977 stories by "Michael Portantiere"
Original Off-Broadway and Broadway Casts, 1967/1968 (RCA, 2CDs) Many musical theater traditionalists were nonplussed when the seminal rock musical Hair was a big success Off-Broadway and the…
Original Broadway Cast, 1959 (Columbia/Sony) From the blaring trumpets that begin the overture to the final chords of "Rose's Turn," this is a recording that grabs you and never lets go. Rep…
Original Broadway Cast, 1950 (Decca) While subsequent recordings of Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls are superior to this one in certain respects, the performances here are definitive and rema…
Original Broadway Cast, 1985 (JAY/TER) Grind, which opened during director Harold Prince's 1980s slump, was one of the most hated shows of the period. It's easy to understand why: Fay Kanin'…
In collaboration with her husband John Pizzarelli, as well as solo appearances in musical theater, in concert and cabaret, on recordings, etc., the "singers' singer" Jessica Molask…
Original Broadway Cast, 1960 (RCA/DRG) Composer-lyricist Frank Loesser was determined never to repeat himself in his musicals. In between his operatic The Most Happy Fella and his satirical …
Bryan Batt, Paula West, Karen Akers, Paulo Szot, and Jay Armstrong Johnson are only some of the super-talents now playing in clubs around town.
As a tremendously exciting new season begins at the New York City Opera, general manager and artistic director George Steel waxes enthusiastic
BroadwayStars talks with the pumped and ripped Broadway veteran who serves as Jackie Warner's co-trainer on the new Bravo TV reality series Thintervention.
Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Terrence Mann, and Gary Beach talk about the magic of Beauty and the Beast.
Tenor Vittorio Grigolo, the Metropolitan Opera's newest star, is definitely ready for his close-up.
Original Broadway Cast, 1972 (MGM/Polydor) Those who know Grease only from its inexplicably popular, sophomoric film version or the pumped-up, wrongheaded 1994 Broadway revisal will be surpr…
Original Broadway Cast, 1971 (Painted Smiles/Varèse Sarabande) Even if it didn't star Barbara Cook, in resplendent voice in her last Broadway musical, this would be the most glorious cast a…
Original Broadway Cast, 1979 (Columbia/Fynsworth Alley) This is the cheeriest musical ever written about escaping from the Nazis. Jerry Herman has dismissed the show as a mistake ("It just d…
Members of the Broadway Cast, 1994 (Varèse Sarabande) This revue of songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals was directed by Walter Bobbie, with musical direction by Fred Wells. It opene…
Broadway Cast, 1992 (RCA) Based on the Vicki Baum novel that inspired the classic MGM film, Grand Hotel traveled a crooked road to Broadway. The first pass at the material, by librettist Lut…
Original Broadway Cast, 1976 (RCA) As he did with Ben Franklin in Paris, librettist Sidney Michaels " this time leaving the lyrics to other, more expert hands " tried to give old European hi…
Film Soundtrack, 1947 (MGM/Rhino) The first movie written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green for MGM, Good News has a smart and funny script. Only six songs were retained from the original 192…
Original Broadway Cast, 1993 (Columbia/Sony) The Goodbye Girl is a fine movie that was probably not a sound choice for adaptation as a stage musical, even if crafted by gifted, intelligent p…
Original Broadway Cast, 1958 (Columbia/Sony) Here, Elaine Stritch plays a pre-World War I stage star entangled with a fly-by-night silent movie director (Don Ameche) who yearns to make an ep…
Original Broadway Cast, 1968 (Calendar/GL Music/Essential Media Group) The ultimate in "guilty pleasure" musicals, Golden Rainbow took Arnold Schulman's charming little play A Hole in the He…
Original Broadway Cast, 1965 (Capitol/Bay Cities/Angel/Razor and Tie) This is a tale of two LPs and three CDs. With music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams, Golden Boy has a book ba…
Original Broadway Cast, 1954 (RCA) One of the greatest of all cult musicals, this Jerome Moross-John Latouche collaboration has never really commanded the attention it deserves, and the orig…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1971 (Bell-Arista) Conceived and originally directed by John-Michael Tebelak, based on the Gospel according to St. Matthew, with music and new lyrics by Stephen S…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1996 (JAY) Goblin Market was a snob hit of the 1985-86 Off-Broadway season. Based on a fairy tale in verse by the pre-Raphaelite Christina G. Rossetti, this two-c…
