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Bernstein - Wonderful Town / Simon Rattle (1999 Studio Cast) | 
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| Artists: Adolph Green, Betty Comden, Audra Mcdonald
Creators: Leonard Bernstein, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Audra Mcdonald, Brent Barrett, Karl Daymond, Kim Criswell, Kimberly Cobb, Lynton Atkinson, Melanie Marshall, Michael Dore, Robert Fardell, Rodney Gilfry, Simone Sauphanor, Thomas Hampson, Timothy Robinson
Label: EMI Classics
Category: Music
Buy New: $17.98
New (36) Used (23) Collectible (2) from $1.89
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 170485
Format: Cast Recording
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 724355675323
EAN: 0724355675323
ASIN: B00000K4EL
Release Date: September 14, 1999
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Overture | | • | Christopher Street | | • | Ohio | | • | Conquering New York | | • | One Hundred Easy Ways | | • | What a Waste | | • | A Little Bit in Love | | • | Pass the Football | | • | Conversation Piece | | • | A Quiet Girl | | • | Conga! | | • | Entr'acte | | • | My Darlin' Eileen | | • | Swing! | | • | Quiet Incidental | | • | Reprise: Ohio | | • | It's Love | | • | Ballet at the Village Vortex | | • | Wrong Note Rag | | • | Reprise: It's Love |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential recording
Leonard Bernstein's collaboration with Betty Comden and Adolph Green on Wonderful Town is one of his great Broadway triumphs, filled with memorable music and great lyrics. And the screwball tale of two fish-out-of-water small-town sisters in NYC (based on the play My Sister Eileen by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov) still sounds comical and fresh, despite the fact that it was written in the '50s and set in the '30s. Up until now, the 1958 television cast recording was the disc to have: a slightly embellished version of the original cast recording starring Rosalind Russell. The strong cast on this 1999 studio recording is every bit as impressive. Audra McDonald shines as Eileen during "A Little Bit in Love," Kim Criswell is a fine Ruth (though less memorable than Russell), and Thomas Hampson--a baritone best known for his work on the opera stage--is great as Ruth's gruff editor, Bob Baker. Simon Rattle's orchestrations are grand, yet quirky, a perfect match for Bernstein's score. It's easy to recommend a disc that has so many great vocal moments: "Conga!," "My Darlin' Eileen," "Conversation Piece," and "Pass the Football" (sung by Brent Barrett), to name a few. --Jason Verlinde
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Very nicely done............ September 17, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Wonderful Town," was one of Leonard Bernstein's earliest successes, but unfairly it has tended to be eclipsed by the later success of "West Side Story." Here, in a fizzing performance, starrily cast, Rattle rights the balance in a performance at once vigorously idiomatic and also refined in the many lyrical moments. The two characterful sisters finding their feet in the big city are brilliantly played here by Criswell and McDonald, not just charismatic as actreses, but singing superbly. Hampson as Robert just as commandingly bestrides the conflicting problem of Broadway and the classical tradition, and Brent in the cabaret tradition. Such numbers as "Ohio," 'A little bit in love,' 'Conversation piece' and 'Wrong note rag,' rounded off with the big tune of 'It's love,' can be appreciated for their full musical quality, with Rattle and his talented Birmingham group relishing the jazzy idiom. Bright, forward sound to match, and a nice little booklet which gives the full text.
 A crossover Wonderful Town far from Broadway October 7, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Maybe we need some background checks here: Have any of these other reviewers actually been to a musical? On Broadway? Or anywhere in America?
Simon Rattle startled Berlin by taking this same Wonderful Town to the Philharmonie as a gala performance. HOw in the world did they react? This performance is not much like real Broadway. Listen to just a few moments of the original cast recording with Rosalind Russell or the current NY revival with Donna Murphy, and you'll sense how many fish are out of water here.
Rattle does the best, conducting with real verve and an almost-good-enough grasp of the Boradway-swing idiom Bernstein was writing in. Eveyrone else is too obviously trying to sound like something they're not. Audra McDonald is a too-throaty Eileen, Kim Criswell an edgy, noisy Ruth, Thomas Hampson a stiffly operatic editor, Robert Baker. Altogether, this CD is an energetic but ersatz attempt to take Broadway where Broadway don't want to go.
