Promises, Promises |  | Creators: Sean Hayes, Kristin Chenoweth, Tony Goldwyn, Katie Finneran
Label: SONY MASTERWORKS
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy New: $10.65
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Seller: CDCellarVA
Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 191
Format: Cast Recording
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
UPC: 886977349522
EAN: 0886977349522
ASIN: B003L9KA6G
Release Date: June 21, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Overture | | • | Half As Big As Life | | • | Grapes of Roth | | • | Upstairs | | • | You'll Think of Someone | | • | It's Our Little Secret | | • | I Say a Little Prayer | | • | She Likes Basketball | | • | Knowing When to Leave | | • | Where Can You Take a Girl? | | • | Wanting Things | | • | Turkey Lurkey Time | | • | A House Is Not a Home | | • | A Fact Can Be a Beautiful Thing | | • | Whoever You Are, I Love You | | • | Christmas Day | | • | A House Is Not a Home (Reprise) | | • | A Young Pretty Girl Like You | | • | I'll Never Fall In Love Again | | • | Promises, Promises | | • | I'll Never Fall In Love Again (Reprise) |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Based on the 1960 Academy Award-winning Billy Wilder film The Apartment, PROMISES, PROMISES tells the story of the Consolidated Life Insurance Company and Chuck Baxter (Sean Hayes), one of its charming young employees. In an effort to advance at the company, Chuck lends executives his apartment for their extramarital romantic trysts. But things become slightly complicated when Fran Kubelik (Kristin Chenoweth), the object of Chuck s affection, becomes the mistress of one of his executives.
The hit-packed score for PROMISES, PROMISES was the one and only Broadway foray of Burt Bacharach and Hal David and includes the gems I Say A Little Prayer, A House Is Not A Home, I ll Never Fall In Love Again, Promises, Promises, Knowing When to Leave and Turkey Lurkey Time.
PROMISES, PROMISES has been nominated for four 2010 Tony Awards and stars Emmy Award-winner Sean Hayes (TV s Will and Grace), Tony and Emmy Award-winner Kristin Chenoweth (TV s Glee, Wicked on Broadway), Tony Goldwyn (the movie Ghost), Tony Award-winner Katie Finneran (Noises Off on Broadway) and Tony Award-winner Dick Latessa (Hairspray on Broadway).
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 28
 Buy the CD, See the Show! June 22, 2010
R. P. Jones (Greenville, RI United States)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I saw this show on June 6 and was captivated on every level. The top-notch writing, music and production values are topped only by the magnificent performances, most notably the sensational Kristin Chenoweth.
I also have the original 1968 recording with Jerry Orbach and Jill O'Hara and I can say that Sean Hayes, Ms. Chenoweth and cast have more than done justice to the original. This recording also includes a few delightful tracks that were not on the original, particularly "Say a Little Prayer".
A very funny, very touching story about two decent, lonely people looking for real love in a cruelly casual world, "Promises, Promises" is just as relevant today as it was forty years ago. If you can get to New York this summer, don't miss this show at the Broadway Theater.
COMPLETELY WON OVER......BUT...... June 25, 2010
Robert F. Powers (Quincy, Ma USA)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I have always been a big fan of the 1968 musical "Promises, Promises" with its "different", for Broadway, Burt Bacharach/Hal David score. I was a bit wary that they would tinker with the original orchestrations for this revival but I was pleasantly surprised they haven't. Sure they have somewhat softened the brass and added voices to the unseen, scat-singing chorus but the results work just fine. "Promises, Promises" is one of those rare shows where dialogue, jokes and musical numbers hum along in perfect synch, like a finely tuned car, but this production has thrown a few curves in the road.
The female lead, Fran Kubelik, played by Kristen Chenoweth is short-changed in musical numbers so this revival has added a couple of Bacharach/David numbers, "I Say A Little Prayer" and "A House Is Not A Home" for her to sing and how, why or where they fit into this finely tuned show I can't figure out but they adjust to the curves well but adds a little excess baggage to the trunk of the finely tuned car.
