977 stories by "Michael Portantiere"
Original Broadway Cast, 1960 (Capitol/Angel) It all starts with a marvelous opéra bouffe-style overture that sets the tone perfectly for this tale of the Tenderloin, New York's most notorio…
Studio Cast, 1998 (New World, 2CDs) This was one of the Gershwins' middling, mid-1920s musicals, chock-a-block with mistaken identities, society marriages, and principal comics delivering nu…
Original Broadway Cast, 1984 (Polygram) Onstage, it was an entertaining, beautifully put together, old-fashioned show, but the cast album of The Tap Dance Kid reveals an uninteresting score.…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1983 (Painted Smiles) One of the most colorful personalities in show business history, Tallulah Bankhead was so imitable that any impressionist worth his or her s…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1983 (DRG) This show managed only a brief run " not because there was anything wrong with the writing or the production, but perhaps because the general public di…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2000 (Original Cast) [user=5] This is a gilt-edged tribute to lyricist John Latouche, who wrote in a number of genres and had only occasional good fortune in any …
Original Broadway Cast, 1959 (RCA) Eugene O'Neill's uncharacteristic comedy Ah, Wilderness! seemed a natural candidate for stage musical treatment " even though the MGM musical Summer Holida…
Original London Cast, 2003 (First Night) Who would have imagined Boy George as a theater composer? Yet with this show, partly about George's rise to fame in the London club scene of the earl…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1966 (Kapp/no CD) For a tantalizing glimpse of the talent and creativity spawned Off-Broadway in happier times, seek out this 1966 hit, a Restoration-style comedy…
Studio Cast, 1997 (Performing Arts Preservation Assn.) When producer William Repicci caught a performance of a work in progress by Linda Thorsen Bond that was being staged in Midland, Texas,…
Original Broadway Cast, 1996 (After 9) No stars; not recommended. Subtitled "The Johnny Burke Musical," this show tried to avoid being just another composer tribute revue by placing the song…
Original Broadway Cast, 1999 (Sony) No stars; not recommended. On Broadway, this revue's main selling point was Lynne Taylor-Corbett's ultra-strenuous choreography. What's left on disc is a …
Original Broadway Cast, 2002 (Sony) With a book by John Guare, this musical based on the dark film Sweet Smell of Success found few fans during its three-month Broadway run, but the cast rec…
Original Broadway Cast, 1966 (Columbia) This is a practically flawless recording of a Cy Coleman-Dorothy Fields score that ranks as one of the best of the 1960s. Bob Fosse's adaptation of th…
Original Broadway Cast, 1978 (RCA, 2CDs) Every musical theatre fan has a personal favorite Sondheim score, and the man's oeuvre is so rich and diverse that it's impossible to argue what is t…
World Premiere Recording, 1993 (Polydor, 2CDs) Andrew Lloyd Webber heard a semi-operatic, sung-through musical in Billy Wilder's 1950 melodrama film noir, but he made a mistake in choosing D…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1990 (TER-JAY) No stars; not recommended. In 1978, a musical titled Platinum had an extremely brief run on Broadway. It starred the stylish Alexis Smith in the ro…
Original Broadway Cast, 1983 (B'way Entertainment/Varèse Sarabande) Lavishly produced, beautifully designed, lovingly directed, Sugar Babies was a burlesque show featuring very funny old sk…
Original Broadway Cast, 1972 (United Artists/MGM) Sugar was a shocker, the first indication that the great David Merrick production machine of the 1950s-'60s was breaking down. Gower Champio…
Original Broadway Cast, 1961 (Columbia/Fynsworth Alley) A legendary title, if for no other reason than David Merrick's scandalous marketing of the show: He looked in the phone book, found se…
Studio Cast, 1950 (Decca) Operetta albums from decades ago often sound even more dated than the material itself, with white-bread orchestrations and stilted singing. You'd expect the 1924 wa…
Studio Cast, 1991 (Elektra, 2CDs) The "Roxbury Recordings" series of restored Gershwin scores was a mixed bag, but this double CD of Strike Up the Band, recorded here in its unsuccessful 192…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1964 (AEI) For a long time, this was an extremely rare recording, so AEI's CD release was especially welcome. With music by Richard Chodosh and lyrics by Barry Al…
Original Broadway Cast, 1947 (Columbia/Sony) Composer Kurt Weill and lyricist Langston Hughes set Elmer Rice's 1929 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Street Scene to music as an opera, although th…
Original London Cast, 1961 (Decca/Hallmark) This may not be a great musical, but it has a great score by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. These are inventive, compelling songs. The lyrics…
