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Kritzerland is proud to present a new 2-CD set, a live soundboard recording of the infamous musical:
LOLITA, MY LOVE
Music by John Barry
Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Lolita began life as a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The Stanley Kubrick film was released in 1962. The film was praised and damned by critics but has endured as a Kubrick classic. And then Alan Jay Lerner got it into his head that Lolita should become a musical. Novelist Vladimir Nabokov gave his blessing, and in so doing he said, “Mr. Lerner is most talented and an excellent classicist. If you indeed have to make a musical version of Lolita, he is the one to do it.” Lerner chose film composer John Barry to write the music, and Barry proved to be an excellent choice. In addition to his film scores (all the great early Bond films, The Lion in Winter, The Ipcress File, Born Free, Dances With Wolves, Out of Africa, Somewhere in Time, Midnight Cowboy, etc.), Barry had already written for the stage with his musical of Passion Flower Hotel back in 1965.
The show was contentious from the start, with much behind the scenes drama during rehearsals, and then during the out-of-town tryouts. Philadelphia was a four-star disaster, with terrible reviews pretty much across the board. The production shut down after its first performance, fired its director and choreographer and the girl playing the title character. The production then traveled to Boston, where the critics were a little kinder, but audiences stayed away in droves. The New York opening at the Mark Hellinger Theater was cancelled. John Barry recorded a few of its songs on different albums, but sans lyrics – a few of the songs also had vocal recordings.
The orchestrations were by the great Eddie Sauter and the dance arrangements were by John Morris. There was an LP with terrible sound from a soundboard recording that was a copy of a copy of a copy. But it whetted the appetite of flop show lovers everywhere, because the score is filled with wonderfully tuneful songs and some terrific Lerner lyrics. The haunting title song, the beautiful “In the Broken Promise Land of Fifteen” (which had been recorded by several people, including Robert Goulet), “Going, Going, Gone” (recorded by none other than Shirley Bassey), and the absolutely gorgeous, “Tell Me, Tell Me.”
Back in the 1970s, producer Bruce Kimmel came into possession of a complete soundboard tape in pretty decent sound. And it is from that tape, possibly first generation, from which this CD has been mastered. For this release, all the major songs have separate tracks and all the dialogue has separate tracks. That way, one can program the CD however they like – just the score or hearing it all. Mastering engineer, James Nelson, has worked his magic, smoothing out the levels and making it all of a piece.
So, hear it is – the infamous Lolita, My Love, a surprisingly strong show with a really top-notch score.
LOLITA, MY LOVE is limited to 500 copies only and priced at $29.98, plus shipping. This is a PRE-ORDER – CDs will ship by the third week of December, but never fear, we’ve actually been averaging three to five weeks early in terms of shipping ahead of the official ship date. To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com. Also note that your PayPal receipt is the only receipt you get – we don’t send out confirmations beyond that.
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And for fellow show collectors, here is the second release:
Kritzerland is proud to present the next release in our ongoing series of Ben Bagley reissues:
IRVING BERLIN REVISITED
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
At the time Ben Bagley did Irving Berlin Revisited, it was not so easy to gain access to Mr. Berlin’s “trunk.” But the song choices Bagley came up with were lesser-known Berlin titles, some had no real recordings, and so at the time the album was as refreshing as all his Revisited albums were back when they originally came out. As always, his cast was tops: Richard Chamberlain, Blossom Dearie, Dorothy Loudon, and Bobby Short. And as he usually did for his CD releases, he added some additional material. What makes this album one of the best of the Bagleys was Norman Paris arranging and conducting. In fact, this is one of Paris’s best and the band is really good.
Irving Berlin had his first major hit with “Alexander’s Ragtime Band. From there, there was no looking back. He became one of the most iconic and beloved songwriters in the history of popular music. Twenty original Broadway shows, fifteen original Hollywood films, and one hit after another. His catalog is a laundry list of The Great American Songbook classics. His shows include such classics as Ziegfeld Follies, Face the Music, As Thousands Cheer, Louisiana Purchase, Annie Get Your Gun, Call Me Madam, and his final Broadway show, Mr. President, and his films include Top Hat, Follow the Fleet, Carefree, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Holiday Inn, This Is the Army, Blue Skies, Easter Parade, There’s No Business Like Show Business, White Christmas and more. As Jerome Kern wrote: “Irving Berlin has no place in American music – he is American music.”
As always with the Bagley albums, we have cleaned up the sound – this one was especially wacky to deal with – reversed channels on some songs and other sound issues. James Nelson has worked his magic here, so this sounds better than it ever has. And, of course, the great Harvey Schmidt cover art is always the icing on the Bagley cake.
IRVING BERLIN REVISITED is limited to 500 copies only and priced at $19.98, plus shipping. This is a PRE-ORDER – CDs will ship by the third week of December, but never fear, we’ve actually been averaging three to five weeks early in terms of shipping ahead of the official ship date. To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com. Also note that your PayPal receipt is the only receipt you get – we don’t send out confirmations beyond that.
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Which year was this performance taped?
Was Barry's music written in the late '60s? Were the disasterous performances during the early '70s?
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Which year was this performance taped?
Was Barry's music written in the late '60s? Were the disasterous performances during the early '70s?
1971 during the Boston tryout. The show closed there.
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I've been binging on Dark Shadows lately and knew instantly who was playing the title character (Denise Nickerson- Wily Wonka).
I'll need to see if my preferred go-to etailer will be carrying it. If not, hopefully there will still be copies available in a couple weeks.
Thanks for making this available, Bruce!
If I can be nosey- were there any rights issues that had needed clearing? I'm curious how difficult it was to get this out, other than working with less than optimal elements.
No issues.
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Instantly ordered. Thanks for this one, Bruce
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Just ordered.
I'll add it to my lp, cd, demo 45s, and covers.
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In Edward Jablonski's Lerner bio, he said that John Barry's songs were rhythmic, melodic, declaratory, and versatile.
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Instantly ordered.
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Insta-order!
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Brighton Rock!
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Thanks Bruce - I'm so excited to get a new Barry score!
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Billy/Passion Flower Hotel (both CBS and both OOP on cd) would make a nice single cd.
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Billy/Passion Flower Hotel (both CBS and both OOP on cd) would make a nice single cd.
For sure.
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Billy/Passion Flower Hotel (both CBS and both OOP on cd) would make a nice single cd.
Yes, although they wouldn't both fit on one CD, as both albums are about 50 minutes.
As a two-disc twofer though, yes, fabulous.
Cheers
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While the Barry/Lerner collaboration was artistically successful, I read--in Joseph Tandet's book--that Tandet ran into the composer and lyricist while they were rehearsing Lolita and Barry complained that Lerner was difficult to work with, with the constant parties and pill-popping. "Never again," Barry said, about working with Lerner. Tandet had been trying to get the pair to work on a musical of The Little Prince--and it fell through. That's why he was surprised to see them working together.
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