Hi Ciao! Sorry I haven't been around for a while, back I'm back with a review that I feel quite passionate about, and I want to share with all you lovely people! For those of you who don't know, music is a very big part of my life, and I am currently part of a project that is putting on a musical in my hometown, and it is called City of Angels. Firstly- I'm going to point out that I'm not referring to the Nicholas Cage film of the same name!
Now, I guess you all want to know the storyline of what I think is a bit of an awesome musical… (the information I give you is partly from own knowledge, and www.wikipedia.org) . The show is set in the 1940s, which is an era I love, especially with the clothes and the gorgeous looks! Twas a very sexy era, with full pouting red lips, and beautifully styled hair, with sexy dresses. Anyway, the musical can be seen in different genres, because it's essentially a detective story, but is also a comedy, and features lots of song and dance. The main character is Stine, who is trying to turn his detective story on to the big screen, and the show then runs in parallel with the detective story itself, so you get to share in the adventures of the other main character, Detective Stone. To sum up that paragraph- it's a show within a show! The lead female character is the seductress Alaura…
This recording is the original London Cast version, and I particularly like these versions, because you get the actors and actresses who helped make the parts come alive, and I always marvel at the sheer talent of these people. This CD was released in March 1996, at the RRP at the very princely sum of £5.99. If you have a peek at www.amazon.co.uk, you can find old and new copies of the CD, starting at just over £3. I had never heard of this musical before I was asked to play in it, and I reckon that most of the people who read this have never heard of it either, which I think is a shame. The show did feature a run on Broadway, a respectable 878 performances from 1989 to 1992.
The CD cover epitomises the film noir style, with a glamorous looking red head beauty, lying on her back, literally draped over the front cover, surrounded by film reel! All the tracks of the musical come on one CD, and you get 21 tracks. It's a bit annoying that if you're looking on the CD info when it's up on a PC, the names of the cast are given with the songs, but not the part they're playing- when I'm listening to the songs on iTunes, I like to look and see
what songs the characters have. But, I've done a bit of research, and I can tell you some of the main characters… Stine- Gregg Edelman Stone- James Naughton << these two characters are in parallel- Stine is the writer, and Stone is the character he created. This promises some good entertainment, and will become apparent in some later songs. Ooolie/Donna- Randy Graff Alaura Kingsley/Carla Haywood- Dee Hoty Mallory/Avril-Rachel York
So, onto the tracks! 1, Prologue- Theme From City of Angels This is absolutely maybe my most favourite tracks, it opens with a sexy, smooooth sax solo, with an equally sexy smooth male voiceover, then it has a massive build up, and breaks into a driving, energetic awesome sounding jazz piece, with great bass rhythms. It features the sax section, and more impressive, a vocal ensemble known as the Angel City Five, and they have equally tight harmonies, and they do the most amazing scat singing!
2, Double Talk This is a solo piece for Stine, singing about his dreams and has received good news from his mate Buddy about how his book will get to be on the silver screen. This is a brilliant song that really shows Gregg Edelman's talents. It's a technically challenging song, with lots of leaps, and extremes of pitches, and it's performed just brilliantly.
3, What You Don't Know About Women This is a duet between Randy Graff and Kay McClelland. I don't mind this track, though it's certainly not one of my favourites; I find it a bit too random and hard to listen to. I personally prefer the gentle backing of the big band. However, the lyrics are brilliant, with lines like "you are the type of man who looks for understanding lovers, but never understands the girl who lies beneath the covers".
4, Ya Gotta Look After Yourself This piece is typically jazzy and cheesey, and features the cast, and the Angel City Four who really add to the cheese, and answer the cast when lines happen like… <CAST>- 'you gotta look out for yourself…' <Angel City Four> 'LOOK OUT!!' This is an all encompassing piece, with the cast, the choir, and nice little soli section from all the sections in the band. Very bouncy- you can't listen to it too often!
5, Buddy System This is a solo song by Rene Aubernonois, who plays Buddy, and he is the lead in the business when it comes to putting stories on the screen. I really like these lyrics, they're literally describing what he does, and it sums him up when he sings 'the book may be yours but the movie is mine'. It also has a slightly dark undertone, when he talks about "you don't want to upset Buddy…if you do things could get bloody". The singing isn't as good as the other male leads, but it has plenty of character, and a very impressive accompaniment.
6, With Every Breath I Take, This is McClelland's character Bobbi, and is a very smooth and sexy, but very sad love song, singing of sorrow, and loneliness after being left by the one you love. It features lots of little solos from the band, and although they are lilting, beautiful solos, there is a dark undertone of sadness.
7, Tennis Song Now this is a song of innuendos! It's a duet between Stone and Alaura, and some lines go… "No one ever plays with me" "I thought your next of kin did: "My husband never plays with me- he's too easily winded" "You leave me breathless too" It's a very bouncy (scuse the pun), cheerful piece, and is friendly and light hearted, and certainly helps break the depressing tension that the previous track brought! A very nice jazzy number.
