Cast Albums Blog
REVIEW: An American in Paris - Broadway Cast
This past Sunday, the new stage version of the 1951 film An American in Paris picked up four Tony Awards including Best Choreography, Best Set Design of a Musical, and Best Lighting Design of a Musical. In a show that is so heavily defined by dance and the visual, how does this work stack up in the audio department? The newly released cast recording of An American in Paris offers a surprisingly engaging listen and without the stage pictures to compete with, the rich score, made up of hits by George and Ira Gershwin, really dazzles. From the opening excerpt from "Concerto in F" to hits like "Someone to Watch Over Me" and "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise," the album often plays like a "Best of the Gershwins." This is never a bad thing (despite the fact that at times the show feels like it's treading a bit too closely in the waters of Crazy For You, especially with its "found object" version of "I Got Rhythm"), but the success of the cast album really rests on the shoulders of one individual. No, it's not director Christopher Wheeldon, leading man Robert Fairchild, or even George Gershwin. You have to look way down in the cast of credits to see the name Rob Fisher who adapted, arranged, and supervised the score and happily got to write the album's liner notes.
REVIEW: On the Twentieth Century - 2015 Broadway Cast
There are two words that sum up why the new Broadway cast recording of On the Twentieth Century is a welcome new release: Kristin Chenoweth. As Lily Garland, the scene-stealing comic soprano diva, Chenoweth, in a role she was born to play, tears up the stage and this recording of the 1978 musical in its first-ever Broadway revival. Whether happily chewing on scenery or casting off high notes as effortlessly as breathing, Chenoweth is the main reason why this frothy revival works.
REVIEW: Fun Home - Original Broadway Cast
It’s pretty rare for a cast recording to get an update; sometimes it happens when a major new star takes over a show like Pearl Bailey and the all-black company in Hello, Dolly! or Vanessa Williams in Kiss of the Spider Woman, but a new Broadway recording for this season’s critically acclaimed Fun Home? That was a surprise. PS Classics recorded the autobiographical memory show, based on the graphic novel by lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel about her coming of age and her relationship with her closeted gay father, shortly after its lauded 2013 off-Broadway run at the Public Theater. With a terrific score by Jeanine Tesori (music) and Lisa Kron (lyrics), Fun Home was rightly hailed as one of the best new musicals in recent years and quickly went on to be shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in 2014.
REVIEW: The Memory Show (Original Off-Broadway Cast)
A two-person musical about dementia? It might be a strange choice of material, but such is the content of The Memory Show which played off-Broadway in 2013 in a production by the Transport Group. Written by up-and-coming writers (Zach Redler-Music; Sara Cooper-Book and Lyrics), The Memory Show focuses on a Jewish Mother and Daughter (they aren’t given names) as the former (Catherine Cox) begins to enter a downward spiral of dementia while her estranged daughter (Leslie Kritzer) moves in to take care of her. Flashing between past and present and drawing on the painful episodes, especially those involving husband/father Ira, that informed their family life together, this show and score are anything but happy.
REVIEW: Christine Pedi's GOOD TO MAMA
Any musical theater lover out there worth his or her salt is sure to know multi-talented singer/actress/comedian Christine Pedi from her many years in the Forbidden Broadway franchise where she hilariously impersonated such legends from Elaine Stritch to Liza Minnelli. Her wonderfully over-the-top caricatures made her a true MVP in Forbidden Broadway’s many incarnations, but for some of us, the question remained: just who was the real Christine Pedi behind all those voices?