Broadway Cast
Reversing the usual life history, this musical has gone from the movies to the stage.
South African director Louis Burke and his producing partners persuaded the main composers of the beloved 1944 movie, Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, to write 10 new songs and librettist Hugh (Sweeney Todd) Wheeler to rewrite the story. Broadway vets Betty Garrett, George Hearn, Charlotte Moore and Milo O'Shea were teamed with a young, lively supporting cast.
The results are pleasing, as well as astonishingly sweet and naive, in contrast to most modern musicals.
Still, it's hard to hear "The Boy Next Door" or "The Trolley Song" without thinking of Judy Garland, despite the engaging talents of Donna Kane, who sings them here. That the movie is available on videotape doesn't do this album any favors either. (DRG)
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