The overture is such an essential part of a musical..............it's the appetizer before the meal. When a full orchestra plays it, it can be so well done as done here, it can be the best part.
Still the best overture ever written for Broadway (with Funny Girl and Merrily We Roll Along close seconds). And to hear a full orchestra playing it-superb!
I saw the original production of Gypsy with Ethel Merman when I was just a little kid. My mom took me outta school to go see it. Never forgot it and especially the overture. John Wilson hits it out of the ballpark with asuperb rendition to Jule Styne's magnificent score. John Wilson really knows how to put over a Broadway tune. Check out his Carousel and other Roger's & Hammerstein works. Wish John would come on tour to America. WE LOVE YOU JOHN and your Orchestra! Charlie :)
My favourite musical. I just love the songs and yes Ethel Merman was a belter. Have you seen the movie with Bette Miiddler.a musical that will never get away from me.
This is the expanded film orchestrations, which achieves something that the pit orchestra cannot -- grandness! And, to add to it, the film overture was never heard complete. It's interesting they'd edit it so badly. Glad a complete performance exists of this orchestration. Thanks for sharing!
Best overture ever written. Just unimprovable. Sondheim only got credit for the lyrics on this show but Jule Styne worked closely with him on the music, often he would bring in a tune asking "Something like this, Stephen?" If Sondheim wasn't satisfied he would have Styne re-work the piece.
IT IS TOLD THAT THE ONCE THE OVERTURE GOT TO THE STRIPPER'S NUMBER ON OPENING NIGHT: THE SHOW WAS A HIT! 😮 W O W ! THE IT'S TOWARDS THE END OF THE GOLDEN AGE #1 OF BROADWAY! WE SHALL SEE WHAT #3 WILL BE LIKE OH YEAH #2 IS THE SONDHEIM AGE! 😀
When I was at University, one of the subjects in my course was Stage Management. One of the assessment was Calling to a Musical Score. I fail that assessment the previous year because I can't read music and we had no visual cues from the Conductor. I had to rely on the sound of the instrument, that is why I failed. Luckily the assessment this time was calling to this Score with the video, so we could take our cues from the conductor. Luckily in this Score, I had multiple instruments to listen out for like the whistle at the beginning and the muted trumpets. I also had to rely on my watch for timing to call the cues. I am lucky I had this Musical Score to call to otherwise I would probably still be doing that subject.
