Original London Cast, 1930 (Columbia/Pearl) (3 / 5) One of the quintessential musicals of the 1920s, Rio Rita was also a bit of an oddity, poised as it was on the brink between musical comedy and operetta. It has a typically lush and improbable plot (romance and intrigue on the Texas/Mexico border), a lot of comic relief, and an excellent score by Harry Tierney with lyrics by Joseph McCarthy. Florenz Ziegfeld thought enough of the show to use it to inaugurate his colossal Ziegfeld Theater, where it opened in 1927 and ran for a year, then inspired two movies — a musical and an Abbott and Costello comedy. Since then, it has been little in evidence; with its haciendas and banditos, Rio Rita probably isn’t a candidate for a politically corrected revival. This album of six selections from the score features members of the original London cast. (“You’re Always in My Arms,” a song that Tierney wrote for the first movie version, is interpolated here.) Edith Day is fine as Rita. Geoffrey Gwyther, as her romantic Texas Ranger, is virile of voice but so implacably British in manner that’s it’s a hoot to hear him singing of his patrols along the Rio Grande. The nationality of the chorus members is just as obvious, but this doesn’t detract from their enthusiasm, or from the enjoyment these recordings still give a listener so many years after they were made. (Note: Selections from Lilac Time and A Southern Maid are also included on Pearl’s CD.) — Richard Barrios

Original Broadway Cast, 1984 (Polygram/JAY) (4 / 5) For Broadway diva lovers, it’s the Fight of the Century. In this corner: Chita Rivera as Anna, a feisty, middle-aged widow who’s about to walk out on the decrepit seaside roller rink she inherited from her husband, Dino. In the opposite corner: Liza Minnelli as Angel, her estranged, ex-hippie daughter, who’s racked up plenty of mileage on the road and in the bedroom. The stage is set for wisecracks, arguments, tears, and many flashbacks as Anna and Angel relive their tormented past, battle over the rink, and finally come to terms. Critics complained that Terrence McNally’s book, with its profane leading ladies and its preponderance of ugly incidents including fraud, rape, and domestic abuse, was unpleasant and manipulative. It is a shock to hear Liza sing to Chita, “Your ass is in a sling!” Still, the show is a true original. The only possible complaint about the score by composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb is that their songs are too knowingly tailored to the stars’ talents. But anyone who loves Rivera and Minnelli will find this cast album irresistible. Rivera has never been better, sardonically recalling her homemaking career in “Chief Cook and Bottle Washer” and belting her heart out in “We Can Make It.” Minnelli, cast as a wilted flower child, movingly reflects on her aimless life in “Colored Lights” and wackily imagines the rink as “Angel’s Rink and Social Center.” The stars pair up beautifully, trading barbs in “Don’t Ah Ma Me,” ogling men through a pot-induced haze in “The Apple Doesn’t Fall,” and kicking up their heels in “Wallflower.” The exclusively male supporting players, representing the wreckers who have come to tear down the rink, portray everyone in Anna and Angel’s pasts. (Included among these performers are future director Scott Ellis and future Broadway and TV star Jason Alexander.) The score reaches its peak in “Mrs. A,” featuring Anna, Angel, Lenny, and a clutch of leering neighborhood suitors; the number has the complexity of a one-act opera as it explores Anna’s loneliness and frustration, her anger at God, and Angel’s troubled awareness of her mother’s sex life. The show climaxes on a sour note with “All the Children in a Row,” a eulogy for the 1960s that sounds phony coming from Minnelli. Still, there are plenty of glitzy pleasures to be found here. — David Barbour

Original London Cast, 1988 (JAY) (2 / 5) As Anna and Angel, Josephine Blake and Diane Langton are surprisingly good and, at times, they sound like their Broadway predecessors.  Still, this is a star vehicle without stars, and the performances of the London leading ladies don’t display Chita and Liza’s tough, malicious wit and all-enveloping warmth. Blake and Langton don’t get many laughs out of “The Apple Doesn’t Fall,” but on the plus side, Langton doesn’t sound as silly as Minnelli when delivering “All the Children in a Row.” As is the case in many London cast recordings of Broadway musicals, the entire performance is a bit too slow and lacks a certain edge — a real debit in a show that’s nothing if not edgy. — D.B.