Sean Hayes as Chuck Baxter has a very unusual, to say the least singing voice. Although he sounds like an elf with blocked nasal passages and a pronounced vibrato, strangely enough it fits with the vulnerability of his character. And his duet with Miss Chenoweth on "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" is charming.
The musical numbers featuring "Knowing When To Leave" which is a tricky song to sing, "Where Can You Take A Girl" "She Likes Basketball' "Whoever You Are" the title song, "Half As Big As Life" "Our Little Secret" and even the silly "Turkey Lurkey Time" in fact the entire score is just fine and a lot of fun.
And for a change a revival that for the most part doesn't monkey around with the original but I still wonder how "I Say A Little Prayer" and "A House is Not A Home" fits the show.
P.S. Just for the record, "A House Is Not A Home" was the title song for a movie about a whorehouse. The lyrics are pretty generic but knowing and having seen the original movie, when Kristen Chenoweth sings about the "house" I think back to a movie where scantily clad babes are lounging around the "house."
"So it's not "South Pacific", "My Fair Lady", "Gypsy" or "Sweeney Todd", but still..." July 6, 2010
Classic film buff
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
My wife and I took our 20-year-old niece to the Saturday matinee performance on June 5 of "Promises, Promises". It was her first ever Broadway show, and she was slightly starry eyed and stage-struck during and after the performance and why not? This show is a good introduction to the world of Broadway musicals for teenagers and young adults. All the elements work starting with a very hummable pop score by Burt Bacharach with clever lyrics by his long time collaborator Hal David, plus a libretto by Neil Simon that is snappy and comic, but more lighthearted and not quite as stinging as it's original source material Billy Wilder's Oscar winning film "The Apartment". The story briefly is about an ambitious, unnoticed young man Chuck Baxter (Sean Hayes) working at a huge insurance company, Consolidated Life, in Manhanttan back in the year 1962. To climb the corporate ladder, he lends out his apartment to four older married managers on different evenings for their sexual needs in exchange for the promises of promotion. However when the head of personal Mr. Sheldrake (Tony Goldwyn) discovers this fact, he puts a stop to it, but only because he wants exclusive rights to the apartment for his affair with the young pretty employee Fran Kubelik (Kristin Chenowith). Chuck is in unrequited love with Fran and has no inkling at first that she is the woman that Sheldrake is bringing to his apartment. Meanwhile Chuck's disapproving neighbor Dr. Dreyfuss (Dick Latessa) thinks Chuck is a Lothario with unbelievable stamina, and the four ousted managers are suffering from withdrawal and are looking to get even with Chuck. Complicated, but rest assured all is resolved satisfactorily and happily.
Rob Ashford, who wears two hats for the first time as director as well as choreographer, proves with his fresh inventiveness he's a worthy successor to such past theatre giants as Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Gower Champion and Tommy Tune. The masterful orchestrations are by Broadway veteran Jonathan Tunick, who incidentally also did the original 1968 production. There are bright, colorful sets and costumes that work well theatrically yet remain basically true to the period of the early 1960's by Scott Pask and Bruce Pask respectively. Finally, consider the performances, Kristin Chenowith shines with her usual luster which is no surprise, and brings a bruised vulnerability to Fran, but Sean Hayes is astonishing fine in his Broadway debut, totally shaking off his "Will & Grace" persona, and giving out with a quite ingratiating tenor voice. However, the one who nearly steals the show from them in two scenes is Katie Finneran, who resembles Joan Cusack in looks and talent and is downright hilarious. Tony Goldwyn bring some shades of gray to Sheldrake making him an accessible if morally corrupt snake, and Dick Latessa as Dr. Dreyfuss has a common sense warmth and humor. This CD is a marvelous souvenir for the show, listening to it brings it vividly to life in my mind's eye, and as such I would highly recommend it for anyone who has seen and loved it as we did.
