A Listing of Solo / Cabaret/
Special Events and Compilation CD Releases
All heard on Henry Sachwald’s Theatretrack
Recent Releases from:
The Broadway Musicals of 1925 Bayview RNBW 024
The Broadway Musicals of 1926 Bayview RNBW 031
The Broadway Musicals of 1933 Bayview RNBW 017
The Broadway Musicals of 1939 Bayview RNBW 025
The Broadway Musicals of 1940 Bayview RNBW 019
The Broadway Musicals of 1943 Bayview RNBW 015
The Broadway Musicals of 1951 Bayview RNBW 021
The Broadway Musicals of 1953 Bayview RNBW 026
The Broadway Musicals of 1960 Bayview RNBW 027
The Broadway Musicals of 1964 Bayview RNBW 022
The Broadway Musicals Cut-Outs Bayview RNBW 030
Ace of Clubs Bayview CS002
Gay's The Word Bayview CS001
La Strada (Songs from…) Bayview RNBW 028
Karen Akers: If We Only Have Love DRG 91483
The Thing About Men DRG 94772
Wonderful Town(2004B'wayCast Rec) DRG 12999
Fynsworth
Alley
Emily Skinner FA 2102 SE
Guy Haines: His Way FA 2109 SE
Jason Graae: Live at the Cine Grill FA 2104 SE
Liz Callaway: The Beat Goes On FA
2106 SE
Liz Callaway: The Story Goes On 302
062 019-2
The Stephen Sondheim Album FA
2101 SE
The Trotter Trio: The Fantasticks in Jazz FA 2103 SE
Bells Are Ringing 302 062 115-2
Working 302 062 114-2
Elegies for Angels, Punks & Raging Queens 302 062 113-2
Subways Are For Sleeping FA 001-LE
I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking it On The Road
(Original Cast Recording) FA 2133
Do I Hear A Waltz? 302 062 126-2
Pete ’n’ Keely 302 062 122-2
Juno FA 2134
A Broadway Valentine 302 062 121-2
Broadway Inspirations 302 062 128-2
Donna McKechnie: Inside the Music 302 062 124-2
Matt Zarley: Debut 302 062 127-2
Stephen Schwartz: Uncharted Territory FA 2119 SE
The Grand Tour FA 2139/A53955
Home of recordings by Nancy LaMott and David Friedman
Beautiful Baby
(Midder Music)
MMCD 001
Come Rain Or Come Shine (Midder Music) MMCD 002
My Foolish Heart (Midder Music)
MMCD
003
Listen To My Heart (Midder Music)
MMCD 005
What's Good About Goodbye (Midder Music) MMCD OO6
Live at Tavern
on the Green (Midder Music) MMCD 007
and
Listen To My Heart -The songs of David Friedman (Midder Music)
MMCD 201
Highly Recommended Australian Recordings!
Melissa Langton:
When the Rain Falls Up MEM 010
Phil Scott: Serious Cabaret
MEM 007
Chelsea Plumley: Live and Luscious CPP CD01
The Republic of Myopia MEM 015
Nonesuch
Bounce
79830-2
Dreamgirls
in Concert
79656-2
Into The Woods (2002 B’way Cast Recording) 79686-2
Time After Time / Dodsworth OC 6128
Foxy
OC 6026
The Spitfire Grill
Triangle Road 2836
Thrill Me OC 7391
Captain Louie PS-530
Nine (2003 B'way Cast Recording) PS-312
My Life With Albertine PS 313
Deborah Tranelli: A Lot of Livin' PS 424
Jack Donahue: Strange Weather PS 418
Jessica Molaskey: Make Believe PS 422
Luba Mason: Collage PS 423
Rebecca Luker: Leaving Home PS 415
A Year With Frog and Toad PS 416
Assassins PS 421
Fiddler on the Roof PS 420
Fine and Dandy PS 9419
Decca Broadway
Wicked Decca B0001682-02
Song of Norway Decca B0002471-02
Ankles Away Decca B0002673-02
Lorelei Decca B0001407-02
Ethel Merman: Merman Sings Merman/Ethel's Ridin' High Decca 475 6150
The Little Prince (soundtrack) Decca B0002997-02
RCA/BMG/VICTOR
Avenue Q Victor 55923-2
Urinetown
RCA Victor
63821-2
Bat Boy
RCA Victor 63800-2
tick, tick…BOOM!