Original Broadway Cast, 1976 (RCA) No stars; not recommended. This late-career Richard Rodgers flop, about the marital problems of Henry VIII, revealed the composer to be out of touch with contemporary Broadway. He wasn’t the only one: Librettist Sherman Yellen and lyricist Sheldon Harnick couldn’t decide if Henry, played by Nicol Williamson, was a monster of ambition and ego or a misunderstood paterfamilias like Captain von Trapp. Yellen’s big gimmick was to have Penny Fuller appear in Act I as Anne Boleyn and in Act II as her daughter, Elizabeth I; this created a neat psychological triangle with Henry, but the show’s melodies are often slow and stentorian, while the lyrics explain themselves to death. The best items are the opening madrigal “No Song More Pleasing” and the Henry-Anne ballad “Away From You.” The rest of the cast album is taken up by such awful numbers as “The Chase,” in which the men of the court keep score of Henry’s conquests, and “In Time,” a solo for Elizabeth that sounds like a first draft of “Do-Re-Mi.” (On the plus side, Irwin Kostal’s orchestrations frequently have a pleasant Renaissance patina.) Williamson croons mournfully through seemingly dozens of songs wherein he complains about the lack of an appropriate heir. Stargazer alert: Glenn Close can be heard in one or two numbers as Mary Tudor. — David Barbour

Original Broadway Cast, 1996 (Dreamworks, 2CDs) (5 / 5) Rent is a heartbreaking work in more than one sense. First, it’s a moving reimagination of La Bohème as a portrait of struggling artists on New York’s Lower East Side in the 1990s, coping with poverty, drugs, and AIDS. Second, composer-lyricist-librettist Jonathan Larson died before the first preview, depriving us of a major voice in the musical theater. Larson’s rich melodic gift is on full display here as he cunningly creates a Broadway opera in a modern musical idiom. Among the best items are “One Song Glory,” sung by the creatively blocked, HIV-positive musician Roger; “Light My Candle,” the seductive entrance for the ailing Mimi; the clever catalogue song “La Vie Bohème” (surely the only lyric to reference Maya Angelou, Stephen Sondheim, Susan Sontag, and the Sex Pistols); and the time-spanning “Seasons of Love.” But the score is filled with alluring, propulsive melodies and a fresh lyrical wit that undercuts any sentimentality. Rent has long since become a period piece, yet it remains viable because Larson captures the wounded idealism of his characters and makes you care deeply about them. The original production launched the careers of Adam Pascal (Roger), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Mimi), Anthony Rapp (Mark Cohen), Idina Menzel (Maureen), Taye Diggs (Benny), Jesse L. Martin (Tom Collins), and Wilson Jermaine Heredia (Angel). There’s not a weak performance in the bunch. The two-disc recording preserves the entire score and therefore reveals the breadth of Jonathan Larson’s ambition and talent. This is a key work that reached a new generation of young theatergoers. — David Barbour

Film Soundtrack, 2005 (Warner Bros., 2CDs/1CD highlights) (3 / 5) The film is but a shadow of the show, and the soundtrack can be summed up as smother, shorter, and slighter. Gone is much of the show score’s connective tissue in the form of brief musical sequences such as the phone calls from Mark and Roger’s mothers and the predatory television producer Alexi Darling. Also regrettable is the deletion of the “On the Street” and “Contact” sequences, which reveal much about the characters. Most of the Broadway principals repeated their roles in the movie, with two exceptions: Rosario Dawson is an acceptable Mimi, but the raw immediacy of Daphne Rubin Vega’s interpretation is much missed; and Tracie Thoms as Joanne isn’t as witty a sparring partner for Idina Menzel’s Maureen as was Fredi Walker. On the plus side, Wilson Jermaine Heredia’s rendition of the percussive, rapid-fire “Today for You” is more intelligible. The decision to begin the film with the breakout hit “Seasons of Love” is an indication that something has shifted here. When Rent opened, it was already a look back at a vanishing Lower East Side; the film and, by extension, the soundtrack recording treat it as a distant era in history, and as a consequence, a lot of the excitement is lost. Still, there are some fine cuts, and this version may be enjoyable to casual fans. A bonus track, “Love Heals,” written by Larson but left out of the show, was probably added in a vain attempt at garnering an Oscar nomination for Best Song. — D.B.

