369 stories by "Rob Lester"
It's only taken seventy years for On the Town to get a truly complete recording by a cast who had lived in the roles through an actual run of a production.
The original stage cast album and the recent recorded revival have somewhat different tones and the same can be send for the film version. Designed for ears attuned to film, there's a genera…
Hello, cabaret fans. I'd like to start out by telling you about the most inventive, charming, and out-and-out hilarious musically mad merriment I've seen in a cabaret room in a very long tim…
... here is an honor roll of the ones I find myself wanting to return to and which seem richer and more appreciated with repeat plays.
Assuming no iPods are allowed on desert islands and there's no Wi-Fi there and the "sound cloud" isn't overhead, here's what I'd bring if forced to only bring ten cast albums from 2014 ...
Like your favorite Christmas sweater, Antonia Bennett's Embrace Me feels warm and comfortable and familiar ... the versatile Sandy Bainum voice that can croon, build up steam, or belt as nee…
Merry Christmas from the factory where they make the toys, and then meet singer Mark Jennett, not cut from the same cloth as many of the retro crooner boys.
A beleaguered woman, strong and troubled, is at the center of each. Meet Tamar and Tess—one of the River, one of the D'Urbervilles. Both have tragedy and unusual trajectories.
Musical theatre veteran Betty Buckley's Ghostlight is named for that perhaps spooky sole light that traditionally is kept on in theatres so they are not completely dark. The Ellynne Rey ray …
Don't say that NiteLifeExchange didn't give you a medical warning. If you feel a sudden pain later this week, it will be because you deservedly kicked yourself for missing Marilyn Maye and h…
... some pretty good things come in big packages, like this finally full, generous-length two-disc set, giving us much more of the score of this revue.
Studio casts of shows about fashion (Roberta) & passion (Theater Boys).
Ann Hampton Callaway's From Sassy To Divine: The Sarah Vaughan Project and Diane Schuur's I Remember You: With Love to Stan and Frank.
Each presents an eclectic repertoire. As they sing their love songs, it's interesting to know that it was in theatrical settings that both Ball and Bell met their very musical wives with who…
One of the music world's oddest real-life stories became one of the musical theatre world's more intriguing biographical pieces, with an Off-Broadway cast album preserving emotionally charge…
This album sampling the output of young composer/lyricist Michael Mott has a lot of pop influences, and the selections from two of his musicals suggest he doesn't long for the long-lined, sw…
The homeland of Anna in The King and I, which she described as "a civilized land called Wales," with a side trip to Venice are the settings for a little-known, never-recorded score that dese…
The gentle, low-key A Second Chance brings us a nice enough later-in-life man and woman who meet at a party and soon begin dating ... the "concept album" of the British entry Swan Esther, f…
Here are two Off-Broadway shows with new cast albums. Each has its own devilish humor and talented cast.
McDonald is equally adept at capturing the insouciance of chipper pieces or the resigned role of needy romantic. Her struggle through "Easy Living," with much help from the pianist, and the …
"Love's Labour's Lost," ... freshly musicalized ... And the not-so-classic lost-in-the-shuffle Kern.
You might have heard the Lynn Ahrens/Stephen Flaherty songs for the musical "Rocky" are upstaged by the show's downstage boxing match finale ... ["Nice Fighting You" is] a nice reminder of …
We haven't heard the last of "The Last Session," as there's a new recording from a London production.
It's never been seen in the United States, despite its score having been written by one of the giants of musical theatre: Cole Porter.
It's June, traditionally a wedding-heavy month, so let's consider three very different married couples for whom a career in creative endeavors was also central to the relationship.
