The Mad Show (1966 Original Off-Broadway Cast)

Mary Rodgers (Artist), Marshall Barer (Artist), Larry Siegel (Artist), MacIntyre Dixon (Artist), Linda Lavin (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 22, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Drg
• ASIN: B0007514HQ
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #58,172 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Overture - Opening Number

2. Academy Awards for Parents - Linda Lavin

3. Eccch!

4. Boy From... - MacIntyre Dixon, Linda Lavin,

5. Well It Ain't - MacIntyre Dixon, , Jo Anne Worley

6. Misery Is

7. Handle With Care

8. Hate Song

9. Entr'acte

10. You Can Never Tell - MacIntyre Dixon, Linda Lavin, Jo Anne Worley

11. Real Thing

12. Looking for Someone - Linda Lavin

13. Kiddie T.V.

14. Gift of Maggie (And Others) - Jo Anne Worley

15. Football in Depth - MacIntyre Dixon, ,

16. Finale

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Best known for its hilarious bossa nova send-up "The Boy From...," the musical revue The Mad Show ran off-Broadway for three years in the late 1960s. With music by Mary Rodgers (daughter of Richard, mother of Adam Guettel) and lyrics by, among others, Marshall Barer (Rodgers's collaborator on Once Upon a Mattress) and Steven Vinaver, the show musicalized material from the satirical MAD magazine. Some of the material is of the guess-you-had-to-be-there variety, but Linda Lavin's lyrical "Looking for Someone" has seen some life past the show, and "Well It Ain't" is instantly recognizable as a Bob Dylan spoof. The best song, however, remains "The Boy From..." (also sung by Lavin), which wittily spoofs the Getz-Gilberto classic "The Girl from Ipanema" courtesy of credited lyricist "Esteban Ria Nido," a rough Spanish-translated nom de plume for Stephen Sondheim. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! Never would have guessed this would make it to CD., October 25, 2006

By	Penn Carter (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

I had this record when I was a kid and listened to it frequently when I outgrew the Disney soundtracks and fairytale records. I didn't get a lot of the references but the music was good and I could tell it was all in good fun. So glad it's available on CD since I don't have a turntable anymore and anyway wore out the vinyl years ago. A lot of the tracks are dated (you definitely need to have some knowledge of 60s pop culture to get a lot of the references) but it's still an enjoyable listen. Favorites: "You Never Can Tell", "Misery Is...", "The Gift of Maggie" and "The Boy From...".

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lost classic, September 9, 2005

By	Charles Meyerson (Chicago area) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Singable, hummable, quotable, memorable stuff, composed and performed by artists who would become much more famous in the decades to follow.

Don't miss: "You Never Can Tell," "Hate Song" and "Academy Awards for Parents." Timelessly funny.

2 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, September 13, 2005

By	Joseph Hart (Visalia, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The staff reviewer can hardly keep his pants on he's so much in love with sondheim and the boy from. It stunk. I wanted to puke before I ever found out who "wrote" it. It was NOT the best thing on the disk. Just about everything ELSE was the best thing on the disk. It was brilliantly funny, Mary Rodgers' hate song was a treasure. The skits (contrary to the staff reviewer) were not you had to be there stuff. They were hilarious, from the pseudo-overture to the final sketch. I liked some better than others, but loved them all. I bought it years ago from a store in SF that sold tapes of oop LPs. Then found a copy of the LP. And finally, the shining moment, the DVD appeared. Linda Lavin (big on Bway before Alice) and Jo Anne Worley (the only performers' names I know) were a riot.