REVIEWS OF
THE ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST RECORDING
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Editorial Reviews
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The neo-swing movement hit Broadway in full force with the December 1999 opening of
Swing!, a
high-energy song and dance revue celebrating the music of the '30s and '40s. The show
combines
swing classics ("Stompin' at the Savoy") and wartime standards ("I'll Be
Seeing You") with originals
from its cast members. Cabaret chanteuse Ann Hampton Callaway, Everett Bradley, Laura
Benanti, Michael Gruber, and ukulele-toting Casey MacGill (fronting the Gotham City Gates)
perform solos and duets as well as quintets arranged by Manhattan Transfer's Yaron
Gershovsky. Callaway (whose writing credits include the theme song for the TV series The
Nanny and Barbara Streisand's "I've Dreamed of You" and "At the Same
Time") has a voice that can burn on a ballad, blare like a trumpet, or scat up a
storm. Of course it's a shame not to be able to see director-choreographer Lynne
Taylor-Corbett's high-flying swing and Latin dancers, but this cast recording is an
enjoyable romp in the spirit of Broadway's 1981 Ellington tribute, Sophisticated Ladies.
--David Horiuchi
The artist, Jonathan Smith , February 20, 2000
A note from the musical director!
It all starts with the music, right? The folks at Sony Classical (Producer Steve Epstein)
really know how to capture the spirit and sound of the live show. Whether you can get to
the St. James to see us or not (and you most certainly should!) we hope you'll get the
same thrill from the recording that we do from playing this music every night. It pops out
of your speakers as if you were sitting right in the front row, and lets you live (or
re-live) the music and drama of a night with the cast of "Swing", with all the
attention on the music.
5 great singers, 8 hot musicians, some tapping feet and clapping hands: Everyone should find something to love here!
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Customer Reviews
One word... wow.
Reviewer: Michael Costa
January 27, 2000
I saw the show in November and when I found out the CD wasn't released yet, I was mad.
I've been waiting for 3 months now, but I assure you it was worth every second I waited.
This CD is everything you could ever need in swing. It has every kind of swing possible,
and every song is so well done that you'll listen to it again and again until you have to
buy another one because the first one got worn out. I totally recommend it! BUY IT RIGHT
NOW.
The joint is jumpin'
Reviewer: Frank Behrens
January 25, 2000
It seems that even as I write these words the joint is jumpin' at the St. James Theatre in
New York
City to a new review called Swing! [what would they do without exclamation marks?] and the
score is now available on a Sony release (SK 89122). For those of us who lived through the
40s--and I was a mere youth when the decade started--these tunes will elicit many many
memories of the war that WW I was supposed to have made impossible and of the
transformation of some forms of jazz into the Swing that was both a symptom of the uneasy
times and a way of coping with them.
Here a talented cast--headed by Ann Hampton Callaway, Everett Bradley and Laura
Benati--recreate the musical times with songs that have "It Don't Mean a Thing"
as a framing theme and include "jammin'" numbers like "Bounce Me
Brother," "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," and
"Stompin' at the Savoy" mixed with very lovely ones like the classic "I'll
Be Seeing You" and "Blues
in the Night."
Of course hearing the original versions of all these by the singers who introduced them
and the
bands that played them is a far more valuable experience historically. But from what I
hear, the
arrangers for this production have treated the material with respect and the soloists are
"In the
Mood" (I believe) that was intended by the composers. A worthwhile salute to an
historical period
and a joy to hear today.