Bounce: A New Musical Soundtrack CD

 All bounce, little bite
The music and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim are leagues ahead of the competition in style, melody, intelligence and theatrical verve. He works with the best book writers, orchestrators, designers, directors and singer/actors in the business. "Bounce" is pure, competent, sing-a-long Sondheim with a book by the brash and sharp playwright John Weidman(Pacific Overtures, Assassins). The score might be a little complicated to the novice listener but to Sondheim fans its familiar and delightful territory where the story is told with melodic twists, turns and tangents that sometimes soar with two or three songs destined for the permanent Sondheim Song Book. Even with twenty or so songs, though, the score is too short and lacks ethereal orchestral passages that might have better impacted the story and carried the music to a little higher level. No new musical ground is covered in a score where the composer almost satirizes himself. Act two has a gaping hole in it with the absence of a big song. The cast and orchestra are superb in every talented detail. The CD package is poorly done with next to no information about the cast and no production photos. All in all, "Bounce" is high art bound to satisfy serious musical theatre listeners.
Submitted by johnk (Fairbanks, Alaska, USA) 
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 Sondheim gets"Bounced"
It's Sondheim off an another trip. A shame there is no DVD of the performance. If it did not work on stage, it would be interesting to see why. Anyway, it deserves to be listened to, to hear the new direction he was headed in. Lyrics as usual tell you the story/character and the music, well it's good hearing the master at work again.
Submitted by cbfgmms (Sherman Oaks, CA) 
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 Sondheim does it again!
This musical has not had the track record of Sondheims most successful shows, going through four almost complete version before this recording, but the music and lyrics are wonderful and are vintage Sondheim! The lyrics are witty and intelligent as well as being funny and heart-felt and the light-hearted and sometimes raucous, old-fashioned broadway style of the score harkens back to Sondheims music for "Merrily We Roll Along" and the movie "Dick Tracy." Like "Merrily" and "Anyone Can Whistle" there are some plot issues and dramaturgical things that make it difficult to follow on stage but this recording truly showcases the best of this show, the score. This is a must have for any Sondheim fan and I think that even if the show itself does not make it far the score (which, unfortunately may be one of Sondheim's last) will be remembered among Sondheim's best!
Submitted by J_FERR (New Britain, CT)
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