Word: balladeering
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...ballad which affected me most was probably that of Zahran, the hero of Denshway. Denshway was only five kilometers away and the ballad dealt with a real incident. British soldiers were shooting pigeons in Denshway, the ballad goes, when a stray bullet caused a wheat silo to catch fire. Farmers gathered and a British soldier fired at them and ran away; they ran after him and in the ensuing scuffle the British soldier died. Many people were arrested. Scaffolds were erected before sentences were passed; a number of farmers were whipped, others hanged. Zahran was the hero of the battle...
...Alison" is the album's most interesting song. A ballad, it's unsettling in the same way as "I'm Not Angry"--what Costello says works at cross-purposes with how he says it. The music is quiet and lyrical, and another aspect of Costello's instrumental skill is revealed in the reflective, jazz-like guitar figures he plays under the vocal. The words, however, belie the tradition of rock and roll ballads to lost loves. Yes, there's sadness there for what used to be--but the norm in classic rock lyrics is the graceful acquiescence, and Costello will...
...Fantasticks, Tom Jones' and Harvey Schmidt's 1959 musical about a boy and girl who believe they are defying their parents' wishes by falling in love with each other, never lived up to its name, and these days it has crow's feet. Generally uninspiring music--although the touching ballad "Try to Remember" came from this show--and a sappy script spoil this simple parable before it can get off the ground. But with over 7,000 Off-Broadway performances and still counting, who's gonna argue with success? Overall a decent production, although narrator-abductor E1 Gallo hasn...
...weakest link in Fantasticks is LeoPierre Roy, who plays El Gallo. Roy is a veteran of many Harvard theatricals, and his performance is not a casualty of incompetence, but miscasting. El Gallo is the most difficult role in the show. He must sing the beautiful opening ballad "Try to Remember," introduce the characters, narrate the action, abduct Luisa and allow himself to be beaten by Matt, and philosophize on the Meaning of It All. Roy is a good actor, but he is all wrong for the part, El Gallo is supposed to be dark, handsome, suave, sophisticated...
With only piano, harp and bass at his disposal, musical director and piantist Dan Ullman achieves a surprising spectrum of moods with the score. Except for the touching ballad "Try to Remember," the songs are musically undistinguished. Still, the musical numbers are the strong points of the show. Matt and Luisa's closing duet, staged with admirable restraint, nearly redeems the dialogue that precedes it--and it would completely if Schmidt and Jones didn't feel obligated to insert El Gallo at the end with another substanceless speech...