Poignant Depths in a Shallow Season

You know you’ve hit a strange blip in the development of musical theater when one of the most interesting shows to come along is the musical episode of TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

On Southern California’s stages, we’ve recently witnessed the triumph of showy stagecraft over substance in Disney’s “Aida” at the Ahmanson and “Dracula” at La Jolla Playhouse. New York, meanwhile, has experienced a strange spate of tongue-in-cheek musicals: notably “Urinetown,” “Bat Boy” and “Reefer Madness” (the latter two of which originated in Los Angeles).

As a result, there’s little new material on compact disc to send theater lovers rushing to stores. There is, however, one must-buy, plus a handful of projects that--depending on the listener’s tastes--might be worth considering.

* * * * “TICK, TICK ... BOOM!” Original cast album RCA Victor

This musical begins with the sound of a ticking clock--symbolism that provides a key not only to this project, from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, but also to Jonathan Larson’s later musical, “Rent.” At their core, both shows are about time’s swift passage and about the things that need to be done before opportunity ebbs away. The message, in both cases, is to seize life, as hammered home in the “Rent” refrain “No day but today” and in the corresponding phrase from “tick, tick ... BOOM!”: “Actions speak louder than words.”

That Larson died suddenly, in 1996 as “Rent” was about to open, makes this preoccupation with time all the more poignant.

Now playing off-Broadway, “tick, tick ... BOOM!” is a show Larson wrote for himself to perform when he had trouble getting anyone to present his early musical “Superbia.” It maps out the predicament of a guy named Jonathan who yearns to be a composer yet fears, as a big birthday looms, that he’ll have to abandon his dream.

The material has been reworked for three actors, so that Jonathan’s voice (silky Raul Esparza) now intertwines with those of his girlfriend (Amy Spanger) and his best friend (Jerry Dixon).

Larson’s rock melodies throb with yearning and determination, optimism and joy. Standouts include the introductory song, “30/90,” which pleads, “Stop the clock--take time out / time to regroup before you lose the bout”; the hauntingly introspective “Johnny Can’t Decide”; and the climactic “Louder Than Words.”

Some thematic and musical elements sound like precursors to those in “Rent.” But “tick, tick ... BOOM!” is no mere curiosity for “Rent” fans. Pulsing with life, it is sure to live on in heavy rotation on stereos across the country and on stages everywhere.

* * “URINETOWN” Original cast album RCA Victor

The year’s big Broadway show, “The Producers,” imagines what might happen when a perfectly awful idea for a musical develops, against all reason, into a hit. But what’s just make-believe there happened in real life to the musical “Urinetown,” which is playing on Broadway despite a seemingly unmarketable concept and a downright distasteful title.

Part “Threepenny Opera,” part “Les Miserables,” this mock-agitprop musical imagines a city where all bathroom use has been limited to the public, pay-per-use facilities operated by a greedy, malevolent corporation. The story savages big business and government while shining a light on class inequities and environmental devastation. But mostly, it just wants to have fun. Author-lyricist Greg Kotis and composer-co-lyricist Mark Hollmann adopt a self-mocking tone and indulge in all manner of bad puns and double-entendres, which reach their zenith in the all-too-evident double meaning of the freedom march “I See a River.”

The recording captures the show’s tongue-in-cheek tone, as conveyed by a cast that includes Jeff McCarthy as a bad-guy police officer much like his Inspector Javert in the Los Angeles production of “Les Miserables.” But these aren’t songs that work well when issuing, disembodied, from your home stereo speakers.

* * * “ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER: NOW & FOREVER” Various artists Decca Broadway

The most questionable choice on this five-CD compilation is the use of the egotistical “Cats” marketing line “Now & Forever” as its subtitle. Otherwise, it’s an intriguing overview of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s career.

Discs 1 through 3 contain highlights from each of his musicals, from “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” through “The Beautiful Game,” while disc 4 contains alternate renditions of Lloyd Webber songs by artists ranging from Barbra Streisand to Boyzone.

The standout is disc 5, with its sampling of 22 little-heard curiosities from the vaults. The most intriguing is a 1977 test take of “It’s Easy for You,” in which Elvis Presley, in his last days, turns his velvet warble to a tender, introspective rendition of this country-blues number (released in a more fully orchestrated version on his “Moody Blue” album).

Also fascinating are early renditions of songs written for the pop market--but never issued or promptly forgotten--that later were recycled into big hits in the musicals. “I Could Have Given You More,” written for Petula Clark, for instance, became Gus the theater cat’s theme in “Cats.” Or there’s “The Ballad of Robert and Peter,” a humorous bit of goofing around in which Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice set a business news article to music. Its melody sounds strangely familiar, but listeners may have to rack their brains before they figure out where they’ve heard it before.

Under the heading of “Is nothing sacred?,” however, comes the “Benedicite” written for Lloyd Webber’s 1991 marriage ceremony, which he reused as Norma’s “Surrender” signature in “Sunset Boulevard.”

Lloyd Webber’s many detractors--who find his recycling highly unimaginative--will cut a wide path around this collection as they shop the record aisles, but fans will surely want to own it.

* * 1/2 “KIDULTS” Mandy Patinkin Nonesuch

Mandy Patinkin possesses one of the most distinctive voices in musical theater. So it has been troubling to watch him slip, in recent years, into an ever more manic, over-the-top performing style.

Happily, he reins much of this in for “Kidults,” intended as much for kids as for the kid in all of us. “For my grandchildren,” reads the album’s dedication, and the songs range from such kid-friendly fare as “The Wizard of Oz’s” “If I Only Had a Brain” to such unexpected choices as Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle,” which looks at childhood from a parent’s perspective.

For much of the album, Patinkin turns down the volume on his highly focused voice, quieting it to a tender hush. The effect is particularly lovely in a sweet, simple rendition of “Soon It’s Gonna Rain,” from “The Fantasticks,” a duet with Kristin Chenoweth.

Also nice is a pairing of Stephen Sondheim’s “Everybody Says Don’t,” from “Anyone Can Whistle,” with Frank Loesser’s “The King’s New Clothes”--both of which hinge on a person being unafraid to speak out.

Yet Patinkin simply can’t suppress his manic side as he, for instance, morphs into a police officer taking a report in a comic rendition of the Ella Fitzgerald classic “A Tisket a Tasket.” More irritating is a vocal version of “Holiday for Strings,” in which he keeps interrupting himself by breaking into a frenzied character voice that urges him to push the tempo faster.

Kids will love these antics, but their parents may be inclined to mutter, “Take a pill, Mandy.”

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.