Cast Albums Blog
Happy 3rd Birthday to Middle8.com
Happy third birthday to Middle8.com, Australia's only CD store specializing in show music. To celebrate, they're holding an online this Saturday and Sunday (July 12-13) where everything will be 15% off!
The Season in Cast Recordings
Reprinted from CASTRECL with permission from David L. Hobbs:
A list of New York cast albums, made for my own consumption and offered, as it was last year, in case it's of use or interest to others. Note this list only covers shows which opened during the 2007-08 eligibility years for the Tony and Lortel Awards. Off-off-B'way is not included in order to keep the list manageable. Corrections, additions and news of unpublicized demos & promos featuring New York casts are most welcome.
BROADWAY in 2007-08 (Tony eligible)
w/ cast recordings:- A Catered Affair
- Grease
- In the Heights
- Passing Strange
- South Pacific
- The Little Mermaid
- Young Frankenstein
- Xanadu
- Gypsy (recorded 5-6 May 2008 by Time-Life Records)
- Cry-Baby
- Glory Days (there is a 5-track promotional recording of GLORY DAYS featuring the Broadway cast)
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas
- Sunday in the Park with George (the performances of Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell and the orchestration by Jason Carr are preserved on PS Classics' 2006 London cast recording of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE)
OFF-BROADWAY in 2007-08 (Lortel eligible)
w/ cast recordings:- Adding Machine
- Gone Missing
- Horizon (Rinde Eckert's HORIZON, a Pulitzer finalist, is available on DVD -- not CD -- through Sue Endrizzi, Mr. Eckert's manager)
- Make Me a Song
- Walmartopia (made after original cast member Brennen Leath passed away. He was succeeded by DeMond B. Nason)
- Frankenstein (recorded Dec 20, 2007)
- Seussical (recorded Jun 9, 2008 by Jay Records)
- The Glorious Ones (recorded Jan 8, 2008 by Jay Records)
- 10 Million Miles
- Black Nativity (Classical Theatre of Harlem has a recording of BLACK NATIVITY in the works; it is expected to be ready this fall when the production is remounted.)
- Celia: The Life and Music of Celia Cruz
- Next to Normal
- Passing Strange (The off-B'way version of PASSING STRANGE was not recorded, but the entire cast moved with the show to B'way. I've not been able to determine the extent of changes but at least one song was cut: "L.A. Was All in My Mind.")
- Take Me Along
- The/King/Operetta
- The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island
- Three Mo' Tenors (A recording of the off-B'way version of THREE MO' TENORS is being produced. There is also a 2004 Chicago recording with most of the same cast and about half the tunestack of the New York production.)
- Wanda's World
A few words of hope/regret/hope. Fingers are still crossed for CRY-BABY despite it's imminent closing. NEXT TO NORMAL continues to be revised (a production is scheduled for Washington's Arena Stage in November) so I expect we'll eventually have a recording of a more "final" version. On the regret side, I would have dearly loved a recording of JUNO from Encores. The evening of one-act musicals at the Zipper, INNER VOICES, also sounded intriguing. JUNIE B. JONES was revived again by TheatreWorksUSA and still remains unrecorded. And since I love the music of Jenny Giering, I hope that a recording of CROSSING BROOKLYN might eventually happen.
Gratitude to all CastRecL contributors who furnished the above information. -- David L. Hobbs
Review: Adrift in Macao
One might be forgiven for stumbling over the name of Adrift in Macao composer Peter Melnick -- in the liner notes, he's even quoted referring to himself as "Richard Rodgers' 'other' grandson," an oblique reference to his famed cousin Adam Guettel. It's unclear on the basis of the album whether this state of affairs will continue. While far from a major work (one could argue that all three of Guettel's scores rank with the work of Sondheim -- but let's stop inciting a family feud, shall we?), the score to this noir pastiche is an old-fashioned, light, infectious piece that will play well in regional theatre.