RCA Victor 63862-2
Hair (Orig B'way/Off B'way Cast) RCA-Deluxe 56085-2
How to Succeed in Busniess Without Really Trying
RCA-Deluxe 56051-2
The Last Five Years
Sh-K-Boom
4001-2
Adam Pascal:Model Prisoner Sh-K-Boom
1000-2
Alice Ripley: Everything’s Fine Sh-K-Boom
3000-2
Sherie Rene Scott: Men I’ve Had Sh-K-Boom 2000-2
Bare Sh-k-boom Promo
Kooky Tunes Jay CD 1367
Lucky Stiff Jay CD 1379
Other recordings of interest
Johnny Guitar DMCD 0401
Golf: The Musical Golf 000
Caroline, or Change Hollywood Records62436-2
Anything Goes Prism PLATCD 938
Finian's Rainbow Prism PLATCD974
Girl Crazy Prism PLATCD973
Pal Joey Prism PLATCD975
The Wizard of Oz(soundtrack) Prism PLATCD998
Chicago (Soundtrack) Epic/Sony 5105322000
Over the Rainbow and Over the Moon to a Better Place Than Brooklyn
Brooklyn – the Musical, Razor & Tie 82930-2
The New Moon, Ghostlight Records 4403-2
Finian's Rainbow, Ghostlight Records 4402-2
Three cast recordings have just come in the mail. THE NEW MOON, FINIAN'S RAINBOW and BROOKLYN the Musical
The fact that a show title needs a descriptor is troubling to me. If BROOKLYN needs to be defined maybe it isn't ready to be called what it wants to be. After all mention THE NEW MOON, FINIAN'S RAINBOW and anyone who's interested will already know that they are musicals. Imagine introducing Pete Sampras the Tennis Player, Tiger Woods the Golfer. The name alone conjures up an image of the personality or the product. So why can't BROOKLYN simply be BROOKLYN?
Could it be that it doesn't really know what it wants to be? So many shows call themselves musicals, but are they really? Just stringing a group of songs together with some sort of “storyline” does not constitute a musical. The problem today is that musical genres and styles are constantly homogenised and pasteurised to suit the music marketing industry.
I have never been a big fan of pop music “Broadway” scores. Hair, Rent and J.C.Superstar have never real fulfilled my need for a good “showtune”. I love The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Billy Joel and the amazing folk/rock writers of the 60's, 70's and 80's but they're not songs for the musical theatre stage. Put them in a Broadway theatre. Sing them whatever way you like, be it acoustic or amplified. Write a story to go with the songs, but please, don't call them musicals . Contemporary musical theatre composers like Ricky Ian Gordon, Jason Robert Brown, Adam Guettel and Michael John LaChiusa have been inspired by people like Joni Mitchel and Billy Joel, but when they write, they write for “Broadway”, or the concert hall, opera stage, cabaret room, recital hall or pop arena.
Why must everything be the same to be popular? Shopping malls, pop music and bulging underwear billboards are taking over the world. Go to any major city in the world and they look, sound and smell the same. Boring. The sound of “musicals” is being squeezed out of existence by this need for global uniformity in what we watch and listen to.
How has BROOKLYN managed to raise the funds to be produced on Broadway and Stephen Sondheim's latest ( Bounce) barely rates a cast recording? The producers of BROOKLYN must see some commercial potential in it, or are they really willing to just throw their money away?
I have not seen BROOKLYN. So it is unfair to pass judgement on the production. I have read critic and audience reviews and met several people who have seen it. The general consensus seems to be “why?”.
So here I am listening to the cast recording. I should note that this recording was done in a recording studio with a live studio audience. This must be a first in cast recording and marketing history. Shows have been recorded during performance, but not with a ”studio” audience. The need to include audience applause and cheers on the recording highlights insecurity on the part of the creators and producers to let the recording stand on its own merits.
