Onward Victoria 1981 Original Cast Members

From the people at Shadoks Music, this was a very welcome issue since the original demo LP is impossibly rare. The album was recorded in New Jersey in 1971 by an indeterminate number of musicians. Regrettably, there is no information booklet with this CD. All we get is a paper version of something like a gatefold LP cover with a selection of band photos that raise more questions than they answer. The front and back photos have five guys and one girl, while one of the inside photos features what appears to be a band consisting of half dozen ladies. The credits only list three of those ladies and the main songwriter Greg Ruban without enlightening us to what instruments they play.So what of the music? Does it live up to the hype put out by some of those dealers trying to unload copies? Well, yes and no. I personally find the CD rather patchy with some excellent material mixed in with a few cuts that are frankly pretty average. Unfortunately, it is one of the latter - "Peace" - that opens the album and you can certainly imagine that any major label A&R person listening to the demo might well not get beyond that nondescript opener. A lot of aspiring psych and prog bands from the early 'seventies made the same mistake. I've been listening to the rare British prog gem by Spring a lot lately, and for my money the opening track is the least interesting on the entire album. I guarantee that if they'd opened that LP with "Grail" they'd have sold as many copies as a King Crimson release - and rightly so because the record as a whole was at least as good.But back to the matter in hand. The second track "Cumberland" is a much better effort - utterly beautiful in fact. A lovely melody with a pastoral hippy dream feel to it and lyrics to match. Next we have "Gevaro" which is much more uptempo with great guitar and organ and an interesting rhythm which is a bit middle eastern and a bit latin - excellent! However, we then slide down to the nondescript again, with the best thing about "Ride a Rainbow" being the title. "Never Knew blues" is decent, but "Down to the Park" is another throwaway. So then we come to the two long numbers which were what attracted me to this CD. "Village of the Etaf (Prelude & Overture)" clocks in at 12.35 and certainly has its moments without ever quite taking off. The lyrics are decidedly hippy utopia type stuff, and frequently narrated rather than sung if you can handle that. There are some nice guitar touches here and there and a tasty organ solo nine and a half minutes in. I'd play it on a warm sunny Sunday afternoon if I was you. The closing track of the original LP was "Core of the Apple" but this is the one I'd be least likely to consign to the bin. Here we find the band at their most original and inventive, with organ, guitar, bass and drums all delivering. There's also a bit of flute or recorder in there - much better than the horns that are used on some of the other numbers. For any US psych completist, I would say this cut is well worth hearing.Unlike some other reviewers elsewhere on the web, I can't say I was particularly blown away by the bonus tracks which consist of unreleased acetates and band reel to reel tape recordings from '69 and '70. "Mister Let Me go" is nice, and the pick of the crop. "Johnny and Lisa is like an inferior take on the latter (B side of a projected 45 maybe?) with the same prominent piano. The early version of "Peace" may even be a little better than the album version, with some cool echo used on the vocals, but the short version of "Cumberland" is much inferior to the take on the LP. "Child of Princess" is quite listenable, "Sundance" is mediocre and the closer "Wheels" has a certain charm, though you probably wouldn't miss it if it wasn't there. At least the sound quality of the bonus tracks is okay - I've heard much worse from acetates and/or private reel to reel.So my recommendation would be to pick one of these up if you can get it reasonably cheaply but it definitely is not worth some of those inflated prices I've seen on ebay.

". . . appealing and gutsy . . . " (William Raidy, Newark Star-Ledger) ". . . An engaging musical . . . a musical with a message and a welcome surprise . . . " (Jeffrey Lyons, CBS Radio) ". . . the show casts a pall over the audience." (Frank Rich, New York Times) ". . . a lifeless score and humorless book . . . " (John Kendrick, [...]) "Considered by some to be one of the ten worst Broadway plays. " (Victoria Woodhull website)After three weeks of previews, ONWARD VICTORIA opened (and closed) at the Martin Beck Theatre on December 14, 1980. Eight months later, members of the original cast gathered at RCA Studios in New York to record the show. I, for one, am extremely grateful that they did and am indebted to Original Cast Records for its remastered 1994 CD release. Usually in agreement with John Kendrick, I do not find the score "lifeless." Rather, I find it refreshing and inventive; an "old-fashioned" Broadway score in the very best sense of the term.Economic reality has extracted a heavy toll from the Broadway musical, primarily in the number of singers and dancers employed and the size and quality of the orchestra. String sections have been replaced by synthesizers; a crack dance corps and a separate big-voiced chorus have given way to 16 or fewer singer/dancers who do neither as well as they did in the good old days; the overture has all but disappeared; excellence has been replaced by ordinary. Not the case with ONWARD VICTORIA.Just give a listen to the excellent vocal writing and choral work in the opening number "In New York The Only Sin Is Being Timid" (listed as "The Age of Brass" on opening night), Victoria's campaign song "Onward Victoria" (or, "Victoria's Banner"), "You Cannot Drown the Dream," and the hymn-parody "A Valentine for Beecher;" and the stand-up-and-cheer second act finale. Incidentally, are those Bach-trumpets I hear in "Valentine?" Maybe the book was humorless, but catch the references to incest as per Sophocles in "Something for the Lord," artfully sung by Jim Jansen, and this line - and others - from "Beecher's Defense": "Plymouth Church should be proud to have a preacher so endowed." Not all the lyrics are as inspired as these ("Love and Joy" is a case in point), but even Oscar Hammerstein, II, penned a few clinkers. How about this gem from SOUND OF MUSIC: "You need someone older and wiser telling you what to do-ooh. I am 17 going on 18. I'll take care of you."The cast is uniformly excellent, but Jill Eikenberry is a revelation! Known primarily as "Ann Kelsey" on TVs "LA Law" (153 episodes, 1986-1994), she reveals herself as a fine singer-actress in the role of Victoria Woodhull, a feminist who, decades before women won the right to vote, was the Equal Rights Party candidate for President, running against incumbent Ulysses S. Grant. In addition to her campaign-style numbers, Ms. Eikenberry gives us two lovely, character-building ballads, "I've Had a Taste of Forever" & "Another Life." Beth Austin, as Woodhull's sister Tennie Clafin, joins Victoria in "Magnetic Healing" & "I Depend on You" and gets her chance to shine in the big, brassy, show-stopping "Respectable." Lenny Wolpe (Feldzieg in THE DROWSY CHAPERONE), as restaurateur Charlie Delmonico, has a great time with "Unescorted Women;" Jim Jansen (Post Office prosecutor Anthony Comstock) gleefully reveals "Every Day I Do a Little Something for the Lord;" Michael Zaslow (Henry Ward Beecher, charismatic preacher of Brooklyn's Plymouth Church) explains away his wife's infidelity with "A Woman Like Beth" and joins Victoria in "Love and Joy," the only number that, in my opinion, doesn't succeed.A "lifeless score?" I think not. Rather, a delightful score that transcends its appallingly bad book. (See also WHOOP-UP, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, et. al.) Without a complete rewrite of the book, it's doubtful that ONWARD VICTORIA will ever again find its way onto the stage, so let's be grateful that this fine recording, with members of the original Broadway cast, is here for us to enjoy.Highly recommended.

I can finally add a very rare private press to my digital library. There aren't many reviews on this item. It consists of a variety of styles but the underlying classical, psych and prog notes make in an interesting listen for sure.If this sounds interesting buy it soon as few copies remain....R.