The lyrics, on the other hand, are entirely modern--parodies of torch songs, songs with lyrics supposedly improvised on the spot, songs about themselves--in the manner that's taken over Broadway in the last decade or so. Fortunately, slumming lyricist Christopher Durang has sufficient skill and talent to bring most of them off ("Rick's Song" is a shaky mashup of "The Song That Goes Like This" and "The Diva's Lament" from Spamalot, but "Pretty Moon Over Macao," "In a Foreign City," and "The Chase" all score).
Unfortunately, this still means it's at best a matter of taste; one wonders whether the audience that wants to hear Melnick's score is the same as the audience that wants to hear Durang's lyrics. And when it comes to the weird "Asian" numbers for "Tempura" (Orville Mendoza), one wonders how many people want to hear any of it at all.
The cast is uniformly strong: Mendoza, who has the most floppo material, manages to sparkle with natural charm. Rachel deBenedet and Alan Campbell have the rare treat of playing (with gusto) romantic leads with better and funnier songs than their comic foils; still, Michele Ragusa and Will Swenson (the latter as "Rick Shaw"; ugh) acquit themselves well.
And whatever is lacking in individual numbers, all can be forgiven when the cast breaks into the charming title song or, better, the intoxicating "Ticky Ticky Tock" finale. In fact, if there's anything that inspires confidence in the future of Melnick and Durang as a songwriting duo, it's this simple, silly, pleasingly anachronistic sing-a-long for the company.
Arkiv Releases Out of Print Recordings
ArkivMusic.com has begun issuing CD-Rs of an out-of-print or otherwise generally unavailable recordings. For the usual cost of a CD, they'll burn you a disc and include reproductions of the original artwork and liner notes. But unlike the bootleggers on eBay, the recordings are fully licensed from the record labels. Max Preeo hinted on CASTRECL that a major label is negotiating to use ArkivMusic to release its back catalog...
For now, the following recordings are available through Arkiv:
Canterbury Tales -- Original Broadway Cast
Robert and Elizabeth -- Original London Cast
Little Night Music, A -- Original London Cast
Wildcat -- Original Broadway Cast
Do Re Mi -- Original Broadway Cast
Oliver! -- Film Soundtrack
Finian's Rainbow -- Broadway Cast
Silk Stockings -- Original Broadway Cast
Hello, Dolly! -- Broadway Cast
Starting Here, Starting Now -- Original Off-Broadway Cast
Legs Diamond -- Original Broadway Cast
Roi Et Moi, Le -- French Soundtrack
Little Me -- Original Broadway Cast
How Now, Dow Jones -- Original Broadway Cast
Darling of the Day -- Original Broadway Cast
Broadway Showstoppers -- Studio Cast
Kismet -- London Studio Cast
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum -- Original London Cast
Kwamina -- Original Broadway Cast
Where's Charley? -- Original London Cast
Walking Happy -- Original Broadway Cast
Goodtime Charley -- Original Broadway Cast
Celebration -- Original Broadway Cast
Zorba -- Original Broadway Cast
St. Louis Woman -- Original Broadway Cast
Tenderloin -- Original Broadway Cast
That's Entertainment III -- Film Soundtrack
Chu Chin Chow -- Studio Cast
White House Cantata, A -- London Studio Cast
Magdalena -- London Studio Cast
On the Town -- London Concert Cast
Johnny Johnson -- Studio Cast
Seventh Heaven -- Original Broadway Cast
Street Scene -- London Studio Cast
Xanadu - Original Broadway Cast Recording
I admit it. Just like librettist Douglas Carter Beane writes in the liner notes of the newly-released Original Broadway Cast recording of Xanadu, when I attended the first preview in May, I was hoping to catch a flop of Carrie-like proportions. After all, the original film musical was a financial and artistic failure, even if it did produce a best-selling soundtrack. Trying to roller-skate on the Helen Hayes Theatre's postage stamp-sized stage would surely be the least of the cast's worries...