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0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Only for the most devoted R&H fans Apr 06, 2009
I know, I know. You're thinking that there must be R&H gems out there to add to your collection and internal storehouse of great songs. You're tired of whistling stuff from "Carousel" and "South Pacific." You're sorta' kinda' fond of "Me and Juliet," you have a weakness for "Flower Drum Song," so surely "Pipe Dream" must be --
-- Nope. It ain't. This is a stinky score, no two ways about it. That's why it only lasted a few hundred perfs, back in the '50s, and those audiences were surely snoozing/grimacing through it all. Must have been theater parties up the wazoo, all willing to sit through 2-3 hours of anything that said "R&H." Helen Traubel is an embarrassment (lightning struck once, with Pinza in "South Pacific," but not this time), and the songs all just sort of...dribble along. Far too many of the chorus tunes are about what a wacky, salt-of-the-Earth, ain't-we-got-fun people we are, but it just doesn't cut it. This time around the boys simply chose something they were not cut out to musicalize.
 Pipe Dream CD album Feb 20, 2009
My old vinyl album of Pipe Dream was very worn, as I had bought it in 1955. I am presently transfering all my old vinyl to CD and was very surprised when this CD was available. As it was new, not much could have been wrong with it, and was not.
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 A pipe dream Nov 14, 2008
How appropriate that the least successful of the R & H musicals, and the only one in which they invested their own money, is titled "Pipe Dream"! Critics are still discussing, more than fifty years later, why this show failed. Allow me to add my opinion.
First, the characters. It is difficult for an audience to empathize with characters who are down-and-out, whether by their own choice or because of circumstances. There is no real hero or heroine in "Pipe Dream."
Second, the voicing. Bass-baritone William Johnson and contralto Judy Tyler, as fine as their voices are, do not carry the "zing" that is found in higher register voices. Even soprano Helen Traubel has a heavy sound.
Third, the music. Standing alone, some of the songs measure up to R & H standards. But all together, the whole is not equal to the sum of the parts. "All Kinds of People," "Everybody's Got a Home But Me," and "All at Once You Love Her" are all good songs; but they all drag. And in dragging themselves, they drag the whole show down. There are really no high moments, except when the "bums" come in.
With all of that having been said, we are very fortunate that we have this original cast recording. For its many faults, "Pipe Dream" is still good listening. Obviously, not the best R & H, or even representative R & H; but an important part of Broadway history and memorabilia.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Undeserved obscurity Jul 03, 2007
When I became hooked on musical theatre as a teenager in the early 1960s, I remember devouring a book by Stanley Green on the subject. In that book, if I remember correctly, the recording of Pipe Dream wasn't even listed as existing. How could a recent R&H show NOT have been recorded?! I even read the librettos to all the R&H shows up to Pipe Dream, which was available as a popular published compendium in the late 1950s. Later on I found out that there indeed was a recording of Pipe Dream, but I couldn't find a copy of it anywhere, which, of course, made me want to hear it even more. Suddenly in the mid-to-late 1960s, RCA Victor chose to rerelease their three R&H OC recordings (and in rechanneled stereo, no less!). When I saw them in the store for the first time, I almost lost my breath, and purchased all three (which was a big deal for someone with only allowance money.) Allegro was a disappointment, probably because it was so short and so much of the score was missing. Me and Juliet, although more entertaining, was a trifle and didn't seem to be well recorded because, again, parts of the score were substituted for other parts, making the recording seem disjointed, and the plot was nothing to write home about. Pipe Dream was another matter. Well recorded, considering the limitations of the Lp medium, with a wonderfully cohesive score, I returned to it over and over again. It didn't take my breath away like my first hearing of Anyone Can Whistle did, but I found it captured my attention and I never became bored with it. Of the three, it is the only one I return to.
Why is it not better known? Well, unlike the great R&H shows, it doesn't have any blockbusters. It is less a simple set of song hits than a more complex completely unified piece, which is why it so enjoyable just to put on and listen to. The performances, with the exception of Traubel's, are wonderful. Traubel's voice on the other hand was past its prime by this time, her voice doesn't blend with the other singers, and she was totally miscast in the role. Finally, the show has a mid-1950s sensibility. By that I mean it tends to completely sanitize difficult subject matter and social issues. Suzy is in fact, a homeless girl who resorts to prostitution to survive! In light of today's social awareness, the play's treatment of the topic is not only totally unbelievable, it could actually be considered offensive. And I don't think there is any way to revise Hammerstein's libretto and maintain the score's integrity.
So, get the CD, and when you have the time, put it on, settle back and give it a listen from beginning to end. You won't be disappointed.
How much better it would be if you read Sweet Thursday! May 13, 2007
I would like to suggest that the thrill of the recording could be increased quite a bit if the customer read Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning American writer, John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" and the sequel (upon which the play was based), "Sweet Thursday". The meaning of the events portrayed in the selections would be very clear and I think more enjoyable. Not that the recording is less than enjoyable in its own right.
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