Track Listing

1. Overture
2. Lunching at the Automat
3. Let's Have Another Cup O' Coffee
4. Two Cheers Instead of Three
5. The Police of New York
6. Reisman's Doing a Show
7. Torch Song
8. You Must Be Born With It
9. Castles In Spain (On A Roof in Manhattan)
10. Crinoline Days
11. My Beautiful Rhinestone Girl
12. Soft Lights and Sweet Music
13. If You Believe
14. Well, of All the Rotten Shows
15. I Say Spinach (And the Hell With It)
16. How Can I Change My Luck?
17. A Toast to Prohibition
18. I Don't Wanna Be Married (I Just Wanna Be Friends)
19. Manhattan Madness
20. The Investigation

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47630 in Music
• Released on: 2007-07-03
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording

Amazon.com
New York's Encores! series pursues its excavation of nearly forgotten musicals with this wonderful 1932 chestnut from Irving Berlin. Moss Hart's dementedly screwball book uses the frame of a show within the show to juxtapose references to both the top and the bottom of the heap as the Depression hits America. But of course entertainment is primordial throughout: As Berlin puts it in the determinedly hopeful "Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee," "Trouble's just a bubble,/And the clouds will soon roll by." The songwriter is at the top of his game here--this CD is wildly entertaining from beginning to end—-and his command of the styles of the day is stupendous. He effortlessly goes from the gently acidic "Two Cheers Instead of Three" to the fevered love letter to a city that is "Manhattan Madness," from the operetta spoof "Crinoline Days" to "Torch Song," which sends up the tropes of the nominal genre (and is perfectly delivered by Felicia Finley, whose small part in The Wedding Singer had not prevented her from stealing the show). As is the case with Encores!, the cast—-including musical-comedy experts Judy Kaye, Lee Wilkoff, and Walter Bobbie—-is superb, and the large orchestra does justice to the period arrangements. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Customer Reviews

I didn't like it
If fills a gap in my Irving Berlin collection (I would rather fill the gaps in my Rodgers & Hart and Cole Porter collections, only RH are scarce as hens' teeth, and Porter has too many duds in his scores). The sound on this CD is thin and tinny. The voices likewise, not rich and full. The tunes are mediocre and the lyrics are perfunctory. Some of the tunes are good and a line or two of lyric here and there are clever. I don't want to listen to it again. It doesn't have as many duds as LA Purchase has, but on the other hand it isn't as overall good as LA Purchase is either. The sound on Purchase is richer and more musical. There are some cute things in Face the Music, but like I said, I don't want to listen to it again. Did you notice that If You Believe had been transplanted to Merman's movie There's No Business..., sung by Johnnie Ray? I preferred Ray's version. Not that I agree with the point of the song to begin with. Is Berlin such a voice of the masses that they keep resurrecting his old shows, and are RH and Porter so esoteric and unpopular that the producers are afraid they won't sell?

A New Highlight
This vintage Berlin musical bristles of tunes and snappy lyrics. The old master is at his most satirical and with a cast of true pro:s it's a pure delight to listen to.

What a delight!
The Encores production of "Face the Music" last March was one of the highlights of the New York theater season. Here is a wonderful relic of the days when the theater existed so that people could have silly fun. The score is first class Irving Berlin, and the recording is a wonderful souvenir with a winning cast and terrific conducting by Rob Fisher. If you love classic musical theater, you will want this recording.