SOUNDTRACKS
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Soundtracks are a lot more than movie music...
...or so I'm ready to argue as a 30 year devotee of this sorely under appreciated genre. So, in an effort to do my part, each week
I'll be making recommendations of soundtracks current and vintage, make a fuss over long awaited soundtrack scores finally getting
a well deserved release, and in general, make some noise about this often overlooked category. Beyond my long experience as a
listener and as a pianist and songwriter, both of which I've put to use in writing a quarterly soundtrack column for the Chicago
Tribune, I can only offer my recommendations. You'll discern my taste soon enough and upfront I'd like to make it clear that I'll
focus most heavily on SCORE soundtracks. In the end, all criticism is subjective but if I can point a listener toward a little heard
soundtrack or strongly advise you to either ORDER IMMEDIATELY or SKIP ALTOGETHER, all the better.
...or so I'm ready to argue as a 30 year devotee of this sorely under appreciated genre. So, in an effort to do my part, each week
I'll be making recommendations of soundtracks current and vintage, make a fuss over long awaited soundtrack scores finally getting
a well deserved release, and in general, make some noise about this often overlooked category. Beyond my long experience as a
listener and as a pianist and songwriter, both of which I've put to use in writing a quarterly soundtrack column for the Chicago
Tribune, I can only offer my recommendations. You'll discern my taste soon enough and upfront I'd like to make it clear that I'll
focus most heavily on SCORE soundtracks. In the end, all criticism is subjective but if I can point a listener toward a little heard
soundtrack or strongly advise you to either ORDER IMMEDIATELY or SKIP ALTOGETHER, all the better.
I realize that the original Broadway cast recording of Grey Gardens is stretching
what passes for my usual soundtrack recommendation but given that the musical
is based on the ever fascinating 1977 Maysles Brothers documentary of the same
title and my current obsession with the musical, I'm making the exception. Just
as I did for Amy Winehouse and the holiday CDs of Midler and Streisand. And, I
hasten to add, this is one show that can never have enough recommendations.
Also, Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson, the star and co-star of the show
both just received well deserved Tony Awards.
Enough with the justification. Just forget all that blather and go get the Broadway
cast album and prepare to immerse yourself in one of the most achingly beautiful
and melodic scores this little show tune queen has heard in eons. I know, I know,
everyone's ga ga over "Spring Awakening" and the music of Duncan Sheik and it
is a very good score. But Scott Frankel's music and lyrics also capture this
heartbreaking, spellbinding story in ways that will resonate with you long after
each of these beautiful songs are over with.
Grey Gardens, for the uninitiated, focuses on the relationship between Big Edie and
her daughter Little Edie a/k/a Body Beautiful Beale. Cousins of Jackie Bouvier
Kennedy, the Beale's went from leaders of the Hampton social scene to two
women living as recluses in their crumbling, decayed mansion, with their 54 cats
and hippie handyman Jerry for company. Big Edie's husband took a powder and
though Little Edie was a gorgeous debutante with the prospect of a wealthy and
rewnowned husband, she ended up staying at Grey Gardens to tend to her mother
and fashion her increasingly bizarre fashions and ideas.
The film follows the women in their decline ala Miss Havisham and niece Estella,
the musical takes that as its second act and adds for the first act an imagined
past -- a pastiche of the elegant parties given by the Beale's when Grey Gardens
was at its fashionable height back in the 1940s. Christine Ebersole plays Big Edie
in the first act, Little Edie in the second, and never fails to mesmerize (her voice
is clear as a crystal bell). Mary Louise Wilson takes over the role of Big Edie in
the second act. Frankel's songs give both actresses glorious moments to shine.
Ebersole, with the role of a lifetime, is vibrant and fun in the opening act with its
sunny musical delights, saucy and quirky as the second act begins ("The
Revolutionary Costume For Today") and somber and wistful as the show draws to
its close ("Around the World"). Throughout, his score, delicately orchestrated,
beautifully sung by all in the cast, shimmers and rewards with repeated listens.
