Brigadoon (1957 Studio Cast) | Jack Cassidy, Frederick Loewe, ...

Brigadoon (1957 Studio Cast) | Jack Cassidy, Frederick Loewe, ... | The Best Performance for Brigadoon

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Brigadoon (1957 St...

	Brigadoon (1957 Studio Cast) Jack Cassidy, Frederick Loewe, ... Drg, 2005 average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Unless you have a sentimental attachment to the familiar voices of the original Broadway cast or movie soundtrack, the 1957 studio recording of Brigadoon might just become your favorite. It's exceptionally well cast, for starters, especially the great Jack Cassidy as the romantic lead Tommy and the woefully underrecorded powerhouse Susan Johnson as the brassy Meg. Singing sweetly opposite Cassidy is his then-wife Shirley Jones (their children included Shaun Cassidy; David was from Jack's previous marriage), fresh off her lead ingenue roles in the Oklahoma! and Carousel films, and sometimes-opera-singer Frank Poretta covers the high-tenor songs "I'll Go Home with Bonnie Jean" and "Come to Me, Bend to Me." Producer Goddard Lieberson also included choral and dance numbers to showcase more of the Lerner & Loewe score (45 minutes) than had been recorded before. Modern collectors have choices, however, and the best overall option might be John McGlinn's 1991 recording, which has even more music and is also very well sung, by Rebecca Luker and Brent Barrett. But if one has the shelf space for more than one Brigadoon, the 1957 cast is so good that it's worth picking up. --David Horiuchi

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almost near-perfect BRIGADOON

Columbia's 1957 studio cast album of BRIGADOON remains to this day one of the best (if not THE best) recordings of the dreamy Lerner-Loewe score.

This was originally one in a series of Broadway studio cast albums, produced by Goddard Lieberson, many of which have been released on CD (including GIRL CRAZY (Mary Martin, Louise Carlyle); OH KAY! (Barbara Ruick, Jack Cassidy); and BABES IN ARMS (Mary Martin, Jack Cassidy).

Shirley Jones is a revelation as Fiona with Jack Cassidy as Tommy. The performances are enlivened no end by their real-life chemistry as husband and wife, and they used that kinship to great effect in their recordings together. Jones' rendition of "Waitin' for My Dearie" includes the right combination of melancholy and hope. Jack Cassidy has a ball with "There But for You Go I".

Susan Johnson replaced Pamela Britton on Broadway during the run of the original production, and she beautifully recreates the role of soubrette Meg Brockie. A spirited reading of "The Love of My Life" is a highlight of the entire recording.

There are many delightful BRIGADOON's around (I own a copy of the Armstrong television cast recording on LP, which features the once-in-a-lifetime casting of Sally Ann Howes and Robert Goulet in the roles of Fiona and Tommy), nevertheless, the Shirley Jones/Jack Cassidy BRIGADOON will always be my favourite rendition of the score.

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The Best Performance for Brigadoon

I played the role of Meg Brockie in college so am very familiar with this show. This is much much much better than the movie version cd.

A MUST-HAVE FOR MUSICAL THEATER FANS . . . . .

There's little to add to the already fine comments made about this recording. It's been one of my favorites for years, and I shamelessly tried to model my singing after Frank Porretta's when I played Charlie Dalrymple back in 1958 at Kearney State College. Loads of appreciation to DRG for this CD release and a masterful remastering job. Shirley Jones is a perfect Fiona and Jack Cassidy is in excellent voice as Tommy. However, it is in the two supporting roles that this recording rises above all others: Frank Porretta's "Come to Me, Bend to Me" and "I'll Go Home to Bonnie Jean" have never been bettered, and Susan Johnson is far and away the best Meg Brockie ever recorded. In fact, her versions of "The Love of My Life" and "My Mother's Wedding Day" alone are enough reason to purchase this recording.

This said, I also want to recommend highly the 1992 Broadway Angel studio recording. It has the advantage of excellent stereo sound and a very fine Tommy Albright in Brent Barrett. Clocking in at 79 minutes & 10 seconds, it contains considerably more dialogue than the DRG recording, and all the incidental & dance music, including a truly moving "Funeral Dance" for bagpipes and drums. The Angel album is so good that it belongs in every musical theater fan's collection, along with DRG's reissue of Columbia's Goddard Lieberson-produced, Lehman Engel-conducted studio recording.

Highly recommended

PS. Miss Johnson also appeared in 1958's OH, CAPTAIN! - available as a DRG CD - as well as DONNYBROOK (1961) & WHOOP-UP (1958), both missing from the DECCA Broadway catalogue. A shanda! Frank Porretta can be heard on the DRG release of THE GREAT WALTZ (1965), and hopefully DECCA Broadway will see fit to issue a CD version of THE SONG OF NORWAY soundtrack (1970) starring Mr. Porretta and Florence Henderson.

Keep sending those e-mails!

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A BETTER BRIGDOON COULDN'T EXIST

At 17 having just seen OKLAHOMA!, I was in love with Shirley Jones. I purchased this recording because of her and became familiar with the Brigadoon score for the first time. It will always be my favorite. I hadn't listened to it for years, but with the new CD release, just listened again. I had forgotten, or not realized what amazing performances were there. Jones and Cassidy have never been in better voice, both artistically and dramatically, and the rest of the cast just excellent. Go for it!

This Studio Cast Recording is in MONO?-What's up with that?

For many years this recording of BRIGADOON (1957) was the definitive version out there, but in 1991 Angel/emi released what has now become the complete version to have. After 1956 columbia records started recording everything in STEREO ( this doesn't mean that everything was released after that however at that time). It's amazing to me that this wonderful recording was not done in stereo but in MONO. A few years later this recording would be electronically re-channled for stereo but still sounded mono. This new DRG remaster is wonderful in terms of it's sound and I'm so thrilled it's finally available at long last. Thank you DRG and Dan O'leary for your dedication and hard work in bringing these recordings back into print again. Michael Sherman

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