Original Broadway Cast, 1974 (Columbia /Sony) (3 / 5) Designed to do for the 1940s what Grease did for the 1950s, Over Here! is a supremely silly tale of romance and espionage on a cross-country train loaded with volunteers, war workers, and Nazi sympathizers. It was a vehicle for the two surviving Andrews Sisters, Patty and Maxene. The score, by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, is a pastiche of the period’s hit parade; you’ll hear echoes if not actual excerpts of”Take the ‘A’ Train,” “The Beer Barrel Polka,” and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” among other songs. It’s all good fun, thanks to the Andrewses, a very strong supporting cast, and electrifying orchestrations by Michael Gibson and Jim Tyler that create an irresistible, big-band frenzy. The opening ballad, “Since You’re Not Around,” strikes the right note of agreeable nostalgia; then April Shawhan and John Driver score with “My Dream for Tomorrow.” The surprisingly tough-minded “Don’t Shoot the Hooey to Me, Louie,” delivered by Samuel E. Wright, touches on the period’s racism. Janie Sell amusingly spoofs Marlene Dietrich in “Wait for Me, Marlena,” and the young John Travolta is smooth as silk in “Dream Drummin’.” The Andrews gals are ebullient in such numbers as “The Big Beat,” “We Got It!” and the title tune. Most of their solos are also effective, but you’ll weep for Patty when she is forced to deliver the sex-hygiene number “The Good-Time Girl,” in which she urges soldiers to avoid “The VD Polka” (“The enemy can sock us / By spreading gonococcus”). Note that the incredible supporting cast of Over Here! included Ann Reinking, Treat Williams, and Marilu Henner, none of whom are heard on this recording in any recognizable way. — David Barbour

Original Broadway Cast, 1950 (Columbia/Sony) (4 / 5) For Out of This World, a modern-day retelling of the Amphitryon legend, Cole Porter produced a gorgeous score. Unfortunately, it was tied to an unwieldy book that worked too hard to substitute dirty jokes for real wit. Despite a lush production, direction by Agnes de Mille, and the Broadway return of the beloved musical comedian Charlotte Greenwood, the show managed only a four-month run. The songs are so great, and the premise so enticing, that there have been a few subsequent attempts to shore up that messy script. Still, the strength of this show lies in its songs. As Juno, Greenwood is wonderful; while the album can’t deliver her high kicks, it does preserve her ringingly funny way with a lyric. William Redfield is competent as Mercury, zipping with ease through the risqué “list” song “They Couldn’t Compare to You,” but the rest of the casting is uneven. George Jongeyans (later Gaynes) is a wobbly Jupiter. Priscilla Gillette’s voice has sufficient firmness for “Use Your Imagination,” but the vocal inadequacies of her vis-a-vis in the show, William Eyrhe, led to the deletion of the score’s best song: “From This Moment On.” In short, this was one unlucky show, but Porter at his near-best is more than ample compensation for the cast album’s disappointments. — Richard Barrios

Encores! Concert Cast, 1995 (DRG) (4 / 5) Out of This World was obvious fodder for a big-league concert performance that could spotlight the songs and stars and elide the worst parts of the script. So it was that the New York City Center Encores! series tackled Cole Porter’s problematic Greco-Roman extravaganza in 1995. The recording that resulted doesn’t always compare favorably with the original Broadway album, but some aspects of it are clearly better and, overall, it’s sheer bliss. Happily, the star at its center is up to her assignment: Andrea Martin is just terrific, especially in her rendition of “I Sleep Easier Now.” For the most part, Ken Page is strong if a dash overbearing as Jupiter; the character should be loud, but there’s always room for shading, isn’t there? In other roles, Marin Mazzie and La Chanze are outstanding, both singing with beauty and spirit. “From This Moment On” is back, and Mazzie and Gregg Edelman do a very good job with it. Peter Scolari is fine as Mercury, Ernie Sabella is a scrappily funny gangster, and Rob Fisher’s Coffee Club Orchestra plays with its customary class. — R.B.

Studio Cast, 1996 (Original Cast Records) (3 / 5) A Richard Rodgers Award-winner and a minor Off-Broadway hit, this chamber musical by Robert Lindsey-Nassif (or Robert Nassif Lindsey, depending on his preference at any given point in his career) was adapted from the diaries of a French orphan who lived in an Oregon lumber camp circa 1904. It’s a grim tale with a shipwreck, a forest fire, a nasty stepmother with a sad secret, a tragic blind girl, and a Bible-spouting old mystic lady, among other bizarre characters. The lyrics seldom rise above the functional, and the appealing melodies are undercut here by an annoying, synth-heavy orchestration. But what makes the score distinctive is its exploration of the macabre, as little Opal puzzles out the mysteries of death in song. Eliza Clark is refreshingly unaffected in the title role, and she has some formidable musical theater talent behind her: Marni Nixon as the mystic, Rachel York as the blind girl, and Emily Skinner in a small part. The composer-lyricist himself does very well as a lovesick lumberjack in the ballad “Sears and Roebuck Wedding Band.” There are a few dreary numbers, especially those in which the Sunday sermonizing gets heavy. Still, this score has personality — and it should be said that the 1990s brought forth few ensemble numbers as spirited and life affirming as “Everybody’s Looking for Love.” — Marc Miller

Studio Cast, 1952 (Columbia/Sony) (3 / 5) One of musical director/conductor Lehman Engel’s sturdier studio-cast efforts, this rendering of the 1936 hit by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tries harder than most in the series to sound like a cast album of a stage production. The orchestrations hew closely to Hans Spialek’s originals; Engel even throws in a convincing entr’acte, and his conducting brings out all the urban excitement of the “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue” ballet. Jack Cassidy’s tenor brings sensuousness to “There’s a Small Hotel” and “It’s Got to Be Love.” Portia Nelson is equally effective with “Glad to Be Unhappy,” and Laurel Shelby, a wonderfully dry musical comedian, chews her consonants stylishly in “The Heart Is Quicker Than the Eye” and “Too Good for the Average Man.” The song order is quite inaccurate, some numbers are assigned to the wrong characters, and the album is capped by one of Engel’s annoying greatest-hits finales. Still, it has plenty of theatrical personality — and, of course, the score is evergreen. — Marc Miller

Broadway Cast, 1954 (Decca/Decca Broadway) (2 / 5) The 1954 Broadway revival of On Your Toes starred premiere danseuse Vera Zorina, who had starred in the 1937 London production and the 1939 movie version. But she’s not heard on the cast album — because her character, Vera Barnova, does no singing. Nor is this recording at all faithful to the tone of the show as originally conceived and written; Don Walker’s arrangements, adept enough in their brassy way, don’t feel right for this comparatively gentle and witty score. Light-on-his-feet leading man Bobby Van is also light of voice, and his love interest, Kay Coulter, is a nonentity even in such can’t-miss material as “There’s a Small Hotel” and “Glad to Be Unhappy.” Joshua Shelley, normally a reliable Broadway pro, is almost unintelligible in “Too Good for the Average Man.” But this recording, long out of print and belatedly reissued on CD (with too much treble in the mix), does have its ace in the hole: Elaine Stritch, serving up an unforgettable performance of “You Took Advantage of Me.” It’s a rare instance of a Rodgers and Hart interpolation actually helping one of their scores. — M.M.