Original Los Angeles Cast, 1999 (Madness Records) (2 / 5) Musicals don’t come any sillier than the Kevin Murphy (lyrics-book) and Dan Studney (music-book) adaptation of Reefer Madness. This wacky show based on the legendary 1938 “masterpiece” of film propaganda was a big hit in Los Angeles; an Off-Broadway production two years later only ran for two weeks. It would seem that the tale of teenagers whose lives are corrupted and ultimately destroyed by “the green menace” of marijuana would be a natural for musicalization, but the songs are devoid of sincerity, and the whole thing gets tiresome quickly. A few moments stand out: the catchy title number, a strong first-act finale, and one great song, “Listen to Jesus, Jimmy.” The cast is uniformly terrific: Christian Campbell and Jolie Jenkins as the doomed young’ns; Robert Torti as both Jack (the villainous dealer) and Jesus Christ; the hilarious Harry S. Murphy in a variety of roles; the big-voiced Lori Alan as Jack’s pot-addled mistress; Erin Matthews as a self-described “reefer slut”; and John Kassir as a couple of colorful characters. The company is rounded out by a lively ensemble that includes Gregg Edelman, Michele Pawk, and Kristen Bell. David Manning and Nathan Wang lead the strong six-man band, and the recording ends with a pair of bonus tracks: one of them is a nice ballad from a work in progress, the other is a song dumped from Reefer Madness early in its run. — Seth Christenfeld

Ethel Merman With Studio Artists, 1936 (Liberty/AEI) {usr=4] Hoping for another Anything Goes, producer Vinton Freedley put Cole Porter and Ethel Merman together again, this time adding Jimmy Durante and Bob Hope to the mix. But Red, Hot and Blue, about a missing heiress who can only be identified by a waffle-iron brand on her buttock, ran only about half as long as its predecessor. Merman recorded her four major songs from the show with pianists Fairchild and Carroll and their orchestra, and she’s in top form here — belting “Ridin’ High” to high heaven, breaking your heart in “Down in the Depths (on the 90th Floor),” and swinging with insouciance through the title song and “It’s DeLovely.” Also included are a Fairchild-Carroll instrumental medley and the amusing “The Ozarks Are Calling Me Home,” performed by Ramona and her Grand Piano. (Note: AEI’s CD also contains selections from the Arthur Schwartz-Dorothy Fields show Stars in Your Eyes. Other songs from Red, Hot and Blue can be found on Ben Bagley’s Cole Porter Revisited album.) — Jeffrey Dunn

Original Broadway Cast, 1959 (RCA/Fynsworth Alley) (3 / 5) With a book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields, Sidney Sheldon, and David Shaw, music by Albert Hague, and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, Redhead is certainly among the least-well-known shows to have won the Tony Award for Best Musical, in addition to several other Tonys. RCA’s initial “Living Stereo” release was missing “Essie’s Vision,” an exhilarating dream dance arranged by Roger Adams, but the original recording of that number was added for a later LP release. The CD release includes three new recordings of songs that were cut from the show: “You Love I” (sung by Jennifer Piech and Mark Price), “It Only Takes a Minute” (sung by Liz Callaway), and “What Has She Got?” (sung by Faith Prince). The 18 tracks from the original album may not enable you to follow the show’s intricate murder-mystery plot but, once heard, many of the tunes will likely run through your head for weeks. Gwen Verdon as Essie scores strongly in the effusive waltz “Merely Marvelous” and the tongue-twisting ”’Erbie Fitch’s Twitch.” Richard Kiley vacillates amusingly between “She’s Not Enough Woman for Me” (a comic duet with Leonard Stone) and “My Girl Is Just Enough Woman for Me” (a solo ballad); he also does a great job with “I’m Back in Circulation,” his character’s paean to freedom. Together, Verdon and Kiley shine in the romantic “Look Who’s in Love” and the climactic “I’ll Try.”Further delights include “The Simpson Sisters’ Door,” a sprightly opening chorale; “Behave Yourself,” a funny duet for Essie’s maiden aunts; and “The Pick-Pocket Tango,” with music that conjures images of the choreography that a young Bob Fosse devised for Verdon and Buzz Miller in the role of a jailer. As the song says, “merely marvelous” is how you’re likely to find this recording. — Jeffrey Dunn

