Sometimes the Old is New

Posted by mwblogger

April 25, 2009

Last night I received a really fun box in the mail, a whole stack of Sony Broadway musical re-issues. Records I knew and loved as a kid—soundtracks to Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Company, A Chorus Line, Bye Bye Birdie—in slick space-saving cardboard packaging. I suspect I’ll be writing about them after listening—a thrilling, long-overdue stroll down memory lane. But just seeing the covers (they’ve been retained, which is nice, back from when covers on records actually meant something) caused me to look back in the proverbial Prousitan rush over a lot of portions of my own life. I could practically taste the opening pages of Company (I remember spending two whole rehearsals trying to teach actors the first two pages), the song “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” from Cabaret, the terrifying Fruma Sarah’s dream sequence in Fiddler, the touching “What I Did for Love” from Chorus Line (the anthem of the dispossessed who toil at something despite overwhelming odds, financial troubles, rejection from the culture and even years of deep-set spoken or unspoken disappointment from one’s family—in other words, my song!) and a lot of other tunes that continue to mean the world.

There will be more on this.

Also in the box was Tiempo Libre, who accompanied James Galway on a previous record and are now back and on their own with their special swinging Bach readings which I tend to love.

A good day.

Share and Enjoy: