Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Studio Cast, 1998 (Polydor) Labeled Songs from Whistle Down the Wind, this collection of 12 numbers performed by a lineup of pop stars is easier to take than the subsequent London stage cast…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:05PMOriginal London Cast, 1958 (Columbia/Angel) Based on Charley’s Aunt, the reliable old farce by Brandon Thomas, Where’s Charley? was a big hit on Broadway in 1948 with Ray Bolger in the l…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:53PMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 1997 (RCA) The second of two revues that showcased the talents of outré costume designer Howard Crabtree was an evening of bright, largely gay humor. Though seve…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:37PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1964 (Columbia/GL Music) Longtime theatergoers will recall that, for a brief time decades ago, Steve Lawrence was touted as the next great Broadway leading man. Exhib…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:44PMStudio Cast, 1990 (JAY) No stars; not recommended. The only reason to musicalize a play is to add something to it, to enrich the original material. But again and again in this show based on …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:31PMTuesday, September 8, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1958 (Columbia/Masterworks Broadway) Strong reviews kept Simply Heavenly on the boards for about four months in all. The show opened Off-Broadway, later moved to Broa…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 09:05PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1957 (Columbia/Sony/Masterworks Broadway) Conceived by Jerome Robbins, with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim (and an uncredited Bernstein), and …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:24PMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 1993 (Columbia) Composer Alan Menken wrote some of his most dazzling and sophisticated music for this largely forgotten pair of one-act musicals. He and his colla…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:50PMWednesday, September 2, 2015
Off-Off-Broadway Cast, 2001 (Original Cast Records) Irving Berlin’s first hit was exhumed by the Off-Off-Broadway company Musicals Tonight! in 2001. According to the CD notes, the show is …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:51PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1966 (Capitol/Angel) One of the problems with Walking Happy, which is set in England, is that it seems too American. Still, the show has an entertaining score with so…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:39PMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 1998 (Resmiranda) Dorris Betts’ short story “The Ugliest Pilgrim” — about a young woman who, maimed by an axe blade as a child, goes on a journey of heali…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:22PMFilm Soundtrack, 1982 (MGM/Rhino/GNP Crescendo) The Blake Edwards film that served as the basis for Julie Andrews’ last Broadway musical is really a comedy with a few incidental songs. Bas…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:46PMBroadway Cast, 1975 (DRG) Very lively, very catchy, very melodic — but not Very Good Eddie. The Goodspeed Opera House’s revival of the 1915 Jerome Kern musical — the first show in the …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:36PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1979 (Original Cast Records) This was a good idea: a sort of unofficial musical version of the old “St. Trinian’s” stories and movies about an English school fi…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:28PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 2001 (RCA) This show, which winks at Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill works and like-minded tuners, poses the musical question: Is it possible for a score to be too clever? …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:11PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1960 (Capitol/Angel) “I ain’t down yet!” shouts/sings the title character of this rowdy musical based on the real-life story of Molly Brown, and that might also…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:52AMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1952 (RCA/Masterworks Broadway) Bette Davis always claimed that she knew exactly what she was doing when she decided to star in this revue. “Just turn me loose on B…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:32AMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1951 (Decca/MCA) How does a recording of a second-rank show become an irreplaceable treasure? Here’s how: By 1951, the big-star Broadway revue was beginning to gath…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:10AMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1971 (Decca) When you listen to the original cast recording of Two Gentlemen of Verona, you’ll know why this show won the 1972 Tony Award for Best Musical but not f…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:04AMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1970 (Columbia/Sony) With music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and a book by Peter Stone, Two by Two is an adaptation of Clifford Odets’ play The Flo…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:41AMTuesday, September 1, 2015
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1975 (Vanguard/no CD) No stars; not recommended. The dated humor of this revue makes the cast album more of a time capsule than a listening pleasure. Written as a…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:22PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1997 (JAY) Pierre Marivaux’s 1722 farce La surprise de l’amour gets a musical workout and an English title, Triumph of Love, thanks to librettist James Magruder, …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:01PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1951 (Columbia/Sony) With its high nostalgia quotient and dream ballet, this adaptation of Betty Smith’s beloved novel — scripted by Smith herself, with George Ab…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:42PMMonday, August 31, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1963 (Capitol/Angel) In its CD and MP3 formats, this cast album is very different from the original LP edition in that, aside from the overture, no song is in the sam…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:49PMOriginal Cast, 1970 (Ampex/no CD) No stars; not recommended. For years, this seemed the most ubiquitous of all show recordings. It turned up everywhere: at garage sales, school sales, librar…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:30PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1951 (Capitol/DRG) Some types of comedy date very quickly, and this zany musical expedition into the world of vaudeville comics is an example of that. Still, it’s a…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:16PMStudio Cast, 1977 (Painted Smiles) The world’s oldest collection of co-eds bops to a lower-drawer score by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in this Ben Bagley recording of a 1939 hit that h…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:59PMSunday, August 30, 2015
Studio Recording, 1969 (MCA) Originally conceived for presentation on record, this seminal “rock opera” is thrillingly melodic and dramatic. Small wonder that it was subsequently adapted…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:22PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1997 (RCA) You’ll be hard-pressed to find more beautiful choral singing than that heard on the cast album of Titanic, the musical about the sinking of that famed �…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:01PMNew York Concert Cast, 1998 (New World, 2CDs) Enchanting piffle from 1925, Tip-Toes has a funny Fred Thompson-Guy Bolton book, a dancey Gershwin score, and an insuperable cast in this Carneg…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:43PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1980 (DRG) Allegedly, this was the first-ever digitally recorded cast album. A cavalcade of early-20th-century Americana, Tintypes sounds splendid here as its five-me…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:26PM 
