All stories by Michael Portantiere on BroadwayStars

Friday, April 7, 2023

Dessa Rose by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2005 (JAY) Based on Sherley Anne Williams’ 1986 novel about the intertwined stories and gradual friendship of a Black woman and a white woman in the Antebellum …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:42PM
Monday, March 20, 2023

Rocky by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2014 (UMe) Rocky finds Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty writing to order. At the center of this adaptation are two songs, from the film on which the musical is based …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:18AM

The Glorious Ones by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2008 (JAY)   The commedia dell’arte players who are the characters in Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s musical The Glorious Ones declare in the titular ope…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 09:50AM
Saturday, March 11, 2023

Between the Lines by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2022 (Ghostlight) Are you ever too old to fall in love with a fairytale? Or a fairytale prince? This question is the basis for Between the Lines, a musical by Ely…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:29PM
Monday, February 27, 2023

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Becomes a Woman" - 2/27/22 by Michael Portantiere

The little-known or virtually unknown plays that have been expertly revived by the Mint Theater Company throughout its history have fallen into two broad categories: (1) obscure works by obs…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 07:15PM
Sunday, February 26, 2023

Kimberly Akimbo by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2023 (Ghostlight) Based on David Lindsay-Abaire’s play of the same title, Kimberly Akimbo tells the story of Kimberly Levaco (Victoria Clark), a girl with a rare di…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:25PM
Thursday, February 23, 2023

Mr. Saturday Night by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2022 (Craft Recordings) The highlight of many a Golden Age musicals is the “11 o’clock number.” Mr. Saturday Night, a Golden Age pastiche, has at least four of …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 06:32PM

Busker Alley by Michael Portantiere

Studio Cast, 2007 (JAY) Busker Alley never made it to Broadway, but it sure came close, first with a Tommy Tune-led national tour in 1995 (felled by Tune’s broken foot) and then with the Y…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:44PM

The Visitor by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2022 (Craft Recordings) “A few djembe lessons and like that I am enlightened,” sings Walter (David Hyde Pierce), a grumpy economics professor who learns to pl…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:26PM
Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Flying Over Sunset by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2022 (Masterworks Broadway) One thing that can be said for Flying Over Sunset is that it’s certainly ambitious. Conceived and directed by James Lapine, the musical …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:13AM
Saturday, February 18, 2023

All in Love by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1961 (Mercury; no CD) With its lithe but insubstantial score, preserved nearly complete on the cast album, All In Love turned Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s classi…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 07:31PM
Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Mrs. Doubtfire by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2022 (Sh-K-Boom)   A 1993 film comedy in which Robin Williams as divorced dad Daniel cons his way back into his children’s lives by disguising himself as a Scottis…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:05PM
Wednesday, February 1, 2023

A Beautiful Noise by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2023 (UMe) This recording differs from the cast albums of many other jukebox musicals, including biomusicals such as Jersey Boys and Beautiful, in that the arrangemen…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:39PM
Monday, January 16, 2023

& Juliet by Michael Portantiere

Original London Cast, 2019   & Juliet is, yes, another musical twist on Shakespeare, but one that’s worthy of joining the large canon that already includes such shows as Kiss Me, Kate…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:22AM
Wednesday, September 14, 2022

A Strange Loop by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2019 (Yellow Sound) How to describe A Strange Loop, the Pulitzer-Prize winning musical that gets its title from both a cognitive science term and a Liz Phair song…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:12PM
Monday, August 1, 2022

Six by Michael Portantiere

Studio Cast, 2019 (Absolute) Part history lesson, part Coachella, SIX gives cheeky insight into the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII in the form of a concert, with the women performing a…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 09:02AM
Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "The Daughter-in-Law" - 2/22/22 by Michael Portantiere

Almost miraculously, the Mint has given us new-old winners time and again for 30 years now, with only a few re-dos. Its current offering is a revival of a true rarity that the company first …

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 10:26AM
Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Prince of Egypt by Michael Portantiere

Film Soundtrack, 1998 (Dreamworks) Like several other animated musical classics of the screen, from Snow White to the clutch of far more recent Disney films (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Bea…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:25PM
Sunday, December 13, 2020

Anyone Can Whistle by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 1964 (Columbia/Sony) The show was a flop, but virtually every number is a winner, and so is this recording. Broadway audiences were bored by Arthur Laurents’ bizarr…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 07:53PM
Thursday, November 5, 2020

Carrie by Michael Portantiere

Premiere Cast Recording, 2012 (Ghostlight) Based on the supernatural horror novel by Stephen King, which had previously been adapted as a highly successful film in 1976, Carrie is/was one of…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:33PM
Monday, October 12, 2020

Moulin Rouge! by Michael Portantiere

Music From Baz Luhrmann’s Film, 2001 (Interscope) Here is the soundtrack recording (partly; see below) of what might be described as a movie musical that’s perfect for the ADD generation…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:39PM
Monday, August 10, 2020

Spamilton by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2017 (DRG) Of course, you knew Gerard Alessandrini wasn’t going to leave Hamilton alone, but who would have predicted this? It’s a whole evening of Revolution…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 08:53PM
Tuesday, July 7, 2020

The Visit by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2015 (Broadway Records) The Visit is an extraordinary late-career work by composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb, who enriched the American musical theater with m…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:07AM
Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Cirque du Soleil Paramour by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2016 (Cirque du Soleil)   With its spectacular entertainments showcasing nouveau-circus acts of all types, accessorized with top-drawer production values and very li…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:03PM
Saturday, June 6, 2020

Passing Strange by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2008 (Ghostlight) Passing Strange is the semi-autobiographical work of singer/songwriter Stew, co-written with his longtime collaborator Heidi Rodewald. The story fol…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 09:14PM

Emojiland by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2020 (Broadway Records) This recording represents the Off-Broadway production of Emojiland, a knowingly campy musical that proudly planted its digital freak flag …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 07:56PM
Saturday, April 25, 2020

Broadway Bounty Hunter by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2020 (Ghostlight) Here’s a highly enjoyable cast album of a fun show with a fanciful, meta-theatrical concept, built around the dynamic singer-actress Annie Gol…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:31PM

Be More Chill by Michael Portantiere

Original Cast, Two River Theater, 2015 (Ghostlight)   Based on a novel by Ned Vizzini, Be More Chill is a cautionary tale about a loner teenager named Jeremy Heere who attempts to become �…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:11PM
Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Sing Street by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2019 (Sony Masterworks Broadway) First, a few words of explanation: The show that yielded this cast album opened Off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop in Dece…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:03PM
Monday, April 6, 2020

Anything Can Happen in the Theater: The Musical World of Maury Yeston by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2019 (PS Classics) Maury Yeston is one of the finest and most versatile musical theater composer-lyricists of his era, so it’s good to have this cast album of a…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 06:47PM
Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Mary Poppins by Michael Portantiere

Film Soundtrack, 1964 (Buena Vista/Walt Disney Records) Disney’s Mary Poppins has been beloved from the moment audiences first saw the film in 1964, permeating our culture and becoming a h…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:18PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards