PAJAMA GAME

The original London cast album of The Pajama Game was recorded in September 1955, just prior to the show's October 13 opening. (It had opened on Broadway the previous year.) That means that, by the terms of European copyright law on recordings, it passed into the public domain on January 1, 2006. Sepia Records, which specializes in creating unlicensed versions of such just-out-of-copyright material, responds here with a CD that begins with the 16 tracks featured on the old HMV LP, then adds ten bonus tracks. The London production of The Pajama Game ran a profitable 588 performances. As demonstrated here, the production succeeded by providing a near-copy of the Broadway version. A frequent problem with British productions of American shows is that the accents aren't very good, but that is not the case here. Of the principals, Max Wall and Frank Lawless sound somewhat British, but even their voices are not way off, and the rest of the cast sounds convincingly American. They also handle the score well, from the hit novelty tunes like "Hernando's Hideaway" and "Steam Heat" to the hit ballad "Hey There." Canadian Edmund Hockridge, in the leading male role played by John Raitt on Broadway, is equally big-voiced on such songs as "A New Town Is a Blue Town," and Australian Joy Nichols is just as good as the female lead. There's not much reason for an American who owns the original Broadway cast album to buy this very similar recording, but it's almost as good. The ten bonus tracks that expand the running time to 78-plus minutes consist of tracks from singles made by Nichols in the late '40s and early '50s. Most of these are novelty songs typical of the time, which she handles good-naturedly, joined by such partners as Dick Bentley and Jimmy Edwards, who also appeared with her on British radio during the period. ~ William Ruhlmann, AMG

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