Via Playbill, the Leonard Bernstein Peter Pan CD debuts on the classical music charts:
The CD restores music that was discarded from the musical when it ran on Broadway in 1950 and '51. It features musical theater veteran Linda Eder and baritone Daniel Narducci. Alexander Frey is the conductor.
In the 1950 production, Jean Arthur was Peter Pan and Boris Karloff Captain Hook. Ok, given Jean Arthur's voice, I'd really like to hear her sing; less so, Boris Karloff.
Update: A cursory check of iTunes, Rhapsody, and singingfish didn't turn up any Jean Arthur MP3s.
In today's SF Chronicle, Robert Hurwitt has a capsule review of the CD and says the work is "smart and vigorously tuneful." He also describes how much of the Bernstein score and half of the songs had to be dropped because Arthur and Karloff couldn't sing.
Film composer Dmitri Tiomkin (Giant, High Noon, Rawhide TV theme song) on writing for certain actors' voices:
Jimmie Stewart is another actor for whom it is a delight to write music. Paradoxically, his speaking voice is not “musical.” But it has a slightly nasal quality and occasionally “cracks” in a way that is easy to complement. Jean Arthur's voice is somewhat similar. Just why this type of voice should be easy to write for, I don't know. One might speculate that since these voices have little colour in themselves, the complementary musical backdrop doesn't bump into or fall over the dialogue. The mere fact that such voices are unmusical gives them an additional definition.
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