Customer Reviews

Wonderful Town (1958 Television Cast)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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Wonderful Town is a great and fluffy tale of two sisters trying to make it on their own in New York. The older sister Ruth (Rossalind Russell)is not too great with boys unlike her younger sister Eileen (Jacquelyn McKeever).

With great songs like; Ohio, A Hundred Easy Ways, A Little Bit In Love, Conga!, and Quiet Girl who could not like this show.

I was very familiar with Rossalind Russell from the 1953 OBCR with Edith Adams as Eileen. Rossalind Russell is always very good and has this great comic styling that seems to only work for her (example of bad copying is Donna Murphy).

The one excellent thing about this recording is Jacquelyn McKeever. She just blasts her role out of this world. Her singing is incredible and her acting is superb. Great job.

Well, gee, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Comden and Green, and Roz Russell croaking out her tunes how could this be anything be great? The booklet that comes with the CD has with some nice liner notes about the production and swell photos.

Not for the uniniated, but a must have for the collector!

In 1958, the Broadway hit WONDERFUL TOWN was adapted for a television production, which again starred Rosalind Russell as the plain-speaking and forthright Ruth Sherwood. This cast album was recorded during rehearsals, and was originally released on LP the week following the broadcast.

Russell is surrounded by a strong cast including Jacquelyn McKeever (OH CAPTAIN!) as Eileen and Sydney Chaplin (BELLS ARE RINGING, SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING, FUNNY GIRL) as Bob Baker and Cris Alexander (ON THE TOWN) reprising his Broadway role as soda jerk Frank Lippencott.

Jacquelyn McKeever is a luminous Eileen. She sings her big number "A Little Bit in Love" an octave higher than Edie Adams on the Broadway cast album. Sydney Chaplin, as mentioned above, is a veteran of Comden & Green musicals and does well by his numbers.

And Rosalind Russell? Well, she's fabulous! Her interpretation and performance only seemed to get better in between this recording and the '53 Broadway album. I would advise first buying the original cast album, though I strongly recommend that you seek this TV version out, too.

Even with a couple of orchestra and cast mistakes,("masing") this recording is truly "dazzling" as the liner notes state. Somehow either in the way it was recorded or tinkering with the orchestrations, it the most satisfying of the EIGHT different recordings of the show out there, albeit truncated. Too bad this is not an expanded version, but if this is all there is, so be it. The Vox 2 disk full length recording is good, but "too complete" is annoying. There is a German cast recording (in English) that I rank second best.

This Columbia record was the first show I ever heard at age 9. It was this show's biz bug that got me. I finally saw the show and it was hilarious. Too bad about that disasterous 1956 film "My Sister Eileen" with music by Styne. Will it ever be made into a film? Right now it's the best show you never heard of.

I am looking for a mint stereo vinyl copy of the last pressing, grey label with 2 eyes. I have one, but I want another since I got the first copy 39 years ago. It plays great, but my turntable at age 14 was not top grade. Buy and enjoy this CD.

This TV Cast recording has Rosalind Russell at her finest. She's hilarious and the music is wonderful. I've also got the Broadway cast recording, which may be performed with more subtly, but subtly is not what you want from Rosalind Russell. She belts out this score and is having a blast the whole way through. Every time I listen to it, so do I.

I have to admit, I am not much for Broadway musicals soundtracks, but I love "Wonderful Town." This CD is of the television version in 1958 in which I have seen.
Very upbeat and peppy, particularly that of the gorgeous Rosalind Russell. Although not known for her singing, you could listen to "One Hundered Easy Ways.." a hundered times and still laugh and enjoy the spark that she put into it. (And that's really somthing when you know she was in her early fifties!)
"The Conversation Piece" is really funny, as is "The Wreck." And as far as the other singers, Sid Chaplin is ok, Jordan Bently (who plays the Wreck," is pretty good, but I would forgett about annoying Jacquelyn McKeever. However, Eileen is supposed to be a bit of a bubble head, so I guess she dose fit the part.

With great music by Leonard Bernstein complimented by Betty Comden and Adolph Green's lyrics, this is truly somthing for thouse of us who wern't around to experience "Wonderful Town" when it really was wonderful!