“Songs from Ragtime,” 1996 (RCA) (4 / 5) One of the most precious gems of the American musical theater, Ragtime is replete with beautiful performances on this first recording of the magnificent score by Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics), which was released to coincide with the show’s world premiere in Toronto. Based on the epic novel of the same title by E.L. Doctorow, the musical charts the fortunes of three families living in America just after the turn of the 20th century: an upper-class WASP clan settled in New Rochelle; a Jewish immigrant and his young daughter; and an African-American entertainer, his lover, and their baby son. Most of the principals heard here — Brian Stokes Mitchell as Coalhouse Walker, Jr., Audra McDonald as Sarah, Marin Mazzie as Mother, Mark Jacoby as Father, Peter Friedman as Tateh, and others — were also in the Broadway production two years later. (Camille Saviola, this album’s Emma Goldman, was not.) In contrast to the subsequent Broadway cast album, “Songs from Ragtime” gives us only highlights of the score; the show’s major musical moments, including such expertly crafted songs as “Journey On,” “Your Daddy’s Son,” “New Music,” “Wheels of a Dream,” “Till We Reach That Day,” “Back to Before,” and the more than nine-minute long “Ragtime” prologue, are performed movingly by the stellar cast. The recording also contains some material that didn’t make it to New York: “The Show Biz” (a song for Evelyn Nesbit and Harry Houdini) and the stirring original bridge for “The Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square.” Since this album was made and released while the show was still being developed, it’s somewhat lacking in theatricality, yet there is a decided freshness about it. — Gerard Alessandrini

Original Broadway Cast, 1998 (RCA, 2CDs) (5 / 5) This spectacular, complete recording of the Ragtime score documents what few other musicals have achieved: The show actually improves upon its source material, in this case, the best-selling novel by E.L. Doctorow. As adapted by librettist Terrence McNally, lyricist Lynn Ahrens, and composer Stephen Flaherty, Ragtime includes almost every vivid character and gripping plot point of the epic novel while expanding the emotions of the story with a superb score that underlines the sociological thrust of the story to great effect. Unfortunately, the show did not receive the critical kudos and mass popular acceptance that it deserved during its Broadway run, but this recording adds greatly to its legacy. Brian Stokes Mitchell has the role of a lifetime as Coalhouse Walker, Jr.; his finely balanced mix of haughtiness and optimism turned to disillusionment is so compelling that a potentially unsympathetic character is transformed into a heartbreaking, tragic figure. Marin Mazzie’s performance as Mother, who reacts nobly to a changing world, is just as expertly acted and sung, and is the emotional heart of the musical. Audra McDonald is phenomenal as Sarah, one of the six roles for which she has won Tony Awards (as of this writing). Judy Kaye is stellar as Emma Goldman; so are Peter Friedman, Mark Jacoby, Lynette Perry, and Steven Sutcliffe as Tateh, Father, Evelyn Nesbit, and Mother’s Younger Brother, respectively. This two-CD cast album includes two numbers that were added to the show on its way to Broadway: “Atlantic City” brings pageantry and fluff to the proceedings, while “Sarah Brown Eyes” is a tender flashback  musical moment for Mitchell and McDonald. Offered as an appendix is a beautiful “symphonic portrait” of Ragtime. — G.A.