And it's also melodic as hell -- something that "Light in the Piazza," another
musical about a troubled mother-daughter relationship was missing. So you get
both Jerry Herman and Stephen Sondheim in one score. It's a bit off putting at
first, I must admit but obviously at this point, it's worked it's magic on me. I
hope it does the same for you.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Don't forget to check out previous soundtrack recommendations by visiting the
ARCHIVES
Next Recommendation: TBA
what passes for my usual soundtrack recommendation but given that the musical
is based on the ever fascinating 1977 Maysles Brothers documentary of the same
title and my current obsession with the musical, I'm making the exception. Just
as I did for Amy Winehouse and the holiday CDs of Midler and Streisand. And, I
hasten to add, this is one show that can never have enough recommendations.
Also, Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson, the star and co-star of the show
both just received well deserved Tony Awards.
Enough with the justification. Just forget all that blather and go get the Broadway
cast album and prepare to immerse yourself in one of the most achingly beautiful
and melodic scores this little show tune queen has heard in eons. I know, I know,
everyone's ga ga over "Spring Awakening" and the music of Duncan Sheik and it
is a very good score. But Scott Frankel's music and lyrics also capture this
heartbreaking, spellbinding story in ways that will resonate with you long after
each of these beautiful songs are over with.
Grey Gardens, for the uninitiated, focuses on the relationship between Big Edie and
her daughter Little Edie a/k/a Body Beautiful Beale. Cousins of Jackie Bouvier
Kennedy, the Beale's went from leaders of the Hampton social scene to two
women living as recluses in their crumbling, decayed mansion, with their 54 cats
and hippie handyman Jerry for company. Big Edie's husband took a powder and
though Little Edie was a gorgeous debutante with the prospect of a wealthy and
rewnowned husband, she ended up staying at Grey Gardens to tend to her mother
and fashion her increasingly bizarre fashions and ideas.
The film follows the women in their decline ala Miss Havisham and niece Estella,
the musical takes that as its second act and adds for the first act an imagined
past -- a pastiche of the elegant parties given by the Beale's when Grey Gardens
was at its fashionable height back in the 1940s. Christine Ebersole plays Big Edie
in the first act, Little Edie in the second, and never fails to mesmerize (her voice
is clear as a crystal bell). Mary Louise Wilson takes over the role of Big Edie in
the second act. Frankel's songs give both actresses glorious moments to shine.
Ebersole, with the role of a lifetime, is vibrant and fun in the opening act with its
sunny musical delights, saucy and quirky as the second act begins ("The
Revolutionary Costume For Today") and somber and wistful as the show draws to
its close ("Around the World"). Throughout, his score, delicately orchestrated,
beautifully sung by all in the cast, shimmers and rewards with repeated listens.
And it's also melodic as hell -- something that "Light in the Piazza," another
musical about a troubled mother-daughter relationship was missing. So you get
both Jerry Herman and Stephen Sondheim in one score. It's a bit off putting at
first, I must admit but obviously at this point, it's worked it's magic on me. I
hope it does the same for you.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Don't forget to check out previous soundtrack recommendations by visiting the
ARCHIVES
Next Recommendation: TBA
| The original Broadway cast recording (which differs from the Off-Broadway version) and the creative team responsible in large for the magic in Grey Gardens (L-R) Scott Frankel, composer and lyrics, star Christine Ebersole, and book writer Doug Wright |
NOTE, APRIL 2009: Yet another version of Grey Gardens, this time starring Drew
Barrymore and Jessica Lange in a tremendous film co-written, directed and
produced by Michael Sucsy for HBO is another excuse (as if one is needed) to
remind you to pick up the score to the musical edition - GOT GET IT NOW!!!
Barrymore and Jessica Lange in a tremendous film co-written, directed and
produced by Michael Sucsy for HBO is another excuse (as if one is needed) to
remind you to pick up the score to the musical edition - GOT GET IT NOW!!!