Some Lovers song

[Roberto Pinardi]

Voilà:

[Blair N. Cummings]

I like this a bit better than most of what else I`ve heard , but I turned against this misbegotten project long ago.
It was a mistake to attempt to cobble together a coherent musical from previously written one-offs. It was a further mistake to assume that people would line up and shell out Broadway bucks to watch a sympathetic couple break up for two hours.
Perhaps the biggest mistake lay in assuming that "Broadway" is a destination for even middle-brow quality musical fare any more. Look at what`s there...and has been there for decades. Aspiring to Broadway success now is like hoping to get a gig on the Ed Sullivan Show.
I say take the best of these songs and try to find appropriate singers to record them or, better still, let Burt make his own album of them. Leave 21st century Broadway to the tourists and the lounge chairs that have sprouted up in what was once an impressive venue for what passed for "culture" in America.

[Blair N. Cummings]

Having listened to this a number of times now, I want a Bacharach instrumental version right now.
Screw the rest of this doomed project.

[nymusicalsguy]

I believe I've mentioned this before, Blair, but the score to SOME LOVERS was completely original and penned by Bacharach and Sater for the musical. It's just a sign of the long gestation period of musicals that a handful of songs were recorded before the show was actually staged.

I saw the production in San Diego, and while flawed (an assessment I believe Bacharach and Sater would share) it certainly had potential for further development. I, too, would like to see an album produced by Burt of the show's material, but I applaud his decision to continue rewriting and workshopping the musical. If modern-day Broadway is as barren as you suggest - and I believe that recent works by Jason Robert Brown, David Yazbek, Alan Menken, Tim Minchin, the indefatigable John Kander and other talented composers certainly disprove that - it would be all the richer for Bacharach's involvement. (Your assertion, too, that it has been barren for decades ignores the post-1970 or even post-1980 career of Stephen Sondheim, just to name one enormous and influential talent. Kander and Ebb, Bock and Harnick, Jerry Herman, Cy Coleman and Charles Strouse have all made great contributions to The Great American Songbook in the post-Rodgers and Hammerstein era.) I wish SOME LOVERS - and PAINTED FROM MEMORY and even AUSTIN POWERS - well. Bacharach's enthusiasm when speaking of these projects is palpable, as is his belief that Broadway is a more hospitable environment than today's music business. I can understand your frustrations - but we could do much worse than another PROMISES, PROMISES. It's hard to think of another writer still challenging himself in his eighties, not to mention starting new collaborations, as he has with the likes of J.D. Souther. We can all pine for the past, but I couldn't possibly write off the present and future for Burt.

Respectfully yours,

Joe

[Blair N. Cummings]

Joe, I agree that those songwriting teams and individuals you mentioned contributed enormously to American music. I don`t think I said that Broadway died around 1959 - it was a little over a decade afterward with the enduring exception of Sondheim.
Although I`ve mentioned this before, Jimmy Webb (here we go again) has written a number of musicals over the past quarter century - with stunningly beautiful songs - aad just can`t attract the backing to get them staged. Meanwhile, we see Tarzan, Rock of Ages (for chrissake), Spider Man and...well you know what they are. These are my targets, not the still-great shows of the `60s.
As for Some Lovers, my ears tell me that it`s sub-par Bacharach, much of it sounding like the lazy stuff he churned out with Bayer-Sager. Painted from Memory was the real deal. It was a great album. It will be for all time. It will be a pointless stage show. He and "Elvis" should append their new songs to an expanded re-issue of the album.

[nymusicalsguy]

As always, Blair, I'm happy that there is much we can agree on!

It's indeed a crime that Jimmy Webb's musical theatre projects have never come to fruition...at the very least, I wish Mr. Webb would release his demos (presuming they exist) to SCANDAL, THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE, A BRONX TALE, etc. I do firmly believe that had Michael Bennett not died, Jimmy would have been represented on Broadway by now.

I think I enjoy more of the SOME LOVERS score than you do (the title song, "Welcome to My World," "Just Walk Away," "This Christmas" all stood out, melodically) and only time will tell its fate...but diff'rent strokes, of course! I do believe that if Sater commits to doing the necessary rewrites, another regional production might lead to a New York berth. It's not so much a "Broadway show" as an off-Broadway one - a chamber musical that would be a nice fit for a company like Manhattan Theatre Club, Roundabout or Lincoln Center Theater. It sounds more to me, at least, like vintage Bacharach than like the Bayer Sager years. (Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations were expectedly terrific, too.) And if Burt and Elvis can rekindle any of the magic they conjured for PAINTED FROM MEMORY, I'll be happy wherever those songs turn up! (Too bad their rumored collaborative effort for Diana Krall hasn't happened.)

Best,

Joe

[Rio]

I'm much closer to nymusicalguy than to Blair on Bacharach-Sater. For whatever my opinion is worth, I think Burt's recent output might be on a par with his best earlier works. I say this with trepidation, but I think it is that good.

[martin55]

Every production is not necessarily appropriate for Broadway. If you look at Cats which is one of the best 1980s Broadway musicals and is still running you can get an idea at what can be successful at Broadway.

[An Enormous BB Fan]

Every production is not necessarily appropriate for Broadway. If you look at Cats which is one of the best 1980s Broadway musicals and is still running you can get an idea at what can be successful at Broadway.

"Cats" hasn't been on Broadway for 14 years.