Saratoga (1959 Original Broadway Cast) [Cast Recording]

Harold Arlen, Carol Lawrence, Truman Gaige, Johnny Mercer, Howard Keel, Carol Brice

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 6, 2000)
• Original Release Date: December 1959
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording
• Label: RCA Victor Broadway
• ASIN: B00004TDXO
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #37,639 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Saratoga seemed to have everything in its favor when it opened on Broadway in December 1959: a story by Edna Ferber (Show Boat), a score by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, and a cast featuring MGM musical star Howard Keel, as well as Carol Lawrence, fresh from her triumph in West Side Story. Yet the show closed after a mere 10 weeks, a victim of a cumbersome book, unwieldy locale shifts between Saratoga and New Orleans, and a score that had to be revised during tryouts by Mercer alone after Arlen fell ill. While there are no classic tunes here, it's an enjoyable 40 minutes, with Lawrence and Keel shining on numerous duets, including the love songs "Why Fight This?" and "A Game of Poker," along with some of Arlen's trademark bluesy accents, peppy ensembles, and a female duet, "Gettin' a Man," that recalls Frank Loesser's "Marry the Man Today." --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good example of a not very good musical from the past, June 6, 2000

By	F. Behrens "Frank Behrens" (Keene, NH USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

As much as I am forever lamenting the decline of the tuneful Broadway musical, I never mean to imply that all of the oldies were necessarily goodies. Plenty of them were barely adequate and closed even before the original cast albums could hit the streets. A good case in point is revealed in the RCA Victor re-release of <Saratoga> (09026-63690-2).

Its credentials are great on paper: music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, starring roles taken by Howard Keel and Carol Lawrence. And yet it closed after 80 performances, having garnered 1 favorable and 6 unfavorable reviews from the big critics in New York back then. John Chapman praised the costumes, Walter Kerr blamed the book, Richard Watts liked the first half hour, and so on. The problem seems to be that "Saratoga" looked like a period piece but did not sound like one.

"I'll be respectable" is just one in the long line of "I'm-gonna-make-it" songs and one of Keel's ballads is given a Cole Porter-ish Latin beat that is totally out of keeping with the mood, time and place of the action. Still, the score is a lot of fun and miles better than the long dry recites of recent musicals in which the composers are content to come up with one good tune and go into rehearsal, as someone wrote about "Evita." Heck, Keel can save a song as no one (but Drake, of course) can; and all in all, this CD is worth the hearing.

PS: It is possible that "Saratoga" suffered by comparison with other musicals that opened at the same time--"Gypsy," "Fiorello!" and "The Sound of Music" being the most notable.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A few attractive numbers in this Broadway failure., May 23, 2004

By	Mark Andrew Lawrence "Theatre Reviewer" (Toronto) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

SARATOGA was flop, no question, and a deserved one too. It was ineptly put together and based on a novel that does not really lend itself to a musical comedy treatment.

This would be Harold Arlen's final Broadway score and a sad farewell. Arlen reportedly became so depressed during the try-outs that he went home to New York leaving Johnny Mercer to write three songs on his own.

All this might lead one to believe the score is a washout. It isn't, even though itr is nowhere near as good as HOUSE OF FLOWERS or ST. LOUIS WOMAN. "Gettin' a man" is a great comedy song ("they understand the promised land, but buying the property ...NO!") but this is followed by "Petticoat High" which has the carefully controlled Clio kicking up her heels with the peasants.

Howard Keel sings so well that you imagine if SARATOGA had succeeded he would have made a career of musicals in the 1960s: He would have been far better than Sydney Chaplin in FUNNY GIRL!
Carol Lawrence is quite wonderful, but nothing in the score really shows off her voice. The most interesting voice belongs to Carol Brice who shows up in two cuts.

SARATOGA is for collectors of Broadway flops and Harold Arlen fans only.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Arlen and Mercer's swan song - a dying swan., May 9, 2001

By	A. Andersen (Bellows Falls, VT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Two of our greatest song writers, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, who gave their best to the screen and tin pan alley, could not make it on Broadway. This was the last of their attempts and it is, frankly, dull. There are fifteen songs and one ballet. Out of these there are only four that spark some interest: the jaunty GETTIN A MAN, THE MEN WHO RUN THE COUNTRY, and THE CURE as well as the love song, LOVE HELD LIGHTLY. But the rest is just mediocre - acceptable but mediocre. The show lasted only 80 performances with Cecil Beaton earning the show's only Tony Noms (for Sets and Costumes), winning for Costumes. If you like Carol Lawrence or Howard Keel, then by all means buy this. If you're an Arlen or Mercer fan, don't. Remember them by their other works, the hits.