The Return of the Show Tunes : An auspicious crop of cast albums includes four new musicals and one revival, headed by ‘Miss Saigon’

A ny spring that produces four new musical - theater recordings and one new production of a golden oldie has to be considered a time to remember--especially in an era of fewer and fewer musicals. Mark the first few months of 1990 as an auspicious season in the theatrical memory books.

The impressive list of recordings that have been released since February includes Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Aspects of Love,” the London hit musical “Miss Saigon,” Larry Gelbart and Cy Coleman’s “City of Angels,” Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire’s review, “Closer Than Ever” and the revival of “Gypsy,” starring Tyne Daly.

Not bad for a theatrical form that’s been struggling to stay afloat lately.

Best of all, however, is the multiplicity of styles in the productions. The two British shows --”Aspects of Love” and “Miss Saigon”--are big, booming shows typical of the larger-than-life West End efforts of recent years. “City of Angels,” on the other hand, is a far more traditionally American musical with a “jazz score” that looks back toward classics like “Pal Joey” and “On the Town.” The revue, “Closer Than Ever,” has both the strengths and the weaknesses of that format, and “Gypsy” confirms the continuing survivability of Broadway musicals.

***** MISS SAIGON Geffen Records

With $8 million in advance sales for a Broadway opening that won’t take place until 1991, “Miss Saigon” has all the makings of a megahit. For once, however, the musical score justifies the accolades. This is undoubtedly the first big show of the ‘90s and another success for the creative team responsible for “Les Miserables.”

All the elements are perfectly in place. Claude-Michel Schonberg’s music is contemporary without losing its connections with either the traditional musical theater or the operatic references (“Madama Butterfly,” in particular) that are at the heart of its inspiration. Alain Boubil’s libretto (with English lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr.) describes a star-crossed romance with its inevitable consequences. It all takes place during the last days of Saigon, and is both topical and gutsy enough to be controversial.

Gorgeous musical moments abound: the love duet, “Sun and Moon” between Lea Salonga (as Kim) and Simon Bowman (as Chris); the same duo singing a song that seems guaranteed to have Top 40 success, “The Last Night of the World”; a powerful song about American/Vietnamese children, “Bui-Doi” sung by Peter Polycarpou (as John); Jonathan Pryce (as the Engineer) singing the sardonic “The American Dream” (“What’s that I smell in the air?/The American Dream/sweet as a suite in Bel-Air/The American Dream”).

Ticket prices for “Miss Saigon” are expected to be in the $100 price range when it reaches Broadway. That surely makes this double-CD recording of the musical score one of the bargains of the year.

**** CITY OF ANGELS CBS Records

This well-received collaboration by veteran Broadway composer Coleman, TV and movie writer Gelbart and lyricist David Zippel has a dual storyline. In it, a Hollywood screenwriter’s life is mirrored in the Raymond Chandler-esque detective script he’s writing--a perfect topic for the Hollywood-wise Gelbart. The detective-script scenes, cleverly staged in B-movie black-and-white, contrast dramatically with the screenwriter’s hilarious real-life difficulties with wife, work and mistress.

Coleman’s score, with its Manhattan Transfer-like vocals (traceable in part to arrangements by the Transfer’s musical director, Yaron Gershovsky), showcases such archetypal pop musical styles as torch songs, big-band swing, vocal group harmonies and Latin rhythms, while at the same time observing and commenting on those styles from a contemporary perspective.

One song could serve as the Writers Guild anthem, “The Buddy System” (in which a venal producer--Rene Auberjonois--sings one of Zippel’s many clever lyrics: “The book may be yours, baby, but trust me, the movie is mine”). There are the rousing showstoppers, “You Can Always Count on Me” and “You’re Nothing Without Me”; a soaring ballad, “With Every Breath I Take,” and the marvelously campy “L.A. Blues.”

*** ASPECTS OF LOVE Polydor Records

The American production, with the original stars of the London cast, opened two weeks ago to less than rave reviews. The aspects of the show that bothered many critics--a bewildering story line that moves erratically over a 17-year period; a lack of passion to match the title, and greeting-card lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart (both of whom have worked on previous Lloyd Webber shows)--are somewhat less a problem for the recorded version.

Lloyd Webber’s pop version of Puccini melody is in full flower, even more so than in “Phantom” or “Cats.” One ballad follows another--an instantly catchy, and interminably repeated, “Love Changes Everything”; the lyrical “Seeing Is Believing,” “A Memory of a Happy Moment,” “The First Man You Remember”; a summing-up “Anything but Lonely.” Many melodies are repeated, in typical Lloyd Webber fashion.

But the herky-jerky, jump-cut story line and long parade of melody ultimately become wearying. At one point Giuletta, one of the leads, sings “There is more to love than simply making love.” There also is more to love than simply singing love songs.

*** 1/2 CLOSER THAN EVER RCA Victor

“Miss Saigon” lyricist Richard Maltby Jr. is also responsible, with composer David Shire, for this small revue, most of which was written for other shows at other times. Rave notices for a one-hour cabaret performance at a Greenwich Village nightclub generated an expanded version that opened at the Cherry Lane in Greenwich Village last November. The pair’s previous efforts include the 1977 hit revue “Starting Here, Starting Now.”

The four performers--Brent Barrett, Sally Mayes, Richard Muenz and Lynne Wintersteller--are lively, talented performers, especially in the material that challenges their skills--many of which are penetrating character studies.

A pleasant recording, best heard in small snatches, with great attention to Maltby’s clever lyrics. One suspects, however, that the ultimate fate of “Closer Than Ever”--and it’s not a bad one, at that--will be to provide an overflowing treasure chest of unique material for sophisticated cabaret singers.

*** GYPSY Elektra Nonesuch

The billings on both the show and the album actually place Tyne Daly’s name above the title, which won’t exactly thrill anyone who views “Gypsy” as the personal province of Ethel Merman.

Daly certainly is capable of matching Merman’s intensity--maybe even her command of the moment. But “Gypsy” is, after all, one of the higher musical achievements of the American theater. There is no better show-biz song than “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” And “Let Me Entertain You” and “You’ll Never Get Away From Me” are in the grand, larger-than-life tradition of musical numbers.

Sung by Merman (two of them, at least), they were perfect combinations of lyric, music and voice. As good an actress as Daly is, as hard as she works on energizing her singing with her dramatic skills, she simply is no match for Merman. And without that powerful voice, without that timbral symmetry with lyric and music, the Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim songs fall short.

The best solution for fans of the musical undoubtedly will be to see Daly, while still savoring Merman’s original-cast recording.