SONDHEIM: Bounce.(Sound Recording Review)

SONDHEIM: Bounce Pawk, Powell; Kind, Creel, McGillin, Lackey; Caddick. Nonesuch 79830-2

John Weidman and Stephen Sondheim gave us Pacific Overtures and Assassins, so when Bounce opened at the Goodman Theatre, in Chicago in 2003, people didn't quite know what to make of it. For years, Sondheim was deemed too dark, too edgy, too esoteric. With Bounce, Sondheim was pilloried for writing a showbiz book musical that was too entertaining and not shocking enough. This recording was made after Bounce's subsequent run at the Kennedy Center, when it became clear that there would not be a Broadway transfer. Will people who know Bounce only from this album find a neglected masterpiece that should have gone to New York? No, and that was never the point. Bounce was an enjoyable evening in the theater, a catchy score bound to the story of a decent man and his ne'er-do-well brother. It resonates for anybody who has ever had siblings.

The score has Sondheim's trademark rhymes ("wrecked" with "respect") and aphorisms ("You're wasting time/when what you are/Is what you've been"), but they don't call attention to themselves. Rather, they are scattered bits of glitter that help keep the show spinning along. Addison Mizner, who eventually becomes an architect, is plagued not only in life but even after death by his scamp of a brother Wilson. Their picaresque adventures take them around the world, with major stops at the Alaskan gold rush, Belmont and the Florida land boom. Along the way, they meet Nellie, a dance-hall girl turned millionaire widow turned wife of Wilson, and Addison acquires Hollis, his sensitive, handsome young boyfriend. Among the songs are "What's Your Rush?", Nellie's torchy seduction of Wilson that could stand on its own outside the show, and "Isn't He Something!", a beautiful number with a typically ...