All stories by Michael Portantiere on BroadwayStars

Thursday, August 24, 2023

archy and mehitabel by Michael Portantiere

Concept Album, 1954 (Columbia/Masterworks Broadway) Based on the 1920s newspaper columns of Don Marquis, archy and mehitabel stars a cockroach. Ostensibly, the columns were the work of said …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:53PM
Saturday, August 12, 2023

Almost Famous by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2022 (Masterworks Broadway) Meet the semi-jukebox musical: Almost Famous, based on the film about a 1970s rock band and the teen journalist William (Casey Likes) who …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:22PM

Bring It On by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2012 (Backlot Music) If you love Lin-Manuel Miranda’s score for In the Heights, you’ll find lots of pleasures in Bring It On. This musical adaptation of a 2000 fi…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 01:39PM

COLETTE / COLETTE COLLAGE by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1970 (MIO International/no CD) This version of Colette is a charming play with music. The play itself was written by Elinor Jones, then married to lyricist Tom Jo…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 12:58PM
Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Anya / The Anastasia Affaire / Anastasia: The Musical by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 1965 (United Artists/Kritzerland) What Robert Wright and George Forrest had previously done successfully with Grieg and Borodin, they did with Rachmaninoff in creatin…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:26AM
Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Ambassador by Michael Portantiere

Original London Cast, 1971 (RCA/Stage Door) The original London cast album of this Henry James adaptation is also the de facto original Broadway cast album, since the West End’s two leads,…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:43AM
Sunday, July 23, 2023

Aladdin (Cole Porter) by Michael Portantiere

Original Television Cast, 1958 (Columbia/Sony) The later-in-life work of most great musical theater writers isn’t up to the quality of their more youthful forays; but with the exception of…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 09:34AM
Saturday, July 22, 2023

Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 1971 (A&R, 2LPs; no CD) Onstage, this piece by Melvin van Peebles was intensely theatrical; I was actually frightened when cast member Minnie Gentry looked straig…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 07:06PM

After the Fair by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1999 (Varèse Sarabande) It’s the very model of a modern chamber musical: a four-character, four-musician adaptation of a Thomas Hardy short story, here brought…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 06:49PM
Tuesday, July 4, 2023

New York, New York by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2023 (Wine & Peaches LLC) New York, New York is destined to go down in musical theater history books for its creative team, which includes the legendary composer …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:33PM
Monday, June 19, 2023

KPOP by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2023 (Masterworks Broadway)  In 2021, the South Korean music industry earned around $773 million in revenue, a figure that has been increasing since K-pop as a genre…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:29AM
Thursday, June 15, 2023

Some Like It Hot by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2023 (Concord Theatricals) Broadway musicals based on movies are nothing new, but Billy Wilder’s masterpiece Some Like it Hot may hold the distinction of being the …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:06PM
Wednesday, June 7, 2023

As You Like It by Michael Portantiere

Original Public Works Cast, 2022 (Concord Theatrical Recordings) The second of composer-lyricist Shaina Taub’s Shakespeare adaptations for the Public Theater’s Public Works program, foll…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 09:34AM

Twelfth Night by Michael Portantiere

Original Public Works Cast, 2018 (Craft Recordings) The first (and better) of Shaina Taub’s pair of Shakespeare-inspired scores for the Public Theater’s Public Works program, Twelfth Nig…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 09:20AM
Monday, June 5, 2023

Wonderland by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2011 (Masterworks Broadway) If you’re looking for an under-the-radar guilty pleasure album, you could do worse than Wonderland. It’s the silliest and least self-i…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:09PM

Chaplin by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2012 (Masterworks Broadway) In “Just Another Day in Hollywood,” the ensemble of Chaplin sings of “Stars on the rise / Stars on the fall / Stars you forget / Sta…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 03:58PM
Saturday, June 3, 2023

Half a Sixpence by Michael Portantiere

Original London Cast, 1963 (Decca/Must Close Saturday) There’s no question that Half A Sixpence, the musical adaptation of the H. G. Wells novel Kipps, was all about spotlighting Tommy Ste…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 02:47PM
Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Cinderella (Andrew Lloyd Webber) by Michael Portantiere

Studio Cast, 2021 (Polydor) O stars, not recommended.  What’s there to write about Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella that hasn’t already been written and/or said? Though this “modern…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 09:07AM
Friday, May 5, 2023

Shucked by Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 2023 (Masterworks Broadway) Not every musical starts its cast album with the pre-show announcement. But, for better and for worse, Shucked is not every musical. The s…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:23PM
Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Michael Portantiere

Original London Cast, 2013 (Watertower Music) The first stage iteration of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s novel preserves only one of Le…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 11:16AM

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory by Michael Portantiere

Film Soundtrack, 1971 (Geffen) This slim film soundtrack — featuring six full songs by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, plus some reprises and several lovely instrumentals also credited…

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 10:48AM
Monday, April 10, 2023

Soft Power by Michael Portantiere

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2020 (Ghostlight)  If this cast album confuses some listeners, that may be because they don’t understand the show’s central conceit, and can you blame them? …

SOURCE: castalbumreviews.com at 04:57PM
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

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