Customer Reviews

On Your Toes (1983 Broadway Revival Cast)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hands down the best of the ON YOUR TOES recordings. This one features the original 1936 orchestrations and includes the complete score with BOTH ballets and all the reprises. The digital sound is crisp and clear and the whole performance is well cast.

When this first came out in 1983 there were two versions: In the U.S. it was released by Polydor as a single LP with some edits in the ballets and a few of the minor numbers eliminated. The U.K. release on TER was a 2 LP set containing the full score. The early CD issues were the abridged version but now, finally, the complete score is available on CD.

This remaster of the 1983 Broadway revival of "On Your Toes" was released just in time for the Richard Rodgers centennial, but not soon enough for me! Wow! We get to hear one of Rodgers and Hart's best scores with improvements! The sound quality in greatly improved from the two previous masters, and there are extra bonuses such as an extended version of "The Heart Is Quicker Than the Eye" and a reprise of "Quiet Night". The highlight is the most complete version on CD of the famed ballet "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" clocked at OVER SEVENTEEN MINUTES!!! (That is not a misprint!) Forget about the 1954 cast revival or any other version that might be out there, THIS CD of "On Your Toes", complete with the original orchestrations from the original 1936 production is the ultimate "On Your Toes"!

"On Yours Toes" may well be one of Rogers and Hart's finest collaborations and this 1983 cast recording may well be the musical's finest incarnation to date. Several elements combine to make this such a success with the cast and the score foremost among them. The freshness and variation of the music are well represented here, and it isn't hard to follow the plot for those who are not familiar with the show. The vocals are all good with Christine Andreas deserving of special mention. She adds whimsy and variation to each of her songs, and hers are arguably the best and most well known from the score. I think Rogers and Hart would be very pleased with the treatment of this piece as represented by this album.

I saw this musical twenty-five years ago, and I remember distinctly sitting in the mezzanine watching--listening to--absorbing through every pore--the title song, "On Your Toes". It was the classic eleven o'clock number. And I'll tell ya, I remember just as distinctly thinking to myself, "This would be a perfect time to die because nothing will ever be as wonderful as this moment."

Okay, in retrospect, I am mostly glad that I didn't die just then. God knows in Midtown Manhattan in 1983 there were innumerable ways to die, and none of them were good. Besides, if I'd died then, I would never know what it's like now to have this much fun with nostalgia. To be crystal clear: On Your Toes is serious fun. The production was a faithful recreation of the 1936 original (dropping a few jokes that just couldn't translate over time). Same director. Same choreography. Same orchestrations. Two pianos even--`thirties style.

I had to listen to this recording again after a couple of days of listening to Kelli O'Hara's new release. On a couple of her tracks, she reminds me of the female lead in this production, Christine Andreas. Christine Andreas has two duets and a solo as well as a solo section in the title number. And she is something else. After twenty-five years, I still remember vividly the warmth and charisma she imbued to this production. It's a warmth that carried over to the cast recording beautifully. There's a purity in Christine Andreas' voice that's unmistakable. (It's still there, incidentally. I just heard her a few months ago, and her voice is still a joy.) You can easily hear her smiling through the cozy standards, "It's Got to be Love" and "There's a Small Hotel". You can feel the shudder of her plaintive heart in "Glad to be Unhappy". Hearing Christine Andreas is the first reason why I ever listen to this recording--and primarily why I bought the CD. (The album I bought back in 1983 was purchased then as a way to relive that quintessential eleven o'clock number.)

But there's much more to this recording. Dina Merrill does a terrific character turn with her numbers and brings the perfect professional delivery to Lorenz Hart's clever lyrics. On this recording are some of the sharpest lyrics he wrote. Take the second act opener with Dina Merrill and Lara Teeter: "Mother begged me, don't drink with any guy/ So I was made/ on lemonade/ The heart is quicker than the eye". Any student of musical theater should get this recording to understand not only how to structure a comedy song effectively, but how to deliver a comedy song. Merrill and the legendary George S. Irving did it right in this show.

