CD REVIEW : ‘Sondheim’: A Starry, Delightful Tribute

This CD re-issue of the long out-of-print “Sondheim: A Musical Tribute” (RCA Victor 60515-2-RC), due in stores today, should make a lot of Sondheim fans happy.

Not only is it more digitally balanced than its LP predecessor (recorded live at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre under difficult circumstances), but this audio preservation of the now famous March 11, 1973, tribute to the composer/lyricist remains an unusual compendium of early songs--the ones that made it, the ones that didn’t and one exceptional moment: Sondheim at the piano near the end of the evening, in a rare instance of public introspection, singing from “Anyone Can Whistle.”

Whatever minor imperfections still exist on the track (some voices fainter than others), this is history preserved, with arranger Jonathan Tunick’s striking 11-minute overture now delivered unabridged. (It had been cut on the LP due to the exigencies of space.)

The starry contributing performers (including the late Larry Blyden) are all familiar, either for their association with Sondheim or for continuing successes. Burt Shevelove (who wrote the book for “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”) directed.

Jack Cassidy, who sings “So Many People” (with Susan Browning) from the hapless “Saturday Night,” is the only performer included who never appeared in a Sondheim musical. “Saturday Night,” written by Sondheim at 25 but never produced, was to have been Cassidy’s show.

Among what Harold Prince called the “crying shame” songs--the ones dropped before the musicals that contained them got to Broadway--are “We’re Gonna Be All Right” (from “Do I Hear a Waltz?”), with its original lyrics; “Love Is in the Air,” the original opening number for “Forum” (you can see why they went instead with “Comedy Tonight,” also on this album), and “Your Eyes Are Blue,” slashed from “Forum” to make way for “Lovely.”

One of the event’s more interesting footnotes is that two relatively unprepossessing songs included in it from “A Little Night Music” (“Silly People” and “Two Fairy Tales”) had been dropped virtually days before--prior to the show’s Feb. 25, 1973, Broadway opening.

Sondheim biographer Craig Zadan, one of the tribute’s producers and the force behind this re-issue, has expanded his detailed and lively album notes for the occasion.

Among other things, he reminds us that Playbill Magazine had noted of the original two-LP set that it marked the first time a benefit tribute of this kind was recorded by a major label and made available as an original cast album. It now sounds better than ever.