Broadway Cast, 1983 (Polydor/JAY) (4 / 5) Director George Abbott, at age 96, returned to Broadway with this impeccably produced revival and was rewarded with a long run and critical adoration. Hans Spialek, almost as old as Abbott, was on hand to restore his orchestrations; they’re as imaginative and distinctive in 1983 as in 1936, and John Mauceri conducts them like the authority he is. Ballerina Natalia Makarova danced gracefully in this show and also proved herself to be a knockout comedian, but you won’t find her on the cast album because (again) the character she played is not a singing role. However, you will find Christine Andreas as Frankie, offering a definitive “Glad to Be Unhappy.” She overpowers her leading man, Lara Teeter, a brilliant dancer but an uncertain singer. Nor does Dina Merrill, thin of voice and not naturally funny, quite measure up in “The Heart Is Quicker Than the Eye” or “Too Good for the Average Man” — but, luckily for her, she’s wonderfully partnered in “Average Man” by George S. Irving. Overall, this digital stereo recording is a fine preservation of a joyful production. The CD edition includes an extended “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” the “Princess Zenobia” ballet, and a sensitive “Quiet Night” reprise by Irving. — M.M.

Original Broadway Cast, 1981 (Original Cast Records) (1 / 5) Although the subject was ripe and the characters were fascinating, Onward Victoria was a one-performance disaster that nonetheless yielded a cast album. The story, by librettists-lyricists Charlotte Anker and Irene Rosenberg, centers on the 19th-century feminist Victoria Woodhull and her adventures in New York with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Henry Ward Beecher, and other notables. The show’s stirring themes include religious hypocrisy and women’s rights, but the characters tend to sing about these issues in shallow polemics (“Revolution’s in the air like an impending storm”), and Keith Herrmann’s music, while generally constructed as a traditional musical theater score, is styled mostly as soft rock. Jill Eikenberry is a thin-voiced Victoria, and Michael Zaslow is treble-y as Beecher, but Lenny Wolpe has one good moment in “Unescorted Women.” By the time Victoria is defending the good reverend on the witness stand with the striptease-like “A Valentine for Beecher,” in which she sings about how “well-endowed” he is, credibility and good taste have gone out the window.  — Marc Miller

Original Broadway Cast, 1978 (Columbia/Sony) (4 / 5) Based on the stage farce Twentieth Century, best known as a Hollywood film starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard, this 1930s spoof might have been written as a pastiche of that era’s musicals. Instead, composer Cy Coleman and librettists-lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green had the inspired idea of treating it as an operetta. That extravagant musical style works brilliantly for this story of dueling egos and theatrical temperaments. John Cullum sings heroically and hilariously as Oscar Jaffee, a bankrupt Broadway producer who is desperate to sign his ex-lover, Hollywood star Lily Garland (née Mildred Plotka), to appear in a bloated stage epic about Mary Magdalene. Almost all of the action takes place during a 16-hour train ride between Chicago and New York. Along for the ride are Kevin Kline, making an uproarious Broadway debut as Hollywood lounge lizard Bruce Granit, and Imogene Coca as the wealthy religious nut Letitia Primose, who offers to finance Oscar’s show with a rubber check. The show is fast, furious, and over the top, its hilarity arising from the tension between Coleman’s rich music and Comden and Green’s skeptical lyrics. Madeline Kahn, who left the show very soon after it opened, thus giving understudy Judy Kaye the break of a lifetime, shines in two riotous numbers: “Veronique” recalls Lily’s stage debut as a virtuous mademoiselle who says no to Bismarck and thereby launches the Franco-Prussian War, while in “Babbette,” Lily alternately imagines herself in the role of the Magdalene and as the star of a play about a Mayfair love triangle. Cullum hams it up gloriously in “I Rise Again” and “The Legacy.” Coca’s big solo, “Repent,” is riotous. Musical comedy is rarely this witty. — David Barbour

Broadway Cast, 2015 (PS Classics) (3 / 5) In many ways, this recording of the Roundabout Theatre Company’s hit revival lays bare the  good-news/bad-news aspects of modern cast albums. Thanks to the expanded capacities of CDs and, especially, streaming services, we get much more of the original properties. Additions here include a longer version of the title song; “Indian Maiden’s Lament,” a Sigmund Romberg/Rudolf Friml spoof that cues Lily’s first entrance; several versions of “I Have Written a Play,” a running gag in which various civilians storm Oscar’s stateroom, announcing their ambitions as dramatists; “Max Jacobs,” which introduces Oscar’s hated professional rival (and former office boy); and the entr’acte and finale ultimo. There’s also much dialogue, delivered with the same screwball spin the cast gave it onstage. Then again, as in virtually all contemporary Broadway revivals, the original orchestrations have been thinned out. There’s nothing essentially wrong about the work of Larry Hochman (with contributions by Bruce Coughlin and James Abbott), but Cy Coleman’s score for On the Twentieth Century employs a sweeping, grand-operetta sound to satirical effect, some of which is inevitably lost here. On the other hand, Kristin Chenoweth as Lily — a role so perfect it could have been written for her — may be said to outdo Madeline Kahn. She sings fabulously, and her version of gin-fueled, Mayfair-set dissipation in “Babette” is a panic. As Oscar, Peter Gallagher avoids Cullum’s John Barrymore imitation (how many in the audience today would get it?), and his vocals aren’t as powerful, but his performance crackles with a wit all its own. Sadly, his 11 o’clock number, “The Legacy,” has a new title (“Because of Her”) and new lyrics by Adolph Green’s daughter, Amanda. The original, a song in which Oscar lists his worldly possessions (“My set of Theodore Dreiser / A portrait of the Kaiser / And a ten-foot stack of unpaid bills”), is pure Comden and Green. The rewrite conscientiously follows the rules of good musical theater craft, making it clear that Oscar needs Lily in order to rekindle his Broadway success; the only problem is, it’s not any fun.  As Oscar’s harried associates, Mark Linn-Baker and Michal McGrath benefit the most from the added dialogue excerpts, preserving whole swaths of their wisecracking performances. Mary Louise Wilson’s Letitia Primrose is as delightfully cracked as Imogene Coca’s, but Andy Karl’s Bruce Granit, a performance that was defined mostly by physical comedy, doesn’t register as strongly.  — D.B.

