Big River: The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (1985 Original Broadway Cast) Review

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Big River: The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (1985 Original Broadway Cast) ReviewIf you are going to be audacious enough to try and make a musical of Huckleberry Finn, then choosing Roger Miller of "King of the Road" fame to write the songs is certainly an inspired move. "Big River," the Tony Award winning musical, owes as much to Miller as it does to Mark Twain for writing the classic story in the first place. Of course when you are talking Roger Miller you are talking fun songs, from John Goodman's ripping diatribe on "Guv'ment" as Huck's Pappy and Tom Sawyer's (John Short) "Hand for the Hog" to the two songs by the King (Bob Gunton) and the Duke (Rene Auberjonois), "When the Sun Goes Down in the South" and "The Royal Nonesuch" ("She's got one big breast in the middle of her chest/And an eye in the middle of her nose/So says I, if you look her in the eye/You're better off looking up her nose"). Even when Miller offers us the tender country ballad, "You Oughta Be Here with Me," Mary Jane Wilkes (Patti Cohenour, who later went on to play Christine in "Phantom of the Opera" on Broadway) sings the song to her father's coffin. "The Crossing" is a nice spiritual, but clearly the best songs are reserved for the Huck (Daniel Jenkins) and Jim (Ron Richardson): "Muddy Water," as they shove off on a raft for Freedom, "River in the Rain" as they spend their last moments alone on the river, and "World's Apart" as the recognize the gulf that exists between them. They also do a trio with Mary Jane on "Leavin's Not the Only Way to Go." The only shortcoming of this musical comes at the end, when we get to the greatest passage in American Literature, when Huck declares he will help Jim to freedom even if it means going to hell; Miller offers a reprise of "Waitin' for the Light to Shine" rather than coming up with a new song to capture this epic moment. Similarly, Jim's "Free at Last" echoes too much of the old spiritual instead of offering something more unique. However, while this is somewhat disappointing it is not entirely unsatisfying, and I do not mean to downplay Miller's monumental success with this score. After all, Leonard Bernstein never came up with a final aria for Maria at the end of "West Side Story," and that did not take away from the greatness of that musical. At the end of "Big River" what stands out are the moments between Huck and Jim captured in song; those are the ones you are going to want to hear over and over. With his wide variety of songs for this show, Miller perfectly matched the breadth of Twain's writings. It is a monumental achievement and a lasting legacy for Miller, who proved himself to be a writer of much more than novelty hits.Big River: The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (1985 Original Broadway Cast) OverviewNo Description AvailableNo Track Information AvailableMedia Type: CDArtist: BIG RIVERTitle: ORIGINAL CASTStreet Release Date: 06/23/1988

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