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List Price: $11.98 | | Label: Decca U.S.
Salesrank: 10181
Released: May 12, 1992 |
| Our Price: $5.98 |
| Used Price: $4.50 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Mack & Mabel (1974 Original Broadway Cast) Track Listing:
1. Overture - Mack & Mable
2. Movies Were Movies - Robert Preston
3. Look What Happened to Mabel - Bernadette Peters
4. Big Time - Lisa Kirk
5. I Won't Send Roses - Robert Preston
6. I Won't Send Roses (Reprise) - Bernadette Peters
7. I Wanna Make the World Laugh - Robert Preston
8. Wherever He Ain't - Bernadette Peters
9. Hundreds of Girls - Robert Preston
10. When Mabel Comes in the Room - Stanley Simmonds
11. My Heart Leaps Up - Robert Preston
12. Time Heals Everything - Bernadette Peters
13. Tap Your Troubles Away - Lisa Kirk
14. I Promise You a Happy Ending - Robert Preston
Editorial Review:
The delightful pairing of Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters headlines the 1974 cast of Mack and Mabel. Despite a distinguished pedigree of composer-lyricist Jerry Herman, director Gower Champion, and producer David Merrick, the show ran only 66 performances on Broadway due to an unwieldy and tragic plot about the doomed romance of silent-movie maven Mack Sennett, creator of the Keystone Kops (Preston), and star Mabel Normand (Peters)--which won't prevent you from enjoying this CD. Herman's score evokes the old silents (the banjo is particularly welcome), and the songs include "When Mabel Comes in the Room" (a welcoming song that is a direct descendant of Herman's "Hello Dolly"), the sprightly "Tap Your Troubles Away," Peters's defiant "Wherever He Ain't," and "Time Heals Everything," a gorgeous ballad that Peters subsequently made into a staple of her solo performances. Both Preston and Peters were nominated for Tony Awards, as was the show. The CD includes extensive production notes and a synopsis, but no lyrics. --David Horiuchi
Mack & Mabel (1974 Original Broadway Cast) Reviews:
"Mack and Mabel" 
2009-09-20 - Although Jerry Herman's award-winning musicals are legendary, this one wasn't a smash hit. Too bad for those who haven't bought the CD. I think it's one of his best - very listenable music and very clever lyrics. I want to hear it over and over again. Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters do a masterful job.
Mack and Mabel CD
2009-05-19 - Really enjoyed it. Only knew one song from it, and was a real treat to hear the whole CD. So glad i got it.Hadn't realized Robert Preston was in it, put that with Bernadette Peters, how can you go wrong? Don't understand why it didn't make it on Broadway.
Marvelous Music
2008-07-07 - The score for this show is outstanding. Performances by the late Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters are brillant. The story, sad and not designed for the stage would probably make a great movie musical. I will listen to this over and over again. Especially I WON'T SEND ROSES and TIME HEALS EVERYTHING.
Thanks to John Barrowman for singing "I Won't Send Roses" and inspiring me to find the source.
This is a show that needs to be remembered.
Jerry Herman at his Best 
2008-04-07 - Herman's most underrated show, with Robert Preston and a very young Bernadette Peters. Give it a listen!
Music, just okay; show, blah! 
2008-01-01 - "Jerry Herman's finest score" "Jerry Herman's best" Those reviewers must have listened to different recordings than I did. Have they never heard "Mame" and "Hello Dolly"--even "Milk and Honey"? This is so-so Jerry Herman, at best.
The show itself was so blah that both producer David Merrick and director Gower Champion all but gave up on it even before the Broadway opening. So little was expected of it that it hit New York with abnormally minimal advertising and almost no promotion. Dick Coe, in the Washington Post, hit the nail on the head when he wrote, "Loaded with all the zip of a dead flounder."
The fault was only partly Jerry Herman's. There were some points at which he should have listened to his director, especially as to the Act Two opening, "When Mabel Comes in the Room," a shameless almost-copy of "Hello Dolly."
Okay, the opening notes of the Overture promise that this will be a fun musical. Then Robert Preston's "Movies Were Movies" promises a bit of nostalgia. From there on, only "I Won't Send Roses" carries much appeal.
Again, the fault was only partly Jerry Herman's. Walter Kerr, in the Times, recapped, "Telling the story through the songs, and the songs alone, is a profitless business for a musical comedy. In point of fact,
Mack & Mabel hasn't got a story to begin with."
Sorry, Jerry. This one doesn't do much for your legacy, except for introducing Bernadette Peters.