Original Broadway Cast Members, 1986 (Sony) (4 / 5) High on the list of flops that deserved better is this four-performance heartbreaker by composer Charles Strouse and lyricist Stephen Schwartz. The reviews ranged from respectful-bad to whiny-bad, with most of the bile reserved for Joseph Stein’s fragmented book. Maybe the show, set on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1910-11, had too much happening in terms of plot; three love stories, multiple immigrant experiences, ward-heeler intrigue, and so on. To many, the leftist agitprop spirit got in the way of the story. But what a score! Like master illusionists, Strouse and Schwartz put a mirror up to early-20th-century song styles and produced a reflection brighter than the actuality. Irish ballads, Yiddish folk music, vaudeville specialty numbers, patriotic marches, ragtime tunes — they’re all here, only smarter and more sophisticated than their original models, and packed with meaty ideas. The show’s top-billed star, Teresa Stratas, elected not to record the album, so Julia Migenes was brought in. With a stunning voice and plenty of fire, she makes an excellent Rebecca Hershkowitz. And she is surrounded by an A-list company. Judy Kuhn is remarkable in the title song, pouring anger, regret, and contempt into a rollicking Strouse rag. Marcia Lewis and Dick Latessa wring laughs and poignancy out of “Three Sunny Rooms.” Terrence Mann and Lonny Price are fine in their roles, and Josh Blake is as non-irritating as child singers come. Only Larry Kert, as Rebecca’s husband, doesn’t quite convince; he’s okay from a vocal standpoint, but he doesn’t seem to inhabit the character. The recording includes “Cherry Street Cafe” and “Nothing Will Hurt Us Again,” two songs dropped from the show for the Broadway run. They’re welcome bonuses to a score that’s a rich panorama of the American dream in old New York. If you alphabetize your cast albums (and who doesn’t?), this one goes right before Ragtime. As sweeping musical storytelling, it’s not far behind. — Marc Miller

Original London Cast, 2020 (Ghostlight Records) (3 / 5) Rags seems to be one of those titles, like Mack and Mabel and Merrily We Roll Along, that people are always trying to fix and never quite succeeding. This West End revisal, based on one a couple of years earlier at Goodspeed Opera House, has a new book by David Thompson that solves some of the original’s problems and creates others, and a heavily reworked score. Characters are dropped and added, songs rewritten and reassigned, and there are several new numbers, especially in the first act. Carolyn Maitland is an ardent Rebecca, if not vocally in the same class as Julia Migenes (or Teresa Stratas). She does well by the title song, though Thompson had to put the plot through wild contortions in order to hand it to her. Dave Willetts and Debbie Chazen are lovely on “Three Sunny Rooms,” but turning that number into a quartet (they’re joined by Martha Kirby’s Bella and Oisin Nolan-Power’s Ben) robs it of some of its charm. Among the new songs, “Meet an Italian” and “If We Never Meet Again” are standouts, and while Nick Barstow’s orchestrations are hardly Broadway-size or Broadway-caliber, they get the job done. It’s a full album, and it’s fun to compare it with the original, noting the musical and lyrical detours Strouse and Schwartz took, and pondering why they took them. Not a must-have, but a pleasant sidekick to the 1.0 version. — M.M.

Original Cast, 1995 (Varèse Sarabande) (2 / 5) In this comedic concept musical by Mike Craver and Mark Hardwick, we’re supposed to be hearing a radio broadcast emanating illegally from the home of an Arkansas matron in 1927. (This recording documents the premiere staging or Radio Gals in Pasadena; the show subsequently had a brief run Off-Broadway.) Although no plot synopsis is included, the song titles almost speak for themselves: “Aviatrix Love Song,” “Fairies in My Mother’s Flower Garden,” and the immortal “That Wicky Wacky Hula Hula Honka Wonka Honolulu Hawaiian Honey of Mine.” These are interspersed with jokes about “Doc May and His Musical Goats” and a series of commercials for “Horehound Compound.” All in all, it’s a heapin’ helpin’ of folksy humor. While Radio Gals was amusing onstage, the cast album has a somewhat cloying effect; but there are some priceless bits, such as “The Tranquil Boxwood,” consisting of crashing piano chords reminiscent of the work of Béla Bartok. And there is considerable musical cleverness to be found in the songs “Edna, the Elephant Girl,” “Dear Mr. Gershwin,” and “Buster, He’s a Hot Dog Now.” For some reason, Craver and cabaret luminary Mark Nadler are cast as women. But the oddly named Helen Geller is effective as Hazel Hunt, mistress of the airwaves, and she and the rest of the cast sing well. This show is made up entirely of novelty material, totally unconnected to any plot. Fans of the down-home whimsy heard on NPR’s Prairie Home Companion will probably appreciate Radio Gals more than the average musical theater aficionado. — David Barbour