381 stories by "Rob Lester"
What a pleasure to find these two Lost-titled albums and welcome back to two female singers whose latest work brings intelligent, artful interpretations: Deborah Shulman and Deanna Kirk.
There's nice work on all three of this week's musical entries. We begin with Nice Work If You Can Get It, the cast album that's a glut of Gershwin & Gershwin from the golden age. A starkly m…
We've got three discs on the CD player, and the name of composer-lyricist Irving Berlin is very much around. There's a London cast album of a production adding various Berlin songs to the sc…
Journey from eerie (Carrie, Jekyll & Hyde, two musicals we first heard from at the end of the 1980s) to spiffy, smirking supposed "sequel" to the ultimate in musical theatre cheery (The Soun…
One of the lesser-known musicals of one of the best-known musical theatre writing teams gets its only recording since the original and the two female stars of the new production have their o…
Taking on the legend's songbook, Ann has her own landmark bookmark in it, having been a contributor on a couple of occasions, which helps uniquely anchor the show.
Here are two studio cast albums of enjoyable musicals which saw limited-run New York productions: Next Thing You Know and Sympathy Jones. And a new issue of the original (1971) Follies Broad…
Two legendary ladies surnamed Lee—one fictional and one real—get new looks in recordings released this month. Lorelei Lee is the gold-digging heroine ... and cabaret singer Stacy Sulliva…
Here's a look at the theatrical cabaret act of a bright talent with a fun and funny autobiographical act, with a thoughtful core ...
old and brave, or balladeering and besotted with love, bathed in bravery or just bravado, musical theatre's long line of leading male roles is rich with juicy material.
Another edition of the Original Cast Records series of Lost Broadway and More brings more than a treasure chest full of recovered gems ... Only a Kingdom revels in its just-right tone ... […
The pair of pros on stage and in full command are musical theatre darlings Faith Prince and Jason Graae.
This time: one vocal album from someone currently lighting up one of NYC's most elegant nightclubs and another kind of Sondheim set - this time instrumental.
So, what is it about zombies that makes them want to bring crazed drama to the stage or even sing and dance, determined to eat musical and non-musical theatre alive, seeking fresh blood, mak…
Sometimes it's all about being impressed and/or amused that very few actors plays many roles in the play, switching gears (meaning accents, voices, costumes, energies, walks) in a flash, dar…
If you are a Fringe Festival Fanatic, things can get dramatic, traipsing from venue to venue, when you see what's on the theatrical menu. The annual glut of shows to which one goes in downto…
Each year in the summer marathon of theatre known as the New York International Fringe Festival of theatre pieces downtown (or Fringe Frenzy, as I have come to call it), there are shows that…
When Michael Arden is in the driver's seat, you want to fasten your seat belt and go along for the ride ...
The tale of a real-life show biz family troupe from the old days brings kids and kidding around back around for vaudeville cheer in a new cast album ... osh Young, a strong-voiced current B…
Her current Broadway role finds the captivating Nikki Renée Daniels singing the classic "Summertime" as the latest Clara ... The heart is on the sleeve, pounding and apparently resilient de…
For those multitudes who have been merrily rolling along their way through the years as Stephen-Sondheimaholics, I guess there is no such thing as too much Sondheim and there maybe can never…
British leading man Dave Willetts has quite the resumé at this point, as this recently released album makes us stop and take note of the quarter-century career retrospective (and his landma…
... the expansive score of Evita filling two CDs ... several of its songs are among those included on a double-disc multi-performer concert set surveying its composer's work ... and , a cab…
In one of the more unusual footnotes on history's pages becoming a musical, we have the real-life story of the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Then, over in California, no…
Here for your listening pleasure: two albums with female vocalists, each with 17 tracks: one old, one new. We have a 1974 red-hot live recorded document by a super nova and a recently record…
