All stories by Michael Portantiere on BroadwayStars

Monday, August 19, 2024

Water for Elephants by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2024 (Ghostlight) Under the direction of Jessica Stone, Water for Elephants boasted an inventive set and a variety of entertaining circus acts on stage at the Imperia…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:36AM
Sunday, August 18, 2024

Stereophonic by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2024 (Masterworks Broadway) In the 2023-24 season, which saw the opening of 15 original musicals, Will Butler’s songs for the play Stereophonic earned one of the fi…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:13PM
Wednesday, August 14, 2024

Teeth by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2024 (Yellow Sound Label) Michael R. Jackson has quickly become the prince of telling unlikely stories on stage, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that his unlikeli…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:23PM
Monday, August 12, 2024

I Married an Angel by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast Members and Radio Cast, 1985 (AEI Records) I Married an Angel is a gem from the collection of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Admittedly, it’s a slight musical; the…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 06:35PM
Tuesday, July 23, 2024

The Great Gatsby by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2024 (Sony Masterworks Broadway) As F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous and revered novel The Great Gatsby lapsed into the public domain, it was perhaps inevitable that st…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:15PM
Thursday, July 11, 2024

The Connector by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2024 (Concord Theatricals) Teaming with interesting ideas about ethics, journalism, the generation gap, and sexism, The Connector presents its listeners with one …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:53PM
Friday, June 28, 2024

Lempicka by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2024 (Sony Masterworks Broadway)   Fans hailed Eden Espinosa’s return to Broadway in Lempicka and fawned over pre-released songs, such as “Woman Is,”’ that s…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:14PM
Monday, June 24, 2024

Disaster! by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2016 (Broadway Records) As originally presented on the tiny stage of an intimate nightclub on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Disaster! was a hilariously funny, spo…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:26PM
Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Suffs by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2024 (Atlantic) Shaina Taub has previously shown skill in composing scores for The Public Theater’s musical adaptations of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and As You …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:09AM
Saturday, June 1, 2024

Here We Are by Michael Portantiere

Off-Broadway Cast, 2024 (Concord Theatricals) As staged Off-Broadway at The Shed in late 2023, Sondheim’s final musical — which combines two experimental José Luis Buñuel films to crea…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:43AM
Tuesday, May 28, 2024

The Outsiders by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2024 (Masterworks Broadway)  The Outsiders followed the popular book-to-movie-to-musical path to Broadway in 2024. It started out as a novel written by teenage autho…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:56PM
Sunday, May 5, 2024

Gutenberg! The Musical by Michael Portantiere

Original  Off-Broadway Cast, 2009 (PS Classics) Scott Brown and Anthony King developed this two-person comic gem about two composers writing a musical. The fictional writers have created a …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:53PM
Monday, April 22, 2024

The Notebook by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2024 (Atlantic) The Notebook wears its heart on its sleeve. And why wouldn’t it? From Nicholas Sparks’ novel to Nick Cassavetes’ film to Ingrid Michaelson’s B…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:59AM
Saturday, April 20, 2024

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson by Michael Portantiere

Original Cast, 2010 (Ghostlight) Before Hamilton took the world by storm in 2016 with a musical style previously underrepresented on Broadway and a story featuring American historical figure…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:40PM

First Daughter Suite by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2016 (Ghostlight, 2CDs) One of the great joys of studying and reviewing musical theater cast recordings is tracking the growth and maturity of an artist. Composer…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:18PM
Monday, April 15, 2024

Something’s Afoot by Michael Portantiere

Studio Cast, 2020 (JAY Records) Nearly 50 years after the show’s opening and short-lived stint on Broadway in 1976, this long-awaited studio recording captures the highs and lows of Someth…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:32AM

Bernarda Alba by Michael Portantiere

Off-Broadway Cast, 2006 (Ghostlight) This recording begins with a thrilling and percussive “Prologue” that lays out the haunting story of Bernarda Alba, the recently-widowed mother of fi…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:16AM
Thursday, April 11, 2024

Big Fish by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2014 (Broadway Records) Big Fish arrived on Broadway in 2013 with a score by Andrew Lippa and was imaginatively directed by Susan Stroman, but it did not last more th…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:35AM
Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Spongebob Squarepants by Michael Portantiere

Original Cast, 2017 (Masterworks Broadway) The Spongebob Squarepants album — recorded following the Chicago tryout, before most of the cast transferred to Broadway — succeeds largely thr…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:27AM
Monday, April 1, 2024

The Gardens of Anuncia by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2024 (Sh-K-Boom) From the shimmery first notes of The Gardens of Anuncia, listeners will get the feeling they’re entering a magical land. What follows is a gem …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:21PM
Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Little Women by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2005 (Ghostlight) No stars; not recommended. Among the most unsatisfying of modern musicals are those poorly done adaptations of classic literature that achieve succe…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:02PM
Saturday, December 30, 2023

I Can’t Keep Running in Place by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1981 (Painted Smiles) This musical about a six-week women’s assertiveness training workshop came across as little more than an audition piece for Barbara Schott…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:41PM

Man in the Moon by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 1963 (Golden Records/no CD) The puppets of Bil and Cora Baird were all over early television, as well as being featured in the Broadway musical Flahooley and the film…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:30PM

Half-Past Wednesday/Rumpelstiltskin by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1962 (Columbia/no CD) No stars, not recommended. The success of Once Upon a Mattress inspired several other fairy tale musicals, including this one — but the au…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:58AM

Fermat’s Last Tango by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2002 (Original Cast Records) A musical about a math problem? It’s a crazy notion, but composer-lyricist Joshua Rosenblum and librettist-lyricist Joanne Sydney L…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:44AM

Cowgirls by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1996 (Varèse Sarabande)  This cute little show, with music and lyrics by Mary Murfitt and a book by Betsy Howie, had a decent run Off-Broadway in 1996. The song…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:26AM

Greenwich Village U.S.A. by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1960 (20th Century Fox/no CD) No stars, not recommended. Some people have a blind affection for 1950s and ’60s revues, but being blind doesn’t mean that you …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:18AM
Tuesday, December 26, 2023

The Show Goes On: A Portfolio of Theater Songs by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt by Michael Portantiere

Off-Broadway Cast, 1998 (DRG) There are plenty of small delights — simple little things, one might say — to be found in this live recording of the York Theatre Company’s revue, in whic…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:38PM

Tuck Everlasting by Michael Portantiere

Broadway Cast, 2016 (DMI Soundtracks) Not much seems worth immortalizing when it comes to the Broadway adaptation of Natalie Babbitt’s beloved 1975 children’s novel Tuck Everlasting, in …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:14PM
Monday, December 25, 2023

A Christmas Story by Michael Portantiere

World Premiere Recording, 2012 (Masterworks Broadway) In this stage adaptation of the film of the same title about a boy who really wants a BB gun for Christmas, songwriters Benj Pasek and J…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 09:45AM
Saturday, December 16, 2023

Days of Wine and Roses by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2023 (Nonesuch) Days of Wine and Roses marks the first musical with a score by composer/lyricist Adam Guettel that has been produced since Guettel’s triumph with Th…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 09:46PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic
TBA: Ragtime