In fact, a student of musical theater would do well to study the structure of this whole production. It can be gratifying to explore just how a fairly intense jazz ballet can be successfully incorporated into an otherwise frivolous musical comedy. "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" was truly ground-breaking in the 1936 production, and it's a seventeen and a half minute stunner of an instrumental dance finale here. (What you really ought to do, if you're serious about studying musicals, is dig up Walter Kerr's review of this production for the New York Times. I think he figured out just how an aging, thinly plotted musical like this could thrill a modern audience. Something I wish more directors of the current generation of musicals could figure out.)
Anyone hesitant to bother replacing their aging LP of On Your Toes should know that George S. Irving's gentle, soulful reprise of "Quiet Night" is included here, having been cut from the original recording. The ballets are finally unabridged as well. Furthermore, every photo and all the liner notes from the LP, including the plot synopsis, is nicely incorporated into the CD package. If you care about that sort of thing. Which you probably do if you're reading this.

Look, it's going to be a long, hot, miserable summer. You're going to get a stack of bills you can't pay, and life is going to stay infinitely more complicated than it was for you twenty-five years ago. You could probably give yourself some distraction listening to your original cast recordings from Spring Awakening or Into the Heights. But I promise you, On Your Toes is what you really need. You need songs that will inspire you dance around the kitchen. Songs that you can learn and subsequently use to charm the pants off of anyone with a heart. Songs with clever lyrics that make you grin and give you a taste for lemonade. You're not getting any younger, and life is challenging enough; get On Your Toes.

I fell in love with On Your Toes when I saw it in 1983 and time has done nothing to diminish my memories of it. The score is spectatular with the original Spialek orchestrations and this recording makes them sound even better than before. Anyone who likes Rogers and Hart should add this to their collection.

ON YOUR TOES was the first musical in which dance was an integral part of both the score and the plot. The famous "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" ballet, for example, both tells its own story and is essential to the story of ON YOUR TOES. The show has one of the great Rodgers and Hart scores, with songs ranging from the clever pastiche of a 1920's vaudeville number, "Two a Day for Keith," and the bouncy dance tune "It's Got to Be Love," to the classic love duet "There's a Small Hotel," the gentle torch song "Glad to Be Unhappy," and the knockout title song, as well as two witty duets, "Too Good for the Average Man" and "The Heart Is Quicker Than the Eye." This revival cast album has the original 1936 orchestrations, enhanced by spectacular recorded sound. The performances are all delightful, with Christine Andreas the vocal standout. Her attractive, versatile soprano sounds lovely in the ballads and vibrant in the uptempo numbers. "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue," which concludes the album, is its undoubted highlight; the orchestra under John Mauceri truly shines here. This is the recording of ON YOUR TOES to buy!

ON YOUR TOES is one of the finer collaborations between Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The original production was a big hit on Broadway in the 30's, but a revival in 1954 with Bobby Van and Elaine Stritch was a huge failure. In 1983, ON YOUR TOES came back to Broadway to huge acclaim, in a revival starring lovely Christine Andreas, Natalia Makarova and Dina Merrill (as Miss Porterfield), among the strong cast. The Rodgers-Hart score includes the standards "Glad to Be Unhappy", "The Heart is Quicker Than the Eye" (delightfully-performed by Dina Merrill and Lara Teeter), "There's a Small Hotel" and the sumptuous ballet "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue". Natalia Makarova won a Tony for her performance (though CATS took out Best Musical, and Tommy Tune won Best Actor in a Musical for MY ONE AND ONLY).

This is the best version available. Excellent performance. Crisp recording with detailed attention to original score.

I like Babes in Arms and The Boys From Syracuse better, but so what? Rodgers and Hart were as good a team as the Broadway musical ever had and this is indeed one of their best, in a fantastic recording that is as true to the original sound as they could get it. There aren't so many full recordings of Rodgers and Hart musicals, and this is one of the best there is. Go for it.