Disc two is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Original cast includes: Nathan Lane (Sheridan Whiteside); Bernadette Peters (Maggie Cutler); Carol Burnett (Lorraine Sheldon); Mike Myers (Banjo); Tommy Tune (Beverly Carlton).
Recorded in Bratislava, Slovakia on May 2001 and Prague, Czech Republic in January 2003. Includes liner notes by James Lipton.
In 1967, James Lipton, a 40-year-old lyricist/librettist who had one Broadway flop (1962's Nowhere to Go But Up) behind him, got together with Laurence Rosenthal, a 40-year-old composer best known for the film Becket (1964), which had earned him an Academy Award nomination, and they wrote Sherry!, a musical based on George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's comic 1939 play The Man Who Came to Dinner, a send-up of the author and radio commentator Alexander Woollcott (fictionalized as Sheridan Whiteside, hence "Sherry!") with supporting roles for characters based on Noël Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, and Harpo Marx. The original play was a hit, running 739 performances and earning frequent revivals. But Lipton and Rosenthal's musical was a flop, running 72 performances, not even enough to interest a record company in making a cast album, and that was that. Rosenthal went back to screen composing, eventually focusing on television work. Lipton found minor writing and acting assignments, then settled into moderating a "meet the celebrities" course at New York's New School for Social Research that eventually moved to the cable-TV channel Bravo as Inside the Actors Studio. Each week, viewers could see the amazingly obsequious Lipton shamelessly buttering up great actors and many not-so-great ones. Meanwhile, the musical parts for Sherry! were lost, meaning that the show couldn't even be resurrected for a high-school production.
But in 2000, they were located at the Library of Congress, and Lipton used his brown-nosing to good purpose, talking a dream cast of former guests on his show into making this studio-cast recording of the 37-year-old musical. And what a cast it is! Nathan Lane, Carol Burnett, Bernadette Peters, Tommy Tune, Mike Myers (!?!), Tom Wopat, Lillias White, Phyllis Newman: if any producer tried to mount an actual Broadway production using such a musical theater A-list, the payroll would rival that of the New York Yankees (and, to turn a profit, the show would have to be put on in Yankee Stadium). Needless to say, the album could be expected to be pretty good just because of all that talent, and it is. But Lipton and Rosenthal's score isn't bad, either. The music is a cross between period-appropriate pre-World War II pop and the kind of pastiche of that style approximated by Jerry Herman in the '60s musicals Hello, Dolly! and Mame. Indeed, the title song sounds very much like an attempted successor to the title songs from those shows. (In his liner notes, Lipton incorrectly claims a recording of it hit number three in Billboard; in fact, Marilyn Maye's pre-opening version got to number eight, and only in Billboard's easy listening chart, at that.) The lyrics are witty in the manner of Cole Porter in places, and merely serviceable in others. Sherry! is not a great lost work, by any means. But it is certainly a professional effort, and this accomplished recording no doubt will inspire stage productions. (The second disc is an enhanced CD containing extensive video material, including excerpts from the Inside the Actors Studio stints by the principals and footage from the recording sessions.) ~ William Ruhlmann
Original Broadway Cast; Enhanced CD; World Premiere Cast Recording
Sherry! The Broadway Musical Soundtrack Songs
Sherry! The Broadway Musical Soundtrack Album Track Listing
Trk
Song
1
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 1. The Overture
2
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 1. Why Does The Whole Damn World Adore Me
3
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 1. Whiteside's Prayer
4
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: In the Very next Moment
5
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 1. Crockfield
6
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 1. Maybe It's Time For Me
7
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 1. How Can You Kiss Those Times Goodbye
8
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 1. With This Ring
9
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 1. Sherry
10
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 1. Alas, Lorraine / Au Revoir
11
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 1. The Proposal Duet / Listen, Cosette
12
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 1. I Always Stay At The Ritz
13
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 1. Christmas Eve
Disc 2
1
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 2. Putty In Your Hands
2
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 2. Imagine That
3
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 2. The Preen Beguine
4
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 2. Marry The Girl Myself
5
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 2. Putty In your Hands (Reprise)
6
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 2. Harriet Sedley
7
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 2. Au Revoir (Reprise) (with Original Cast Recording)
8
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 2. Whiteside's Prayer (Reprise) & Finale
9
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 2. Bows (with Original Cast Recording)
10
Bravo Profile: "Sherry!"/Inside the Actors Studio (Interviews) (Multimed
11
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 2. Au Revoir (Reprise)
12
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 2. Whiteside's Prayer Reprise & Finale
13
Sherry!, The Broadway Musical, musical play: Act 2. Bows
Sherry! The Broadway Musical Soundtrack Music Review
Customer Sherry! The Broadway Musical Soundtrack Reviews
Average Rating: (4 out of 5 stars)
Nathan Lane is great as ever... ...in this lackluster show, and I wish I could say the same for the vocal performances of some of the co-stars. SHERRY has been forgotten (with the exception of Marilyn Maye's version of the title song) for good reason: bland & uninventive music & lyrics. Something along the lines of Porter or Coward was needed, but it just didn't happen. Submitted by Allen (Columbia, SC) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
sherry at last HEARD ABOUT THIS SHOW FOR MANY YEARS AND NOW i CAN ACTUALLY HEAR IT!!
It is really a very enjoyable album and would like to see a staged version.... No ope of that of course, in the UK at least!!! Submitted by dougcurphey (Tyne and Wear UK) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
Great! It's a great recording with great catchy tunes. I wish the show was a hit. Submitted by harrypotterptt (Unknown ,CA, USA) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
This Sherry is past it's prime With the exception of the Title song you can forget this CD recording. Nathan is up to his usual hijinks with his vocal inflection which gives the CD some interest but let it lay on the shelves. Submitted by david.pandozzi (New York, NY 10021) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
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Nathan Lane is great as ever...
sherry at last
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