Say Love

I am not a Maury Yeston fan. My favorite song of his, hands down, New Words. I've just been listening to Playbill.com's new radio station. And god bless they finally have one. I've been pretty happy with it up until today. I started listening when they were doing an artist profile or whatever on Mr. Yeston. Who I don't hate, but I don't think a lot of. And it's not a full biography or anything it's just, here are his shows and let's play a couple songs from each. So we start with Nine and I approve of all the choices, Guido's first song, "My Husband Makes Movies" and "A Call From the Vatican." Cool. Next, Phantom, one of the main reasons I'm not a huge fan. So they play "Home" which I will now have stuck in my head for the rest of the week. And then the guy hosting the program says "the Phantom in Yeston's version has a more Gothic love of Christine, here's a song he sings about his love for her." And they play Count Philips duet with Christine....no Phantom involved at all.....what? I mean she even says his name in the song...if the guy had listened to it before playing it he would have known that wasn't what the song was about....heck he could've read a synopsis online. Oh well. We move on.
Placido Domingo sings a popy song from a concept album. Then we get to "In the Beginning" which I knew we would get to and I knew we would only hear one song. "New Words" is really just about the only song of worth in the show, though there are a few others showcased in Yeston's Songbook album. But then this guy who I'm already a little ticked off at says that Liz Callaway is going to sing the song (from the Unsung Musicals recording) and then has the nerve to say that it is Eve singing it to the first baby. Maybe that was the case in 1-2-3-4-5 but it really isn't anywhere near what happens in In The Beginning. For those of you who missed it, and that should be just about everybody in the world, the plot of In the Beginning that's out there being licensed by MTI is about the "other" people in the beginning. Adam and Eve make an unspoken cameo in the opening number but the main characters are people not mentioned anywhere in Genesis. Except for Cain, who goes by a different name and hangs out with the main characters, falls in love with one of them, has a kid and sings this song to the baby. Really more moving I would say. But I'm not trying justify this show in any way....pretty lame. And I should know, I was in it once.
The best part of the presentation though is Betty Buckley's beautiful rendition of "I Had A Dream About You" from his song cycle, December Songs. Props for that, it's a lovely lyric and a moving melody. So yay I approve of that.
I'm starting to think that maybe I should rename this blog "Slightly obnoxious musical theatre snob speaks out" ...anybody?