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ON THE RECORD: Flaherty and Ahrens' The Glorious Ones and the Reconstructed Sound of Cohan
By Steven Suskin
04 Jan 2009
We listen to the original cast recording of the newest Flaherty and Ahrens musical, The Glorious Ones, and a disc that seeks to recreate the style of George M. Cohan using original orchestrations.
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THE GLORIOUS ONES [CDJAY 1407]
The Glorious Ones, the eighth full-scale score from Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, provides yet another tuneful and enjoyable CD for our enjoyment. A talented and energetic cast headed by Marc Kudisch make this commedia dell'arte musical delightful listening.
The piece, based on a novel by Francine Prose, predates the Flaherty-Ahrens partnership. Ahrens started work around 1981, making several attempts at tackling it over the decades. An early Flaherty-Ahrens version was workshopped by Lincoln Center Theater back in 1993. A later version was given a workshop in Flaherty's hometown in 2006, at the Pittsburgh Public Theater. This led to a full Pittsburgh production in April 2007, with the piece returning to Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse, for an opening that November.
The Glorious Ones retold events in the life of Flaminio Scala, who formed an improvisational troupe of players in Italy in 1570 or so which helped popularize the commedia dell'arte form. Francesco Andreini, who succeeded Scala, actually seems to have gone down in history as a more important actor, as did his wife Isabella Andreini. The meeting of Francesco and Isabella, in fact, figures prominently in the plot of the musical. The others seem to be fictional progenitors of the Pantalone, Columbina and Dottore characters. The point of it all is that Flaminio was real and left his mark, as he describes in the anthem (and the show's strongest song) "I Was Here."
David Holcenberg leads the eight-piece orchestra in effective chamber orchestrations by Michael Starobin; a lovely job, really. Kudisch is his usual, strong self, here seeming like a contemporary version of Alfred Drake. He is ably supported by Natalie Venetia Belcon, as Columbine; Jeremy Webb and Erin Davie as the young lovers; and Julyana Soelistyo and David Patrick Kelly as the supporting clowns of the troupe.
In the theatre, Graciela Daniele's production seemed like something of a commedia dell'arte festival, which delighted fans of the genre but was a bit of a detriment for audience members who were not keen on the form. The cast recording from Jay Records demonstrates that the score is considerably more effective than it might have seemed. There is a universal nature to many of the songs; the dreams, flaws and aspirations are not merely those of the 16th century characters but carry over to today. (This aspect did not, alas, make it across the footlights to this viewer last year at the Newhouse.) "The Comedy of Love," "My Body Wasn't Why," "The Glorious Ones," "Improvisation," "Opposite You" and the aforementioned "I Was Here" support a score which is very much up to the high standards of Flaherty and Ahrens. This new CD from Jay Records should enchant the many listeners who were unable to see The Glorious Ones during its brief runs in Pittsburgh and New York, and help propel the piece to numerous productions across the land. Continued...
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