The Light in the Piazza (2005 Original Broadway Cast)
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Brand: VARIOUSComposer: Adam Guettel
Performer: Victoria Clark
Performer: Kelli O'Hara
Performer: Matthew Morrison
Performer: Sarah Uriarte Berry
Performer: Mark Harelik
Edition: Music CD
Format: Cast Recording
CD Release Date: 2005-05-24
Music Label: Nonesuch
Soundtracks:
- Overture
- Statues and Stories
- The Beauty Is
- Il Mondo Era Vuoto
- American Dancing
- Passeggiata
- The Joy You Feel
- Dividing Day
- Hysteria
- Say It Somehow
- Aiutami
- The Light in the Piazza
- Octet
- The Beauty Is (Reprise)
- Let's Walk
- Clara's Interlude
- Love to Me
- Fable
Music reviews of The Light in the Piazza (2005 Original Broadway Cast)
Music Review: The best Score on Broadway since 'Nine'.
Rating: 5 Stars
I am a singer/musician who worked in NY in the musical theatre before working as a Casting Director at a NY Soap thus, not only is this my background but I also know of these performers either by audition or as far back as fellow actors. This score has the power to create a positive cathartic effect to anyone who can even remotely relate to the ossicilating emotions swirling about on the stage or, on listening to the CD. The first time one listens... it is true, I was grabbed by one song, "The Beauty is"...and moderately interested by the others. After I sat down at the piano and figured this one song out..I realized that my musical admiration for Mr. Guettal had risen even more. Before I give my opinions about the music and the show, I'd like to say that I wish all Americans had the
interest and knowledge to experience the true inheritance of the one original art-form created by America, being carried into the 21C under the able hands of Richard Rodger's Grandson, Adam Guettel. It is not par chance, that Grandfather passed on to his Grandson the Rodger's musical gene in the sense of his greatest capacity as the 'Father of Musical Theatre'. Emotion felt through music that can evoke a wonderful experience for the listener. After all, whether you find Rodger's music dated or the Lyrics by Hammerstein corny, when you listen to these scores, and I had performed in 'South Pacific' alone over a year and a half, the musical component of their best songs goes exactly where Rodgers wanted your feelings to ascend when experiencing that moment thus, I feel Guettel does the same. I almost feel as if my favorite song from 'South Pacific', "Cockeyed Optimist", the second song performed in the show, written with simple lyrics, is actually a monologue with an insight into the complex character
who sings this song and readies us for her transformation throughout the show. It is almost eerie that 'The Beauty is ', perhaps the single most beautiful song ever written to convey a feeling of wonder, joy, yearning and discovery while also explaining where the character's internal feelings are at this moment, also a very complex character, is Guettel's 'Cockeyed Optimist' in his
very new, unique musical sound. The song, musicially speaking, takes us in a new exciting direction. I had been lucky to see all the Clara's (I've seen the show 3 times and luckily with my contacts, I've always had house seats that allow me to truly study the actors and of course..once a Casting director...always a Casting Director), even the understudy who performed between Kelli and Katie (?) and there is no comparison when it comes to a combo of voice, acting ability and look, Kelli
O'Hara owns this role and now without her voice doing justice to Guettel's score, Clara's songs do not have quite the emotional power. I liked Katie, but her instrument is not strong enough to meet the requirements of this complicated score to be able to rise above and be free to express her emotions vocally. That being said, she is a wonderful replacement.
'The Beauty is' is now in my top short-list of Songs.
I feel Mr. Guettel gives a nod to his grandfather and again, still with his very own distinctive sound, by writing the wonderful "Passeggiata' in waltz-time. Everyone knows that Rodgers had a gift with this time meter that can be a trap for many others. Rodger's songs in 3/4 time soared and I feel that Guettel, in this wonderful song that is again easy to listen to and yet so complex, has chosen to show his ingenius use of this time meter as a nod to his Grandfather and also to catch the most charming moment of the show and score. Adam Lazar, by the way, soars with this score in ways that Morrison was not able, lacking the vocal strenght and quality.
Statues and Stories is pure genius in all ways. To see it performed is to be reminded of why truly good theatre can grab you and transfix. Vicky Clark is truly amazing in this number..on CD and on the stage.
