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)

w/o cast recordings:

• 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)

w/o cast recordings:

• 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

I should at least mention in passing the few other New York cast recordings of which I'm aware from this past season -- there's no attempt to be thorough here: 33 TO NOTHING; MINIMUM WAGE; SESSIONS; and FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: RUDE AWAKENING.   Plus, eventually we expect the concert cast of THE PEOPLE VS. MONA.

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

1 Comment

Submit a Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Comment

This website does not approve of the selling and/or trading of illegal copies and illegal bootlegs of commercially available cast recordings & soundtracks. We reserve the right to delete any message or notation that, in our opinion, violates these rules.