8, Everybody's Gotta Be Somewhere This is certainly a rousing jazzy musical number, and features the backing singers, and is very interesting to listen to because of the unusual and closely positioned harmonies. It's almost too cheerful, but again, I very much like the instrumental accompaniment. It's sung by the Angel City 5- the backing singers to the crooner, Jimmy Powers!
9, Lost and Found Another sexy love song, but this time with a bit more oomph…This is sung by Mallory, who's trying to seduce Stine, and is properly swingy and raunchy! It's a bit of a power ballad, and you can almost hear what's coming next. This song needs a powerful voice, as demonstrated perfectly here.
10, All You Have To Do Is Wait Now this song is odd! And I shall explain why… it's a catchy, fun, calypso, caribbaen style piece, that makes you want to sway and start shaking it. And the song is sung by a police officer, who's caught Stone on murder charges, is so happy that he's going to face the gas chamber, and he's singing about him dying! You almost feel guilty for really liking the song and having fun listening!
11, You're Nothing Without Me This is the main theme song of the musical, sung between Stine and Stone (don't get confused now!). Stone, has stepped out of the movie into real life, and they're singing together how you can't be yourself without the other person, and they need each other. I found it a very powerful song, and it's definitely the perfect song to close the first act on, with strong melodies, accompanied by some energetic swing jazz. Stine: "You are some gumshoe, you just don't think well, get this dumb gumshoe, you came from my inkwell" Stone: "You are so think, you eat, breathe, sleep fiction, I'm your meal ticket, knee-deep in cheap fiction".
12, Stay With Me Imagine a cosy recording studio- this is where we see Jimmy Powers and the Angel City 5. Now this is proper cheesy crooning! The song has no specific context within the play, it's a bit of live backing music really! It's slow, laid back, and is a nice way to open the second half.
13, You Can Always Count On Me This is a good funny piece, it's performed by Randy Graff as Oolie and Donna. This is her lamenting about how she continuously allows herself to be walked over by guys, and is always the other woman. It's surprisingly upbeat actually! It also gives some good lessons about how a woman should feel about herself.
14, ALaura's Theme A very short track, introduced by Buddy talking about the theme for the character Alaura in the film (again, don't get confused!). It's a luxurious, passionate melody, with as many instruments playing as possible and apparently "you're ears will think they're getting laid!!!"
15, It Needs Work This is probably the saddest point in the musical. This is sung by Gabbi to Stine, her husband, about the feeble letter he sent to her after she sprung him having Donna in his hotel room (Donna works for Buddy). This really makes you empathise with Gabbi, and the emotion is portrayed so well, and the music fits well, with a sinister feel, and lots of clashing notes.
16, L.A Blues This track isn't really much to listen to, but I love it because it's pure sexy jazz! It's one of those voice over pieces, so it's with a repeated melody with a solo trombone, but it's so sleazy, laid back, and smooth!
17, With Every Breath I Take- Duet This is between Stone and Bobbi, and I think the duet doesn't compare to the solo version of the song, which is far better suited to a solo voice. It's the same song, with a contrasting male voice over the top, and the polyphony just doesn't do anything for me. The instrumental arrangement is good, with beautiful flowing strings, and jazz piano.
18, Funny When I played in the show, this was the piece that gave me chills. Stine sings this, when he's been left by his wife, and let down by Donna, and this song is sardonic, mocking and sarcastic, because Stine is at his lowest point. Gregg Edelmann sings this so well- it's technically challenging, and it goes very high.
19, I'm Nothing Without You Spot the title change! This is the final song of the musical, where Stone and Stine have come together to help one another, and Stine finally stood up for himself, and it's Stone who's at the typewriter, dictating events, and he creates a Hollywood ending for everyone, so it ends in happiness. It's the same tune as before, but it ends with the whole cast singing in glorious harmony, another spine tingler!
20, Epilogue, Theme From City of Angels This piece is similar to the prologue, and does feature the Angel City Five again, but singing the final song, lyrics of which haven't been heard in the whole show until the end. It's got the same energetic driving bass rhythm, and the exciting and jazzy energy, just with a fuller ensemble.
21, Double Talk Walk In the score we had for the show, it was the exit music, and this is the band's chance for the spotlight! When I played this, by the end I was actually shaking from the excitement and adrenaline this piece brought. It begins with a fantastic drum solo and then a sax soli on the tune from Buddy System, but this time it's so much fuller and jazzy. There are also solos, from Jim Pugh on trombone, Glenn Drewes on trumpet and Mike Migliori on the alto sax. The style of the solos is amazing. The end is brilliant too, with a very strong build up which is similar again to track 5 ,but ends with the whole band shouting "HA!" and that was so much fun to play…
So, there you go! I can't recommend this CD enough, maybe the fact that it isn't too well known is good, because it's a real treat when you do find it, and it really does take you somewhere else. The musical score is just amazing, and really makes the show come to life.
Thanks to reading :o)
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