Monday, July 13, 2015
Original Broadway Cast Reconstruction, 1977 (Smithsonian/Hallmark) Here is one of the great artifacts of the American musical theater — and it’s also a great listen. One of a series of S…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:11PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1983 (RCA) Harvey Fierstein’s book for this musical closely follows Jean Poiret’s stage farce, the film version of which became a huge hit, about the chaos unleas…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:56PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1961 (Capitol/Angel) So, which Broadway composer stretched himself the most in writing a score that no one would have guessed he had in him? Jerry Herman with Dear Wo…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:46PMOff-Broadway Cast, 1998 (Slider Music) Avrom Goldfadn’s Yiddish farce The Two Kuni-Lemls is all but forgotten today. Even so, New York’s Jewish Repertory Theatre (JRT) commissioned a mus…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:58AMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1938 (Joey/AEI) Boiled-down radio broadcasts of Broadway musicals were not unheard of in the 1930s, and the few that have been released commercially in subsequent dec…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:28AMOriginal Toronto/London/Broadway Cast, 1992 (First Night) Surely one of the most original and haunting musicals of the ’90s, Kiss of the Spider Woman is also one of the strangest and most …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:18AMWednesday, July 1, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1948 (Columbia/Sony) Here is Cole Porter’s greatest score — fresh, groundbreaking, and oh, so naughty. The show’s book, by Bella and Sam Spewack, has a rousing …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:02AMTuesday, June 30, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1953 (Columbia/Sony) Based on music by the Russian composer Alexander Borodin, this is the classic Arabian Nights musical. Starring the magnificent Alfred Drake as Ha…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:33AMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1978 (Original Cast Records) When the charming film King of Hearts, a cult hit of the 1970s, was adapted as a big Broadway musical, it curled up and died. Don Scardin…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:21AMFriday, June 26, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1951 (Decca) Although the quality of Gertrude Lawrence’s singing as Anna Leonowens in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I was widely criticized, the effectiv…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:17PMStudio Cast, 1998 (Original Cast Records) Kelly closed on its opening night, and this latter-day studio recording shows why it was one of the biggest flops of the 1960s. Eddie Lawrence’s b…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:47PMBroadway Cast, 1961 (Columbia/DRG) Some people may think of Robert Wright and George Forrest as mere “adapters” because the team famously took the works of classical composers and massag…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:17PMOriginal London Cast, 1998 (First Night/Relativity) The good thing about this cast album, recorded live at London’s Vaudeville Theatre, is that it allows you to avoid the show’s well-mea…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:29PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1959 (Colurnbia/Fynsworth Alley) For years, cast album collectors begged Columbia to issue this heartbreaker on CD. Finally, Fynsworth Alley got the rights and releas…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:01PMFilm Soundtrack, 1962 (Columbia/Sony) In these days of multi-million-dollar Broadway mega-musicals, it’s interesting to note that a 1935 show nearly created a scandal because it was budget…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:25PMStudio Cast, 1974 (MCA) In the early years of their partnership, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice were inspired by Biblical lore. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamco…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:44AMStudio Cast, 1955 (MGM-Heliodor/Polygram) Kurt Weill’s first American musical, with lyrics by Paul Green, gets a thrillingly theatrical workout in this recording. Musical director Samuel M…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:37AMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 1996 (Varèse Sarabande/Fynsworth Alley) Talk about intimate: John & Jen is a three-character musical for two actors. Unfortunately, in its relentless focus o…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:24AMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1969 (RCA/no CD) This misbegotten musical biography of New York Mayor Jimmy Walker has three unsympathetic protagonists, a leading man who can barely hold a note, and…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:05AMThursday, June 25, 2015
Studio Cast, 1970 (Decca, 2CDs) This tour-de-force rock opera, by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, presents Jesus Christ as a man at the center of a cult of celebrity while tracking the las…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:07PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1984 (Polygram/JAY) When Jerry’s Girls opened on Broadway in 1985, it starred Dorothy Loudon, Chita Rivera, and Leslie Uggams. No Broadway cast album was released. …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:44PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1989 (RCA, 2CDs) Lovers of Broadway dance music should snap up this cast album of the 1989 Tony-winning Best Musical, an assemblage of genius choreographer Jerome Rob…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:31PMOriginal London Cast, 1985 (Safari/First Night) It’s hard to understand the rationale or need for Jerome Kern Goes to Hollywood, a songwriter revue that was devised by one of its British c…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:14PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1963 (RCA) A star vehicle for Mary Martin, Jennie is a prime example of how a musical with wonderful ingredients can fail to jell. Arnold Schulman’s book, a fiction…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:05PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1992 (Mercury) With a score inventively cobbled together from Jelly Roll Morton’s musical catalogue, Jelly’s Last Jam tells the composer’s life story in a show …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:54PMWednesday, June 24, 2015
Studio Cast, 1990 (RCA) As a musical theater composer, Frank Wildhorn writes great pop songs. That’s amply demonstrated by this “concept” recording of Jekyll & Hyde, which lacks an…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:15PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 2000 (Sony) Based on Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel of sturm und drang on the English moors, the musical Jane Eyre represented the last gasp of the pop-opera cyc…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:56PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1957 (RCA) Some Broadway musicals are timeless, while others spoke only to their era and audience and then were never heard from again. Jamaica is decidedly in the la…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:37PMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 1968 (Columbia) This is the show to blame! The success of Jacques Brei Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris began the songwriter-revue revolution, but it would b…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:17PMTuesday, June 23, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1966 (Columbia/Sony) This show seemed to have so much going for it, with a central character beloved by millions through the comic books and a popular television seri…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:24PMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 2002 (JAY) Based on It, the 1927 film that starred Clara Bow, The It Girl is a small-scale, 1920s-style musical comedy. It was presented Off-Broadway by the York …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:46PM 