The recording label Razor and Tie is to be commended for picking up the title for release. I love to add new cast recordings to my collection, and share them with my radio listening audience. Unfortunately BROOKLYN does not stack up well against the pack. However, it is in good company with a list as long as your arm of shows and recordings that never ranked in the annals of musical theatre history. Its pop music style immediately makes it sound generic and transient. The lyrics are neither poetic nor funny or meaningful. There is a bundle of talent on stage in this show: Kevin Anderson, Cleavant Derricks, Eden Espinosa, Ramona Keller and Karen Olivo. It's a shame they don't get to do something better constructed.
Ghostlight Records is a new subsidiary of Sh-k-boom Records, created by Kurt Deutsch. Sh-k-boom has been created to ensure the recording of new works and the new “sound” of Broadway. Supporting a list of new Broadway performers by producing their solo albums and releasing the cast recordings of “The Last Five Years” by Jason Robert Brown, “Debbie Does Dallas” by Andrew Sherman, Michel LeGrand's “”Amour” and “Bare” by Damon Intrabartolo & Jon Hartmere Jr . Kurt is taking proactive steps towards building new audiences for “Broadway” musicals in the 21 st century. Establishing Ghostlight Records creates a bridge joining the old with the new. Two new releases have launched this new label: City Center Encores! â Sigmund Romberg's THE NEW MOON and The Irish Repertory Theatre's production of FINIAN'S RAINBOW. Unlike BROOKLYN I shall be playing these more frequently over the coming months. Both recordings are absolutely delightful.
While THE NEW MOON is still very much in the operetta style that Romberg helped to establish in America at the turn of the (20 th ) century, this new recording brings bright new voices to songs that became standards when they were first heard: “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise”, Stouthearted Men”, “One Kiss”, “Wanting You” and “Lover, Come Back to Me”. The cast includes: Rodney Gilfry, Christiane Noll, Lauren Ward, Burke Moses, Peter Benson, Simon Jones, Danny Rutigliano, Ailx Korey, Brandon Jovanovich, Mary Ann Lamb and Alex Sanchez.
“Operetta” – Here is another interesting genre. Not quite opera, not quite “Broadway”. THE NEW MOON was a collaboration of Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II. At the same time that Hammerstein was collaborating with Romberg he was about to make musical theatre history writing the book and lyrics to Jerome Kern's music for Showboat . Transition and transformation in musical theatre is what makes it exciting.
FINIAN'S RAINBOW
has one of the best Broadway scores ever written, including “How
Are Things in Glocca Morra?”, “Look To the Rainbow”, “Old Devil Moon”,
“If This Isn't Love”, “That Great Come-and-Get-It Day”, “When I'm Not
Near The Girl I Love”. Unfortunately the script has not worn well over
time. Even with a re-write by the late Peter Stone, a Broadway bound production
of a few years ago never made it to New York. Charlotte Moore adapted
the script in 2003 for a benefit concert. It is this adaptation that is
used by The Irish Repertory Theatre in this off-Broadway concert style
production. Performed with two pianos rather than full orchestration the
stellar cast for this chamber production: Mark Aldrich, Melissa Errico,
Jonathan Freeman, Malcolm Gets, Jonathan Hadley, Eric Jackson, Jayne Ackley
Lynch, Kerry O'Malley, Kimberly Dawn Neumann, John Sloman, David Staller,
Joacquin Stevens, Max V
on Essen and Terri White give a bright and delightful sound to this Broadway
favorite. With a test run and a recording now available, City Center Encores!
â should seriously consider this production for a future season. With
the luck of the Irish it could finally develop into a Broadway run.
“See you at the theatre!”
©Henry Sachwald December 2004
‘Elaine Stritch At Liberty’ - DRG
12994 (2 CD SET)
A must for your Original Cast Recording collection.
This show is Broadway history at its best. Elaine Stritch tells
all in this one woman tour de force. To describe the recording would destroy
the pleasure of listening to this show, especially if you don’t get
a chance to see it. To savor the event, don’t listen to this 2 CD
recording in one sitting. I didn’t want the show to end. You
will laugh and you will cry. You will know what it is to love SHOW business
and have a lifetime career in the theatre and survive. If you can’t
get a copy of this recording locally, order it on the Internet.
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