Sometimes, the Good Songs Are Preserved

Where do the good songs go?

In 1917, lyricist P.G. Wodehouse outlined the journey taken by old songs after “they had their day and then we threw them away.” The heavenly ditties flew to a land “on the other side of the moon,” where “they’re always loved and they’re always new,” wrote Wodehouse. These lines were part of “The Land Where the Good Songs Go,” a number from the musical “Miss 1917,” for which Jerome Kern wrote the music.

Nowadays, of course, songs don’t have to leave the planet to remain alive. Even a typical preteen has a fairly sizable collection of favorites on CD. With advances in cyberspace, obtaining and making recordings becomes easier all the time, and the fracturing of the music market has led to the proliferation of boutique labels--in theater music as well as in other genres.

Witness “The Land Where the Good Songs Go” itself. It’s now available on a new double CD, “Jerome Kern: Life Upon the Wicked Stage,” from LML Music. Sung by Pamela Myers in the piercing style of a Broadway diva and arranged by Ron Abel so that the song picks up a catchy beat and swells into a grand finale, the once-demure little tune has become a glamour queen, worthy of closing a first act in some multimillion-dollar musical.

The Kern set is one of five collections of old theater songs--three of them double CDs--recently released. If only Wodehouse could hear them now ....

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JEROME KERN: LIFE UPON

THE WICKED STAGE

Various artists

LML Music

This double CD is a live concert recording, a memento of the most recent S.T.A.G.E. benefit for people living with HIV or AIDS, recorded at Cal State L.A.’s Luckman Theater a year ago. But unlike some recordings of theater music benefits, this one (available online Friday and in stores May 7) seldom conveys the impression that you’re missing out by merely listening, as opposed to being there in the theater.

OK, maybe you had to be there to fully appreciate Roger Rees and Jane Carr singing “A Fine Romance.” Judging from their comments, apparently they were dressed as a cat and a canary. One also wonders if Lea Thompson really shimmied during her take on “Shimmy With Me,” and what Bonnie Franklin and Reece Holland did during “I Won’t Dance.”

But most of the other 29 numbers sound complete with just the soundtrack. They cover a vast swath of Kern’s oeuvre, from a Jane Lanier rendition of “How’d You Like to Spoon With Me?” (from “The Earl and the Girl” in 1905) to the magnificent “In Love in Vain” (from the movie “Centennial Summer,” released in 1946, after Kern’s death in 1945) sung by Melissa Errico. Ron Rifkin is in fine voice for “Remind Me,” from a 1940 film.

Fans of “Show Boat,” Kern’s most famous and monumental work, get a respectable selection, sung by Brock Peters, Valarie Pettiford, Linda Michele (an especially lush Abel arrangement of “Make Believe”), and Dale Kristien and Hugh Panaro in a duet.

Far less predictable is some of the novelty casting. Comedy writer Bruce Vilanch recites (as opposed to sings) “They All Look Alike” from 1917’s “Have a Heart”--the title refers to the male gender. Playwright Charles Busch introduces “The Last Time I Saw Paris” as “a haunting, meditative reflection” and then interprets it in a brassy, flamboyant fashion that belies his adjectives. The only such casting that falls flat is Rod McKuen’s faltering “Look for the Silver Lining.”

The recording ends with a description of Kern’s final hours, spoken by Carole Cook, that leads gently into “Till the Clouds Roll By.”

This year’s S.T.A.G.E. benefit, a tribute to Johnny Mercer, will take place at the Luckman on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and next Sunday at 3 p.m. Information: (323) 656-9069.

**1/2

DREAMGIRLS IN CONCERT

Lillias White, Audra McDonald, Heather Headley and other artists

Nonesuch

Another recording from a live benefit concert, this one brought together three of Broadway’s reigning divas to play the original Dreams in a revival of the ferocious Henry Krieger/Tom Eyen musical “Dreamgirls,” about a Supremes-like group’s turbulent rise to the top of the charts.

The concert was a New York benefit for the Actors’ Fund, held 13 days after the terrorist attacks plunged New York into a nightmare.

Lillias White, a Tony Award winner for “The Life,” tackled Effie, as she had done previously on tour and on Broadway. Audra McDonald, a three-time Tony winner, played Deena Jones, the Diana Ross-like character, while Heather Headley of “Aida” fame played Lorrell Robinson, the least prominent of the three Dreams.

Listening to the show without benefit of the dynamic staging that usually accompanies it demonstrates how important that staging is. The music itself, while ideal for the context, doesn’t have many discrete, detachable selections; large chunks of this recording consist of dialogue or half-sung talk with a musical background. However, the big numbers here are very big, especially the thunderous first-act finale, “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.”

