Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1965 (Blue Pearl/no CD) It’s a cliché among cast album collectors to hear a good score of a flop musical and ponder, “Why wasn’t this a hit?” But the recordi…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:33PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1960 (RCA) Right after Gypsy, you’d have expected composer Jule Styne to test his powers in another meaty Broadway project. Instead, he regressed to formula musical…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:15PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1983 (MCA) For the stage musical version of his political-satire comic strip, Garry Trudeau fashioned his own book and lyrics, proving himself to be a surprisingly ad…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:56PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1972 (Polydorl/no CD) Here’s an example of the sort of show that’s much more effective onstage than on record. It was easy to get caught up in a live performance …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:46PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1972 (Stax, 2LPs) This Melvin Van Peebles musical is as different from his earlier Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death as it could be. Though plotless, the earlie…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:27PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1961 (Kapp) This musical based on the movie The Quiet Man was a spirited but unsuccessful show. Donnybrook! did boast an excellent cast that included Susan Johnson, E…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:53AMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1982 (Original Cast Records! Bay Cities) A Doll’s Life is about what happened to Henrik Ibsen’s Nora after she slammed the door at the end of A Doll’s House. Be…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:42AMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1965 (Columbia/Sony) Stephen Sondheim has often bad-mouthed Do I Hear a Waltz? — perhaps because it can’t compare to his trail-blazing hits, and also because Sond…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:24AMOriginal Broadway Cast Members, 1985 (Bay Cities/Original Cast) No stars; not recommended. No matter how “informed” the writer of a review is, the critique is largely a matter of opinion…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:04AMSunday, March 1, 2015
Anyone who knows the work of the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár only through his beautiful, deeply moving drama Lilliom or his elegant, thoughtful comedy The Guardsman may be taken abac…
SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 06:32PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1964 (Capitol/Angel) It’s rare that we have concrete recorded proof of the exact moment when a performer became a legend, but that’s the case with the original Br…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:54AMWednesday, February 25, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1990 (Columbia/Sony) Cy Coleman’s blending of 1940s musical styles — swing, blues, film noir soundtrack, and more — with David Zippel’s deft and witty lyrics …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 06:05PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1975 (Columbia/Masterworks Broadway) In 1975, A Chorus Line was a phenomenon. The conception of the show began with Broadway wunderkind Michael Bennett’s idea tha…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:33PMOriginal Stage Cast, 1993 (Columbia/Sony) The Alan Menken-Lynn Ahrens musical version of A Christmas Carol lit up Madison Square Garden for 10 seasons, and though the production’s spectacl…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 05:14PMOriginal London Cast, 1981 (Geffen) Before it became a joke, Cats was a true phenomenon. While Trevor Nunn’s direction placed spectacle above emotion and story, the show has a better score…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:48PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 2004 (Hollywood Records, 2CDs) Tony Kushner writing the book and lyrics for a musical full of inanimate objects? If you did not see Caroline, or Change onstage, you m…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:37PMOriginal Cast, 2004 (Nonesuch) Stephen Sondheim’s first new musical in nearly a decade, Bounce was highly anticipated when it played Chicago and Washington in 2003. Though this recording b…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:17PMOriginal London Cast, 1964 (Must Close Saturday) If you saw The Boy Friend and wondered what happened to its characters 10 years later, Sandy Wilson answered that question with this delightf…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:50PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1958 (Decca) Harold Rome’s whip-cracking western musical comes complete with good guys, bad guys, saloon girls, respectable prostitutes, and gun fights. The atmosph…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:51PMSunday, February 22, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1980 (DRG) Can so trite and scattershot a revue about the joys of moviegoing really have charmed Broadway audiences for 588 performances? Apparently, thanks to a brig…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:43PMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 1994 (Fynsworth Alley) This is a country-western musical takeoff on Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, set in Texas. It’s one-of those cases where the …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:30PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1968 (RCA) This luckless show suffered from constant turnover on the creative team, arriving in New York without a credited librettist and closing after 31 performanc…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:11PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1987 (TER) Alan Jay Lerner’s sad farewell to Broadway was this 1983 one-nighter, loosely based on Robert E. Sherwood’s 1936 drama Idiot’s Delight and updated to…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:50PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1955 (RCA) For many musical theater buffs, Damn Yankees defines 1950s Broadway style: all-American in subject matter aria treatment, songs by the hot new team of Rich…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:48AMOriginal Off-Broadway Cast, 1969 (Columbia/Sony) Jim Wise, George Haimsohn, and Robin Miller’s ingenious salute to the Busby Berkeley movie musicals of the early ’30s never hits a false …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:31AMSaturday, February 21, 2015
Original Broadway Cast, 1974 (A&M, 2LPs/Decca) This musical, based on Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, boasts a wonderful translation and adaptation by Anthony Burgess, whose exqui…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 08:35PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1970 (Project 3) This was composer Mitch Leigh’s follow-up to Man of La Mancha, and it was a long way from Spain to Brooklyn. The show was in trouble out of town �…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 08:25PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1992 (Angel) This is a faux revival cloned from the DNA of a vintage musical, with a score drawn from the Gershwin songbook. Ken Ludwig’s book for Crazy for You is …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 08:14PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1938 (Musicraft/Pearl) The Cradle Will Rock, produced by John Houseman and directed by Orson Welles, was created under the auspices of the WPA’s Federal Theatre Pro…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 07:31PMBroadway Cast, 1943 (Decca) This Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart treasure was belatedly transferred to CD and is now available in beautifully restored, remarkably clear sound. The wonderful …
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 07:12PMOriginal Broadway Cast, 1970 (Columbia/Sony) A shocking musical when it first opened, and still an insightful if somewhat dyspeptic view of modern romantic relationships, Company explores th…
SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 06:50PM 