Kim Criswell and Audra McDonald as the Sherwood sisters! July 8, 2004
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is one of the better cast albums of WONDERFUL TOWN, though nothing tops the original '53 recording with Rosalind Russell. Still, time marches on and there have been several superb Ruth's in recent years, including the fabulous Kim Criswell.Criswell has the perfect brassy voice to sing the scores of Broadway's golden classics (she's also luminous on the '91 studio album of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN), and she fits the material of TOWN to a tee. Her spin on Ruth is well worth your time and money, especially her fetching "100 Easy Ways" and showstopping "Conga!". And, as with the ANNIE GET YOUR GUN album, she's once again paired with Thomas Hampson, who plays Ruth's love interest Bob Baker (he played Frank opposite her Annie Oakley). Audra McDonald is likewise the perfect Eileen, perhaps offering up the definitive "A Little Bit in Love", and proves she's a comical cutup with "My Darlin' Eileen" as well as "Wrong-Note Rag". Brent Barrett is sadly under-used in the role of football-mad Wreck. Conductor Simon Rattle gives the album a cracking pace which never slackens or drags. A top studio album which is enlivened no end by its perfectly-realised cast.
 TOPS! June 9, 2001
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
If you need one reason to buy this super cd, let it be for Leonard Bernstein's brilliant music---his only score to win a Tony Award. (That's right: neither "Candide" nor "West Side Story" won a Tony.) The lyrics of Betty Comden and Adolph Green are some of their best. The witty duo came back to Broadway for this show, their first reunion with Bernstein since the success of "On The Town" almost 10 years before. They had very recently written the wildly successful "Singin' In The Rain" in Hollywood and with "Wonderful Town" they (& the entire creative team) conquered New York City. This CD, to my mind, is a heck of alot better in almost every way than the original cast recording which starred Rosalind Russell. Russell, of course, could not sing and although her role is heavy on comedy and light on music, Kim Criswell comes off better: she is funny & touching as well as caustic and light-handed as well as tough. Russell sounds angry and almost sullen throughout...also quite mature. Add to this, the fact that Criswell has a sensational singing voice. As her love interest,Thomas Hampson, one of our finest operatic baritones, knows exactly how to lighten his voice to sing musical comedy and does it beautifully. On the Russell CD, George Gaines merely sounds old and terribly fancy, like a serious singer who is slumming. Although Edith Adams is fine as "Eileen," Audra McDonald (a 3-time Tony winner, herself) is even better in the role of the girl that all New York City wants to woo. Brent Barrett brings his gorgeous voice, as well as comic skills to his one song as the football-playing dunce, "Wreck." The sound on this 1999 recording is superb. The conductor, Sir Simon Rattle, throws himself into Bernstein's score with verve and shows exactly how much he loves American jazz and Broadway. There are many comic numbers, all of which hit the mark, but I must mention that "A Little Bit In Love" and "A Quiet Girl" and "It's Love" have got to be three of the sweetest, cleverest, most charming "love" songs in any musical. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
An addicting recording February 22, 2001
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
I was browsing through the cd selection at my library when I came across this one. I have always liked Leonard Bernstein but for some reason had never connected him with this musical. His name and Thomas Hampson's caught my eye and I decided to try it out. I'm so glad I did! The songs are marvelous, really bringing out the whole comical aspect of the story. I had never heard of any of the performers (with the exception of Thomas Hampson, whose voice I just love) but was so impressed with their renditions of their characters. Kim Criswell's throaty voice sounds just like you would think Ruth would feel about life in general; Audra McDonald has a sweet optimistic view in her songs; Brent Barrett is hilarious in "Pass the Football" (I laugh every time I hear it--he is so expressive); and Thomas Hampson's beautiful baritone is perfect in "What a Waste" and "A Quiet Girl". The supporting singers are great, too. I have listened to this cd over and over. I just can't seem to get enough of it! The recording itself is very good, clear and detailed, and I was delighted with the booklet with the full lyrics. Altogether very good; I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys musical theatre.
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