Talkin' Broadway Sound Advice Recap Week of 1/5/21

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See the complete list of Upcoming/Recent releases.

Earlier recaps:

2020: December 29, 22, 15, 8, 1 | November 24, 17, 10, 3 | October 27, 20, 13, 6 | September 29, 22, 15, 8, 1, August 25, 18, 11, 4 | July 28, 21, 14, 7 | June 30, 23, 16, 9, 2 | May 26, 19, 12, 5 | April 28, 21, 14, 7 | March 31, 24, 17, 10, 3 | February 25, 18, 11, 4 | January 28, 21, 14, 7

2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015


CDs Now Available:

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom soundtrack
(Milan - new on CD/mp3/at iTunes)
Soundtrack from 2020 Netflix film based on the August Wilson play. Original music by Branford Marsalis. "Deep Moaning Blues," "El Train," "Lazy Mama," "Chicago Sun," "Those Dogs of Mine," "Hear Me Talking to You" (Instrumental), "The Story of Memphis Green," "Jump Song," "Leftovers," "Shoe Shopping," "Deep Henderson," "Reverend Gates," "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom," "Levee’s Song," "Sweet Lil’ Baby of Mine," "In the Shadow of Joe Oliver," "Hear Me Talking to You," "Levee and Dussie," "Levee Confronts God," "Sandman," "Baby, Let Me Have It All," "Toledo’s Song," "Chicago at Sunset," "Skip, Skat, Doodle-do." Released 12/18/20. [CD returning to stock 1/21/21.]


DIGITAL MUSIC Now Available:

A Country Christmas Carol, On Air
(new digital album on mp3/at iTunes)Studio cast album of score by Albert Evans (music) and Ronald Kaehler (lyrics with Evans). Bart Shatto, Heidi Karol Johnson, Jack Romano, Christy Carlson Romano, Audrey Lavine. Released 12/21/20.

First Snow: Robert Prester & Adriana Samargia
(Commonwealth Ave. Productions - new digital album on mp3/at iTunes)
"Joi to the World," "First Snow," "Comfort, Comfort, O My People," "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," "Away in a Manger," "In the Bleak Midwinter," "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," "Of the Father's Love Begotten," "All I Want for Christmas Is You," "Manger Song of Mary," "Masters in This Hall," "Blue Christmas." Released 12/8/20.

One Touch of Venus original German cast
(HitSquad Records - new on 2 CDs/on mp3/at iTunes)
Kurt Weill/Ogden Nash score. July 2019 live recording on double CD from the Staatsoperette Dresden. Featuring Johanna Spantzel and Jannik Harneit. Musical director Peter Christian Fiegel. 10 tracks. Released 1/10/20.

Sense of Occasion: Harold Prince audiobook
(Tantor Audio - Audible Audiobook)
Memoir by Harold Prince. Includes the content of Prince's 1974 book "Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-Six Years in the Theatre," plus his present-day reflections on that text and much more original content, offering insights into the way business is conducted on Broadway, drawing sharp contrasts between past and present. Narrated by Michael Butler Murray. Released previously by Applause Books in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle editions. [See our review of the hardcover version.]


MUSIC to be released this Friday, January 8:

David Thorne Scott: Thornewood
(new album)
Jazz artist David Thorne Scott with Paula Cole, Peter Eldridge, Jason Palmer, Walter Smith III and Sara Caswell. "Rocky Mountain High," "If I Needed You," "Fall Into You," "In the Still Of the Night," "You Are There," "One For My Baby," "The Dark Side," "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye," "Deciding Where To Land," "The Summer Knows," "Grow," "Rocky Mountain High (outro)."

Marisha Wallace: Tomorrow
(Decca - new on CD)
Singer/actress Marisha Wallace (Aladdin, The Book of Mormon) with covers as well as four new, original tracks. "Somewhere," "Alive," "Tomorrow," "The Show Must Go On," "Rainbow," "Before I Go," "My Declaration," "Faith," "You're The Voice," "Divine," "Purple Rain," "Reflection," "I'm Free," "Angel," "Climb Ev'ry Mountain." Digital release 11/27/20.


