A New Brain (1998 Original Cast)

This is a musical about one of the most unlpleasant topics imaginable: a young man's brush with death as he goes under the knife for removal of a brain tumor. But don't let that awkward yet accurate description dissuade you from picking up "A New Brain." William Finn, the musical genius behind the three "Marvin Musicals" (In Trousers, March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland) once again plunges head-first into devastating territory, and presents a moving story with great humor and amazing theatricality. The talents on this recording are top notch, but above them all, Finn reigns supreme with glorious melodies and smart lyrics. This is more than a musical about our mortality. It is a musical about lovers, mothers, good nurses, bad nurses, show-biz charlatans and, as the song says, "Time and Music." I dare you to listen to the soaring finale, "I Feel So Much Spring" and not feel better about your situation, your day or your life...Read more

I think most of the people that would buy this album are already probably familiar with William Finn's work. And to be a fan of William Finn means you probably are already a discriminating musical theater lover. However, it is those people that don't know Finn well that need to buy this album. Moreover, they need to give it a chance. Finn may inherit Sondheim's place in musical theater as being one of the most delightfully frustrating composers/lyricists on the scene. You really want to hate the songs when you first hear them--they are so uncoventional that I've had friends describe them as "noise." But after repeated listenings, you discern the meaning behind the song and out of all the supposed noise soars some of the most beautiful melodies to be heard in today's musical theater. I put the song "Heart and Music" as my contribution to a staff CD we made at work. Everyone hated it at first, and by the end of a few weeks, even the biggest...Read more

Brain surgery? In a musical?

Call me old-fashioned, but when I first heard of the subject matter for this new mucial, I thought it was rather...well, strange. How could a composer handle writing effective music about brain surgery and then combine it with a story that...made sense. William Finn was able to handle it and then some in his masterpiece, "A New Brain".

The three-part introduction, which probably gets at least partially ignored by many, does a tremendous job of setting the tone for the musical. In the three or four minutes that are taken up my the introduction, there are about one-hundred different emotions expressed by various members of the cast. These emotions pop up again in reverse chronological order throughout the remainder of the musical. I thought it was fascinating how the first line and the last line of the musical, while they have the same musical structure and have all but three words in common ("Frogs have so much spring within...Read more