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 | Title : Sweet Smell of Success (2002 Original Broadway Cast)
Author : Marvin Hamlisch
Release Date : 20020423
Binding : Audio CD
Regular Price : $18.98
Amazon.com Price : $13.49
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Editorial Reviews :
Based on the Clifford Odets novella and the 1957 film of the same name, this show aims to be a savvy, sharp satire of the gossip industry. Yet more often than not, it's oddly mushy, and a couple of the songs are almost Frank Wilderhornian in their witless, elephantine scope. John Lithgow, who plays ruthless gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker, is not much of a singer, but Broadway has a history of nontraditional vocalists pulling through thanks to chutzpah, charisma, and interpretive chops--Elaine Stritch comes to mind. Lithgow isn't quite in that league, but he does a fine job nevertheless. And while Craig Carnelia's lyrics don't make much of an impression, Marvin Hamlisch (A Chorus Line) comes to the rescue with a score that's fairly swinging, even if it lacks the dark punch of Elmer Bernstein's score for the movie. A couple of variations on sultry ballads, 'Don't Know Where You Leave Off' and 'Rita's Tune,' are notable.
Buyer Reviews :
The much-maligned Hamlisch-Guare-Carnelia musical will close on June 15, but thankfully the Original Cast Recording will remain behind to remind us of the missed potential of Sweet Smell of Success.
In the cast recording, the creative team of Marvin Hamlisch (music), Craig Carnelia (lyrics) and John Guare (book) have presented a dark and gritty (if somewhat inconsistent) representation of 1952 Manhattan, bolstered to great extent by the fabulous orchestrations created by William David Brohn. The score's lighter moments pulse with riffs crooned on woodwinds, punctuated by blats from the brass section; its slower jazz numbers evoke smoky lounges. The first few tracks will grab listeners with their energy, but they set a tone for the rest of the recording that is difficult to maintain and does not appear consistently again until the CD's final few tracks.
The story of Sweet Smell of Success, despite its trumpeting of John Lithgow as JJ Hunsecker, is really about a press agent named Sidney Falcone (Brian D'Arcy James). Sidney's only client is a backwater jazz club, and the boss has told him that unless he gets the club plugged in JJ's column, he's out of work. Desperate to find new clients, Sidney offers his services to Dallas (Jack Noseworthy) - a nobody of a jazz pianist - and Susan (Kelli O'Hara), a young beauty and aspiring actress who is at the club to see Dallas, her lover. Neither of them bite.
We soon learn that Susan is JJ Hunsecker's (John Lithgow) sister, and that she lives in fear that JJ will discover her relationship with Dallas and condemn it because he's a nobody. So when Hunsecker shows up at the club looking for her, Susan insists that Sidney is her acting class partner and Dallas slips away.
As a result of this ploy, and playing the part of an over-protective sibling, Hunsecker takes an interest in Sidney. He fixes Sidney up with a new wardrobe and gets him a bunch of clients, but after a few weeks, Hunsecker's true motives are exposed: he wants Sidney to keep an eye on his sister and report on everything. A terrible rock-and-hard-place scenario is set up when Susan asks Sidney to get Dallas a plug in Hunsecker's column; soon afterwards, Hunsecker begins to suspect that Susan is seeing someone who is cutting her off from his view and control, and he demands that Sidney discover the man's identity and break up the relationship.
Sidney eventually lets it slip to Susan that he's been asked by JJ to watch her. The two of them hatch a plot to help hide the relationship from Hunsecker, but this proves impossible. Furious at being duped by Sidney, Hunsecker blackballs him and he loses all his clients. The desperate acts that follow form a pawn game where all the major players want to be the chess master... but ultimately, somebody has to be the sacrificial playing piece.
The musical is based upon dark subject matter and should therefore be quite dark in tone. For the most part, this is true: the music is gritty with the heavy influence of dirty 50s jazz. However, the flow of the main story is interrupted by the insertion of 'production numbers' that one assumes were meant to help lighten the tone of the production. 'The Column', 'Welcome To The Night' and 'Dirt' are three examples of songs that stand fabulously on their own but do not fit well within the greater context of the musical. The chorus of the show forms a Greek chorus, whispering directives at Sidney and ushering him towards his fate; this chorus is used to great darkening effect in some numbers ('Break It Up' comes immediately to mind), but the dance arrangements in the three aforementioned numbers make the listener question what overall emotional effect the show is trying to achieve. The latter half of the recording (after 'Dirt') is much more consistent as the plot barrels towards its climax and conclusion. Individually, the majority of the songs shine, but as a whole the score just doesn't seem to gel.
While the recording is ca back
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