I guess reviews can sort of trickle in for CD's, as the reviewers get around to them, since this nice review for the LAST STARFIGHTER CD just seems to have appeared on the Washington D.C. Potomac Stages site. Nice review for Skip and me, but the last paragraph is ESPECIALLY nice for BK, so I hope it's OK that I'm reprinting it here in its entirety:
The Last Starfighter - A New Musical
Original cast recording
Music and lyrics by Skip Kennon
Book by Fred Landau
Based on the screenplay by Jonathan Betuel
Issued 2005
Running time 58 minutes - 16 tracks
Packaged with notes, synopsis and nine photos
Lyrics include some brief strong language
Kritzerland KR 20010-4
List Price $17.98 Click here to buy the CD
The 1984 movie in which a suave Robert Preston came down from the heavens to entice a computer-game wizard to travel to the stars to save the good guys in an intergalactic war has remained a favorite of sci-fi buffs even as higher-tech special effects extravaganzas have come and gone. Its combination of youthful enthusiasm, irreverence and a certain adolescent charm that even extended to the far-from-adolescent Preston, made it memorable. Fred Landau adapted the movie for a small Off-Off-Broadway type presentation and Skip Kennon who had created the score for the similarly sci-fi musical Time and Again signed on to do both music and lyrics. The result, as captured in this fine recording, is a chipper, charming and tuneful package.
Storyline: A musical version of the movie about a race of aliens who search for a master strategist by distributing a computer space combat game and then tracking down whoever achieved the highest score. Young Alex who lives with his mom in a trailer park breaks all records on the game and is recruited to save the Star League from the evil Zur and the Ko-Dan Armada.
The Storm Theater, an Off-Off-Broadway company, on the third floor of a church parish a block from Times Square, produced the show in October 2004. This recording, based on that production, boasts the original cast backed by a highly synthesized sounding support which, given the computer-game component of the story, seems just right for the piece. The booklet includes an interesting mini-essay by Landau (at least it appears to be by Landau - it doesn't actually have a byline) and a fine synopsis that allows you to understand the function of each song in the show. There are enough photos to give you a good feeling of what the show looked like in the small space on 46th Street.
The score ranges through a number of varying styles as the different scenes and characters require, but there is a unifying feel to the piece. Kennon's musical vocabulary is wide ranging and solidly grounded in contemporary musical theater. There are parts that sound a bit like early Flaherty and Ahrens, at others there seem to be touches of Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz or Jeffrey Stock. But they never seem like imitations. On one track, William Parry sounds a bit like the he's singing the introduction to Stephen Sondheim's Assassins when he tackles the song "Things Change," but that shouldn't be surprising since he originated the role of the proprietor in the original production of that show.
While we are at it, here's a big "welcome back" to the album's executive producer, Bruce Kimmel, who has provided so many theater music fans so many great hours of enjoyment. He founded Bay Cities Records which issued a number of theatrical pieces. Then he ran the segment of Verese Sarabande Records dealing with show music. His latest venture was the label dedicated to musical theater, Fynsworth Alley. Through it all, he produced over a hundred show music albums including the invaluable series of Lost In Boston discs of show tunes cut from hit shows before they reached Broadway and Unsung Musicals of songs from shows that didn't make it to the Great White Way. He introduced many fans to some of the best singers of show tunes (including, he might point out with pride, Guy Haines). This release on his new label is good news, not just because its contents is so fresh and welcome but because it is an addition to his latest venture. May he add many, many more.
