Monday, August 17, 2015
Ethel Merman and Original Cast Members, c. 1944 (AEI) Perhaps the definitive wartime musical, Something for the Boys was a hit for Cole Porter and Ethel Merman. It offers an enjoyable score,…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:25PMOriginal London Cast, 1992 (First Night) No stars; not recommended. Twenty years after the musical Sugar played on Broadway, this revised, retitled version showed up in London. Judging from …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:21PMStudio Cast, 1980 (Original Cast Records) Joseph Stein adapted his backstage comedy Enter Laughing, based on a novel by Carl Reiner, into a musical that had a dismal two-week run in 1976 but…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:06PMOriginal San Francisco Cast, 1976 (DRG) If you admire You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown as much as I do, you too may have trouble warming to its sequel, Snoopy!!! While the former captures …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:57PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1995 (Atlantic) Did Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller write every great 1950s-’60s tune? That’s the feeling you get when listening to Smokey Joe’s Cafe, a greatest-…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:46PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1965 (Capitol/DRG) No stars; not recommended. With a book by Peter Stone, this musical is an adaptation of Elmer Rice’s Dream Girl. The show’s leading role was be…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:37PMStudio Cast, 1990 (New World Records, 2CDs) Conductor John McGlinn is the one to thank for this recording of Sitting Pretty, a 1924 flop created by that legendary trio responsible for so man…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:50PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1944 (Decca/Stage Door) No stars; not recommended. What’s more surprising: That this “salute to American folk and pop music” was produced on Broadway by The The…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:39PMFilm Soundtrack, 1952 (MGM/Rhino-Turner) For many, Singin’ in the Rain remains the greatest movie musical of all time. The mere image of Gene Kelly splashing around in those Hollywood pudd…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:39AMThursday, August 13, 2015
Original London Cast, 1928 (Columbia/HMV/Pearl) Composer Jerome Kern and librettist-lyricist Oscar Hammerstein’s groundbreaking musical Show Boat premiered in New York in 1927, before the …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:53PMStudio Cast, 2004 (Angel, 2CDs) Every flop musical should be so lucky: A deluxe presentation with an all-star cast and a 52-piece orchestra (67 for the overture!), this two-disc recording fe…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:34PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1975 (RCA) Based on the film of the same name, this musical tells the story of Charlie Anderson, a widowed Virginian who tries in vain to keep his family uninvolved i…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:02PMOff-Broadway Cast, 1997 (Original Cast Records) Seven years after the 1973 Broadway failure of Shelter, librettist-lyricist Gretchen Cryer and composer Nancy Ford rewrote the show, combining…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:47PMTuesday, August 11, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1963 (MGM/Polydor) “Charming, romantic, perfect” — those words from the song “Dear Friend” define She Loves Me, a true masterpiece of the American musical t…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:43AMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1971 (Columbia/Sony) This show flopped on Broadway, but the cast recording is too much fun to pass up. Scored by composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb, 70, Gi…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:18AMMonday, August 10, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1955 (Decca) Seventh Heaven received mixed-to-negative reviews and closed fairly quickly, but the show’s impressive music earned it this recording. Composer Victor …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:26PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1969 (Columbia/Sony) History teacher-turned-songwriter Sherman Edwards got the idea for a musical about the writing and adoption of the Declaration of Independence, a…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:06PMSunday, August 9, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1951 (RCA/Masterworks Broadway) “Willie, get a wiggle on!” That characteristic, gee-whiz, chorus-boy exhortation, in a song called “Weatherbee’s Drug Store,�…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:49PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 2000 (Decca) Whatever was wrong with producers Barry and Fran Weissler’s attempts to cobble a musical out of bits and pieces of Dr. Seuss’ cherished children’s …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:35PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1973 (Buddah/DRG) “Up, down; up, down” goes a lyric in the title tune, and that’s a good barometer for this Cy Coleman-Dorothy Fields musical based on the Willi…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:25PMOff-Broadway Cast, 1999 (RCA) Many composers and lyricists turned out a mixed bag of songs and sketches for Secrets Every Smart Traveler Should Know, an occasionally clever revue. Nearly all…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:16PMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 1964 (Columbia/Sony) Based on a popular short story by James Thurber that had already inspired a film starring Danny Kaye, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty — ada…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:05PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1991 (Columbia) The Lucy Simon-Marsha Norman musicalization of the beloved Frances Hodgson Burnett novel The Secret Garden worked its charm on Broadway for more than …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:40PMConcept Recording, 1991 (Broadway Angel) Here’s a “concept album” for a musical that probably wasn’t a very good idea to begin with — at least, not as composed by Frank Wildhorn, w…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:30PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1958 (RCA/DRG) First, novelist Richard Bissell wrote 7½ Cents, which was turned into the hit musical The Pajama Game. Then he wrote a novella about his experiences o…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:16PMFilm Soundtrack, 1977 (Polydor) Iconic though this movie may be, the blockbuster soundtrack album of Saturday Night Fever is distressingly dated. Even if individual songs are terrific, how m…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:03PMOriginal London Cast, 1998 (First Night) With music and lyrics by a 24-year-old Stephen Sondheim and a book by Julius J. Epstein, Saturday Night was supposed to be produced on Broadway in th…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:32PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1959 (RCA) Edna Ferber’s Saratoga Trunk had already been adapted as a hit film, so the stage musical version, developed for Broadway as Saratoga and rumored to be t…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:25PMOriginal Cast, 1988 (RCA) Conceived and directed by Mbongeni Ngema, Sarafina! is the “little musical that could.” Despite considerable financial hardship in moving the show to production…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:45AMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 1969 (Capitol/Angel) Unlike some other rock musicals of the period, Salvation had no dance or spectacle elements; the physical production was tacky, and the show …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:38AMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1946 (Capitol/Angel) Careening between musical comedy and musical tragedy, St. Louis Woman is a turn-of-the-century tale with an all-black cast and a score by Harold …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:18AM 
