Guys and Dolls

Rating:
Summary: Guys and Dolls Vocal Selections unimpressive
Review: Guys and Dolls is a fantastic musical, and this vocal selections book is a good representation of it. Unfortunately, some songs like Marry The Man Today, My Time Of Day, Follow The Fold and The Oldest Established have been left out from the book, but that is the price you pay, or rather don't pay, when you don't buy the full vocal score. However, this book will satisfy fans of the show, complete with pictures from the original 1950 Broadway production, the 1955 film, and the New 1992 Broadway Revival. Definately, this book is a good buy.

Rating:
Summary: Better Than Nothing
Review: I found this songbook to be most unimpressive as far as faithful recreations of the songs and only worthwhile to get if there's no alternative. Not only are the arrangements not true to the original harmonies, but whole verses and introductions are left out, and the keys are drastically changed (sosmetimes as much as a fourth lower), which gives the wrong impressions as to the how the song should sound, and the type of voice suited to the song. According to the keys in this songbook, the role of Sarah Brown was sung by an alto when in reality it's a soprano role. Also, I question the leaving out of "Marry the Man Today", one of the best songs in the show. The photos of the different productions at the beginning of the book are nice, but they don't make up for its musical shortcomings.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I'm very impressed with this book. I enjoyed playing and singing these songs a lot. I also thought the book was well laid out so songs were easy to find in it.

Rating:
Summary: Guys and Dolls Vocal Selections unimpressive
Review: One would expect to find fantastic arrangements of the highlights found in this fantastic work of musical theatre, but instead, with this sheetmusic release from Hal Leonard, fans of Guys and Dolls are left with poor incomplete and at times obsolete versions of the songs. One key example of this is the Nathan and Adelaide duet 'Sue Me'. The lyrics and majority of the music is than that found in the original and revival versions of Guys and Dolls. Seeing as though this is one of my favorite songs in the musical, I was completely shocked and agrivated by this.

Another key song that is incomplete and vastly different from the stage and movie versions is 'Guys and Dolls'; the familiar introduction "Whats playing at the Roxy?.." is not to be found, and whole versus are cut. Yes, this is a vocal selections book, and not the complete score, but one would hope and assume that the selections that are in the book are complete and final (by way of lyrics, etc). The photographs (some never before seen) that accompany the first section of the book however, are fantastic in giving insites into the variations in each production (1950, 1955 and 1992) and prove to salvage some of the disapointments that are found throughout. All in all however, this is a good buy for the general fan of the show, who enjoy the memorable tunes, but is not a purist in regards to the traditional lyrics or music sequences- Sadly, this publication just does not do the right amount of justice to the wonderful memorable Guys and Dolls music written by Frank Loesser.

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