Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Listen Again, April 20, 2000
First, a confession. I have never been able to appreciate music, except in rare instances, on a first listen. Almost all of the music I love, from symphonies to songs to movie scores to musical scores, I have fallen in love with on third or fourth hearings. Then the melodies and harmonies coalesce for me into great music. So it was with great anticipation that I awaited the release of Marie Christine. Having seen the musical on Broadway and been intrigued by the fleeting bits of melody my defective ears could find, I was dying to hear the score again. Well, now I have, and I can say it's a stellar one. Quite contrary to many reports, the musical is full of melody, bouncing playful melodies that sit alongside more dissonant and rangy ones. From the very beginning the score impresses, the simple repetetive melody of "Before the Morning" quickly evolving into full choral harmonies dancing with counterpoint. One gets the impression that this score would impress no matter who is singing the title role (OK, maybe not Bea Arthur, but still) but Audra McDonald continues to dazzle. This, her first Broadway leading role, affords her the opportunity to show off both vocal and acting talents in a way much fuller than she's done before. She sings with beauty, with passion and with pain and we're carried along. Anthony Crivello, while quite good, pales slightly next to his castmate; perhaps the role should have been balanced with someone with as big a presence as Ms. McDonald; Mandy Patinkin perhaps? (while thousands shudder audibly, other thousands get giddy at the idea). Nonetheless, this is a must-have CD for any fan of modern musical theater. Full of beautiful, thrilling music and a intensely tragic story, Marie Christine makes for a visceral listen.
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lots to love, lots to dislike...., June 12, 2000
Every composer should be as lucky as Michael John Lachiusa; he gets the amazing Jonathan Tunick to orchestrate his work, the incandescent Audra McDonald to sing it, the brilliant Graciela Daniele to direct it, and a superb recording staff to make the cast recording come to life.What's more amazing is that his own talent is deserving all of this. Marie Christine is a fascinating concept: "Medea" told in turn-of-the-century New Orleans and Chicago, with sounds of African voodoun, intriguing melodies, and poweful dissonances. It's an amazingly ambitious work, and it almost succeeds. Starting with the good points: The cast is top-notch. Audra McDonald does her usual jaw-droppingly amazing job (the woman is a national treasure), and her performance is matched in intensity by Anthony Crivello (who manages to project power, insecurity, and narcissism; sometimes simultaneously). The supporting cast includes the magnificent Vivian Reed, the boisterous Mary Testa, and wonderful choral work. "Before the Morning," "Way Back To Paradise," "C'est L'amour," and "Tell Me" are powerful, unique, and stunning songs. The most serious flaw with this work as it comes through on CD is that LaChiusa seems uninterested in writing a simple melody when a dramatic one will do... "Nothing Beats Chicago," "Cincinnati," and "The Scorpion" are all light moments, but you'd never know it from the music, which LaChiusa imbues with as much complexity as the stunning "Way Back to Paradise" and "I Will Give". LaChiusa's most obvious predecessor is Sondheim (although it's hardly fair to compare them; LaChiusa is his own voice), but he lacks the latter's lyric ability. The words in general serve more as soliloquies and dialogue rather than musical lyrics (although he does come up with some nice turns of phrase, they are too few and far between for my taste), which is probably why this sounds more like an opera than a musical. LaChiusa is incredibly exciting, though: He's prolific, creative, talented, and devoted to re-inventing musical theater. I'm looking forward to what comes next. Look at this recording as part of the start of the future, and maybe this insane world of musical theater has some post-"Footloose" and "Saturday Night Fever" hope after all.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Evocative and sensual, June 18, 2000
There are some who say that Michael John LaChiusa's music is "difficult." These are undoubtedly the same people who think that because Sondheim is difficult to whistle, he's a poor melodist. LaChuisa's score for "Marie Christine," an updating of the story of Medea, is a beautiful and sensual work that captures the emotional intensity of this very troubled character perfectly. Audra McDonald is wonderful in the title role; she wraps her voice around such soaring ballads as "Way Back to Paradise" and "Beautiful" as if she had discovered singing and realized what a glorious thing it was. In general, while not as enthusiastically hummable as the scores of, say, Rodgers and Hammerstein, LaChiusa still manages to create something that is both memorable and evocative of the locale and time. Many reviewers and critics have declared LaChiusa the Next Sondheim: while I don't necessarily agree with this judgement, I can certainly see how they have arrived at this conclusion: LaChiusa, like Sondheim, creates unorthodox characters and weaves them complex melodies that require more than one listening in order to appreciate fully. Fans of Sondheim, and even the works of Flaherty & Ahrens ("Ragtime," "Once on This Island") are almost certain to enjoy this CD -- even if you're not, Audra McDonald is reason enough.
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