Let’s Go On With The Show
– Hit Songs From The West End & Broadway
Louise Gold
featured on Track 1 as:. Maria a Kit Kat Klub Girl from Cabaret, Showtime
Recording
Catalogue
number: (CD) SHOW CD016
Produced
in 1995 by Jay Productions Ltd and Music Collection International Ltd
Cast
Credited
Thomas Allen (as Fred Graham/Petruchio from Kiss Me Kate)
Bonaventure Bottone (as Detlof from The Student Prince)
Muriel Dickinson
John Diedrich (as
Curly from
Fiona Fullerton (as Guinevere from Camelot)
Richard Harris (as King Arthur from Camelot)
Bob Hoskins (as Alfred Dolittle from My Fair Lady)
Christopher Lee (as The King from The King And I)
Valerie Masterson (as Anna Leonowens from The King And I, and, Marsinah from Kismet)
Diana Montague (as Lilli Vanessi/Kate from Kiss Me Kate)
Tinuke Olafimihan
(as Maria from
Jonathan Pryce (as MC from Cabaret)
David Rendall (as The Caliph from Kismet)
Madge Ryan (as
Aunt Eller from
Leslie Uggams (as
Un-Credited (Includes)
Clare Burt (as Frenchie a Kit Kat Club Girl from Cabaret)
Jacqueline Dankworth (as Fritzie a Kit Kat Club Girl from Cabaret)
Louise Gold (as Maria a Kit Kat Club girl from Cabaret)
Claire Moore (as Rosie a Kit Kat Club girl from Cabaret)
Caroline O’Connor
(as
Gay Soper (as Lulu a Kit Kat Club girl from Cabaret)
Production Team
Produced for Records by John Yap,
Sleeve Notes by – Rexton S Bunnet
Orchestras – The Munich Symphony Orchestra, The National Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and others
Conductors – Gerry Allison, Janet Glazener, and, John Owen Edwards
Track Listing
1. Wilkommen (from Cabaret)- Jonathan Pryce and Company (Clare
Burt, Jacqueline Dankworth, Louise Gold, Claire Moore, Caroline
O’Connor, and, Gay Soper), with The National Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by John Owen Edwards
2. Send In The
Clowns (from A
Little Night Music) – Sian
Phillips, with The National Symphony
Orchestra conducted by John Owen
Edwards
3. I Am What I Am (from La Cage Aux Folles) – Leslie Uggams, with the orchestra
conducted by Janet Glazner
4. Somewhere (from West Side Story) –
5. Wunderbar (from Kiss Me Kate) – Thomas Allen, and, Diana Montague, with The
National Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Owen Edwards
6. Oh, What A
Beautiful Mornin’
(from
7. Shall We Dance (from The King And I) – Christopher Lee, and, Valerie Masterson, with The National Symphony Orchestra
conducted by John Owen Edwards
8.You’ll Never Walk
Alone (from Carousel)
– Muriel Dickinson, with The Munich Symphony Orchestra conducted
by John Owen Edwards
9. Camelot (from Camelot) – Richard Harris, and, Fiona Fullerton, with orchestra
conducted by Gerry Allison
10. Get Me To The
Church On Time
(from My Fair Lady) – Bob
Hoskins and Company, with The
National Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Owen Edwards
11. Stranger In
12. The Drinking
Song (from The
Student Prince) – Bonaventura
Bottone and Company, with the Philharmonia
Orchestra conducted by John Owen
Edwards
The number Wilkommen
comes from the JAY/TER recording of Cabaret.
Thomas Allen, and, Valerie Masterson
can also be heard on The Best Of
Broadway Musicals; accompanied by The
National Symphony Orchestra, and the Philharmonia
Orchestra, with maestros Janet
Glazener, and, John Owen Edwards.
Thomas Allen, Clare Burt, Louise Gold, Richard Harris, Valerie
Masterson, Claire Moore, Tinuke Olafimihan, Sian Phillips, Jonathan
Pryce, David Rendall, and, Leslie Uggams, can also be heard on Encore The Very Best From The
Musicals; accompanied by The
National Symphony Orchestra, with maestros Gerry Allison, Janet
Glazener, and, John Owen Edwards.
This album includes the same recordings of Send In The Clowns, and, I Am
What I Am.
