969 stories by "Michael Portantiere"
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2002 (JAY) Based on It, the 1927 film that starred Clara Bow, The It Girl is a small-scale, 1920s-style musical comedy. It was presented Off-Broadway by the York …
Original Broadway Cast, 1982 (Original Cast Records) If this show had opened Off-Broadway instead of on Broadway in 1982, it might have run a lot longer. Is There Life After High School?…
Original London Cast, 1958 (Philips/Sepiano CD) This recording was not released in CD format until 2008. It will come as something of a revelation to those who only know Irma la Douce from t…
Broadway Cast, 1973 (Columbia/Sony) Encouraged by the success of the 1971 Broadway revisal of No, No, Nannette, producer Harry Rigby and colleagues reworked and mounted Irene, a musical that…
A Tony Award nominee for Spring Awakening, Jonathan Groff has been away from theater for a while, making himself known and beloved in two of the most disparate roles imaginable: as the flawe…
Studio Cast, 1985 (Polygram) Richard Rodgers' musical imagination persisted throughout his life, despite depression, a heart attack, and cancer of the vocal cords. His final show opened just…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1979 (Original Cast Records) Long before the William Finn character known simply as Marvin experienced joy and pain in March of the Falsettos, Falsettoland, or th…
Original Broadway Cast, 1987 (RCA) One of Stephen Sondheim's most commercially successful shows, Into the Woods has one of his least distinctive scores. Perhaps he wasn't really inspired by …
Original Cast Members, 1948 (SHB-Show-Biz Productions/Sepia) Almost forgotten today but the second-longest-running revue of 1948, this Howard Dietz-Arthur Schwartz opus inspired by John Gunt…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1978 (Columbia/Fynsworth Alley/Masterworks Broadway) The book and lyrics are by Gretchen Cryer, who also plays the lead character, Heather. The music is by Nancy …
Off-Broadway Cast, 1996 (Varèse Sarabande) "Oh my God, that's me up there!" was an audience whisper heard often during the long run of this musical revue, the winning work of Joe DiPietro (…
Original Broadway Cast, 1977 (Atlantic/DRG) "Wife-swapping" was already a dated topic in 1977, but this miniature musical sex farce was the surprise hit of the season. Audiences were taken w…
Original Broadway Cast, 1967 (United Artists/Kritzerland) No stars; not recommended. Having had an art-house film hit with Never on Sunday, writer-director Jules Dassin and the Mrs., otherwi…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1999 (Varèse Sarabande) In an introductory note, this diversion's creator Sheridan Morley recalls that Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence acted together only t…
Original Broadway Cast, 1964 (Mercury/Decca) With Buddy Hackett starring as a Coney Island psychic who screws up his friends' love lives, it's safe to say that I Had a Ball doesn't have a th…
Original Broadway Cast, 1966 (RCA)Â Â A two-character musical based on the play The Fourposter by Jan de Hartog, about a long-married couple, I Do! I Do! holds a mirror up to the audie…
Original Broadway Cast, 1962 (Columbia/Sony) This show has gone down in history for having launched the career of Barbra Streisand, but there's so much more here. Jerome Weidman adapted his …
Original Cast, 1984 (Kilmarnock Records, 2CDs) This show flopped big-time when producer Joseph Papp transferred it to Broadway after a run at his Public Theater. Although billed as "a modern…
Original Broadway Cast, 1961 (RCA) George S. Kaufman said that "satire is what closes on Saturday night," but that certainly did not apply to How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying…
Original Broadway Cast, 1968 (RCA) The story of a misfit who, rather than committing suicide, decides to try his hand at selling stock, this show made audiences laugh for one season and is h…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1995 (RCA) This show was the brainchild of costume designer Howard Crabtree, whose outlandishly funny costumes were the real stars of the production"each outfit m…
Original Broadway Cast, 1954 (Columbia/Sony) The cast album of Harold Arlen and Truman Capote's flop musical set in a West Indian bordello is stunning and unique; the steel drums and whistle…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1994 (Boebe) How much mediocre country music can you take if it's terrifically well performed? That's the barometer of how much you'll enjoy this recording. Rober…
Original Broadway Cast, 1947 (RCA/Sepia) The 24-minute cast album of High Button Shoes contains only eight of the score's 14 songs; that's all that could fit on both sides of four 78-rpm rec…
Original Scarborough Cast, 1998 (Dress Circle) Welcome to the duck yard, "Where life is nice and steady / Till we're plucked and oven-ready" and where Ida, a young mom, hatches an egg contai…
