Paul Berget

With a leading man who can't sing, lyrics that are no better than the title of this review and a score that is like paint by numbers, "Cyrano" is as great a musical as were the Emperor's New Clothes. I saw this show and was bored and appalled that it was even considered a musical. I saw Cyrano at the Palace Theatre where I also saw Yul Brynner in "Home, Sweet Homer." The two shows should play on adouble-bill--The Demise of the Broadway Musical.

I saw this Cyrano and have the CD and it has some awful music. Why take a classic and add tuneless music?
The CD sits on my shelf unplayed. A must
for the curious Broadway Seeker. All else, will be disapponted.

1. There were two Broadway shows that somehow unfairly did not get the "press & praise", or whatever, to get the attention of the theatre-going public to catch on and become smash hits.

2. Luckily for us, there were recordings of these two Broadway shows on lp.

3. Sadly, for those of us who enjoyed those old lp albums and wished and waited for years and years for them to be remastered to cds, it seemed we would never be able to enjoy these "lost" scores ever again.

4. Now, through some lucky stroke of unlikely chance, we have recently been twice blessed with the remastering and release of BOTH of them on compact disk! All I can say is "There IS a God!" and also "Thank You", "Thank You", "Thank You" to those responsible for the "saving" and "preservation" of these two works by digitizing and releasing them for us again.

One of these two works is "Cyrano" with the great portrayl by Christopher Plummer of certainly one of the greatest characters in all literature. This show sadly closed after only a very few performances. The songs, while not really "great" are certainly quite listenable--but ONE, is spectacular and makes it worth the cost of the whole album, and that is "You Have Made Me Love"--what a winner it is!

The second of these works is "Baker Street" with Fritz Weaver and Inga Swenson. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to see this one before it closed, also, shortly after it opened. I could never understand why it did not catch on. Weaver and Swenson were simply marvelous, it was exciting, funny, and had great tunes and catchy lyrics. I dispaired for years over the non-release of this show on compact disc. I even wrote Universal, who has the rights to Decca's catalogue, and they blew me off. Then, out of the blue this spring there it was listed as a pre-release on amazon here! I immediately went to my local music shop and ordered a copy. And guess what.......there is a bonus track of the Great Richard Burton singing the best song from the show "A Married Man"!

If you love Broadway Cast albums, you need these two disks. If you remember the shows, you need these two disks. And lastly, if you are totally unfamiliar with these two works, you need these two disks. In short--You Need These Disks! Period!

Take my word, both of these albums are wonderful "keepers" that you will listen to over and over, both because they are unusual and not so well known, and also because they are truly great works. I wish you much happy listening to them. ~operabruin

This is a little-known score but it is quite a jewel. It includes songs and dialogue and it is quite faithful to the original play. The songs are old-fashioned but very appropiate to the story and to the tragic romance. It was truly worth the wait.

I am one of the blessed who actually saw one of the 49 performances of this musical on Broadway. Cyrano + Christopher Plummer = an unbeatable combination. After all, it was my favorite play, I revered Christopher Plummer and musicals have always been my favorite genre. The production was positively galvanizing. Some wonderful teacher took us to it for a class trip, bless her! (Could it have been Mrs. Cerruti from French Class? Just trying to give credit to hopefully the proper party!) I have to go look for that Playbill soon.
I was uplifted by the theatrical experience, I cherished the album later (I still have it), and now I am ecstatic about owning the CD as well. I received it yesterday, and listened to it once last night, and five times in my car today.
The composer, lyricist and talent scouts should be happy to know that I am currently learning the lyrics to "From Now Till Forever" (I just love the line, "The atoms within me have been rearranged"!!!) and also to "You Have Made Me Love"...just be glad I keep the windows closed!

"A man fights for more than the mere hope of winning."
Here's to panache!