Vicky Clark is someone that I had wanted to cast on the TV show I worked on for years, as I knew her through friends and such since 1988. She even once came to see 'Company' where I was doing the 'Musical Direction' in-between Acting gigs and I was the lone pianist sitting in the center of the set with a drummer (yikes).We also studied with the same wonderful Vocal Coach, out of SF. I had watched her performances over the years wondering when her time would come to be the lead, not waiting in the wings, because the talent and the voice was exemplary. Well...this is the best Legit voice on Broadway that is only equaled by her own unique choices in portraying Margaret, a very difficult role that requires so much variety to be shown and yet, within the restrains of a Character of the 1950s from NC! Bravo! Her rendering of the reprise of 'The Beauty is', is for me, the highlight of her performance.
'Light in the Piazza', the song, is what it is..the ballad that will be song by every lyric soprano at auditions for years to come. It seems quite simple with its scale-like melody (another nod to his grandfather) until it soars at the end. Musicially I had never been so overwhelmed and satisfied in where Guttel surprisingly lead me as the song reached its crescendo. Boy...it sounds deceivingly simple..but this is no 'On my Own' , from Les Miz. Only Kelli O'Hara had the Vocal Power to sing this difficult ending that is really where the song is going from the first note. It is truly a difficult passage to sing while not letting the intense emotion cause the voice to close... and Kelli O'Hara soars on the CD as she did in performance. <CD>
How satisfying to feel like this again so many disappointing nights at the theatre. As a Casting Director, it was my job to see as shows possible (B'way and Off-B'way) during my 11 years at ABC in NY. Nothing
had ever matched the overall talent of the creators of this new move forward for the Muscial Theater nor the two original leading ladies who created these two memorable roles. Listen to the CD twice...you'll be hooked. ( Actually..I must give a nod to the brilliant Audra McDonald who was discovered in 'Carousel' in the same theatre as "Piazza"! Her rendition of "Mr. Snow' was a highlight of my 11 years of going to the theatre during my tenure as a Casting Director.
Elias Tray
Description of The Light in the Piazza (2005 Original Broadway Cast)
The Light in the Piazza is arguably one of the most highly anticipated theatrical events of the decade for serious Broadway theatergoers. The Los Angeles Times has already declared its creator, Nonesuch artist Adam Guettel, "a composer for the new century," on the strength of his two Off-Broadway productions, the 1996 Obie-Award winning "folk musical" Floyd Collins and the 1998 song cycle, Myths and Hymns, TIME has described him as "a startlingly original songwriter." Few theatrical composers have been watched as closely as Guettel, and few musicals in the course of their development have generated so much substantial press or been praised so highly on the road as The Light in the Piazza. Both the New Yorker and The New York Times magazine devoted in-depth coverage to the evolution of Guettel?s sophisticated, deeply moving score. New Yorker critic John Lahr decided,"Guettel?s kind of talent cannot be denied. He shouldn?t change for Broadway; Broadway, if it is to survive as a creative theatrical force, should change for him."Like a shimmering pearl, The Light in the Piazza emerged from a sea of revivals, rehashings, and movie adaptations to secure 11 2005 Tony nominations, including Best Musical. Based on an Elizabeth Spencer novella (which was also made into a 1962 film), it follows a mother, Margaret (Victoria Clark), and her daughter, Clara (Kelli O'Hara), as they take a vacation to Italy. There, Clara and a young Italian (Matthew Morrison) fall in love, but Margaret is determined to keep them apart.
The Light in the Piazza doesn't fit the model of most Broadway scores, with a splashy opener here, a swing number there, then the big ballad. The score is more of a unified whole, sometimes jarring, sometimes following the patterns of speech, and sometimes unfolding in glorious sheens of sound. (Heck, some of it's even in Italian!) In that sense, it's similar to another unconventional American musical set in Italy, Stephen Sondheim's Passion, which is more chamber opera than musical, and composer-lyricist Adam Guettel (song of Mary Rodgers, grandson of Richard Rodgers) seems the most likely heir apparent to Sondheim in the current generation of musical theater creators. O'Hara's voice soars in the score's most beautiful moments ("Say It Somehow," the title song), but Clark enjoys two exquisitely lyrical moments with "Dividing Day" and "Let's Walk." She was one of the show's six Tony winners (for Leading Actress), along with Guettel's score and the orchestrations, scenice design, lighting, and costumes, while O'Hara (for Featured Actress), Morrison, Craig Lucas's book, and Bartlett Sher's direction were also nominated. --David Horiuchi
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