Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green's 1953 collaboration in Wonderful Town doesn't lack for recordings, including two good studio casts from 1998 and 1999. Yet the uncommonly funny show hadn't received a proper Broadway revival until this 2003 production. As Ruth Sherwood, a role created by Rosalind Russell, Donna Murphy gives a glorious five-star star performance, and nowhere is it more obvious than on "Conga!" and "Swing," the latter a delirious spoof of 1950s Greenwich Village hipsterisms. As Eileen Sherwood, Jennifer Westfeldt doesn't have the crystalline pipes of Audra McDonald (from the 1999 album) but she gives a warm performance that comes across well on CD. The rest of the cast is studded with pros who take obvious delight in the show, and music director Rob Fisher polishes Bernstein's score to a gleam. Truly, Broadway doesn't get much better than this.
1. Overture
2. Christopher Street
3. Ohio
4. Conquering New York
5. One Hundred Easy Ways
6. What A Waste
7. Little Bit Of Love, A
8. Pass The Football
9. Conversation Piece
10. Quiet Girl, A
11. Conga!
12. My Darlin' Eileen
13. Swing!
14. Ohio - (reprise)
15. It's Love
16. Ballet At The Village Vortex
17. Wrong Note Rag
18. Finale
19. Ohio / It's Love / Quiet Girl
20. Wrong Note Rag
Wonderful Town
