Hollywood finally did right by Leonard Bernstein with West Side Story. It had a lot to make up for. Seventy percent of his score for On the Town had been thrown out of the 1949 MGM movie version, with pleasant but inferior new songs being composed by someone else to replace the excised material. Insult was added to injury in 1955, when all of Bernstein’s score for Wonderful Town, based on the play My Sister Eileen by Fields and Chodorov, was jettisoned when Columbia got around to making its musical version. Instead of using Bernstein, the studio ordered entirely new music and lyrics by Jule Styne and Leo Robin, then hired someone to make sure there weren’t too many similarities! Strange treatment, considering the fact that Wonderful Town had opened in 1953 to unanimous raves, all of which praised Bernstein’s pop- and jazz-oriented score. This definitive recording sets the record straight, and Bernstein’s music comes through sounding brighter and more engaging than ever, especially such dynamic ensemble numbers as “Christopher Street” and “Conga!”
The Jay CD offers a dream cast for this show, with brassy Karen Mason and sweeter Rebecca Luker perfectly cast as the two sisters from Ohio seeking love and success in New York City. Ron Raines is a resonant suitor for Mason and all the smaller roles are filled with care. Conductor John Owen Edwards captures Bernstein’s rhythms to perfection and the National Symphony Orchestra players do full justice to the colorful orchestrations by Don Walker. The sound is just right with a realistic stereo spread and a breathtaking three-dimensional presence when heard in Dolby surround, as producer John Yap intended. Icing on the cake: each of the two acts is presented complete on one CD; the second has two supplements, alternate versions of “A Little Bit In Love” and “Christopher Street”; and the booklet includes a thoroughly researched essay that divulges information such as the fact that Leroy Anderson was the original composer contracted to do the show’s music. [4/3/2000]
