Sweet Smell of Success (2002 Original Broadway Cast)

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Music reviews of Sweet Smell of Success (2002 Original Broadway Cast)

Music Review: Lack of focus mars an otherwise great score
Rating: 3 Stars

In the cast recording, the creative team of Marvin Hamlisch (music), Craig Carnelia (lyrics) and John Guare (book) have presented a dark and gritty (if somewhat inconsistent) representation of 1952 Manhattan, bolstered to great extent by the fabulous orchestrations created by William David Brohn. The score's lighter moments pulse with riffs crooned on woodwinds, punctuated by blats from the brass section; its slower jazz numbers evoke smoky lounges. The first few tracks will grab listeners with their energy, but they set a tone for the rest of the recording that is difficult to maintain and does not appear consistently again until the CD's final few tracks.

The story of Sweet Smell of Success, despite its trumpeting of John Lithgow as JJ Hunsecker, is really about a press agent named Sidney Falcone (Brian D'Arcy James). Sidney's only client is a backwater jazz club, and the boss has told him that unless he gets the club plugged in JJ's column, he's out of work. Desperate to find new clients, Sidney offers his services to Dallas (Jack Noseworthy) - a nobody of a jazz pianist - and Susan (Kelli O'Hara), a young beauty and aspiring actress who is at the club to see Dallas, her lover. Neither of them bite.

We soon learn that Susan is JJ Hunsecker's (John Lithgow) sister, and that she lives in fear that JJ will discover her relationship with Dallas and condemn it because he's a nobody. So when Hunsecker shows up at the club looking for her, Susan insists that Sidney is her acting class partner and Dallas slips away.

As a result of this ploy, and playing the part of an over-protective sibling, Hunsecker takes an interest in Sidney. He fixes Sidney up with a new wardrobe and gets him a bunch of clients, but after a few weeks, Hunsecker's true motives are exposed: he wants Sidney to keep an eye on his sister and report on everything. A terrible rock-and-hard-place scenario is set up when Susan asks Sidney to get Dallas a plug in Hunsecker's column; soon afterwards, Hunsecker begins to suspect that Susan is seeing someone who is cutting her off from his view and control, and he demands that Sidney discover the man's identity and break up the relationship.

Sidney eventually lets it slip to Susan that he's been asked by JJ to watch her. The two of them hatch a plot to help hide the relationship from Hunsecker, but this proves impossible. Furious at being duped by Sidney, Hunsecker blackballs him and he loses all his clients. The desperate acts that follow form a pawn game where all the major players want to be the chess master... but ultimately, somebody has to be the sacrificial playing piece.

The musical is based upon dark subject matter and should therefore be quite dark in tone. For the most part, this is true: the music is gritty with the heavy influence of dirty 50s jazz. However, the flow of the main story is interrupted by the insertion of "production numbers" that one assumes were meant to help lighten the tone of the production. "The Column", "Welcome To The Night" and "Dirt" are three examples of songs that stand fabulously on their own but do not fit well within the greater context of the musical. The chorus of the show forms a Greek chorus, whispering directives at Sidney and ushering him towards his fate; this chorus is used to great darkening effect in some numbers ("Break It Up" comes immediately to mind), but the dance arrangements in the three aforementioned numbers make the listener question what overall emotional effect the show is trying to achieve. The latter half of the recording (after "Dirt") is much more consistent as the plot barrels towards its climax and conclusion. Individually, the majority of the songs shine, but as a whole the score just doesn't seem to gel.

While the recording is catchy and listenable, I noted several allusions to other musicals. In part due to tone and setting, and in part due to the involvement of Brian D'Arcy James, I was reminded at several times of Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party. The rhythms and quiet intensity of Stacey Logan's only song, "Rita's Tune", echoed Sondheim's "I'm Still Here" from Follies (Rita is Sidney's girlfriend; another pawn in the Great Game). Finally, "Dirt" brings immediately to mind the big hit from Hamlisch's other Big Musical, A Chorus Line - "One".

The weakest areas of the score appear to be the slower numbers, which tend to be inefficient in terms of propelling the story. Most outstanding in this regard are "I Cannot Hear The City" and a duet between Susan and Dallas called "Don't Know Where You Leave Off".

Despite misgivings about tone and consistency, however, there is more than enough to like about this cast recording. William David Brohn's orchestrations are filthily rich, and those same production numbers that give the recording an inconsistent tone provide rewarding aural experiences in listen after listen. I wouldn't label Sweet Smell of Success as a must-have recording, but if the sounds of old-school, dirty, film-noir jazz appeal to you, you may want to add it to your collection.

Description of Sweet Smell of Success (2002 Original Broadway Cast)

Broadway & Vocalists CDs

• Music > Styles
• Classical
• Pop