Monday, August 31, 2015
Original 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 12:26PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1966 (Warner Bros./no CD) Based on Richard Llewellyn’s popular book How Green Was My Valley, which inspired the acclaimed 1941 movie of the same title, A Time for S…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:59AMFriday, August 28, 2015
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2001 (RCA) This minor but appealing Off-Broadway effort was adapted by playwright David Auburn from a semi-autobiographical, one-person show that had been written…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:12PMStudio Cast, 2001 (PS Classics) Hats off to PS Classics for issuing the premiere recording of this interesting curio, a 1931 Vincent Youmans flop — and hats back on for their having made s…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:01PMOriginal Cast, 2004 (Original Cast Records) In musicalizing the true story of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, who murdered a boy in 1924 Chicago, composer-lyricist-librettist Stephen Dolgin…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:45PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1952 (Capitol/Angel) The singing on this recording of a misfire by Abe Burrows and Ralph Blane is so gorgeous that you’ll forgive Blane’s score for being less tha…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:32PMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 1954 (MGM/Decca) This is the Carmen Capalbo production that helped put Off-Broadway on the map. One of the most important musical theater works of the 20th centur…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:21PMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 1985 (Polygram/JAY) This three-character musical about the rise and ultimate dissolution of a gifted trio of young comedians has one big problem in that it’s ne…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:11PMOriginal Cast, 2000 (DRG) It would be a wonderful thing if more full-length musicals could be as melodic and charming as 3hree, the triumvirate of one-act works that director Harold Prince p…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:00PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 2001 (Swing Music) In theory, it was an inspired idea to have Harry Connick, Jr. write the score for this Susan Stroman-David Thompson adaptation of Thérèse Raquin,…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:09PMFilm Soundtrack, 1967 (Decca/MCA) There’s no explanation for this bizarre camp exercise, which was designed to spoof the 1920s. Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore play flappers seeking the…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:49PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1942 (Decca) Shortly after the start of World War II, Irving Berlin created a new version of his World War I revue Yip! Yip! Yaphank. The resulting show, This Is the …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:39PMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 2004 (DRG) A sort of musical fairy tale for adults, The Thing About Men is based on Doris Dorrie’s German film Männer. It shows us what happens when a philande…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:06PMThursday, August 27, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1978 (Casablanca) Neil Simon based his book for They’re Playing Our Song on the real-life relationship of the show’s composer and lyricist, Marvin Hamlisch and Ca…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:05PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1949 (Decca) Although it is now forgotten, this mild satire on Texas politics ran out the season, and a near-hit song or two came out of its score by composer Robert …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:59PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1960 (Capitol/Angel) It all starts with a marvelous opéra bouffe-style overture that sets the tone perfectly for this tale of the Tenderloin, New York’s most notor…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:40PMStudio Cast, 1998 (New World, 2CDs) This was one of the Gershwins’ middling, mid-1920s musicals, chock-a-block with mistaken identities, society marriages, and principal comics delivering …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:15PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1984 (Polygram) Onstage, it was an entertaining, beautifully put together, old-fashioned show, but the cast album of The Tap Dance Kid reveals an uninteresting score.…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:04PMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 1983 (Painted Smiles) One of the most colorful personalities in show business history, Tallulah Bankhead was so imitable that any impressionist worth his or her s…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:41PMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 1983 (DRG) This show managed only a brief run — not because there was anything wrong with the writing or the production, but perhaps because the general public …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:15PMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 2000 (Original Cast) [user=5] This is a gilt-edged tribute to lyricist John Latouche, who wrote in a number of genres and had only occasional good fortune in any …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:43PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1959 (RCA) Eugene O’Neill’s uncharacteristic comedy Ah, Wilderness! seemed a natural candidate for stage musical treatment — even though the MGM musical Summer …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:32PMOriginal London Cast, 2003 (First Night) Who would have imagined Boy George as a theater composer? Yet with this show, partly about George’s rise to fame in the London club scene of the ea…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:08PMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 1966 (Kapp/no CD) For a tantalizing glimpse of the talent and creativity spawned Off-Broadway in happier times, seek out this 1966 hit, a Restoration-style comedy…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 08:50AMWednesday, August 26, 2015
Studio Cast, 1997 (Performing Arts Preservation Assn.) When producer William Repicci caught a performance of a work in progress by Linda Thorsen Bond that was being staged in Midland, Texas,…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:58PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1996 (After 9) No stars; not recommended. Subtitled “The Johnny Burke Musical,” this show tried to avoid being just another composer tribute revue by placing the …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:08PM 