Original Broadway Cast Members, 1944 (Decca/MCA) (2 / 5) Record companies treated Broadway musicals pretty poorly until the concept of the original cast album became firmly entrenched, so this collection is mainly of interest for its historical value. Rather than issuing an integral recording of the Leonard Bernstein-Betty Comden-Adolph Green musical On the Town, which was certainly a big hit, Decca produced 78rpms of Nancy Walker doing her solo “I Can Cook, Too” and performing the quartet “Ya Got Me” as another solo; Comden and Green in their duet “Carried Away”; the Lyn Murray Chorus in the show’s opening sequence (including “I Feel Like I’m Not Out of Bed Yet” and “New York, New York,” but with no dialogue); and Mary Martin crooning the two ballads that were sung in the show by John Battles as Gabey, “Lucky to Be Me” and “Lonely Town.” All of these recordings, plus an extended version of the opening sequence, are included on the 1991 MCA CD, along with selections from Fancy Free (the Jerome Robbins ballet that inspired On the Town) as performed by the Ballet Theatre Orchestra under the direction of composer Bernstein. — Jeffrey Dunn

Studio Recording With Original Cast Members, 1960 (Columbia/Sony) (5 / 5) In 1960, legendary cast-album producer Goddard Lieberson reassembled most of the original On the Town principals and brought them into a studio to record virtually the entire score with Leonard Bernstein conducting. Nancy Walker, Cris Alexander, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green were all present, and the excellent John Reardon joined them as Gabey. Two songs missing from the first LP release of this album, the female chorus number “Do Do Re Do” and Pitkin’s “I Understand,” sung by George Gaynes, were restored for the Sony CD. The performances are so fresh that the recording sounds as if it were made right after the show opened on Broadway; Bernstein’s conducting is sensational in all of the ballet music and in the wonderful songs, too. Walker and Alexander are perfect in “Come Up to My Place,” as are Comden and Green in “Carried Away,” while Reardon lends his warm, clear baritone to “Lonely Town” and “Lucky to Be Me.” The choral work is fine, and we are even treated to Bernstein himself doing some singing as Rajah Bimmy in “The Real Coney Island” Ballet. An indispensable recording. — J.D.

Original London Cast, 1963 (CBS/Masterworks Broadway) (2 / 5) The first London production of On the Town was based on a critically acclaimed but unsuccessful Off-Broadway production; the principals of that staging were imported for the occasion, but the London edition also failed to become a hit. An LP was released and quickly became a collectors’ item. The three male leads are much better than the rest of the cast: Don McKay is an excellent Gabey, Elliott Gould is a funny, underplayed Chip, and Terry Kiser is quite good as Ozzie. Less successful are Carol Arthur as Hildy and Gillian Lewis as Claire. The album includes the show’s rarely recorded overture, but almost all of the ballet music is abridged. Though the performance is well conducted by Lawrence Leonard, this recording is not a necessity.  — J.D.

London Concert Cast, 1992 (DG) (4 / 5) On the Town in concert, with an all-star cast from the worlds of Broadway and opera plus Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, sounds like a great idea-and, indeed, it was. The orchestra is magnificent and the live-performance energy of the cast is palpable. Tyne Daly is tops as the tough Hildy, especially in “I Can Cook, Too.” As Claire and Chip, Frederica von Stade and Kurt Ollman prove themselves to be opera singers who can successfully “cross over” to Broadway. When respectively paired with them in the comic duets “Carried Away” and “Come Up to My Place,” musical theater veterans David Garrison (who plays Ozzie) and Daly blend with ease; and when these four team up for the rueful “Some Other Time,” any barriers between Broadway and classical music are broken. Thomas Hampson uses his creamy baritone well in Gabey’s songs; Evelyn Lear is very fine as Mme. Dilly; and basso Samuel Ramey’s “I Understand” is impressive. Included are two previously cut songs: “Gabey’s Comin'” (“Pickup Song”) introduces tunes subsequently used as leitmotifs in the score, and its importance as a missing link is explained in the first-rate CD booklet notes written by Ethan Mordden. Cleo Laine sings the second restored song, “Ain’t Got No Tears left,” and Adolph Green makes a cameo appearance as Rajah Bimmy in “The Real Coney Island” ballet. As an appendix, we get yet another cut song, “The Intermission’s Great.” — J.D.

Studio Cast, 1996 (JAY, 2CDs) (3 / 5) This “First Complete Recording” of On the Town boasts a commitment to character truth that deeply engages the listener; the five singing principals are exactly right from a vocal standpoint, and they illuminate the material. As Gabey, Ethan Freeman is vulnerable in “Lonely Town” (the previously unrecorded chorale section of the song after the “Pas de Deux” is haunting), and his “Lucky to Be Me” is exuberant. Gregg Edelman and Kim Criswell deliver the goods in “Come Up to My Place,” and Criswell raises the roof with “I Can Cook, Too,” complete with encore. Tim Flavin and Judy Kaye, in the roles that Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote for themselves to play in 1944, are solid in “Carried Away.” The two couples raise their voices joyously when cheering up Gabey in “Ya Got Me” and heartbreakingly when they prepare to part in the melancholic “Some Other Time.” The ballet music is complete and excitingly conducted by John Owen Edwards — as are the overture, the entr’acte, the exit music, the amusing nightclub sequence, and even the deleted “Gabey’s Comin’.” — J.D.

Broadway Cast, 2015 (PS Classics, 2CDs) (4 / 5)  Here’s a wonderful cast recording of an excellent, loving revival of On the Town that opened on Broadway in the fall of 2014 to mark the show’s 70th anniversary year. The score is presented note-complete with the peerless original orchestrations and in superb, state-of-the-art digital sound, with James Moore expertly conducting a gratifyingly full orchestra. Clyde Alves, Jay Armstrong Johnson, and Tony Yazbeck exude charm and burst with energy in the roles of Ozzie, Chip, and Gabey respectively; Yazbeck’s performance deserves an extra star for his truly gorgeous singing voice. (Alas, his equally gorgeous dancing in this production could not be preserved on an audio-only recording, nor could that of Megan Fairchild as Ivy Smith.)  Alysha Umphress as Hildy makes a meal of “I Can Cook, Too” and is a hilarious partner for Johnson in “Come Up to My Place.” Aside from some overacting in “Carried Away,” Elizabeth Stanley is a delightful Claire de Loon, and she sings beautifully and movingly in “Some Other Time,” as do the other leads. Michael Rupert is amusing as Pitkin, the “understanding” fellow whom Claire throws over when she meets Ozzie; Jackie Hoffman shows off her well-honed comic chops as Mme. Dilly in “Do Do Re Do”; and Phillip Boykin displays his sonorous bass-baritone as the Workman who opens the show with “I feel like I’m not out of bed yet” and as the Miss Turnstiles announcer, among other roles.    — Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 1943 (Decca) (3 / 5) This incomplete recording of composer Kurt Weill’s One Touch of Venus paints a very deceptive picture of the score. While there are 17 songs in the score, only 10 are to be found here, sung by only two members of the original cast: Mary Martin and Kenny Baker. All of Martin’s material is included, but the songs that were sung in the show by Paula Laurence and John Boles are not. (Actually, Baker inherits one of Boles’ numbers, “Westwind.”) Since the show is, for the most part, a low comedy, the fact that seven of the comic songs are missing from the album means that this Venus misses by more than a touch. But Martin is charming, particularly in the score’s two best songs, ”I’m a Stranger Here Myself’ and “That’s Him,” and Baker’s tenor will appeal to many listeners. The show’s lyrics, by the talented light-versifier Ogden Nash, are witty and filled with amusing wordplay, even if not well integrated with the book by Nash and S.J. Perelman. The music for the two Agnes de Mille ballets, “Forty Minutes for Lunch” and the climactic “Venus in Ozone Heights,” is impressive; even edited as they are here, these pieces are quite stunning. Six songs from Martin’s next show, Lute Song, are heard as bonus tracks on Decca’s CD. — David Wolf