This format also points out that the first part of the show belongs to the men as much as the women, especially to Billy Porter’s soul star James Thunder Early. In 2000, Porter won an Ovation Award for playing the same role at Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities, and he’s terrific.

Once the women take over, it’s fun to listen to McDonald, known for her high-class choices of material, playing a character who becomes more crass as the show goes on, and playing her very well. But the emotional heart of the show is still White’s Effie.

Despite the character’s sometimes exasperating personality, White’s voice alone is enough to break hearts.

***1/2

KURT WEILL: THE CENTENNIAL

Various artists

LML Music

Actors’ Fund benefits are also held in Los Angeles, including this tribute concert in late 2000, a century after Weill’s birth. The producers were the same S.T.A.G.E. crew who produced the Kern album, and some of the talent overlaps between albums.

The astringent sounds of Weill’s signature work in Germany were a far cry from the usual Kern melodies. But once Weill came to America, his work began to resemble more closely the songs of the Broadway giants, including Kern. With 22 numbers, this recording offers a sampler from both eras. And the overall consistency is a little higher than that of the Kern collection.

The album opens with Charlotte Rae singing “Pirate Jenny.” Those who know of Rae only from the sitcom “The Facts of Life” may groan. But in fact Rae was in the famous 1954 production of Weill’s “The Threepenny Opera” off-Broadway. And her Pirate Jenny sounds remarkably, effectively raw.

Other highlights from Weill’s German work include Linda Purl’s “Barbara Song,” Tim Curry’s “Surabaya Johnny” (sung in German even though the liner credits refer to “translation by Michael Feingold”) and Loretta Devine forced to sing too high in “Mack the Knife.”

The lesser-known American works feature lyrics by such diverse collaborators as Ogden Nash, Langston Hughes, Maxwell Anderson and Ira Gershwin.

The singers include Pam Dawber, Nancy Dussault, Sharon Lawrence, Sally Kellerman (whose husky timbre is ideal for “Speak Low”), Shirley Jones, Brock Peters, Hugh Panaro and--redeeming himself from his performance on the Kern collection--Rod McKuen, whose ragged voice is better suited for the autumnal lyrics of “September Song.”

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OKLAHOMA!

1998 Royal National Theatre

production cast album

First Night Records

Recorded in London in 1998, this CD will probably capitalize on the March 21 opening of the Broadway version of the same production of the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic.

But most of the casting has changed for the American rendition. Curly, who was played by the now-famous Hugh Jackman in London and on this recording, will be played by Patrick Wilson of “Full Monty” fame on Broadway. However, this CD’s Laurey, Josefina Gabrielle, will be on Broadway, as will its Jud, Shuler Hensley.

Jackman brings a light, open sound to Curly’s songs, in stark contrast to the deeper, smoother, more urbane sound of the original Broadway production’s Alfred Drake.

Gabrielle, by contrast, sounds less airy and a little more mezzo than the most prominent previously recorded Laureys. Vicki Simon’s Ado Annie is notably less deadpan and more full-throated than most of her predecessors.

At more than 73 minutes, this recording offers a lot more music--and more dialogue--than the original Broadway record’s 50 minutes, and almost as much music as the film’s soundtrack, which was released on CD at more than 76 minutes. This CD includes the lush ballet music that ends the first act and was dropped from the original stage recording. And we get the men’s chorus “It’s a Scandal! It’s an Outrage!” and the solo “Lonely Room,” both of which were omitted from the movie soundtrack.

Orchestral bird calls open Jackman’s rendition of “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” and we hear Curly and Laurey commenting on each other’s admonitions during “People Will Say We’re in Love.” These aren’t big changes, but they do evince a willingness to rethink little nuances. Let’s hope that the New York version measures up.

**1/2

BERNADETTE PETERS LOVES

RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN

Bernadette Peters

Angel

The actress and singer who’s most often associated with the work of Stephen Sondheim dips into the preceding generation of musical composers with mixed results.

In her new CD, due in stores March 12, Peters sounds more at home with such raucous comic items as “The Gentleman Is a Dope” than with the high-flying ode “If I Loved You” or the anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

Sondheim collaborator Jonathan Tunick did the arrangements and co-produced the album. His most unusual handiwork is in “There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame,” which normally isn’t associated with the likes of Peters--or indeed, with anyone of the dame persuasion. Here it becomes a big-mama blast, almost an arrangement that you could strip to.

Listen too to such relative rarities as “So Far,” “I Haven’t Got a Worry in the World” and “Something Good.” And listen to the little catch in Peters’ voice at the tail end of “Something Wonderful”--that’s the kind of grace note that gives her sound its personality and, yes, wonder.

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

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Don Shirley is a Times staff writer.