Wonderful Town
September 2005 Reviewed by: Wes Marshall Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

There was a time in post-WWII New York City when the arts community felt it had the keys to all the most important social issues of the day. If the rubes looked suspiciously at the artistes as effete narcissists, the artists felt their self-appointed stature was well earned as they shared a secret empire of knowledge and sophistication.

Against this backdrop, Leonard Bernstein, along with a few other artistic beacons, was interested in finding an intersection between the concert hall and the Broadway stage. His first major work using the concept was On the Town (1944), a brilliant romp through New York with three sailors and the women they love. Wonderful Town, originally produced in 1953, follows two girls from Ohio as they take on the Bohemian rhapsody of Greenwich Village. This time, Bernstein and librettists Adolph Green and Betty Comden were slightly supercilious in their prejudice against the world west of the Hudson River, but the laughs and romance work out just fine, especially in this semi-staged performance from Berlin by some of the brightest stars music has to offer.

The biggest names are four-time Tony winner Audra McDonald, a singer and actress of great subtlety who can wring the emotions out of a song like few others treading the boards these days; and Thomas Hampson, one of opera’s biggest names, but with an "aw-shucks" personality and a love of singing that work perfectly here. Kim Criswell, though American, is better known in Europe for a collection of best-selling cast recordings. She has a greater range than any of the performers, and is able to switch from quiet and lovelorn to loud and brassy in the skip of a beat. I lost count of how many times she stole the show.

The most sublime moment occurs at chapter 4 where the two sisters try to comfort each other as they remember home. Weird moment number one: watching the classical performers trying to realistically devolve into a classical music mosh pit on the Conga! (chapter 11). Take that, Fishbone fans! Weirdest moment number two: Sir Simon exhorting the staid Germans to get off their asses and shake their booty in a midnight trance dance to an encore of the Conga! (chapter 18), something we probably could have done without.

Visually, the production is crystal clear with unobtrusive but active camera work. The sound is slightly bright and, like much of what we hear from the Philharmonie Berlin, it lacks any realistic soundstage. However, the closeness of the instruments and vocals gives an in-your-face realism that sounds spectacular in the bigger moments, especially those where the saxophones are screaming. As usual with these EuroArts releases from Naxos, there are no extras other than advertisements for other EuroArts releases.

While not A-level Broadway Bernstein (that would be On the Town and West Side Story), Wonderful Town is a fun way to spend an hour and a half, and, given the great cast and high-quality recording, I can’t imagine this performance being bettered in the near future.

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