A few weeks ago we took a listen of the audio commentary for The Bridges of Madison County and now we give a listen to the Beautiful cast recording with Jessie Mueller. The Beautiful cast recording is an interesting listen because it includes not just Jessie Mueller, but additional commentary from songwriters Barry Mann & Cynthia Weill, as well as stars Anika Larsen, Jake Epstein and Jarrod Spector. So it’s packed house which makes for a fun and interesting listen to complement the actual, excellent, cast album.
Here are some interesting things we learned from the commentary.
“Happy Days” is the only song written specifically for the show
Anika Larsen calls it the most fun she’s ever had entering a show. Throughout the entire audio commentary her passion about the role is significant. She and Jarred Spector give a nice commentary on “Walkin in the Rain” explaining what a great moment it is for them to have a nice emotional number to mark their reconciliation scene in an emotional way after spending most of the musical being the “funny” couple. In a sweet moment it’s shared that Cynthia Weill told Anika one night, “You're a better me than I’ll ever be.”
How they captured the "live" sound on the cast recording
One of the more interesting stories shared is Epstein’s on “Take Good Care of Me”. As it’s played in the show it’s supposed to have something of an off the cuff, jam session feel so the the music director just follows him and he begins in whatever time he wants. To recapture that sound for the cast recording they set up a piano in front of the recording booth and have them reproduce the idea of him finding his own time and the band kicking. It’s little things like the show’s effectiveness in capturing the live performance on the album that makes the Beautiful cast recording such a gem of a listen.
Finding the perfect note!
Epstein calls “Up on the Roof” one of his favorite moments in the show. He offers a humorous tidbit, one night after the show Claude-Michel Schönberg was watching and came backstage to ask him how he finds the note for the song – which he begins a cappella. He was tempted to just say he had perfect pitch, but truth is the music director quietly gives him the note to start the song off.
The song that inspired "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"
One of the beauties of the commentary is hearing some perceptive commentary from Songwriters Barry Mann & Cynthia Weill. On discussing the placement of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" in the show they discuss it as being their own version of “Baby, I Need Your Lovin’”. And now I can’t stop listening to either song without thinking about the other. Cynthia Weil, who comes away as the MVP of the commentary has a lovely bit on this song, “Honestly when we were writing these songs I thought they would disappear. I never thought they’d become standards….Any song with woah, woah, woah can’t be important.”
How they found the right place for a classic
“You’ve Got a Friend” was one of the latter songs worked into the books. They kept trying to fit it in different parts, and it wasn’t in the show even in San Francisco. Book writer Douglas McGrath did additional work on the book when they came back to NY and Anika and Jessie admit that the song becomes a real earned song in the show that they look forward to.
Nailing the big finale!
Jessie shares a nice evaluation of how "Beautiful" becomes the most difficult song to sing in the show, as the message of the evening. She hearkens back to reading Carole writing about the idea for in her book (traveling on the train and finding that she only saw the terrible things and one day realizing – as a truism – that you see what you get for). Jessie admits even though she’ll feel like she’s nailing it some night, on some shows she’s just not sure she’s seeing the “Beautiful” which makes it such a challenging, and exciting number to do every evening.
To listen to the commentary visit Ghostlight Records YouTube page.
