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•	1991 Album

•	2015 Album

•	1991 Album

That Silvestri could whip together an abundance of effective, near-parody source material for Soapdish is no surprise, but his tackling of the rest of the score is where he shines. His strategy to address these insipid characters with mambos is brilliant, not only supplying a Latin element that is associated with that culture's inherent love and perpetuation of soap operas but also generating momentum for the plot in each instance. This mambo personality is highly unique in Silvestri's career and highly refreshing in its zesty enthusiasm, too. For the almost faux-heartwarming side of the story with Field's main character, the composer offers his prettiest dramatic mode that would fit into one of his Father of the Bride scores or other lightweight dramatic efforts. These passages are indeed lovely, but it's the bevy of mambo material that everyone will recall from this score. The orchestral players form the instrumental base, but the mambo ensemble outshines them with awesome jazz brass, drums, shakers, castanets, and various saxophones, including the obligatory bass saxophone for seedier tones and trombone for lamentation and failure. Meanwhile, the piano and strings carry the dramatic portions, the livelier piano crossing over to the mambo performances. Almost every moment in the score is used to develop one of the themes or instrumental modes, though a unique moment of suspense in "In the Soup Kitchen," among pieces from other cues, foreshadows Death Becomes Her. At the score's outset, "Mambo Glamoroso (Main Title)" is a functional suite of three of Silvestri's top four themes. The main idea is a spirited mambo for the comedy of the ensemble cast, with an actual melody that wanders liberally and represents the evil producer in one variant. Heard immediately on saxophones and the rest of the band in "Mambo Glamoroso (Main Title)," this theme consolidates at 0:17 with piano and brass with snazzy counterpoint and returns at the end of the cue to close the suite. It explores a variation in the wild saxophone tones of "You're Fired (Just Kidding)" and launches into another version of the same idea in "Mr. Barnes' Cha Cha Cha;" an alternate take on this cue extends the solo percussive sequences. This format also opens "I Want Celeste to Burn" in devious form. Silvestri revisits the theme's opening titles form in "Makeover Mambo" with vocal accents, and a longer version with notable trumpet solos was recorded for the original album release.

As the plot of Soapdish thickens, the main theme turns remarkably suspenseful at the end of "The Bus," and that shift continues in "Mambo Incognito" with plucky low strings. It lightly prances on those plucked strings in "First Kiss" and offers prickly defiance in "Montana Blue Scarf," pushing that same ascending variation in the abrasive "Mambo Nervoso." As the story progresses, the dramatic material for Field's character, Lori, takes hold in two themes, one for her success and another for her sadness. The success theme has some Alan Menken sensibility to its progressions and also represents the glamour of the industry. It occupies the mambo style with glory at 1:27 into "Mambo Glamoroso (Main Title)" and refocuses on trombone at 2:52 after swimming through unique secondary phrases. Her theme finds its source-like awards ceremony fanfare voice at 1:25 into "TV Awards Music," and solo violin melodrama ensues at the outset of "The Bus." The success theme interrupts the comedy material for a wholesome, harp-flowing moment at 0:52 into "Sunset Showdown" and translates into Silvestri's throbbing low piano suspense mode in "Brain Surgery," shifting to redemptive, overly dramatic versions later in the cue. It emerges with beauty on piano at 1:15 into "She's a Boy" and yields a huge crescendo at 1:43 for the ensemble, eventually exploding in its fanfare form again in "Lori Wins." An alternate version of the latter cue dwells in the same hype for an extended time. Often toggling with the success theme is Lori's other identity, one of sadness and regret that doubles for the younger actress (Shue) on the set, who turns out to be her real-life daughter. This tender idea is an extremely pretty and melancholy dramatic identity, accessing the best heartstring techniques Silvestri could muster at the time and glazing its tone with a sense of Golden Age austerity. Previewed in "On the Machine," Lori's sadness theme wafts through with a light variation during "Fan Montage" and continues in "Life is Soap is Life is..." with the same tender personality. (The original album performance of this cue moves the strings down an octave.) Similarly rendered but more tentative in "Lori Meets the Press," Silvestri recorded at least three alternate takes for this moment, all modulating (and usually increasing) the intensity of the drama with good effect. These takes almost push the cue to Craig Armstrong's Love Actually levels of dramatism. Delicate on piano in "She's a Boy," this theme flourishes at 0:38 with piano flare over strings for its own finale.

Perhaps the most pervasive theme in Soapdish is the comedic representation of the villains' scheming, often utilizing call and answer humor from woodwinds. Heard first at 0:50 into "Mambo Glamoroso (Main Title)," this theme blurts throughout "Miss Moorhead's Tango," strikes on high strings in "Towel Drop," and interrupts the mambo material at 0:21 and 1:26 into "You're Fired (Just Kidding)." It adds castanet and snare flavor to "Make Maggie a Murderer," continuing that mode at 0:13 into "I Want Celeste to Burn" for a hint of militarism. Clarinet playfully dances with it in "Now!," and Silvestri reinforces the idea throughout "Sunset Showdown," bracketing the pretty Lori material as an interlude. Mixed in between these cues for the real-life drama on set are Silvestri's cues for the "The Sun Also Sets" and other outright source music. The flowing romanticism for strings and piano in "Good for Me" is amusing, and the Lori success theme prevails in various forms throughout "Brain Surgery." Among several other source pieces, the melodramatic "TV Awards Music" cue has touches of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals and a silly fanfare on top of it. Adjacent to this music is the outright Latin theme for the soap opera, "El Sol También se Pone," a vocalized and instrumental mambo not by Silvestri but compatible with his original takes on that same style. Ultimately, Soapdish is overflowing with personality from start to finish, Silvestri managing to balance the flair of the mambo material with his sensitive dramatism and the comedic jilting in between. It's a very finely crafted score that was long represented on a short Varèse Sarabande album from the time of the film's debut that featured only 28 minutes of Silvestri's score and the two versions of "El Sol También se Pone." This presentation of the many short cues in the score was basically sufficient and touched upon all the themes, but it didn't provide the full extent of their development, nor did it really do full justice to the narrative. In 2015, Quartet Records added less than ten minutes to the main program but more importantly combined improved sound quality (including impressive reverb for percussion) with an illumination of an extra 13 minutes of alternate takes, most of which are golden. In conjunction with the song and other source pieces, the limited 2015 product is a blast but will test your tolerance for extremely bright comedy. Still, you don't often hear the composer let rip with a saxophone as in "You're Fired (Just Kidding)," and such material in this score fantastic. It's a side of Silvestri too infrequently unleashed.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Alan Silvestri reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26 (in 65 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.17 (in 43,453 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.