Thomas Allen, Clare Burt, and, Diana Montague can also be heard
on Cole Porter - Night And Day;
accompanied by The National Symphony
Orchestra, with maestro John Owen
Edwards. This album includes the same recording of Wunderbar.
Thomas Allen, John Diedrich, Christopher Lee,
Thomas Allen’s has been seen on television in The Ghost Of Faffner Hall.
Thomas Allen, Richard Harris, Diana Montague, and, Valerie Masterson can also be heard on The Great Musicals – Glamour & Majesty;
accompanied by The National Symphony
Orchestra, with maestros Gerry
Allison, and, John Owen Edwards.
This album includes the same recording of Wunderbar.
Thomas Allen, and, Caroline O’Connor
can also be heard on The Great
Musicals – Dashing Heroes, Blushing Maidens; accompanied by The National Symphony Orchestra, and,
the Philharmonia Orchestra, with
maestros Gerry Allison, and, John Owen Edwards.
Thomas Allen, Bonaventure Bottone, Clare Burt, Jacqueline Dankworth, Muriel
Dickinson, Louise Gold, Richard Harris, Valerie Masterson, Diana
Montague, Claire Moore, Caroline O’Connor, Sian Phillips, Jonathan
Pryce, David Rendall, and, Gay Soper can also be heard on Magic Of The Musicals; accompanied by The National Symphony Orchestra, with
maestros Gerry Allison, Janet Glazener, and, John Owen Edwards. This album includes
the same recordings of: Wilkommen, Wunderbar, You’ll
Never Walk Alone, Stranger In
Clare Burt, Muriel Dickinson,
Clare Burt, Fiona Fullerton, Richard Harris, and, Tinuke Olafimihan can also be heard on The Greatest Musicals of
the 20th Century; accompanied by The National Symphony Orchestra, with maestros Gerry Allison, and, John
Owen Edwards. This album includes the same recording of Camelot.
Richard Harris may have taken part in The Royal Variety Performance
1982.
Louise Gold, Richard Harris, Christopher Lee, Valerie Masterson, Claire
Moore, Caroline O’Connor, Tinuke Olafimihan, and, Jonathan Pryce can also be heard on The Great Musicals – Wonderful Tales;
accompanied by The National Symphony
Orchestra, with maestros Gerry
Allison, and, John Owen Edwards.
Clare Burt, Jacqueline Dankworth, Louise Gold, Richard Harris, Bob Hoskins,
Valerie Masterson, Claire Moore, Caroline O’Connor, Tinuke
Olafimihan, Jonathan Pryce, and,
Gay Soper can also be heard on Centre Stage Showtime! Accompanied by The Munich Symphony Orchestra, and, The National Symphony Orchestra, with
maestros Gerry Allison, and, John Owen Edwards. This album includes
the same recording of Wilkommen.
Richard Harris, and, Caroline O’Connor
can also be heard on The Best Of The
Musicals; accompanied by The
National Symphony Orchestra, with maestros Gerry Allison, and, John
Owen Edwards.
Jacqueline Dankworth, Louise
Gold, Christopher Lee,
Valerie Masterson, and, Tinuke
Olafimihan can also be heard on On The Town,
accompanied by The National Symphony
Orchestra with maestro John Owen
Edwards.
Clare Burt, Jacqueline Dankworth,
and, Valerie Masterston can also be
heard on The Great Musicals – Laughter And
Tears; accompanied by The National
Symphony Orchestra, with maestro John
Owen Edwards.
Sian Phillips, and, Gay Soper took part
in Shopping With The Stars 2009.
Jonathan Pryce appeared on television in A Week
In The West End.
Leslie Uggams has appeared on television as a Guest Star on The Muppet Show.
Clare Burt appeared in A Love Letter To Dan.
Jacqueline Dankworth and Louise
Gold had previously appeared together in Merrily We Roll Along (Stage Production)
and on the associated album Merrily
We Roll Along (Recording).
Louise Gold, and, Claire Moore have
previously appeared together in Kids At Heart,
and, A Time To Start Living.
Claire Moore may have taken part in Will Aid, Comedy Tonight, and, Thing
A Thon.
Gay Soper
had previously appeared in a concert of highlights from the Ratepayer’s Iolanthe
& Metropolitan Mikado, where the orchestra was also conducted by John Owen Edwards.
Louise Gold, and, Gap Soper had
previously appeared together in The Soap Opera.