Studio Cast, 2014 (JAY) (4 / 5) It took John Yap years to release his complete studio cast recording of One Touch of Venus, but was it ever worth the wait! Lovers of the score will thrill not just to the full song stack, including incidental tunes (this could serve as a reference recording) but also three numbers cut prior to Broadway. Weill’s own orchestrations find their jazzy, snazzy shape thanks to the superb playing of the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of John Owen Edwards and James Holmes. Maybe not every number is a classic (“Catch Hatch?”), but when you can enjoy Weill’s scintillating dance arrangements of the five ballets, which range in style and content from the comedic to the sensual to the tragic, who cares? Melissa Errico, repeating her 1996 Encores! triumph in the title role, is a major draw; her luscious, shimmering soprano lends an eternal longing and an erotic edge to classic numbers like “I’m a Stranger Here Myself,” “Lonely Heart,” “Speak Low,” and “That’s Him.” But almost everyone here is first-rate, including Brent Barrett as Venus’s milquetoast love interest, Judy Kaye and Lauren Worsham as his constantly sniping would-be in-laws, and Ron Raines as the bitter, art-collecting antagonist, Whitelaw Savory. (Broadway favorite Karen Ziemba even makes a wacky, if extremely brief, spoken cameo appearance.) The only major misstep: Victoria Clark sounds far too prissy, patrician, and out of sorts in the down-and-dirty role of Savory’s wise-cracking sidekick, Molly. But one flawed facet is forgivable, considering that the rest of the recording is a sparkling gem. — Matthew Muray

Original Broadway Cast, 1980 (Original Cast Records) (3 / 5) From overture to finale, One Night Stand is as dynamic a score as Jule Styne ever wrote. But Herb Gardner proved to be inept as a librettist-lyricist in this, his one run-in with musical theater. The plot has possibilities — a famous performer decides to give one last concert, then kill himself onstage — but the lighthearted music is mismatched to it, and Gardner’s lyrics would be wrong in any situation. Styne crafted top-notch melodies for “Don’t Kick My Dreams Around,” “A Little Travelin’ Music, Please,” “There Was a Time,” and “Too Old to Be so Young.” There’s also a quartet of ingratiating leads in Charles Kimbrough, Catherine Cox, Jack Weston, and William Morrison, plus a great set of orchestrations by Philip J. Lang. This was the last of Styne’s Broadway scores to yield a cast album (Treasure Island and The Red Shoes followed, but both went unrecorded), so that’s reason enough to buy this one. — Seth Christenfeld

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1980 (Warner Bros./no CD) (3 / 5) Beginning in the late 1970s, the theater turned a nostalgic and admiring eye on the black musicals of earlier years — the imperishable songs, the raucous humor, the artists who triumphed in spite of dire conditions and Jim Crow laws. A number of revue-type shows celebrated black vaudevillians and their music; One Mo’ Time was set backstage at the fabled Lyric Theatre in New Orleans, circa 1926. The brainchild of writer-choreographer-costar Vernel Bagneris, the show had a tiny cast, a rudimentary plot, and a lot of exuberant music. It enjoyed a long run at New York’s Village Gate, where this live recording was made. The singers exude scrappy energy and an obvious love of the material, which includes “Miss Jenny’s Ball,” “Kiss Me Sweet,” and “Muddy Water.” Much of the music derives from Bessie Smith’s repertoire, including songs she wrote, so it makes sense to have a Smith-like character in the show. Unfortunately, Sylvia “Kuumba” Williams can’t touch the genuine article, and both she and Bagneris are out-sung by fellow cast members Topsy Chapman and Thais Clark. Veteran trumpeter-singer Jabbo Smith makes a guest appearance, performing more in the style of ’50s rhythm-and-blues than ’20s vaudeville. What’s most important, however, is the vitality and sincerity of all the performers as they pay homage to their predecessors. — Richard Barrios

Original Broadway Cast, 1963 (RCA) (3 / 5) 110 in the Shade is the Harvey Schmidt-Tom Jones musical based on N. Richard Nash’s The Rainmaker. As heard on this recording, the songs are replete with simple, folksy melodies and lyrics that evoke the story’s wide-open, Southwest setting, and they are enhanced by superb Hershy Kay orchestrations. But the conventionality of songs such as “Love, Don’t Turn Away” and “Is It Really Me?” prevents this score from being truly great. The album also reveals two of the leads to be underpowered: A certain coldness comes through in Inga Swenson’s portrayal of Lizzie Curry, and her vis-a-vis, Robert Horton, isn’t quite up to the considerable vocal demands of the rainmaking Starbuck. But Stephen Douglass, completing the triangle as File, is engaging, and teenager Lesley Ann Warren is delightful in her one song, squealing with high-school-girl naughtiness. The CD restores the previously unreleased overture, but it’s blaring and sloppily played. The original LP version of the album opened more appropriately with the scene-setting “Gonna Be Another Hot Day,” so here’s one case where a bonus track is actually a liability.  — Marc Miller

Studio Cast, 1997 (JAY, 2CDs) (3 / 5) Sumptuously produced, this complete recording of the score may be too inclusive. With John Owen Edwards conducting England’s National Symphony Orchestra, every note that was missing from the original Broadway album of 110 in the Shade is heard here, including a pointless soft-shoe interval in the already dull “Everything Beautiful Happens at Night.” An appendix offers a couple of songs that were cut from the show, and some other slightly rethought ones. But what this recording can rightfully boast over the original is a suitable Starbuck: Ron Raines is vocally velvety and a hell of an actor, capturing both this con man’s bluster and the self-doubting poet underneath. In the role of Lizzie, Karen Ziemba is persuasive as a plain woman terrified of becoming a spinster, but she’s somewhat insecure in her upper register — most noticeably when she sings the Act I finale, “Old Maid,” which should be a tour de force. Richard Muenz is fine as File, and the supporting cast is first-rate, particularly Kristin Chenoweth in the Lesley Ann Warren role. — M.M.

