177 stories by "Brad Hathaway"
Can there ever be too many recordings of Gershwin musicals? For that matter, can there be too many Gershwin musicals? There’s a new Original Broadway Cast album being released today on…
One might have hoped that by now we’d be talking about an Original Broadway Cast album of Sylvester Lévay’s Broadway debut as a composer of major musicals. Instead all tongues t…
Two books published this year serve as bookends in the story of Fred Astaire. Neither, however, is strictly speaking, a biography of this famous hoofer. Instead, they tell the stories of his…
Another Jekyll & Hyde? Yes. There is a new production of Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse’s gothic musical thriller heading out on the national tour route with Broadway an intend…
The problem with compilations of musical theater scores is that any theater fan already owns a bunch of discs that might be compiled, while anyone who doesn’t have any one of them prob…
Not in this century have we musical theater lovers been so lucky as to have all three of the scores of the season’s series of Encores! concerts at New York’s City Center recorded…
First Night Records really should have packaged their two new releases as one box set " if you want one of them (and you really should) then you will definitely want them both. Unfortunately…
Masterworks Broadway has filled a long-empty slot on the groaning shelves of show recording completists. They have dug into the vault of the old RCA Victor Green Label Series and given us wh…
There is a new Demon Barber on Fleet Street and the highlights disc of his tale will be a pleasurable discovery for the fans of Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece, Sweeney Todd. However, i…
Rodgers and Hammerstein between the hits From time to time I hear from my readers that they don’t buy something I said. Most of the time they are right. Last week I reviewed the book &…
In 1958, Rodgers and Hammerstein had a hit with Flower Drum Song. Nearly fifty years later, a musical with the same title and the same score but with a very different book was a flop. The st…
Each of three new DVDs of 1955 and 1960 televised musicals has its own charms, but one stands out as the most delightful of the bunch. It is the 1955 black and white television adaptation of…
Let’s face it " George Gershwin’s masterpiece Porgy and Bess must occupy some of the theater shelf of any serious lover of either music or theater. In fact, so many books, CDs an…
 Having begun this month’s concentration on George Gershwin during the 75th anniversary of his death with a review of a book I enthusiastically endorsed, I’m sorry to say this…
As we continue our look at works by and about George Gershwin on the 75th anniversary of his tragically early death, we are fortunate to have a first class world premiere recording of an obs…
July marks an anniversary of an event that I, along with John O’Hara, don’t wish to acknowledge. In 1937 he wrote: “They tell me George Gershwin is dead, but I don’t …
It is awfully hard to dig deep into the history of musical theater without having access to the essential thing that sets it apart from other theatrical events " the music. Of course, you ca…
Read any good CD’s lately? The two discs of this complete recording of Treemonisha, Scott Joplin’s 1911 opera, come inserted between the covers of a 112 page small-print book tha…
The Playgoing Experiences of Each Chief Executive Paul Bogar, a professor at Hood College in Frederick Maryland, was hit by a question from one of his students. It was a question that may ha…
Next Sunday’s Tony Awards ceremony will be most interesting for collectors of “show music” when they announce the winner of the award for “Best Original Score (Music …
This book is almost a fantasy fulfilled for me. I’ve always thought it would be wonderful to just take a few days off, go to the reading room of some huge library like the Library of C…
Songs from End of the Rainbow and other Garland classics This isn’t exactly a cast recording of a show’s score, but it may be of interest in the days before the Tony Awards are a…
Alan Menken is on something of a roller coaster ride. He has just pulled off that exceedingly rare feat of having three musicals with his scores playing on Broadway at the same time and, wha…
In defense of Broadway composer Frank Wildhorn OK – Now you can be the judge. I think Frank Wildhorn and Don Black wrote a great score for Bonnie & Clyde. Some of the most influent…
My friends and many of my fellow critics/reviewers tell me that Once is a great show. Obviously, the Tony Award nominators agree, having included it in no less than eleven of the categories …
