Track Listing

1. Waste
2. It's In Your Hands Now
3. Gold
4. Brotherly Love
5. Game, The
6. Addison's Trip
7. That Was A Year
8. Isn't He Something
9. Land Boom
10. Talent
11. You
12. Best Thing That Ever Has Happened, The
13. Game, The
14. Addison's City
15. Boca Raton
16. Get Out/Go
17. Finale

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4352 in Music
• Released on: 2009-07-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .43 pounds

Customer Reviews

End of the road... and worth the ride
Sondheim fans have waited a long while to see this project, a musical biography of the Mizner Brothers, finally brought to a successful conclusion. Here it is at last, and the good news is that "Road Show" on CD is as carefully produced as the project's previous incarnation, "Bounce". Though the orchestra is smaller, the arrangements still sound terrific, and the lead performances are absolutely assured. Road Show is more obviously built around the themes of opportunism and wasted resources, and there is more of an appropriately Brechtian astringency wafting through those traditional Broadway textures. It sounds punchier and far less luxuriant than Bounce, and therefore less old-fashioned.

Everything from the "Wise Guys"/"Gold!"/"Bounce" incarnations has been thoroughly reviewed, sifted and streamlined into something far more digestible in one sitting. Bounce's romantic subplot has gone, and the play has become more bitter, satirical and disparaging of society. As such, it is more in keeping with the two previous Weidman/Sondheim collaborations, "Assassins" (1989) and "Pacific Overtures" (1976).

It is fascinating to hear how some sections have been tweaked into leaner shape. "You", an ambitious sequence in which architect Addison Mizner promises to build each client the house of their dreams, whilst he and his lover Hollis declare their love, has been nicely refitted. (The purchasers of Addison's mansion designs sound more grotesquely shallow.)

Elsewhere, the excellent and catchy title tune from "Bounce" has been reworked with an entirely new lyric, and opens the show as the far darker "Waste", in which Addison is rebuked on his death bed by those he has let down.

Papa Mizner's amusing "Opportunity" has been replaced with "It's In Your Hands Now", a shrewd move, as it sets up the next song ("Gold!") rather more effectively, providing the necessary moral compass from which his enterprising sons can subsequently deviate spectacularly!

"The Best Thing That Has Ever Happened" is still sublime, of course, and even more affecting as a love song between two men. "Talent", "Isn't He Something!" and "That Was a Year" (formally "I Love This Town") also shine in these recordings. "Brotherly Love" is a successful addition, a tender duet, to contrast with the brothers' later fallings out.

I have a bit of a problem with this version of "Addison's Trip". It is tighter and clearer than the one from Bounce, certainly, but it does contain material of a potentially offensive nature, with Indian and Chinese souvenir sellers musically and vocally caricatured. That said, an OCR can never portray the complete theatrical experience, and the way Wilson is worked into this scene on stage hopefully contextualises the issue.

Overall, Sondheim's original concept of the general freewheeling style of a Bing Crosby/Bob Hope road movie being grafted onto the story of the Mizner Brothers (idealistic artist and thrill-seeking wheeler dealer, bound together for better and for worse) remains justifiably intact. And the underlying theme of "Waste", culminating in the crazy financial speculations of the Florida Land Boom of 1926, is certainly pertinent for our own times.

The writers say this incarnation of their project is closest to their original conception, and that they are finally happy with the results. I hope we shall see a British production sometime soon, (preferably directed by John Doyle who directed last year's New York run.)

Until then, digest the excellent accompanying notes and plot summary in the booklet, and savour the astonishingly fine music and lyrics on this CD. "Road Show" may not be an epic masterpiece like "Sweeney Todd", "Into The Woods", or "Sunday in The Park With George", but there is genuine Sondheimian magic here. That means it's beautifully crafted, original, intelligent, funny, provocative, and will, most likely, be more valuable than anything else from the world of musical theatre released this year.