Cast Albums Blog
REVIEW: John, Paul, George, Ringo... and Bert - Original London Cast
Given how many records Barbara Dickson has sold over her career, it’s surprising – perhaps – that the cast recording of John, Paul, George, Ringo… and Bert, the Beatles jukebox musical that first put her in the public eye, has remained out of print for so long. The show, which premiered at the Liverpool Everyman in 1974, was Willy Russell’s first great success as a playwright; rather than force actors to imitate the Beatles, Russell placed the songs as a kind of counterpoint to the scenes in his retelling of the group’s rise to stardom, performed from the side of the stage by Dickson at the piano accompanied by a small band. The show was a moderate West End hit in 1974-75; while the cast recording was issued on LP and cassette, however, it had never been released on CD.
That, thankfully, has finally been rectified. Several tantalizing numbers have long been available for (temporary) consumption via Dickson’s remarkably comprehensive YouTube page, but it’s taken until this year for the complete album to be made available on CD (it still doesn’t appear to be available as a download).
REVIEW: Paint Your Wagon - Encores! Cast Recording
Paint Your Wagon is exactly the kind of show Encores does best. It was an early effort by one of Broadway's most successful songwriting teams (Lerner & Loewe), working in an explicitly American idiom (gold-rush Americana). The show was a moderate success, but the cast album was severely truncated. The film bore little resemblance to the show, nor was it very good. So despite a couple of hit songs ("I Talk to the Trees" and "They Call the Wind Maria"), the show more or less faded into obscurity.
When the curtain rose at City Center in March, 2015 to a gloriously large orchestra (44 musicians!) playing a pulsing overture that immediately evoked the American west, audiences knew they were in for a treat. With a trio of perfectly cast leads -- Keith Carradine as old miner Ben Rumson, Alexandra Socha as his daughter Jennifer, and Justin Guarini as the love interest Julio -- songs familiar and surprising sprang to life.
REVIEW: Three Alfred Drake Reissues
Alfred Drake is having a moment. Sure, he died nearly a quarter-century ago, but with three of his albums newly available, it’s a great time to be an Alfred Drake fan – or to become one.
Once Broadway’s leading baritone, Drake famously originated roles in Babes in Arms, Oklahoma!, Kismet, and Kiss Me, Kate, recording the latter two twice, with later stereo discs complementing the original monaural versions.
That stereo version of Kismet, a recording of the 1965 Music Theater of Lincoln Center revival, is the first of the Drake reissues, out now from Masterworks Broadway. Drake reprises the role he originated, Hajj, joined this time around by Anne Jeffreys as Lalume, Lee Venora as Marsineh, Richard Banke as the Caliph, and Henry Calvin as the Wazir.