Broadway Cast, 2007 (PS Classics) (3 / 5) Audra McDonald had a go at 110 in 2007, under the auspices of the Roundabout Theatre Company.  Hers is the best-acted, best-sung Lizzie I’ve ever heard; her terror in “Old Maid” and her yearning in “Simple Little Things” are palpable, and her vocalizing is sublime. However, this album isn’t an unmixed blessing: McDonald is saddled with  a charisma-free Starbuck in Steve Kazee (though he does all right by “Melisande” and is helped somewhat by the inclusion of a cut song, “Evening Star”), and her File, Christopher Innvar, embodies this dull, dutiful character a bit too well. The new orchestrations, by Jonathan Tunick, sound skimpy. McDonald gets gentlemanly support from John Cullum as her father and Bobby Steggert as her brother Jimmy, and generous connecting dialog helps flesh out the narrative.  — M.M.

Original Broadway Cast, 1959 (Kapp/MCA) (5 / 5) The fairy tale source material is “The Princess and the Pea,” given a satirical fleshing-out. But Once Upon a Mattress was really a Cinderella show. Its composer was theatrical royalty: Mary Rodgers, daughter of Richard. Its lyricist, Marshall Barer, was unknown, and so was most of the cast. A big-league production team, led by director George Abbott, launched the show downtown, and it soon moved up to Broadway. The score is charming and funny by turns, but the show’s success hinged largely on its star. As Winnifred the Woebegone, Carol Burnett established herself as a strong singer and a peerless comic, and the proof is here on the recording. Burnett is fabulous as she caterwauls over “The Swamps of Home” or torches about wanting to be one of the lucky princesses who end up living “Happily Ever After.” The supporting cast is ideal: Joe Bova is an appealing Prince Dauntless; Jane White is the imperious Queen Aggravain; and Matt Mattox as the Jester does a fine job with one of the score’s best numbers, “Very Soft Shoes.” Apart from the necessary absence of Jack Gilford’s priceless mime performance as the mute king, there’s nothing at all amiss in this recording. Brava Burnett! — Richard Barrios

Original London Cast, 1960 (HMV/Sepia) (3 / 5) Although Carol Burnett did not star in the West End production of Once Upon a Mattress, another funny American lady did. Jane Connell, who would later achieve musical theater immortality as Agnes Gooch in Mame, made a valiant stab at swimming Winnifred’s moat. Her performance on this cast album differs from Burnett’s; Connell shrieks where Burnett would bellow, and instead of inhabiting the role as her predecessor did, Connell comes through in her own way as a fine musical comedian. Otherwise, the London cast is quite equally matched with the American, and Patricia Lambert’s veddy British diction adds an extra layer of mock operetta charm to the role of Lady Larkin. The recording as a whole is slightly more decorous than the rather boisterously vaudevillian American original, but what matters most is that Once Upon a Mattress is a good enough show to work well either way. [Ed. Note: Sepia’s CD also includes Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, a children’s record that features songs with music by Mary Rodgers and lyrics by Sammy Cahn.] — R.B.

Broadway Cast, 1997 (RCA) (1 / 5) After nearly four decades and two televised productions (both starring Carol Burnett), Mattress made it back to Broadway, albeit with drab results. Some of the show’s charm was still evident, but more conspicuous was the by-the-numbers aura that permeates the cast recording. Alas, Sarah Jessica Parker was not an apt choice for the heroine; although her musical theater experience dates back to Annie, and her Winnifred was Tony-nominated, she just doesn’t cut it. Setting aside the untouchable Burnett template, Parker can only manage to serve up makeshift vocalism and indifferent comic timing. The remainder of the cast, the chorus, and the orchestra perform in acceptable “Broadway generic” fashion, although Lawrence Clayton’s vocal tone is very thin in “Many Moons Ago.” The main virtue of this album is that it’s complete — including “The Minstrel, the Jester, and I,” a song that had not been recorded for the OBC album — but whose crummy idea was it to shoehorn a disco break into “The Spanish Panic?” Stick with Burnett and company.  [Ed. Note: A third television production of Mattress, with Tracey Ullman as Winnifred and Burnett as Aggravain,  aired in 2004 and is available on home video, but no soundtrack recording was released.] — R.B.

Original Broadway Cast, 1990 (RCA) (4 / 5) One of the strongest works to date by lyricist Lynn Ahrens and composer Stephen Flaherty, Once on This Island is a juicy adaptation of the Rosa Guy novel My Love, My Love. The story, set in the Antilles: A young, dark-skinned peasant girl named Ti Moune rescues a wealthy Beauxhomme (a lighter-skinned product of mixed native and French stock) named Daniel from a car wreck, and offers her life to the gods in exchange for his. The tale is told with honesty, simplicity, and a wonderful musicality. From the opening number, in which the peasant storytellers explain their way of prayer (“We Dance”), through joyous moments (“Waiting for Life,” “Mama Will Provide”) and beautiful ballads (“Forever Yours,” “Some Girls”) to the jubilant finale (“Why We Tell the Story”), the songs are dramatically and emotionally acute. There’s only one exception: “The Human Heart” is bland and completely extraneous to the score. The rest of the songs are transporting and gorgeous, and Michael Starobin’s orchestrations are generally brilliant. Heading the strong cast are the shimmering LaChanze as Ti Moune; the romantic Jerry Dixon as Daniel; the enveloping Kecia Lewis-Evans as Asaka, Mother of the Earth; the menacing Eric Riley as Papa Ge, Demon of Death; and the charming Afi McClendon as Little Ti Moune. — Matthew Murray

Original London Cast, 1994 (JAY) (3 / 5) This recording contains much the same material as the original Broadway album, but it lacks some of the freshness and magic that makes its predecessor so special. Lorna Brown’s Ti Moune is more serious and comes across as older and less energetic than LaChanze’s portrayal. Except for Monique Mason, who doesn’t sound up to the challenge of Little Ti Moune, the other performers are about on par with their Broadway counterparts. One misfire on the recording is a “special mix” of “The Human Heart,” sung by P. P. Arnold in a “pop” arrangement. Everything else here is perfectly enjoyable if never quite as exceptional as the Broadway cast album. — M.M.

