PREMIERE CAST RECORDING: A Fine & Private Place

Premiere Cast Recording

A Fine & Private Place

© 2004 Clearsong Records (783707926926)

CD permanently out of stock. Sorry!

"This is a show with real wit, wisdom and lyricism. If you're a fan of SIX FEET UNDER you'll love A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE." -Stephen Flaherty (Tony Award® winning composer of Ragtime, Anastasia, Seussical)

notes

"How wonderful it is to finally have the opportunity to enjoy and savor the score of Richard Isen and Erik Haagensen's A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE with its original cast. This is a show with real wit, wisdom and lyricism. If you're a fan of SIX FEET UNDER you'll love A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE."
    -Stephen Flaherty (Tony Award® winning composer of RAGTIME, ANASTASIA, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, SEUSSICAL)
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"These gifted writers have written a delightful and moving chamber musical with a memorable score. I have no doubt that theatres all over the country will want to produce the show once they hear this undiscovered gem for themselves."
    -Richard Maltby, Jr. (Tony Award® winning Broadway veteran director, lyricist, for AIN'T MISBEHAVIN', BABY, CLOSER THAN EVER, SONG AND DANCE, MISS SAIGON)
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"How wonderful that after 15 years, in this incredibly difficult time to get an actual original cast recording, Richard Isen and Erik Haagensen finally have a perfect document of their haunting show "A Fine and Private Place." The cast is even more seasoned now, which gives the work a new resonance and depth, and more has happened in these years, loss, loss, loss, to make the whole notion of those dwelling in the 'world behind the world,' and needing a kind of care and love, even more powerful. Bravo!"
     -Ricky Ian Gordon (composer-lyricist of the musicals MY LIFE WITH ALBERTINE, DREAM TRUE, and the song cycle, ONLY HEAVEN, and the CD of original songs, BRIGHT EYED JOY)
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"A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE is a musical of distinction. Its score is dramatic and tuneful, its lyrics witty and original. Messrs. Haagensen and Isen have fashioned a thoroughly compelling and moving piece of musical theatre. So, where's the next one?"
    -Lonny Price (director of THE ROTHSCHILDS, A CLASS ACT, MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS, URBAN COWBOY, and CANDIDE and SWEENEY TODD IN CONCERT)
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How nice to encounter a Raven who can do more than croak out a terse and unforgiving, "Nevermore." For in this recording of "A Fine and Private Place," here's another Raven who talks-one who'll now be with musical theater enthusiasts evermore.

Finally, after 15 years of waiting, there's a premiere cast album of this 1989 musical with book and lyrics by Erik Haagensen and music by Richard Isen.

The story that features a loquacious bird-and a few other fascinating characters-first saw the light of day in Peter S. Beagle's 1960 novel of the same name. "A Fine and Private Place" is the story of Michael Morgan, who died too soon-though he may only have himself to blame for that-and Laura Durand, also recently deceased, who never found a true and abiding love in life. After these two ghosts meet in a cemetery, do they dare try again? Can they fall in love before they forget how? (Can any of us, for that matter?)

These two lost souls on the highway of death meet Jonathan Rebeck, an old codger who isn't quite homeless, if you count the mausoleum in the cemetery as his permanent address. He's been there 20 years-enough time, apparently, to learn how to chat amiably with ghosts. Rebeck is proof that if you hang around a cemetery long enough, you somehow gain the ability to talk to the dead without benefit of Madame Arcati.

Not that Rebeck won't talk to the living. As the show continues, he'll make conversation with 1) Gertrude Klapper, a widow who drops by her deceased husband's grave, and 2) the aforementioned Raven.

And you thought Cinderella in "Into the Woods" was the only character in musical theater who talked to birds. Only this time, the bird in question answers quite a bit-sometimes quite eloquently, sometimes quite flippantly. It's a haunting yet charming story because it's one in which people help people. Those who have passed away pass on what they've learned. Those who are still alive and well can aid two ghosts in search of a relationship. Beagle's novel hasn't been out of print a day since it was first published. Not bad for a book written by a 19-year-old, eh?

But books are less expensive to print than musicals are to produce. So while copies of the novel still abound in new and used bookstores, fans of musicals haven't been able to hear or revisit the score that debuted at the Goodspeed Opera House's Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, Connecticut 15 years ago.

It's a haunting yet charming story because it's one in which people help people. Those who have passed away pass on what they've learned. Those who are still alive and well can aid two ghosts in search of a relationship. It's a musical that makes you feel better about Hamlet's daddy and all those other people who have moved on. What a wonderful tribute to Haagensen and Isen that their entire Goodspeed cast-Evalyn Baron, Gabriel Barre, Charles Goff, Maureen Silliman, and Brian Sutherland-all wanted to do it again, believing enough in A Fine and Private Place to return to it, re-learn the songs, and endure a recording session-which, for a cast album, is always an arduous and painstaking experience. Not that you'd ever know it from the way this album turned out. How fitting that a show about the enduring nature of love should produce such a warm and winning recording."
-excerpted from Peter Filichia's liner notes of the show's original -Goodspeed cast recording


"Erik Haagensen's book and lyrics weave a captivating tale. His sharp, witty lyrics remind one of Stephen Sondheim at his razor sharpest. Endearing supernatural hijinks, charm, and innocence."
-New Jersey Villadom Times

"Offbeat pleasures and glints of real promise. The most winning character is the sardonic raven, a sensational turn. The sentimental fable is carried along nicely by Richard Isen's constrainedly eloquent score and Haagensen's lyrics. "No One Ever Knows" is a beautifully placed hymn to mortality. Poignant and charming."
-Newark Star-Ledger

The Players (in order of appearance)
The Raven- Gabriel Barre
Jonathan Rebeck- Charles Goff
Michael Morgan- Brian Sutherland
Gertrude Klapper- Evalyn Baron
Laura Durand- Maureen Silliman
Campos- Gabriel Barre
Voice of the priest- Peter S. Beagle

The Musicians
Musical Director/piano- Henry Aronson
Percussion- James Musto
Bass- Ray Kilday

Recording produced by Kristen Blodgette and David Lai

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