Recordings RECENTLY MADE AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER:

Hair OBC
(Music on Vinyl - new 2-LP vinyl set)
Complete original Broadway cast recording of score by Galt MacDermot (music), Gerome Ragni and James Rado (lyrics). 180 gram audiophile vinyl. Eight-page booklet with pictures and liner notes; PVC protective sleeve. Complete recording with all 32 tracks available on vinyl for the first time. Donnie Burks, Steve Curry, Lorrie Davis, Ronald Dyson, Sally Eaton, Leata Galloway, Steve Gamet, Walter Harris, Paul Jabara, Diane Keaton, Hiram Keller, Lynn Kellogg, Jonathan Kramer, Marjorie LiPari, Emmaretta Marks, Melba Moore, Mike Moran, Natalie Mosco, Suzannah Norstrand, Shelley Plimpton, James Rado, Gerome Ragni, Robert Rubinsky, Lamont Washington. Brian Drutman, Denis McNamara, Norrie Paramor, Andy Wiswell. Originally produced by Brian Drutman, Denis McNamara, Norrie Paramor, and Andy Wiswell.


Books/Plays RECENTLY MADE AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER:

And This is My Friend Sandy: Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend, London Theatre and Gay Culture
(Methuen Drama - Hardcover Book)
By Deborah Philips. Situates the production of Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend and the Players' Theatre in the context of a post-war London and reads The Boy Friend, and Wilson's later work, as exercises in contemporary camp. Argues for Wilson as a significant and transitional figure both for musical theatre and for modes of homosexuality in the context of the pre-Wolfenden 1950s.

Avant-Garde Nationalism at the Dublin Gate Theatre
(Syracuse Univ Press - new Paperback Book/Kindle Edition)
276 pages.

Beulah Bondi: A Life on Stage and Screen
(McFarland - Paperback Book)
By Axel Nissen. The life and career of film, stage (Street Scene) and television actress Beulah Bondi. 253 pages.

Looking Back: Buster Keaton's 1951 British Music Hall Tour
(Buster Books - new Kindle Edition)
By David Christopher MacLeod. About a little-known episode in the life of Buster Keaton – his tour of British music halls in the summer of 1951. This 20th anniversary edition has been revised and updated. 112 pages.

No Fixed Points: Dance in the Twentieth Century
(Yale Univ Press - Paperback Book)
Paperback version of Nancy Reynolds and Malcolm McCormick's 2003 hardcover book, a definitive history of twentieth-century theatrical dance, enhanced with more than 200 photographs. Chronicles one hundred years of dramatic developments in ballet, modern, and experimental dance for stage and screen in Europe and North America. Sets dance in broader cultural and historical contexts, examining specific dance works and exploring the contributions of outstanding choreographers, performers, visual artists, impresarios, composers, critics, and other figures. 928 pages.

Paris and the Musical: The City of Light on Stage and Screen
(Routledge - Paperback Book)
By Olaf Jubin. Explores how the famous city has been portrayed on stage and screen, and investigates why the city has been of such importance to the genre and tracks how it has developed as a trope over the 20th and 21st centuries. From An American in Paris, Gigi, Les Misérables, Moulin Rouge! and The Phantom of the Opera to Bless the Bride, Can-Can, Irma la Douce and Marguerite. 414 pages.

A Wonderful Guy: Conversations with the Great Men of Musical Theater
(Oxford Univ Press - Hardcover Book)
By Eddie Shapiro. Follow up to the author's 2014 book Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater. Never-before-published interviews with some of Broadway's leading men, such as Joel Grey, Ben Vereen, Norm Lewis, Gavin Creel, Cheyenne Jackson, Jonathan Groff.





Compiled by Talkin' Broadway Staff.

Corrections and questions may be directed to SoundAdvice@talkinbroadway.com