"I must have the original cast album, right now!"
-- Peter Filichia, Theatre.com
Now
you can tap your toes to the score that won the hearts of the critics
and audiences alike, with the New York Times hailing it as "a
sprightly, savvy score" with "irresistible melodies!"
Listen to Samples
Hear songs performed by the original cast, led by Jean Louisa Kelly,
Jonathan Dokuchitz, Jessica Boevers and Stephen DeRosa, with Danette
Holden, Susan M. Haefner and Monte Wheeler. Click on any title below
to listen (tracks are all .mp3, <200K):
1. Black and White World
2. Why Not?
3. IT
4. Mama's Arms
5. A Perfect Plan
6. Coney Island
7. Stay With Me
8. Left-Hand Arrangement
9. Step Into Their Shoes
10. Out At Sea
11. How Do You Say...?
12. You're the Best Thing that Ever Happened
to Me
13. Finale
Garnering some of the best reviews of the season, the music and
lyrics for "The IT Girl" came in for hats-in-the-air praise
from the DAILY NEWS ("Funny, frothy tunes"), the ASSOCIATED
PRESS ("Percolates pleasantly"), and WOR RADIO ("Sprightly,
bright music").
But in writing for the New York TIMES, critic Bruce Weber topped
them all: "Mr. McKibbins has a pleasing, consonant touch with
a song. His main tools are sweetness and pep and a fine sense of how
to pay homage without actually borrowing....
Mr. McKibbins provides simple, irresistible melodies and harmonics
as arch as they are wholesome. Whether a jazzy ensemble anthem like
"It"; a winsome and flirty duet like "Coney Island";
or a loopy comic chronicle of failed romances ("A Perfect Plan"),
his songs are as seductive as a pretty schoolgirl batting her eyelashes.
"They are complemented by Mr. McNicholl's lyrics, which are
often rhymed with a wink ("Bold and passionate/Life has panache
on its own") and tend to be character affirming in a comic vein....
And they mainly strike the same giddy notes as Mr. McNicholl's direction...."
It's no wonder the New York POST's Clive Barnes summed up it up as
"The Off-Broadway musical at its traditional -- think 'Little
Mary Sunshine' or 'Dames at Sea' -- best!"
Pictures from the party at Sardi's, celebrating
the nationwide release of the Cast Recording on Tuesday, October 1st,
2001!
