The 1989 Broadway musical City of Angels, with a book by veteran comedy writer
Larry Gelbart
and songs by another veteran, composer
Cy Coleman
, and first-time lyricist
David Zippel
, is a send-up of hard-boiled detective fiction and the Hollywood movies that were made from it in the 1940s, the main characters being Stone (
James Naughton
), the detective in a Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe mold, and Stine (
Gregg Edelman
), the novelist in a
Dashiell Hammett
/
Raymond Chandler
mold, both of them (and everyone else) wisecracking a mile a minute. A few examples of that snappy dialogue sneak onto the cast album, which is otherwise devoted to the
Coleman
Zippel
songs, a score very much in keeping with the script.
, who started his career as a jazz pianist in the 1950s, is at home composing music in a post-World War II jazz-pop vein, with elements of swing, bebop, and vocalese. For the last, there is a vocal quartet that sounds an awful lot like
the Manhattan Transfer
. Of course,
also brings in the style of the soundtracks to the film noirs of the period; in fact, one of his themes is so close to the one for
Laura
that composer
David Raksin
is probably owed some royalties. Meanwhile, as a lyricist,
is a
Stephen Sondheim
wannabe who isn't above borrowing an idea or two from his idol, but also comes up with plenty of his own witticisms, along with some hilariously terrible puns. He has to to keep up with
Gelbart
's script. The cast, also including
Rene Auberjonois
(as a studio head),
Kay McClelland
,
Randy Graff
, and
Dee Hoty
, plays broadly, which is what is called for. City of Angels is a lot of fun, and at least some of that fun is transferred to the cast recording. ~ William Ruhlmann