Track Listing

1. Overture - The Orchestra
2. Too Bad - Don Ameche, Hildegarde Neff
3. Paris Loves Lovers - Gretchen Wyler
4. Stereophonic Sound - Don Ameche, Hildegarde Neff
5. It's a Chemical Reaction, That's All/All of You - Gretchen Wyler
6. Satin and Silk - Hildegarde Neff
7. Without Love - Leon Belasco, Henry Lascoe, David Opatoshu
8. Hail Bibinski - Don Ameche, Hildegarde Neff
9. As on Through the Seasons We Sail
10. Josephine - Gretchen Wyler
11. Siberia - Leon Belasco, Henry Lascoe, David Opatoshu
12. Silk Stockings - Don Ameche
13. Red Blues
14. Finale - Leon Belasco, Henry Lascoe, David Opatoshu

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #492762 in Music
• Released on: 1999-12-23
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Cole Porter's Final Broadway Show
SILK STOCKINGS is seldom performed today--and this is really a great pity, for on stage it is a memorable show: with words and music by the legendary Cole Porter and a script by Leueen MacGrath and the legendary George S. Kauffman, everything about the play is very "high style" indeed. Recorded in stereo shortly after the play's Broadway opening in 1955 with the original Don Walker orchestrations directed by Herbert Greene and with the original cast, this soundtrack is one of the better 1950s Broadway recordings.

The story, of course, is a riff on the classic Garbo film NINOTCHKA--the tale of an icy USSR agent (Hildegarde Neff) who arrives in Paris to check up on the behavior of several Soviet agents (Henry Lascoe, Leon Belasco, and David Opatoshu), only to find her communistic determinations undermined by the attentions of an American suitor (Don Ameche.) The story also contains a subplot about an American actress (Gretchen Wyler) on the loose in the City of Light, and the witty story offers considerable scope for Porter's ultra-urbane music and ultra-witty lyrics.

This would be Porter's last Broadway show, and some critics consider it one of his weakest scores--but that is really only true when compared with such frequently revived Porter classics as KISS ME KATE and ANYTHING GOES. Everything one could expect from Porter is here, from elegant ballads to wickedly witty patter songs with the most convoluted lyrics imaginable. "Paris Loves Lovers" offers a memorable duet between Ameche and Neff, as he details the sensual delights of the city even while she rattles off the party line in retaliation--and then goes on to verbally body slam the entire notion of romance with the comic dryness of "It's A Chemical Reaction, That's All." And "As On Through the Seasons We Sail" is a classic, if little known, Porter ballad.

But the real knock out here is Gretchen Wyler, who has three of Porter's drop-dead comic numbers in "Stereophonic Sound," "Satin and Silk," and "Josephine"--numbers that mock movie audiences, make hilarious commentary on underclothing, and bombastically present a Hollywood mythology of French history. Who would have thought Josephine was "commonly called Jo?" It's truly memorable stuff.

If you're looking for the crackle of Porter's 1930s work or the sly qualities of his 1940s hits, you may be disappointed with SILK STOCKINGS--for this is very much a 1950s musical, brash, lightweight, and with everything in the shop window. But no matter how you approach it, it is still Cole Porter. And even a lesser Cole Porter jewel is still a jewel for all that.

--GFT (Amazon Reviewer)--

Brilliant neglected Porter score
This is one of the great Porter scores, which has never had the cast it deserved in either the film or the Broadway production. It needs an actress who could really play Ninotchka (though Cy Charisse was better than expected) and a male star who could really sing the male role (I love Astaire and like Don Ameche but...). "All of You" is perhaps the best Porter erotic ballad period. The satirical songs are wonderful (cut off and/or stupidly split with Astaire in the film). Ripe for a new recording, a new production; but at least a reissue of the OC CD. If you haven't heard it, you'll love it. Porter's best 'book musical' score. How about Brett Barrett, Karen Akers and Kristen Chynoweth? Encores? Producers?