Broadway Cast, 2018 (Broadway Records) (4 / 5) The production that yielded this recording benefited greatly from its “environmental” and somewhat interactive staging at the Circle-in-the-Square theater, but it was also strong enough in its musical values that the cast album is a great pleasure to hear.  A very young Hailey Kilgore is wonderful as Ti Moune, touching and emotionally vulnerable yet with a core of great strength, as required. Isaac Powell sounds dreamy in Daniel’s music, especially “Some Girls” and his part of “Forever Yours.” Other standouts are Quentin Earl Darrington as Agwe, Merle Dandridge as a female Pape Ge, Alex Newell as a roof-raising Asaka — and it sure is sweet and fun to have Lea Salonga, the original Kim in Miss Saigon, on hand as Erzulie. There are attractive new new orchestrations created by AnnMarie Milazzo, Haley Bennett and Javier Diaz, working with Michael Starobin’s originals. Fans of this score who have the original cast recording firmly imprinted on their brains may at first be slightly put off by some key changes for this one, but once you get used to that, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable listen. — Michael Portantiere

Original Broadway Cast, 1965 (RCA) (5 / 5) This is a fabulous score. Alan Jay Lerner’s lyrics are among his wittiest and most poetic, while Burton Lane’s music is as melodic and moving as anything ever written for the stage. Although Lerner’s libretto for On a Clear Day You Can See Forever has been deemed problematic, the show’s songs have endured. Indeed, the title song became a standard. Robert Russell Bennett’s beautiful orchestrations were played by an augmented orchestra for this recording, masterfully conducted by Theodore Saidenburg. Barbara Harris is blissfully captured here in the dual-identity leading role: Daisy in the present, and Melinda in a past life that emerges under hypnosis administered by Dr. Mark Bruckner. In the latter part, John Cullum, with his strong, stalwart voice, has never sounded better than he does on this album. Particularly enjoyable are his renditions of “Come Back to Me,” “Melinda,” and the title song. William Daniels and Clifford David are also outstanding in supporting roles; Daniels’ deadpan delivery of “Wait Till We’re Sixty Five” makes this witty number a comic gem, while David does a beautiful job with the lovely ballad “She Wasn’t You.” The entire recording is a thrilling experience, from the magnificent fanfare that begins the overture to the spine-tingling finale in which the chorus joyfully sings “forever and ever and E-VER-MORE!” — Gerard Alessandrini

Film Soundtrack, 1970 (Columbia) (3 / 5) On a Clear Day was reconfigured as a film vehicle for Barbra Streisand, with mixed results. A good bit of the score remained intact, but some appealing songs are missing, such as the funny “Wait Till We’re Sixty Five” and the catchy “On the S.S. Bernard Cohn.” Also, Alan Jay Lerner’s original lyrics for “She Wasn’t You” were replaced; Burton Lane’s melody remains, but Lerner revamped the lyrics so that Streisand could sing the song as “He Isn’t You,” and the new version pales by comparison. While Streisand’s great voice and solid acting talent are well suited to the leading role(s), the film soundtrack is marred by the performance of co-star Yves Montand as the doctor, here named Marc Chabot. His singing on the album is not unpleasant, but his difficulties with the English language prevent him from communicating the nuances of Lerner’s ingenious lyrics; “Come Back to Me” suffers greatly in this respect. More bad news is that Nelson Riddle’s musical arrangements are not up to snuff. So, even though Streisand’s renditions of “Hurry, It’s Lovely Up Here,” “What Did I Have That I Don’t Have?” and the title song are among the best things she’s ever recorded, the soundtrack is less than terrific overall. — G.A.

Off-Broadway Cast, 1987 (That’s Entertainment/JAY) (2 / 5) During the opening number of this musical based on Amphitryon, as the three-man chorus sings “We are the chorus / Please don’t ignore us,” a woman suddenly joins them and adds, “My name’s Delores.” Played by Joyce DeWitt, she is the wife of the show’s principal backer, Murray the Furrier, and she’s here because he has promised her a role. Sweet but untalented, this ex-showgirl pops up throughout the show to help with numbers or exposition, always while modeling Murray’s furs. The joke is funny for a while, less so as Olympus on My Mind wears on. It distracts us from the main plot: the story of Jupiter, who comes to earth to win a beautiful woman by disguising himself as her husband, Amphitryon. In this version, Jupiter isn’t satisfied with bedding her; he wants her to love him. His son, Mercury, warns him that, on Earth, he will start feeling human emotions — and, sure enough, Jupiter begins to experience real pain. But as soon as we start caring about him, Delores is back with her shtick. The main plot, involving disguises and double identities, is reminiscent of The Boys From Syracuse, and much of it is well written and quite funny. The songs, by composer Grant Sturiale and lyricist Barry Harman, are prankish and playful. Among the best of them are “The Gods on Tap,” “Back So Soon,” “Wonderful,” “A Little Something of Yourself,” and “It Was Me!” In a strong cast consisting of performers from two separate Off-Broadway productions, Martin Vidnovic sings well as Jupiter and Amphitryon, Frank Copyk is a funny Sosia, and Jason Graae is a very spruce Mercury. — David Wolf

Original London Cast, 1960 (Decca/Deram) (4 / 5) This musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist was quite a phenomenon in its day, beginning as a modest, fringe-type production in London and becoming an international smash hit. The show boasted a melodic score by composer-lyricist-librettist Lionel Bart, innovative sets by Sean Kenny, fluid direction by Peter Coe, and orchestrations and arrangements that were simple, clear, and direct. On this cast recording, the now-legendary performance of Ron Moody as Fagin is vibrant and unforgettable. Georgia Brown makes the part of Nancy her own; her husky voice throbs with emotion, and she is entirely believable as a woman of the Victorian underworld. Her rendition of “As Long as He Needs Me” is definitive. Also excellent are Keith Hamshere as Oliver and Martin Horsey as the Artful Dodger.  — Gerard Alessandini

London Studio Cast, 1962 (Capitol/Angel) (2 / 5) On this recording, Stanley Holloway, famous for his portrayal of Alfred Doolittle in the original stage and film versions of My Fair Lady, is well cast as Fagin. In the role of Nancy, Alma Cogan, a popular cabaret singer of the 1960s, does a fine job belting out “Oom-Pah-Pah,” “It’s a Fine Life,” and a pop-style rendition of “As Long as He Needs Me.” Tony Tanner makes a fine Artful Dodger. Still, this comes across as less a cast recording than a “Songs from OliverI” album.  — G.A.

Original Broadway Cast, 1963 (RCA) (3 / 5) Although Clive Revill gives a fine performance as Fagin, his characterization isn’t as colorful and eccentric as that of Ron Moody of the original London cast. But this Broadway album does have Georgia Brown recreating her landmark role of Nancy, as powerfully as ever. Bruce Prochnik sings well as Oliver, Michael Goodman is a fine Artful Dodger, and Willoughby Goddard is well cast as Mr. Bumble. With musical director Donald Pippin breathing new life into the score, the tempi are brighter than on the London album, although the earlier effort is fresher on the whole and more authentic in atmosphere. RCA’s “Living Stereo” sound is superior. An interesting note is that this recording was made in Los Angeles, where the show’s pre-Broadway tour began; by the time the production reached New York, Michael Goodman had been replaced as the Artful Dodger by David Jones, who went on to become famous as one of The Monkees. — G.A.

