Customer Reviews

Wonderful Town: First Complete Recording (1998 Studio Cast)

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This recording of Wonderful Town is fabluous. Extraordinary playing and singing all the way around. I have just completed a run of this show (as music director/conductor). While I understand those who prefer the orignal w/Rosalind Russell (I have that one, too), this recording in its completeness is unbeatable. Every measure of the score is present on this recording. This is especially helpful, since the available piano vocal score is nearly unplayable at the keyboard due to both scoring and manuscript difficulties. Even with talented rehearsal accompanists, we ended up teaching every bit of the choreography straight from this recording, with virtually no changes in the orchestra once they came in to production. I highly recommend this item, especially if you are thinking of doing this show!

Wonderful Town easily ranks among West Side Story, The Music Man, and all the other greatest musicals of the fifties and sixties; why it has been utterly forgotten by most is beyond me. Leonard Bernstein delivers one of the theater's best scores (when has he not?); the overture has more personality than many more successful shows have in their entire scores. This recording is the perfect representation of an amazing show. True, there is nothing particularly wrong with the original; however, this one is even better. Rosalind Russel gave a brilliant performace- or so Im told - but she is fundamentally an actress, and although her voice is passable, she couldnt really do justice to the fantastic songs, chosing to use her personality more than her singing ability in many instances. Nothing wrong with that. But here we have Karen Mason, who, while not as forceful a personality as Russel, has just enough no-nonsense attitude to pull off the part, and boy, can she sing. Rebecca Luker is the perfect Eileen- she combines a lovely voice with ditzy charm, just what her songs require. Ron Raines and Gregg Edelman both sing perfectly. Add to all this the presence of the National Symphony Orchestra, which allows Don Walker's sparkling orchestrations to shine far more than could any pit band, and you have a fantastic recording of Leonard Bernstein's fantastic score.

At long last, a complete recording of "Wonderful Town" has been done. With the best of the new Broadway singers. Rebecca Luker as Eileen is all around passionate and sweet, with a lovely voice and Ron Raines, is brilliant, in a class of the male Broadway stars of the 60's. And with Karen Mason in the Rosalind Russell role of Ruth, gives it a new meaning, Russell was not a singer but Mason is. She puts the comedy where it belongs, in the song and the emotions when needed. She does not merely sing the song, she performs it. There's much more in here than any CD has and with the little more, the story line is there. This is a classic recording, and why not reasemble these performers for a revival. mlop

I've read the reviews of this record and while it's fine, it doesn't match the electricity and fire of the original. Precisely, Rosalind Russell is an actress and she imbues her singing with a passion that Mason can't equal with her superior singing voice. I remember the excitment that accompanied the move of Russell to Broadway and the attendant snobbery that a "film" star would have the chutzpah to try the sacred stage. Well, babes, she not only did herself proud, she knocked the socks off the critics. You hear the transcendent Russell persona in the songs, so don't get seduced by this better singer stuff. One reviewer mentioned that he/she got bored by the songs after a few hearings, well, it won't happen if you get the original. Get that babes, and you'll wear the darn thing out! Besides, what a bargain! It's ten times cheaper!

"Wonderful Town" is my favorite Leonard Bernstein work, so I guess you could say that I am bias. I've seen the current New York revival four times, and own every cast recording ever made. Despite many good qualities, this is one of my least favorite.

To begin, I did not like the way that Karen Mason performed the role of Ruth. She was good, but that's the problem: to be Ruth, you have to be spectacular. I didn't get that feeling listening to her. For me, Donna Murphy is the best Ruth, and Ms. Mason doesn't even come close!

On the other hand, my heart absolutely melted over Rebecca Luker's interpretation of Eileen. Ms. Luker, one of the best voices currently in the theatre, brings her full-bodied soprano to Eileen, and it is transfixing. Her version of "A Little Bit in Love" is my favorite version of all time.

All in all, you should buy this recording, along with the versions starring Donna Murphy and Brooke Shields, and spend an enchanted evening in that old fashioned New York of days past.