Gay Soper
appeared in The Regent’s Park 70th
Anniversary Gala, the Side By Side 30th
Anniversary Gala, and at Dress
Circle Grand Re-Opening.
The National Symphony Orchestra can also be heard on Stop The World I Want To Get Off.
John Owen Edwards had previously conducted The Metropolitan Mikado.
Jacqueline Dankworth, Claire
Moore, Caroline O’Connor, Tinuke Olafimihan, and, Gay Soper’s recording credits include The Great Musicals - From Broadway to
Hollywood; This also involved The
National Symphony Orchestra, with maestro John Owen Edwards.
Review
by
Yet another of those compilation albums from the JAY/TER catalogue, mostly using bits of
The
Musicals Collection. In fact this particular compilation was a
relatively early addition to the stable, so much so that I wasn’t even aware of
it, and didn’t find it until some fifteen years after it was released, by which
time I had already heard nearly all the tracks, often several times, on various
other compilation albums. While most of them are perfectly decent background
music, some of them do not stand up so well to being heard quite so often. Richard Harris’s Camelot, not to mention
There are several tracks where I find myself thinking, yes that’s very nice but I’ve heard much better versions of those songs live, and sometimes superior recordings too. Send In The Clowns is a good example of both these points. Sian Phillips just doesn’t quite sound like she means it as Desiree, not in the way that Hannah Waddingham or Judi Dench do, The song does not work well out of context, and in my opinion is done far too often as such, though Louise Gold managed to make that work in the 1999 Chelmsford revival of Side By Side By Sondheim, and Millicent Martin’s 1976 Side By Side By Sondheim recording of the song is entirely satisfactory. Another example is Oh What A Beautiful Mornin’. John Diedrich is far from being any ideal performer in those splendid baritone roles (associated with Howard Keel, John Raitt, and Gordon Macrae, not to mention the tenor Alfred Drake), and I’m not to sure about Madge Ryan either. Of course when it comes to live performance (in concert) or recordings, no one could do this song justice in the way that Howard Keel could. Or more recent recordings Hugh Jackman and Maureen Lipman’s one is rather better. Though last year’s Chichester Festival Theatre’s production, with Michael Xavier and Louise Plowright respectively had a better supporting performance from Aunt Eller, though that production sadly does not have an album. And then there is You’ll Never Walk Alone, Muriel Dickinson does a passable performance of this song, but I felt it a little lacking in emotional power, there is absolutely nothing wrong with her performance, it’s just that no one can sing this piece like Michael Ball can, he turns it into such a tear-jerker. His capella version of it is particularly moving.
Then there are two tracks, where the fairly
proper versions done here are perfectly satisfactory, but there have been
television parody versions which were far more lively and interesting. For
example Valerie Masterson and David Rendall do a perfectly beautiful
satisfactory Stranger In Paradise, but have you ever heard the equally
beautiful little take on it that Sophie
Ellis Bector’s mother did on a BBC
Television Christmas special back in
1984? Similarly Bonaventure Bottone
and company get pretty into The Drinking Song from The
Student Prince, but for shear hilarity you can’t beat the very funny
performance that Jim Henson’s Muppets did of it on The Muppet Show. By
coincidence this album also happens to include a Muppet Show Guest Star, Leslie Uggams singing I Am What I am. quite nicely.
Although in context the song is done by a man in drag, it works well to have a
woman sing it out of context, but there are just too little problems. Firstly
if done out of context the song really needs a good vibrato belter to sock it
out. (For example if her sensational performance in White Christmas in
The album gets off to a rousing start with Jonathan Pryce leading that amazing studio cast company of cabaret girls. Uncredited on this CD, Clare Burt, Jacqueline Dankworth, Louise Gold, Claire Moore, Caroline O’Connor, and Gay Soper provide a splendid backing chorus, a job for which they are all completely over-qualified. Unfortunately, with the notable exception of Thomas Allen and Diana Montague’s Wunderbar, a good chunk of the rest of the album doesn’t quite live up to that Wilkommen opening. Yes its a perfectly pleasant background album, but practically every track on it can now be found more easily on other compilation albums. Perhaps the strangest thing about this album is that it’s title clearly comes from Irving Berlin’s There’s No Business Like Showbusiness, and yet that legendary song is not even included on the album. Let’s not go on with this review anymore.
Critics Comments
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