Picked up tapes, picked up some packages, picked up McDonald's for food (fast and easy), came home, ate the food, and finally listened to the new recording of Anyone Can Whistle. I thought it was okay - poorly cast for the most part and why they had Arthur Laurents narration, which seems to disappear after the first ten or fifteen minutes, I know not and I found it silly. And, because the producer of the CD doesn't really understand recording, every time singers are singing, the band recedes into the background because those mics are open. Anytime no one is singing, the band is suddenly front and center. I know it was recorded at Abbey Road and I find it a little peculiar that an engineer there would not know how to record this kind of thing or how to mic a piano and drum kit and percussion, which are always off in the distance somewhere. It certainly doesn't displace the OBC at all - that one is brilliantly recorded and produced by Mr. Lieberson, who knew from such things.
The real astonishment is that this sat dormant for a quarter of a century. The producer told everyone it was hugely expensive to do, so the question is how dopey do you have to be to lay out that kind of dough and then let it said. We had a little set-to on Facebook, said producer and I, because he came out and said this recording cost over $500,000. Which is totally BS. When I called him on it, he did what he always does, makes it seem like I do "cheap" albums and no nothing about these large cast albums. I had to remind him that I, unlike him, was nominated for a Grammy for my cheap album of Hello, Dolly, and also received raves for my cheap album of The King and I, which had a larger company than Anyone Can Whistle, all of whom were paid their weekly Equity salary to do it, something Mr. Yap did not have to do. He brags about the size of his orchestra of forty-something. I reminded him that the pit orchestra was nowhere near that size so why do it. Add some strings, sure, as we did for Dolly and The King and I, but King and I's orchestra is bigger to begin with and even adding the strings we were nowhere near forty-something. He also kept saying "Do you know what it costs to record at Abbey Road and all those musicians?" I informed him that I knew exactly what it cost, which was basically the same cost as recording at The Hit Factory in NY, where we did The King and I and several others, and of course all the musicians were union and we had to abide by the stupid AFM fifteen minutes of music per session, something Mr. Yap did not have to deal with in the UK. So, taking all that into consideration - that we paid the same for the studio, we paid much more for the talent and musicians, and we had to have more sessions because of union rules - we cost nowhere near $500,000 and, in fact, nowhere near half that. It takes a real kind of special to make an album for over $500,000, especially as I assume he took no money to do his job. I'd say it was nigh unto impossible, so, in my opinion, he's lying.
Anyway, I didn't hate it but I sure didn't love it. Julia McKenzie has none of the style or charm of Angela Lansbury (or the fun), John Barrowman sings nice but is NOT a Hapgood at all, and Maria Friedman's voice really irritates me and she has none of the acting chops of Lee Remick. The supporting cast is very ordinary. The booklet has nice photos of the producer who is also the executive producer and takes both credits on the credit page.
He's a really offensive little person and, for me, his work is average and no more. This is not an album I'll be listening to a lot. It was nice to hear the extra music, but enjoyment-wise it didn't really add anything to what we have on the B'way cast album.