Film Soundtrack, 1968 (Colgems/RCA) (4 / 5) Earning six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the film version of Oliver! was masterfully directed by Sir Carol Reed, with the grand score given a bigger-than-big-movie-musical treatment. Under the direction of maestro Johnny Green, the orchestrations and choral arrangements heard on the soundtrack recording are layered with counterpoint, but the overall effect is appropriate to the alternating opulence and squalor of the story’s various settings. Lionel Bart’s songs stand up beautifully to the elaborate scoring, and the performances are as vivid as the orchestrations. At the forefront is Ron Moody, who outdoes his own fine work as Fagin on the original London cast album. Equally excellent is Jack Wild as the Artful Dodger; with his charming Cockney accent, he offers the best account of the role on record. Shani Wallis sings with great warmth and conviction as Nancy, and Harry Secombe as Mr. Bumble displays a superb tenor that elevates the title song and “Boy for Sale” to classic level. The one off-note is Kathe Green (daughter of Johnny), who sounds a bit phony and overly sweet in her dubbing of Oliver’s songs for Mark Lester. — G.A.

London Cast, 1994 (Angel) (3 / 5) A new production of Oliver! that combined the original version with elements of the film yielded this most complete aural document of the score. Many of the songs have additional verses not found on other recordings, and a lot of dialogue is included. But the new orchestrations by William David Brohn are heavy on the synthesizer, conjuring the 1990s rather than London of a century earlier. On the plus side, there is excellent musical direction by Martin Koch, and the cast is strong. Jonathan Pryce is a marvelous Fagin, Sally Dexter does a fine job as Nancy, and the Artful Dodger is well portrayed by Adam Searles. As Oliver, Gregory Bradley displays a lovely voice; indeed, his is the best vocal performance of the role in all of the recordings reviewed her. Sam Mendes directed this production, and Mathew Bourne did the musical staging. Although you can’t enjoy their imaginative work on the cast album, the CD packaging is loaded with pictures and extensive notes. Even better, the booklet contains all of the show’s lyrics. — G.A.

Original Broadway Cast, 1943 (Decca) (5 / 5) This thrilling cast album of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! score is the one, the only, the original that’s credited with starting it all. The show was a groundbreaking triumph in its day, and Decca pulled out all the stops to preserve its musical component; this was the first time a full score was recorded commercially by the entire original cast with the original orchestrations as heard in the theater. The album glories in such now-classic R&H songs as “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “The Surrey With the Fringe on Top,” “Kansas City,” “People Will Say We’re in Love,” “Out of My Dreams,” and the exhilarating title tune, all delivered with enormous spirit and enthusiasm. In particular, the joyous performances of Alfred Drake as Curly and Celeste Holm as Ado Annie show us why these two stars launched major careers with this show. That said, there’s an antique quality to aspects of the recording that may be jarring; the performers’ enunciation is exaggerated as if for stage delivery, rather than being modified for the studio sessions, and the limitations of the era’s technology also make the orchestrations sound a bit squeaky. Still, this is not only the first recording of a great American musical but also, for all intents and purposes, the original original cast album. As such, it’s a must for any serious collector. Note: The two most recent editions of this classic offer all of the songs from both Volumes I and II of the recording as released back in the 1940s, including “The Farmer and the Cowman,” “Lonely Room” (sung by Alfred Drake, not by Howard Da Silva, who originated the role of Jud), and a few other tracks from Volume II. Sadly missing, because it was not recorded at the time, is the music that accompanied the groundbreaking dream ballet “Laurey Makes Up Her Mind” as created and choreographed by the great Agnes de Mille. — Gerard Alessandrini

Original London Cast, 1947 (HMV/various CD labels) (2 / 5) The original London production of Oklahoma! was recorded in severely edited fashion, with the songs laid down as medleys on 78-rpm platters — four medleys of 12 songs. Curly is sung by Howard Keel (or, as he was billed at the time, Harold Keel), whose strong voice is immediately identifiable. Betty Jane Watson as Laurey sings very nicely until the last note of “People Will Say We’re in Love,” when she hits a high Q-sharp above P. The result is the screechiest soprano sound since Janet Leigh screamed bloody murder in Psycho. Because so much of the score is omitted, this album is worth hearing mainly to enjoy the baritone of the young Keel as recorded a few years before he became a star of M-G-M movie musicals. — G.A.

Studio Cast, 1952 (Columbia/Sony) (3 / 5) Produced by Goddard Lieberson, this fine recording is conducted by Broadway maestro Lehman Engel. Hollywood singing star Nelson Eddy is Curly; his strong, beautiful voice is a natural for this romantic baritone role, but he may sound a bit too operatic and stodgy for some listeners. Kaye Ballard’s Ado Annie is a classic turn, her belt voice and comic genius making for one of the best recordings of “I Cain’t Say No.” Virginia Haskins is a lovely Laurey, the great Portia Nelson is on hand as Aunt Eller, and Wilton Clary rounds out the cast as Will Parker. With its high-fidelity sound, this album gives us a better sense of Robert Russell Bennett’s orchestrations than does the 1943 recording. While it’s far from the best aural document of Oklahoma! in sum, there is much to recommend it. — G.A.

Film Soundtrack, 1955 (Capitol/Angel) (5 / 5) Although the original Broadway cast album of Oklahoma! is a treasure, the film soundtrack recording is even more satisfying overall. Beautifully recorded in stereo, the score is even closer to complete here, and the performances remain unsurpassed. The singing of Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones is magnificent; with their melodic voices and naturalistic diction, they offer perfect examples of how to deliver musical theater material. MacRae’s renditions of “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'” and “The Surrey With the Fringe on Top” are superb, while Jones’s singing in “People Will Say We’re in Love” and “Out of My Dreams” is breathtaking. Neither of their performances, nor those of Gloria Grahame as Ado Annie, Gene Nelson as Will Parker, and the rest of the cast, sound the least bit dated. The grand orchestrations are expanded from the Broadway originals and a bit Hollywoodized, but never overblown. Angel’s expanded CD contains two overtures and all of the film’s (and show’s) wonderful dance music, including the dream ballet. — G.A.

