergreen and his Mary are sung beautifully by Larry Kert and Maureen McGovern.

The second CD holds OF THEE I SING's sequel LET 'EM EAT CAKE which is more bitter, more cynical and contains fewer Gershwin hit songs; only "Mine" has become a standard. But every moment on both CD's is not only listenable, but a musical gem. In these performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music the orchestra (led by Michael Tilson Thomas) and the chorus do great work.

Feeling patriotic lately? You could do alot worse than buying these delightful CD's. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Honestly, I absolutely cannot understand why these 2 masterpieces by the Gershwins are not part of standars musical repertoire, given the great qualities of the music and the immortal lucidity of the satire of the american political intitutions.
Waiting for the next great revival of these shows, Sony should AT LEAST reissue these recordings, which, in spite of the absence of spoken dialogues, are markstones of American musical theater.

i had this recording on cassette a decade ago and lost it. now finally i got it on CD, and realized over the time, how profound these 2 musicals are.this has both reflection in the plot and in music which bears its influence on later musical eras and of course as a ground preparation for Porgy and Bess. deeply , deeply recommended.

which gets revived from time to time. This is a good cd of that show and makes for good listening. However, I'd never heard or heard of its darker, in many ways more interesting sequel Let Them Eat Cake which was a revelation. Do Not Miss.

This lively 2-disc set features 2 of the Gershwins' last 3 stage works; Of Thee I Sing from 1931 and its successor, Let 'em Eat Cake from 1933. (They were separated by the much-maligned and much-revised Pardon My English, also 1933). Michael Tilson Thomas leads soloists, chorus and orchestra in sparkling and idiomatic performances of both works and the level of inspiration is very high - indeed, Gershwin felt he had reached new heights with Let 'em Eat Cake, though contemporary audiences were less impressed (possibly because of the topical subject matter).
This was the fore-runner to the Roxbury series from Nonesuch and anyone with those discs - and indeed all Gershwinites - will be glad they added this set to their shelves; highly recommended.

..as I knew it would be. The discs were in mint condition, as was the case and lyric booklet, I am very please with this purchase.

What a terrific recording. I am surprised that some enterprising producer hasn't mounted this tuneful and hilarious Gershwin musical (Of Thee I Sing) in this election year. And it is a crime that the CD has gone out of print (thank God I bought a copy in my free-spending days in the '80s!). If you can afford it at the current OOP prices, by all means go for it!

One reason we seldom hear "Of Thee I Sing" is that its creators were afraid to go flat out and write the full-scale through-sung operetta it should have been in the first place, structuring it as a conventional book musical instead, full of wooden scenes and hoary jokes when the songs weren't playing, and the show collapsed under the creaky stage business in revival just twenty years later. Doubly sad as it has glorious music full of inimitable Gershwin touches, and lyrics of striking imagination and wit. That initial success doomed the sequel too: "Let 'Em Eat Cake" was a musical with an attitude, and the shattering events of its day left a sourness on everything; even the composer's magical embellishments are largely missing (though that's probably because we're hearing a reconstruction, the original orchestrations having long been lost). Nonetheless it's a riveting score, and the scene of President Tweedledee's overthrow is genuinely funny.

Experts like Ethan Mordden have made much of this album's casting. To be sure, the 1952 revival was no great shakes with Jack Carson, who could barely sing, and thus with the quite wavery Larry Kert; nonetheless he grows on you, and anyway, we shouldn't expect a president to sing. Maureen McGovern is another matter. She, of course, was a "rock" star (or rather an MOR star); "slumming" is the inevitable word here. More important, she's singing out of her range, and very mannered and a little screechy; at least she's not Judy Kaye, and isn't on so much to be distracting. (Neither is Jack Gilford, who virtually lost his voice by this time and was almost unrecordable.) But Michael Tilson Thomas's vigorous conducting and a spirited supporting crew save the day, and the undoubtable excellence of these scores makes this a must-have for Gershwin and musical fans alike.

I have listened to this musical cd over and over because we are preforming Of Thee I Sing at our High School in PA.....I love it