On The Twentieth Century (1978 Original Broadway Cast) [Cast Recording]

Cy Coleman (Artist), Betty Comden (Artist), Adolph Green (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 19, 1991)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000025D2
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #134,128 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Max, I LOVE this play! (Dutdut,dutdut, dutdut, dutdutdut!)", September 14, 2001

By 

Jay Dickson (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: On The Twentieth Century (1978 Original Broadway Cast) (Audio CD)

When ON THE 20th CENTURY came out in 1977 critics found the show olf-fashioned and thus largeky praised only the famous set by Robin Wagner; now that time has passed, the score (and the wonderful complement of singers Harold Prince found for the cast) has held up wonderfully--this work may show Cy Coleman and Comden and Green at the very top of their game. The music is spectacular, from the thrilling overture to the wonderfully tricky "Sextette" with its beautiful central melody of Lily's ("But how could I have known/ That love from way back when/ Would flood my life again") and of course to the superb comic songs written particularly for Madeline Kahn, "Never," "Veronique," and "Babette."

Kahn's performance on the cd is a revelation: although she had to be let go from the show a month into it because she reputedly refused to give her all to it in performance other than here and on opening night ("You don't expect me to do this every night, do you?" she supposedly told Prince after he congratulated her after the premiere), she shows fully here what might of been. Her performance here shows how much she deserved the praise given to her character, Lily Garland, by the train's starstruck fans when they see her in the score's great highlight, the swooningly evocative "Together": "Up till now just empty days/ Made up what I call my life/ But today's a day of days/ I'll remember all my life."

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This one belongs in every theatre fan's CD collection!, July 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: On The Twentieth Century (1978 Original Broadway Cast) (Audio CD)

1978's "On the Twentieth Century"--a brilliant musicalization of the classic 1930s screwball comedy "20th Century"--is one of the most tuneful, intelligent, and flat-out funny musicals ever committed to disc. The score is by Cy Coleman (it may well be his best); the book and lyrics are by the immortal Betty Comden and Adolph Green, working at the top of their own inimitable form.

And what a cast! Stars John Cullum, Madeleine Kahn, Imogene Coca, and Kevin Kline turn in superb performances--and their obvious delight at having such delicious, often over-the-top material to work with comes across beautifully on the recording. Among the score's highlights: the lovely "Our Private World," The wonderfully egomaniacal "I've Got It All" and "Mine," Act II's "Sextet," the title song, and Imogene Coca's never-to-be-forgotten "Repent."

So: All aboard! This is a madcap musical ride you'll want to take again ! and again.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Buy it just for Madeline Kahn, April 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: On The Twentieth Century (1978 Original Broadway Cast) (Audio CD)

Madeline Kahn originated the role of Lily Garland on Broadway, but she was let go just a few weeks into the run because of conflicts with Harold Prince. This was certainly too bad, because her performance on the Cast Recording of this show is one of the funniest ever--two songs in particular, "Veronique" and "Babette," are absolutely irresistible. In the first, Madeline as the nervous pianist Mildred Plotka is coached by Joh Cullum into taking the role of a heroic revolutionary of the Franco/Prussian War (who risked death simply because she wouldn't raise her skirts for Otto von Bismarck!) to the point where by the end the shy understudy has become utterly transformed into the confident matinee idol Lily Garland. The second, where she can't make up her mind between performing in a Somerset Maugham drawing room drama or a musical about the life of Mary Magdalene, is one of the funniest songs ever written, and Kahn's jazzy triumphant riffs at the end are absolutely unforgettably funny.