969 stories by "Michael Portantiere"
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1966 (Kapp/no CD) For a tantalizing glimpse of the talent and creativity spawned Off-Broadway in happier times, seek out this 1966 hit, a Restoration-style comedy…
Studio Cast, 1997 (Performing Arts Preservation Assn.) When producer William Repicci caught a performance of a work in progress by Linda Thorsen Bond that was being staged in Midland, Texas,…
Original Broadway Cast, 1996 (After 9) No stars; not recommended. Subtitled "The Johnny Burke Musical," this show tried to avoid being just another composer tribute revue by placing the song…
Original Broadway Cast, 1999 (Sony) No stars; not recommended. On Broadway, this revue's main selling point was Lynne Taylor-Corbett's ultra-strenuous choreography. What's left on disc is a …
Original Broadway Cast, 2002 (Sony) With a book by John Guare, this musical based on the dark film Sweet Smell of Success found few fans during its three-month Broadway run, but the cast rec…
Original Broadway Cast, 1966 (Columbia) This is a practically flawless recording of a Cy Coleman-Dorothy Fields score that ranks as one of the best of the 1960s. Bob Fosse's adaptation of th…
Original Broadway Cast, 1978 (RCA, 2CDs) Every musical theatre fan has a personal favorite Sondheim score, and the man's oeuvre is so rich and diverse that it's impossible to argue what is t…
World Premiere Recording, 1993 (Polydor, 2CDs) Andrew Lloyd Webber heard a semi-operatic, sung-through musical in Billy Wilder's 1950 melodrama film noir, but he made a mistake in choosing D…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1990 (TER-JAY) No stars; not recommended. In 1978, a musical titled Platinum had an extremely brief run on Broadway. It starred the stylish Alexis Smith in the ro…
Original Broadway Cast, 1983 (B'way Entertainment/Varèse Sarabande) Lavishly produced, beautifully designed, lovingly directed, Sugar Babies was a burlesque show featuring very funny old sk…
Original Broadway Cast, 1972 (United Artists/MGM) Sugar was a shocker, the first indication that the great David Merrick production machine of the 1950s-'60s was breaking down. Gower Champio…
Original Broadway Cast, 1961 (Columbia/Fynsworth Alley) A legendary title, if for no other reason than David Merrick's scandalous marketing of the show: He looked in the phone book, found se…
Studio Cast, 1950 (Decca) Operetta albums from decades ago often sound even more dated than the material itself, with white-bread orchestrations and stilted singing. You'd expect the 1924 wa…
Studio Cast, 1991 (Elektra, 2CDs) The "Roxbury Recordings" series of restored Gershwin scores was a mixed bag, but this double CD of Strike Up the Band, recorded here in its unsuccessful 192…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1964 (AEI) For a long time, this was an extremely rare recording, so AEI's CD release was especially welcome. With music by Richard Chodosh and lyrics by Barry Al…
Original Broadway Cast, 1947 (Columbia/Sony) Composer Kurt Weill and lyricist Langston Hughes set Elmer Rice's 1929 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Street Scene to music as an opera, although th…
Original London Cast, 1961 (Decca/Hallmark) This may not be a great musical, but it has a great score by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. These are inventive, compelling songs. The lyrics…
Original Broadway Cast, 1997 (RCA) The idea of a John Kander and Fred Ebb musical set during a 1930s dance marathon sounds like a natural; this milieu would seem to be an ideal backdrop for …
Selections From 1945 and 1962 Film Soundtracks (Varèse Sarabande) The Rodgers and Hammerstein score for the 1945 film version of State Fair is unlike any of the team's other efforts in that…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1977 (RCA) Few cast recordings are as good as this one, made up of songs written by Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire for about 10 years' worth of unsuccessful …
Ethel Merman With Studio Artists, 1939 (Liberty/AEI) The first musical with a score by composer Arthur Schwartz and lyricist Dorothy Fields, Stars in Your Eyes reunited Ethel Merman and Jimm…
Studio Cast, 1998 (Original Cast Records) Starmites earned six Tony Award nominations in 1989, at the end of one of the leanest Broadway musical seasons in history. All about a shy teenager …
Original London Cast, 1984 (Really Useful Records, 2CDs) Starlight Express is the most enjoyable show " or, to look at it from another perspective, the least objectionable " that And…
Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2001 (Triangle Road) About a third of the way through The Spitfire Grill, wherein a troubled young woman wanders into a sad Wisconsin hamlet and instills new hope…
Original Broadway Cast, 1949 (Columbia/Sony) Romantic and durable, this great Rodgers and Hammerstein score ranges from operatic to 1940s swing to quasi-Polynesian to Americana, yet each son…
