Nonesuch
2006
Showtunes
About This Album
Showtunes, indeed. This is a stretch for fans of Magnetic Fields, Future Bible Heroes, the Gothic Archies, or the 6ths. In fact, Showtunes is a stretch for fans of Stephin Merritt, period, but a welcome one. The 26 songs that make up this collection are culled from three collaborative productions between Merritt and Chinese theater director Chen Shi-Zheng. Merritt wrote the music and lyrics to The Orphan of Zhao, written in the 13th century and adapted by Chen Shi-Zheng in 2003. It was performed in 2003 at the Lincoln Center Festival. The Peach Blossom Fan was produced in 2004 and performed at Rand and Edna Disney/Cal Arts in Los Angeles, and My Life as a Fairy Tale, based on the life and stories of Hans Christian Andersen, and also performed at the Lincoln Center Festival. The last of these offered not only Merritt songs, but his sound design as well. While music here has less than nothing to do with rock & roll, it is also unmistakably Merritt. Those of you who admire the man's wit, his tender if brutal honesty, and his brilliance in marrying music to his peculiar use of language will be enchanted because of its uncanny synchronicity despite unusual instrumentation throughout. In fact, the listener is asked to make a huge jump here.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,4,6,7,11,12,13,15 and 24)

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