Talkin' Broadway Sound Advice Recap Week of 10/11/16 (updated 10/14/16)

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See the complete list of Upcoming/Recent releases.

Earlier recaps:

2016: October 4 | September 27, 20, 13, 6 | August 30, 23, 16, 9, 2 | July 26, 19, 12, 5 | June 28, 21, 14, 7 | May 31, 24, 17, 10, 3 | April 26, 19, 12, 5 | March 29, 22, 15, 8, 1 | February 23, 16, 9, 2 | January 26, 19, 12, 5, 2016 | 2015


CDs Now Available:

Cagney original cast
(Broadway Records - new on CD)
Off-Broadway cast. The score blends original music by Robert Creighton and Christopher McGovern with classic George M. Cohan favorites. Robert Creighton, Jeremy Benton, Danette Holden, Josh Walden, Ellen Zolezzi, and Bruce Sabath. Album produced by Michael Croiter and Matt Perri. Expected earlier at iTunes and in the Westside Theatre Upstairs. Released earlier on digital, including at iTunes. Also at BroadwayRecords.com.

The Intimate Keely Smith (Expanded Edition)
(Real Gone Records - new on CD/mp3/at iTunes)
1964 album, and the first of five Keely Smith Reprise albums to be released on CD for the first time in deluxe packages featuring bonus tracks, rare photos, and new liner notes by Steve Hoffman. Tracks include "Time After Time," "God Bless the Child," and bonus tracks include her duet with Frank sinatra "Twin Soliloquies" from the Reprise Musical Repertory Theatre Presents South Pacific album, plus rare non-LP single "No One Ever Tells You" by Carole King and Gerry Goffin arranged by Jack Nitszche and produced by Bowen.

Simply Heavenly OBC
(Sony/Naxos - on CD/mp3/at iTunes)
1957 original Broadway cast (Playhouse Theatre) recording of score by David Martin and Langston Hughes. Claudia McNeil and Melvin Stewart. "Prelude and Simply Heavenly," "Let Me Take You for a Ride," "Broken Strings," "Flying Saucer Monologue," "Did You Ever Hear the Blues?," "I'm Gonna Be John Henry," "When I'm in a Quiet Mood," "Look for the Morning Star," "Gatekeeper of My Castle," "Let's Ball Awhile," "Beat It Out, Mon," "The Men in My Life," "Good Old Girl," "Mississippi Monologue and Finale.""Money Montage," "Abundance and Charity," "Christmas Together," "Dancing on Your Grave," "Yesterday, Tomorrow and Today," "Christmas Day," "God Bless Us, Everyone


DIGITAL MUSIC Now Available:

Why We Build The Wall: Selections from Hadestown. The Myth. The Musical.
(Warner Classics - 4-song EP on mp3/and at iTunes)
2016 Off-Broadway cast recording. Score by Anais Mitchell. Recorded live. Full cast included Nabiyah Be, Damon Daunno, Lulu Fall, Amber Grey, Patrick Page, Jessie Shelton, Chris Sullivan, Shaina Taub. "Way Down Hadestown," "All I've Ever Known," "Wait for Me," "Why We Build the Wall." Full album to come in 2017.


BOOKs Now Available:

Cagney original cast
(Broadway Records - new on CD)
Off-Broadway cast. The score blends original music by Robert Creighton and Christopher McGovern with classic George M. Cohan favorites. Robert Creighton, Jeremy Benton, Danette Holden, Josh Walden, Ellen Zolezzi, and Bruce Sabath. Album produced by Michael Croiter and Matt Perri. Expected earlier at iTunes and in the Westside Theatre Upstairs. Released earlier on digital, including at iTunes. Also at BroadwayRecords.com.

The Complete Book of 1990s Broadway Musicals
(Rowman & Littlefield - Hardcover Book)
Dan Dietz continues his series, which has included the 1940s, the 1950s, the 1960s, and the 1970s, and the 1980s. Examines in detail every musical that opened on Broadway during the 1990s. This book discusses the era's major hits (Miss Saigon, Crazy for You, Rent), notorious flops (Shogun, Nick & Nora, The Red Shoes), controversial shows (Passion, The Capeman), and musicals that closed during their pre-Broadway tryouts (Annie 2: Miss Hannigan's Revenge, Whistle Down the Wind). Also highlights revivals and personal-appearance revues with such performers as Sandra Bernhard, Michael Feinstein, Patti LuPone, Liza Minnelli, and Mandy Patinkin. Each entry contains the following information: Plot summary; Cast members; Names of all important personnel, including writers, composers, directors, choreographers, producers, and musical directors; Opening and closing dates; Number of performances; Critical commentary; Musical numbers and the performers who introduced the songs; Production data, including information about tryouts; Source material; Tony awards and nominations; Details about London and other foreign productions. Separate entries for each production, plus numerous appendixes, including a discography, filmography, and published scripts. 512 pages.

The Intimate Keely Smith (Expanded Edition)
(Real Gone Records - new on CD/mp3/at iTunes)
1964 album, and the first of five Keely Smith Reprise albums to be released on CD for the first time in deluxe packages featuring bonus tracks, rare photos, and new liner notes by Steve Hoffman. Tracks include "Time After Time," "God Bless the Child," and bonus tracks include her duet with Frank sinatra "Twin Soliloquies" from the Reprise Musical Repertory Theatre Presents South Pacific album, plus rare non-LP single "No One Ever Tells You" by Carole King and Gerry Goffin arranged by Jack Nitszche and produced by Bowen.

Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady (The Fourth Wall)
(Routledge - Paperback Book)
By Keith Garebian. Takes a new look at My Fair Lady as a romantic musical comedy. Chapters: Rex Harrison: Alpha Male, Julie Andrews: Chaste Vocal Diva, Moss Hart: Sexually Ambiguous Dazzler, "Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man?", Queer Meanings, Conclusion, Works Consulted. Part of Routledge's Fourth Wall series: short, accessible accounts of some of modern theatre's best loved works. 136 pages.

New York City and the Hollywood Musical: Dancing in the Streets
(Palgrave Macmillan - Hardcover Book)
By Martha Shearer. "...how the city shaped the genre and equally how the genre shaped representations of the city." Analysis of 42nd Street, Swing Time, Cover Girl, On the Town, The Band Wagon, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story and many other classic and little-known musicals ... study of the relationship between cinema and urban space. 219 pages. Rescheduled.

Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway - Paperback Paperback
(Simon & Schuster - Paperback Book)
Paperback version of Michael Riedel's 2015 "provocative, no-holds-barred narrative account of the people and the money and the power that re-invented an iconic quarter of New York City, turning its gritty back alleys and sex-shops into the glitzy, dazzling Great White Way ... tells the stories of the Shubert Organization and the shows that re-built a city in grand style, revealing the backstage drama that often rivaled what transpired onstage, exposing bitter rivalries, unlikely alliances, andĀ—of courseĀ—scintillating gossip. This is a great story, told with wit and passion." 352 pages. Also available in Hardcover, Kindle Edition, and Audiobook (read by Peter Berkrot) versions.

The Routledge Anthology of US Drama: 1898-1949
(Routledge - Paperback Book)
Joshua Polster, editor. The plays and dramatic texts in this anthology demonstrate the vital and volatile relationship between U.S. theatre, its society, and the ways in which that theatre has both supported and challenged prevailing systems of thought and action. The collection is organized around key thematic perspectives from colonialism to psychoanalysis, viewing the artistic output of this era through the socio-political events and controversies that shaped it. Each play is accompanied by a critical commentary from a leading scholar and a set of archive source materials, including playbills, production shots, reviews, essays, poems, newspaper articles and official documents. 1026 pages.

Showstoppers!: The Surprising Backstage Stories of Broadway's Most Remarkable Songs
(Chicago Review Press - Paperback Book/Kindle Edition)
By Gerald Nachman. All about Broadway musicals' most memorable numbers—why they were so effective, how they were created, and why they still resonate. Much of it is told through the eyes of the performers, songwriters, directors, and choreographers who first built these explosive numbers and lit the fuse. Nachman has interviewed dozens of iconic musical theater figures to get their inside stories for this book, including Patti LuPone, John Raitt, Jerry Herman, Edie Adams, Dick Van Dyke, Joel Grey, Marvin Hamlisch, John Kander, Tommy Tune, Sheldon Harnick, and Harold Prince, uncovering priceless untold anecdotes and details. 384 pages.

Simply Heavenly OBC
(Sony/Naxos - on CD/mp3/at iTunes)
1957 original Broadway cast (Playhouse Theatre) recording of score by David Martin and Langston Hughes. Claudia McNeil and Melvin Stewart. "Prelude and Simply Heavenly," "Let Me Take You for a Ride," "Broken Strings," "Flying Saucer Monologue," "Did You Ever Hear the Blues?," "I'm Gonna Be John Henry," "When I'm in a Quiet Mood," "Look for the Morning Star," "Gatekeeper of My Castle," "Let's Ball Awhile," "Beat It Out, Mon," "The Men in My Life," "Good Old Girl," "Mississippi Monologue and Finale.""Money Montage," "Abundance and Charity," "Christmas Together," "Dancing on Your Grave," "Yesterday, Tomorrow and Today," "Christmas Day," "God Bless Us, Everyone

Why We Build The Wall: Selections from Hadestown. The Myth. The Musical.
(Warner Classics - 4-song EP on mp3/and at iTunes)
2016 Off-Broadway cast recording. Score by Anais Mitchell. Recorded live. Full cast included Nabiyah Be, Damon Daunno, Lulu Fall, Amber Grey, Patrick Page, Jessie Shelton, Chris Sullivan, Shaina Taub. "Way Down Hadestown," "All I've Ever Known," "Wait for Me," "Why We Build the Wall." Full album to come in 2017.


Recordings RECENTLY MADE AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER:

Hairspray Live!
(Universal Studios - new on DVD)
To be telecast live on NBC December 7, 2016. Cast includes Dove Cameron, Kristin Chenoweth, Garrett Clayton, Harvey Fierstein, Ariana Grande, Derek Hough, Jennifer Hudson, and Martin Short. Kenny Leon directs. Book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan. Music by Marc Shaiman. Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman.

Carols for a Cure 2016: Volume 18
(BC/EFA - new on 2 CDs)
Exclusively benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and features new and classic holiday songs sung by the companies of Hamilton, Waitress, School of Rock, and The Color Purple, among others. At BC/EFA Store.


OTHER NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS:

More information added:

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
(Ghostlight Records - new on CD)
2015 cast from limited run Montreal production. Alan Menken and David Spencer score. Cast includes Ken James Stewart. The show, first presented at the 1987 American Music Theatre Festival in Philadelphia, has been rewritten from the ground up, with "a handful" of songs remaining from the Philadelphia version, "and most of those altered in shape."