977 stories by "Michael Portantiere"
Original Broadway Cast, 1997 (RCA) The idea of a John Kander and Fred Ebb musical set during a 1930s dance marathon sounds like a natural; this milieu would seem to be an ideal backdrop for …
Selections From 1945 and 1962 Film Soundtracks (Varèse Sarabande) The Rodgers and Hammerstein score for the 1945 film version of State Fair is unlike any of the team's other efforts in that…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1977 (RCA) Few cast recordings are as good as this one, made up of songs written by Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire for about 10 years' worth of unsuccessful …
Ethel Merman With Studio Artists, 1939 (Liberty/AEI) The first musical with a score by composer Arthur Schwartz and lyricist Dorothy Fields, Stars in Your Eyes reunited Ethel Merman and Jimm…
Studio Cast, 1998 (Original Cast Records) Starmites earned six Tony Award nominations in 1989, at the end of one of the leanest Broadway musical seasons in history. All about a shy teenager …
Original London Cast, 1984 (Really Useful Records, 2CDs) Starlight Express is the most enjoyable show " or, to look at it from another perspective, the least objectionable " that And…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2001 (Triangle Road) About a third of the way through The Spitfire Grill, wherein a troubled young woman wanders into a sad Wisconsin hamlet and instills new hope…
Original Broadway Cast, 1949 (Columbia/Sony) Romantic and durable, this great Rodgers and Hammerstein score ranges from operatic to 1940s swing to quasi-Polynesian to Americana, yet each son…
Original Broadway Cast, 1959 (Columbia/Sony) Although excellent, this recording of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic has been so overshadowed by the spectacularly popular film soundtrack a…
Original Broadway Cast, 1981 (RCA) Duke Ellington classics were well served in the revue Sophisticated Ladies, which received 10 Tony Award nominations and ran on Broadway for nearly two yea…
Original Cast, 1997 (RCA) Songs for a New World documents composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown's superb musicianship and his knack for connecting with younger audiences who appreciate contem…
Original Off-Broadway Cast Members, 1992 (DRG) A tongue-in-cheek pastiche of 1940s pop culture, Song of Singapore had a substantial Off-Broadway run at a nightclub venue. It was whipped up b…
Original Broadway Cast Members, 1944 (Decca) "Hurry, Countess! The boys' names are in the cakes! They're starting the drawing!" So runs a typical line of dialogue in this peerlessly fruity o…
Original London Cast, 1979 (Pye/DRG) The centerpiece of this show, a revue of songs written by a fictional Irish-Jewish composer named Moony Shapiro, is a seven-minute medley of "vocal gems"…
Original London Cast, 1982 (Really Useful Records, 2CDs) This two-disc album was recorded live during the show's opening-night performance, and it has a definite theatrical snap to it. Song …
Ethel Merman and Original Cast Members, c. 1944 (AEI) Perhaps the definitive wartime musical, Something for the Boys was a hit for Cole Porter and Ethel Merman. It offers an enjoyable score,…
Original London Cast, 1992 (First Night) No stars; not recommended. Twenty years after the musical Sugar played on Broadway, this revised, retitled version showed up in London. Judging from …
Studio Cast, 1980 (Original Cast Records) Joseph Stein adapted his backstage comedy Enter Laughing, based on a novel by Carl Reiner, into a musical that had a dismal two-week run in 1976 but…
Original San Francisco Cast, 1976 (DRG) If you admire You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown as much as I do, you too may have trouble warming to its sequel, Snoopy!!! While the former captures Ch…
Original Broadway Cast, 1995 (Atlantic) Did Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller write every great 1950s-'60s tune? That's the feeling you get when listening to Smokey Joe's Cafe, a greatest-hits r…
Original Broadway Cast, 1965 (Capitol/DRG) No stars; not recommended. With a book by Peter Stone, this musical is an adaptation of Elmer Rice's Dream Girl. The show's leading role was bestow…
Studio Cast, 1990 (New World Records, 2CDs) Conductor John McGlinn is the one to thank for this recording of Sitting Pretty, a 1924 flop created by that legendary trio responsible for so man…
Original Broadway Cast, 1944 (Decca/Stage Door) No stars; not recommended. What's more surprising: That this "salute to American folk and pop music" was produced on Broadway by The Theatre G…
Film Soundtrack, 1952 (MGM/Rhino-Turner) For many, Singin' in the Rain remains the greatest movie musical of all time. The mere image of Gene Kelly splashing around in those Hollywood puddle…
Original London Cast, 1928 (Columbia/HMV/Pearl) Composer Jerome Kern and librettist-lyricist Oscar Hammerstein's groundbreaking musical Show Boat premiered in New York in 1927, before the co…