Studio Cast, 1964 (Columbia/Masterworks Broadway) (1 / 5) John Raitt did not create the role of Curly in Oklahoma!  but he played it on tour.  (Rodgers and Hammerstein liked Raitt so much that they cast him as Billy Bigelow in their next show, Carousel.)  When Columbia decided  in the mid 1960s to make a stereo studio recording of Oklahoma! starring Raitt, it sounded like a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, a “fresh approach” to the score was taken, and the results are fairly disastrous. Philip J. Lang created new, punched-up orchestrations that have a 1960s camp edge and are nowhere near as thrilling as the originals. Florence Henderson, who had played Laurey as a replacement on Broadway, is only adequate here; she might have come across better if  the recording had been more faithful to the Broadway score. Phyllis Newman makes a fine, funny Ado Annie, but, again, her work is sabotaged by the arrangements and orchestrations. Some of the supporting performances are so twangy and Hillbilly-sounding that they’re hard to listen to. “Oh! What a Beautiful Mornin'” is the only commendable track on the album, because the orchestrations for this song are less phony sounding than the rest, allowing Raitt’s lovely interpretation to shine through. Still, on the whole, the recording sounds nothing like a theatrical performance and is a huge disappointment.  — G.A.

Broadway Cast, 1979 (RCA) (3 / 5) Here’s a spirited performance led by Jay Blackton, conductor of the original Broadway production of Oklahoma! as well as the soundtrack score of the film version. The 1979 Broadway revival of the show that yielded this cast album was a hit, and the sound quality of the recording is excellent. Christine Andreas is full of warmth and pluck as Laurey, Mary Wickes is perfect as Aunt Eller, and Christine Ebersole is terrific as Ado Annie. The disappointment is that Laurence Guittard, although a fine singer, seems miscast as Curly. In fact, Martin Vidnovic as Jud sounds so much sexier than Guittard that you almost wish Laurey would leave Curly and run off with him! — G.A.

London Cast, 1980 (JAY) (2 / 5) Recorded live in performance with an audience — a rarity in the cast album sphere — this recording gains a certain excitement for that reason, undercut by the fact that most of the leading and featured vocal performances are unsatisfying in one respect or another. The best voice to be heard here is the rich, gorgeous baritone of male lead John Diedrich as Curly, but Diedrich’s quasi-operatic style of singing seems too affected for the role of this salt-of-the-earth cowpoke. In contrast, Rosamund Shelley as Laurey, Mark White as Will Parker, and Alfred Molina as Jud Fry all have voices that are not fully up to their assignments. For instance, Shelley sounds fine in “Many a New Day” until the end of the song, where she doesn’t; and Molina, who has since had a highly successful career on stage and screen, surprisingly fails to compensate in the acting department for his barely adequate singing of “Lonely Room.” On the plus side, Jillian Mack is a delightful, funny, charming Ado Annie with a good voice. The orchestrations sound as if they’re modeled on Robert Russell Bennett’s originals with a fair amount of unnecessary futzing, and the newly arranged overture is not an improvement, but the chorus sounds terrific in the title song and elsewhere. John Owen Edwards conducts the entire performance with skill and vigor. — Michael Portantiere

London Cast, 1998 (First Night) (4 / 5) Director Trevor Nunn’s acclaimed reinterpretation of this great American musical for London’s National Theatre  brought forth elements of the Lynn Riggs play Green Grow the Lilacs, upon which Oklahoma! is based. Hugh Jackman may not sing with the beauty of Gordon MacRae, but he brings plenty of gusto and sex appeal to the role of Curly. Josefina Gabrielle was billed as the first woman ever to act, sing, and dance the part of Laurey, rather than yielding to a counterpart in the dream ballet. Of those three talents, her singing is the least impressive, but her delivery of Laurey’s songs doesn’t seriously compromise the recording. Maureen Lipman as Aunt Eller and Shuler Hensley as Jud Fry are both outstanding, the latter giving an emotionally complex, spine-tingling performance of “Lonely Room” that surpasses all other versions. The original orchestrations were revamped by William David Brohn to great effect, and David Krane created new dance music for the show’s stunning new choreography by Susan Stroman. — G.A.

Broadway Cast, 2019 (Verve-Decca Broadway) (1 / 5) Daniel Fish directed this radically reinterpreted production of Oklahoma! and, in so doing, largely contradicted the tone, spirit, and worldview set forth by the show’s creators. Yet the disrespectful elements of this revisal were mostly limited to the staging, the choreography, and the direction of the actors — for example, the implication of a homoerotic attraction between Curly and Jud, the addition of a sex act (not seen, but clearly heard in darkness ) between Jud and Laurey,  the ridiculous re-conception of the dream ballet, and the murder of Jud by Curly in cold blood. Meanwhile, the adaptation and performance of the score were quite well done and pleasing overall, with the major exception of the dream ballet (see below). For the most part, Daniel Kluger skillfully re-orchestrated the classic R&H songs for a country-style band and, with some help from Nathan Koci, effectively rearranged the choruses for a singing ensemble much smaller than what would be heard in a traditional presentation of this score. Two of the lead singers are standouts: Damon Daunno is a warm, sexy, pleasantly yodeling Curly, and Ali Stroker a high-spirited, country-belting Ado Annie. Also very listenable are James Davis’s appealing Will Parker and Patrick Vail’s damaged yet empathetic Jud. But Rebecca Naomi Jones is unpleasant to hear in most of Laurey’s music, especially when required to sing way above her natural alto range due to someone’s strange decision not to lower the keys of certain songs far enough for her comfort; and even where the keys have been transposed to fit Jones’s range, she still dissatisfies because her vocal timbre is so ill-suited to the role. Her performance and the destructive, wholesale rearrangement of the music for the dream ballet (here dominated by “fuzz guitar”) drag this recording down from the higher estimation it would otherwise have received. — M.P.

Studio Cast, 2023 (Chandos, 2CDs) (5 / 5) Almost as if to serve as a counterweight — some might say an antidote — to the 2019 Broadway cast album of Oklahoma! reviewed above (and the tremendously off-putting production that yielded it), this beautiful recording appeared in 2023. Chief among its virtues is the fact that it offers a note-complete presentation of the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein score. For example,  both of the show’s extended dance music sequences, “Many a New Day” and the dream ballet “Laurey Makes Up Her Mind,” are heard here in full and in their original orchestrations for the first time on an audio recording. John Wilson does a superb job of leading the Sinfonia of London, conducting with obvious love and respect for the score, and all of the tempi he sets seem exactly right. The singers are also first-rate and perfectly cast, from the golden-voiced Nathaniel Hackmann and Sierra Boggess as Curly and Laurey to the comically charming Jamie Parker and Louise Dearman as Will Parker and Ado Annie. Rodney Earle Clarke gives a moving rendition of Jud Fry’s tortured confessional “Lonely Room”; brief but entertaining character portraits are offered by Sandra Marvin as Aunt Eller, Nadim Naaman as Ali Hakin, and Leo Roberts as Andrew Carnes; and the chorus and orchestra perform to the highest standards. So, what’s not to love about this album? Nothing whatsoever. — M.P.