Cast Albums Blog
REVIEW: Falsettos - 2016 Broadway Cast
It seems hard to believe that the 1992 Tony Award-winning musical Falsettos by William Finn is only now getting a complete cast recording. Beloved by musical theater fans, this sung-through show full of Finn’s idiosyncratic melodies and gorgeous ballads follows the story of Marvin as he leaves his wife Trina and son Jason to be with his male lover Whizzer. Hysterically funny one minute and gut-wrenchingly devastating the next, Falsettos painted a picture of gay Jewish life and atypical family arrangements that continue to resonate today, if not more so, in the age of Modern Family.
REVIEW: Maddie - Original London Cast (Deluxe Edition)
Stage Door Records does terrific work unearthing lost curiosities. If not everything they release turns out to be a forgotten masterpiece, their catalogue of recordings includes some fascinating material. And so it proves here: based on Jack Finney’s 1973 novel ‘Marion’s Wall’, which also begat the Glenn Close movie ‘Maxie’, Maddie was a relatively swift flop at London’s Lyric Theatre in 1997. Save for one number – Knick Knacks, mercifully absent from this rerelease – the show was never exactly bad, but it was one of those productions (yes, I saw it) where the elements didn’t quite come together, and Summer Rognlie’s strident performance in the leading role didn’t help. The story – about a young woman in San Francisco who becomes possessed by the ghost of a long-dead aspiring actress, with predictably chaotic consequences for her career and marriage – needs a light touch, and didn’t get it, at least from the show’s star; because the central performance didn’t work, whatever charms the material itself might have had tended to remain hidden.
REVIEW: Hairspray Live!
Can it really be that almost 15 years have passed since the bubbly and boisterous musical Hairspray first took Broadway by storm? The show lived on the Great White Way for 8 ½ years, winning the Tony for Best Musical, had numerous regional productions, and was even made into a well-received movie. In many ways, Hairspray, despite its age, has never really left the modern Broadway canon. With tomorrow night's production of Hairspray Live! on NBC, we'll have one more version to add to the mix.