977 stories by "Michael Portantiere"
Original Broadway Cast, 1958 (Columbia/Sony) Although Flower Drum Song doesn't have the substance of most of Rodgers and Hammerstein's other shows, it features one of the team's most enjoyab…
Original London Cast, 1900-15 (various labels/Opal) The blurb on the CD cover calls this "the world's first-ever original cast album!" Well, the cast of the 1899 success did enter the Gramop…
Original Broadway Cast, 1965 (RCA) John Kander and Fred Ebb's first show together tells the story of Flora Meszaros (Liza Minnelli), who is thrilled to get a garment-district job during the …
Original Broadway Cast, 1951 (Capitol/DRG) With a title such as this, could you possibly expect something ordinary? Flahooley was the brainchild of E. Y. Harburg, who wanted to satirize big …
Original London Cast, 1997 (First Night/Relativity) An American political satire starring a Scotsman and an Australian, The Fix was a succes d'estime in a Sam Mendes-directed production at t…
Original London Cast, 1991 (First Night) Super-producer Cameron Mackintosh found this little revue of Louis Jordan songs at the Theatre Royal Stratford in London's East End and liked it so m…
Original Los Angeles Cast, 2002 (PS Classics) Although Michael John LaChiusa's First Lady Suite premiered Off-Broadway in 1993, the piece wasn't recorded until it was staged in Los Angeles n…
Original London Cast, 1996 (First Night) A curious musical with a curious history: It opened in New Jersey to respectable reviews, traveled to London for a sort of protracted New York tryout…
Studio Cast, 2004 (PS Classics) PS Classics' recording of this 1930 musical presents a fairly conventional score by Kay Swift and Paul James (a nom de plume for Swift's husband, James Warbur…
Original Broadway Cast, 1959 (Columbia! DRG) There may be a beguiling musical to be coaxed out of Pride and Prejudice, but Abe Burrows' attempt isn't it. Like several shows of the era, this …
BBC Radio Concert Cast, 2003 (Capriccio, 2CDs) Capriccio and the BBC left no manuscript unturned in reconstructing Kurt Weill's biggest Broadway flop, a 1945 operetta about Benvenuto Cellini…
Original Broadway Cast, 1959 (Capitol/Angel) In an earlier era of musical theater, it was not uncommon for an overture to start with a sound effect. Here, we have the sound of a fire-engine …
Original Broadway Cast, 1947 (Columbia/Sony) The mélange of singing styles heard on the first recording of Finian's Rainbow is intriguing, but may strike some listeners as confusing. Ella L…
New York Concert Cast, 1991 (New World Records) Â Anything Goes may be rated the most fun Cole Porter score, but consider this 1929 hit, a whoop of joy from the late Jazz Age that makes r…
Original Broadway Cast, 1964 (RCA) One of the glories of the RCA cast album catalogue, this is a treasured memento of the original production of the Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick-Joseph Stein m…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1960 (MGM/Decca ) There's a reason why the original Off-Broadway production of this show ran for more than forty years. The prototype for every little Off Broadwa…
Original Broadway Cast, 1954 (RCA) Based on Marcel Pagnol's Marseilles trilogy about love and abandonment on the French Riviera, this nearly forgotten show has a beautiful score by Harold Ro…
Original Broadway Cast, 1961 (United Artists/DRG) This recording begins with the strains of "Here Comes the Bride," then the first words we hear are "Will you marry me?" The story goes on to…
Original London Cast, 1995 (Polydor) No stars; not recommended. After achieving great success as a movie and a TV series, Fame landed with a thud when it hit the stage. All about students at…
Original Off-Broadway Casts, 1981/1990 (DRG, 2CDs) Â Although the second and third installments of William Finn's "Marvin Trilogy" were originally produced nine years apart (the first ins…
Original Broadway Cast, 1964 (ABC-Paramount/Decca) This musical spoof of Hollywood in the 1930s is best known for its star's attempts to bail out of it. Betty Comden and Adolph Green tailore…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2001 (RCA) Â A Class Act represents an important bit of modern musical theater history, and this recording of the Manhattan Theatre Club production is an intri…
The lusty Lerner and Loewe musical Paint Your Wagon has a wonderful score, but it's not a show you see revived every day, which makes it a perfect choice for the City Center Encores! series.…
Studio Cast, 1976 (MCA, 2CDs) This final collaboration (to date) of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice is also the last really good musical theater piece to come from ALW's p…
Original Broadway Cast, 1978 (Warner Bros./no CD) The resurrection of Eubie Blake's music in the 1970s was a joyous affirmation of the fact that even if genuine talent fades for a while, oft…