I don't pretend to be a music critic, but here are some of the highlights in and out of the performance that I hope the average listener like me can enjoy. Kristin Chenowith as Fran Kubelik has three soaring solos: the edgy, driving "Knowing When to Leave", "I Say a Little Prayer for You", which has a wistful, yearning appeal, and the best, "A House Is Not a Home" which starts quietly and ends a vibrant wail of a torch song. She knocks all three straight up to the last row of the balcony. Sean Hayes' best individual songs are his first and last "Half As Big As Life' and the title song "Promises, Promises". The first introduces us to Chuck's ambitions and need to succeed, and also to Sean Hayes singing voice a very easy tenor that nonetheless hits and holds successfully his last note. "Promises, Promises" is his eleven o'clock number where the Chuck finally becomes his own man and the pulsating music and lyrics reveal his euphoria. Hayes and Chenowith have a charming low-keyed duet where their voices blend sweetly in the ballad "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" as they proceed to do just that. The showstopper that opens Act Two, "A Fact Can Be A Beautiful Thing" preserves for posterity Katie Finneran's tipsy floozy Margie MacDougal complete with owl hoots, as she and Hayes wrap the audience around their fingers with their zany antics. Sean Hayes and Dick Latessa share a jaunty march called "A Young Pretty Girl Like You" trying to cheer up the despondent Fran. Last are two ensemble numbers "Turkey Lurkey Time" which has deliberately silly lyrics set to a catchy jingle, where all the employees let their hair down at the office Christmas party. "Where Can You Take a Girl?" is an amusing lament by the four randy middle aged managers when they are denied access to Chuck's apartment for their trysts.
All said, while "Promises, Promises" is not in the top pantheon of American musicals, it still is a bright, entertaining musical worthy of a good revival, which I think it's gotten in this production. If you want to leave the theatre buoyant and happy, and you possibly can, try to get tickets to see this at the Broadway Theatre! If unfortunately that's not an option, this original cast album is the next best thing!
Pitch Perfect Promises, Promises! June 23, 2010
Cornelius G. Kelly (Albuquerque)
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
I was truly amazed how well Sean Hayes took over his role from the great Jerry Orbach and made the songs more brilliantly sung with passion and excellence. Being nomintaed for his first Tony for his first Broadway show just proves that Sean Hayes has the vocal prowess needed to be a new and rising star on Broadway. Sean's voice sparkles with delight and he is perfectly matched with America's, if not the world's, sweetheart Kristin Chenoweth.
Kristin Chenoweth brings such great light, voice and newness to each of her songs and I can be assured her version of Say A Little Prayer should soon be playing on all the airwaves. "Who is Dionne Warwick," will be asked by the many generations who've never heard of her or her version of Say A Little Prayer. Kristin said she just loved working with Sean and couldn't think of a better partner to be mounting the revival of Promises, Promises with.
Together they brought this almost forgotten musical to the forefront to razzle and dazzle Broadway with new life and sheer joy with their marvelously entertaining revival.
Seeing the show I was thrilled I went back to New York this May to see my family and of course go to Broadway. My first show there was Promises, Promises and it made my vacation all the more exciting to be back on Broadway and seeing Sean and Kristin in this tremendously successful musical revival. I would go see my family again just so I can see both Sean and Kristin in Promises, Promises again.
This CD is so close to the play itself that for those who haven't got a chance to see this musical yet will be able to envision the sets and all the wonderful songs and fantastic voices. Buy the CD now from Amazon and share the excitement of a Broadway Musical as it should be heard. Great voices and great music make this my most adored musical revival to date. I cannot say enough great things about Promises, Promises and you will too when you hear this fantastic CD.
You Must get this!! July 17, 2010
Broadwaystar1994
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1QFLXOUVK6LVI Hey guys its Broadwaystar1994. Here's my first viedo for amazon! I talk about the new 2010 revival musical of Promises, Promises. And how you, should get this CD only for 10.99!
Hope this Video was helpful, and hope to hear from you soon
Yours Truly,
Broadwaystar1994
Showing reviews 1-5 of 28
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