Good morning, all! Two things today: Toyland and the IRS. I have some proofreading in the office, then an afternoon with my calculator. Too much bliss, I tell ya.
I spent about 2 hours yesterday listening to the new cast album of JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL . . and the second. supplemental recording of the remainder of the score. I liked a lot of it, but I'm not sure why we had several numbers in French, since the point of the show is Brel in English. One of the French numbers is "Ne Me Quitte Pas," well-known in Rod McKuen's English adaptation "If You Go Away." Since Elly Stone sang Eric Blau's English version in the early 1960s in the Off-Broadway O OYSTERS!, why didn't they use his version, since Blau is the co-adaptor of the material? I also found some of it a bit hectic and more aggressive than the original recording, which remains my favorite. I think I'd rank this new recording after the Australian cast recording and definitely above the anemic TER set, which suffers from several things, including poor proofreading of the original French song titles.