365 stories by "Rob Lester"
A Collective Cy: Jeff Harner Sings Cy Coleman and "Harmony" OBC cast recording reviewed.
New album reviews: "Lewberger: The Wizard of Friendship," Fanny Brice: Rare and Unreleased Recordings, and "The Flasher!" soundtrack.
"New York, New York" OBC, Matthew Scott, "Other Lives", and Chloé Jean album reviews.
Reviews of newly released albums: Eleri Ward; Legends of Broadway and Vaudeville; Chet Baker Blue Room.
et's open our minds and ears to alternate versions of classic musicals as presented in cast recordings: Camelot's recently opened revival and a complete South Pacific with a studio cast from…
Rob reviews the new OBC cast recordings for "Shucked" and "KPOP."
... Laurie Winer sees many sides to the icon, with her own eyes wide open rather than with myopic wide-eyed fandom, and with the advantage of 20/20 hindsight fueled by modern-day perspectiv…
Now we give due appreciation to duos"with a retrospective of the oeuvre of a long-standing, outstanding songwriting twosome, and then it's time for spare pairings of one singer accompanied b…
Reviews of new Funny Girl cast recording, A Beautiful Noise OBC recording, plus Harry Connick Jr.'s newest holiday album, and The Skivvies' Sleigh My Name.
Part one of reviews of 2022 Christmas music releases, starting with Million Dollar Quartet Christmas.
Maury Yeston's song cycle and two sets of Sondheim songs: The calendar inching us to December is an apt cue to turn to December Songs, with Victoria Clark taking on Maury Yeston's one-charac…
The comet at hand is not the celestial object but a musical comedy with a title character named Regina Comet. Constellations and Under the Stars are the names of cool jazz releases. In any c…
Miracle of The Music Man: The Classic American Story of Meredith Willson, while full of affection and appreciation, is also full of familiar tales and tidbits if you've read some of the othe…
When the feats of production are at their most dense and intense, there's a risk of upstaging the essence of the material's drama or delicacy"at least on the first or second hearing. And I s…
Full of fascinating facts, fond memories, musings, and proffered preferences, Peter Filichia's newest book may be a haven for the theatre maven unable to put it down. While perusing The Book…
Let's check out two London cast recordings of newer musicals"The Pleasure Garden and It Happened in Key West"and then turn our focus to southern California to report on two singers based the…
In her candid memoirs, self-aware Mary Rodgers (1931-2014) states this about the princess protagonist of the show she worked on as composer in the late 1950s, Once Upon a Mattress: "Despite …
Here's some "colorful" music: tweaked scores of The Unsinkable Molly Brown and 13 (music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown), and the concept recording for Anne of Green Gables, plus vocals by…
Reviews of "Joe Iconis & Family: Album" and others.
New cast albums from two Broadway shows of this season: "Girl from the North Country" and "Caroline, or Change."
Don't expect Funny Girl's twin sister, but more of a distant cousin who's so cute and enthused that one don't want to rain on her parade.
I'm so glad I landed in Oz with the delightful Harlem Rep's reputable version of a beloved tale. It's easy to get to this terrific stage show: just follow the yellow brick road. Oh, your sta…
When art imitates life in the arts, there can be artistic differences. At the festival closing Sunday, August 6, two ambitious NYMF shows celebrate real-life artistic American men: one still…
What better message for a musical than, "Find and be your true self, despite pressures to be a clone, and you'll be a happier true you." Backbeard and Happily don't have lyrics saying those …
Looking for musicals about teens and their troubles? See our Pick of the Week for info on Happily (August 3 & 4) at NYMF. And here are reviews at two that came by first: along first at the …
