Saturday, May 30, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1956 (RCA) Ethel Merman’s only flop starred her as Liz Livingston, a wealthy, rough-at-the-edges widow from Philadelphia who decides to beat Grace Kelly at her own …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:55AMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1961 (DRG) “Ev’ry man, I must alert you / When seeking a lady fair / Always gravitates to virtue / Still hoping it won’t be there.” These four lines, echoing …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:46AMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 1992 (JAY) No stars; not recommended. Produced by the Vineyard Theatre, this show was much more serious — and much weaker — than composer-lyricist Bob Merrill…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:34AMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 2003 (Fynsworrh Alley) Fans of country-music icon Hank Williams may hesitate to buy the album of this Off-Broadway biomusical when there are so many recordings of…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:26AMFriday, May 29, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1967 (Columbia/Sony) Here’s the gimmick: The show, with a book by Arthur Laurents, takes us from a Southern plantation in 1900 to New York in the ’60s, yet the fo…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:30AMOriginal Broadway Cast, 2002 (Sony) The CD itself is gussied up to look like a Phil Spector 45, and that’s typical of the attention to detail in this lively aural document of an irresistib…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:19AMOriginal Off-Broadway and Broadway Casts, 1967/1968 (RCA, 2CDs) Many musical theater traditionalists were nonplussed when the seminal rock musical Hair was a big success Off-Broadway and the…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 09:58AMThursday, May 28, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1959 (Columbia/Sony) From the blaring trumpets that begin the overture to the final chords of “Rose’s Turn,” this is a recording that grabs you and never lets g…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:32PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1950 (Decca) While subsequent recordings of Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls are superior to this one in certain respects, the performances here are definitive and re…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 08:43PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1985 (JAY/TER) Grind, which opened during director Harold Prince’s 1980s slump, was one of the most hated shows of the period. It’s easy to understand why: Fay Ka…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 08:37PMIn collaboration with her husband John Pizzarelli, as well as solo appearances in musical theater, in concert and cabaret, on recordings, etc., the "singers' singer" Jessica Molask…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 08:52AMWednesday, May 27, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1960 (RCA/DRG) Composer-lyricist Frank Loesser was determined never to repeat himself in his musicals. In between his operatic The Most Happy Fella and his satirical …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:15PMMonday, May 25, 2015
Bryan Batt, Paula West, Karen Akers, Paulo Szot, and Jay Armstrong Johnson are only some of the super-talents now playing in clubs around town.
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 05:58PMPaige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Terrence Mann, and Gary Beach talk about the magic of Beauty and the Beast.
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 05:58PMBroadwayStars talks with the pumped and ripped Broadway veteran who serves as Jackie Warner's co-trainer on the new Bravo TV reality series Thintervention.
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 05:58PMTenor Vittorio Grigolo, the Metropolitan Opera's newest star, is definitely ready for his close-up.
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 05:58PMAs a tremendously exciting new season begins at the New York City Opera, general manager and artistic director George Steel waxes enthusiastic
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 05:58PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1972 (MGM/Polydor) Those who know Grease only from its inexplicably popular, sophomoric film version or the pumped-up, wrongheaded 1994 Broadway revisal will be surpr…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:20PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1971 (Painted Smiles/Varèse Sarabande) Even if it didn’t star Barbara Cook, in resplendent voice in her last Broadway musical, this would be the most glorious cast…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:13PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1979 (Columbia/Fynsworth Alley) This is the cheeriest musical ever written about escaping from the Nazis. Jerry Herman has dismissed the show as a mistake (“It just…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:57PMMembers of the Broadway Cast, 1994 (Varèse Sarabande) This revue of songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals was directed by Walter Bobbie, with musical direction by Fred Wells. It opene…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:40PMBroadway Cast, 1992 (RCA) Based on the Vicki Baum novel that inspired the classic MGM film, Grand Hotel traveled a crooked road to Broadway. The first pass at the material, by librettist Lut…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:34PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1976 (RCA) As he did with Ben Franklin in Paris, librettist Sidney Michaels — this time leaving the lyrics to other, more expert hands — tried to give old Europea…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:10PMFilm Soundtrack, 1947 (MGM/Rhino) The first movie written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green for MGM, Good News has a smart and funny script. Only six songs were retained from the original 192…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:29PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1993 (Columbia/Sony) The Goodbye Girl is a fine movie that was probably not a sound choice for adaptation as a stage musical, even if crafted by gifted, intelligent p…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:33PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1958 (Columbia/Sony) Here, Elaine Stritch plays a pre-World War I stage star entangled with a fly-by-night silent movie director (Don Ameche) who yearns to make an ep…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:15PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1968 (Calendar/GL Music/Essential Media Group) The ultimate in “guilty pleasure” musicals, Golden Rainbow took Arnold Schulman’s charming little play A Hole in …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:09PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1965 (Capitol/Bay Cities/Angel/Razor and Tie) This is a tale of two LPs and three CDs. With music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams, Golden Boy has a book ba…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:44AMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1954 (RCA) One of the greatest of all cult musicals, this Jerome Moross-John Latouche collaboration has never really commanded the attention it deserves, and the orig…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:33AMFriday, May 22, 2015
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1971 (Bell-Arista) Conceived and originally directed by John-Michael Tebelak, based on the Gospel according to St. Matthew, with music and new lyrics by Stephen S…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:33AMWednesday, May 20, 2015
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1996 (JAY) Goblin Market was a snob hit of the 1985-86 Off-Broadway season. Based on a fairy tale in verse by the pre-Raphaelite Christina G. Rossetti, this two-c…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:42AM 
