Original Broadway Cast Members, 1940/1942 (Decca) (5 / 5) Porgy and Bess may be the most fabulous failure in musical theater history, although it can only be judged a failure in that its original 1935 run of 124 performances at the Alvin Theatre was brief by Broadway standards, and not financially successful. George Gershwin’s iconic work is based on the play Porgy by Dorothy and DuBose Hayward; the latter was the primary librettist-lyricist for Porgy and Bess, with Ira Gershwin collaborating on the lyrics. It might be argued that recordings of this full-fledged opera should not be reviewed along with those of musicals, but Porgy and Bess has become part of the fabric of American culture in a way that Regina, The Consul, and other operas that played on Broadway never did. If critics and audiences didn’t fully appreciate the work in 1935, they certainly came to do so in the years following George Gershwin’s tragic, early death in 1937. The first recordings reviewed here were made by members of the original Broadway cast and others several years after the fact, under the leadership of the opera’s original conductor, Alexander Smallens. Todd Duncan and Anne Brown sing gloriously in the title roles, and their rendition of the beautiful duet “Bess, You Is My Woman Now” has served as a benchmark for every subsequent recording. This compilation also offers Duncan and Brown performing several songs that were written to be sung by other characters: She does Clara’s “Summertime” and Serena’s “My Man’s Gone Now,” he does Sportin’ Life’s “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and Crown’s part in “What You Want Wid Bess?” John Bubbles, the original Sportin’ Life, is not among the singers here; Avon Long, who played the part in the 1942 revival, does “There’s a Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon for New York” and is also heard in a bonus track of Porgy’s “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin” that features a jazzy arrangement for the Leo Reisman Orchestra. The only other original cast member represented here among the leads and featured players is the rich-voiced Edward Matthews as Jake, singing “A Woman Is a Sometime Thing” and “It Take a Long Pull To Get There.” This album represents only a small fraction of the three-hour score, and it has unfortunate interior cuts in some of the selections — for example, “Porgy’s Lament” is bereft of the wonderful counterpoint parts for Maria and Serena. Still, the wonder of these recordings lies not in their completeness but in their authenticity. (Note: Three months before the opera’s Broadway premiere, excerpts from the score were recorded in a CBS studio with Gershwin conducting several of the original cast members and a 43 piece orchestra. Those recordings are available on the MusicMasters CD Gershwin Performs Gershwin. They are precious in allowing us to hear “Summertime” and “My Man’s Gone Now” as conducted by the composer and sung by their original interpreters, Abbie Mitchell as Clara and Ruby Elzy as Serena.) — Michael Portantiere

Studio Cast, 1951 (Columbia, 2CDs) (5 / 5) While this recording is not “complete” as advertised, it contains so much more of Porgy and Bess than had previously been recorded that the exaggeration can be forgiven. Of the many fine studio recordings of great musical theater scores conducted by Lehman Engel and produced by Goddard Lieberson, this one is the cream of the crop. Among the singers are original cast members Warren Coleman as Crown, Edward Matthews as Jake, J. Rosamond Johnson as Frazier, and Helen Dowdy, who sings Maria in addition to her original role of Lily. Coleman lunges at some of the notes and speaks rather than sings much of Crown’s music, but he makes the character dramatically potent and truly menacing. Avon Long is back as Sportin’ Life, and although his voice isn’t ideal for the part as written, his performance oozes with personality. Camilla Williams is somewhat disappointing as Bess; although she displays a strong and beautiful soprano that enabled her to sing such roles as Madame Butterfly and Aida with great success, she comes across as a bit too refined and lacking in sensuality for Bess, and her avoidance of chest tones makes her lower register sound weak at several key moments in the score. But Lawrence Winters is absolutely magnificent as Porgy, in both musical and dramatic terms.  His ringing high-baritone sounds ideal throughout, and then, just when you think he couldn’t possibly top himself, his delivery of the climactic line “I gotta be wid Bess” in the final scene is thrilling beyond description. Engel’s conducting is always on point, and the sound quality of the recording is excellent for 1951 mono. Overall, a triumph. — M.P.

Touring Cast, 1952 (Guild/Kritzerland, 2CDs) (4 / 5) In remarkably clear and full sound for its era, here’s a live recording of an international touring production of Porgy and Bess, taken from a radio broadcast of a performance in Berlin.  Alexander Smallens, conductor of the original Broadway production as well as the 1942 revival, leads the RIAS Unterhaltungorchester and the Eva Jessye Choir in a performance that more than compensates in visceral excitement for whatever its flaws may be in terms of the editing of the score and other decisions. Those who know this work well in its complete form as written will immediately notice several oddities in this performance, a major one being the fact that a fair amount of the opera’s sung dialogue is declaimed over music rather than actually sung. There’s an awful lot of shouted ad-libbing by the chorus members in the group scenes, and though this does ramp up the excitement level, it also partly obscures some gorgeous melodies and orchestrations. And while much of the opera’s final scene is excised, Porgy’s frequently cut “Buzzard Song” is inserted there, at a point far too late in the action for it to make any dramatic sense or effect. But, but, but…..overall, this is a thrilling performance headed by two brilliant singers whose careers were  boosted tremendously with this production, Leontyne Price and William Warfield. The pair would go on to record a phenomenal album of highlights from the opera years later (see review below), but it’s nice to hear them here in a fuller statement of the score.  The balance of the cast is wonderful, with two disappointing exceptions: the Crown, John McCurry, appears to have been in poor voice for this performance, and Cab Calloway takes far too many liberties in the role of Sportin’ Life, often scatting around in a weird falsetto when he should just be singing the notes, thank you very much. Little matter. If the quirks and lapses of the performance make this recording far from definitive, it’s essential as an aural document of a viscerally exciting production that went a long way towards establishing this work as a masterpiece in the eyes and ears of the world at large. — M.P.

Film Soundtrack, 1959 (Columbia) (3 / 5) This is an aural memento of a troubled film. The movie itself was withdrawn from circulation decades ago because it was despised by certain people who controlled the Gershwin estate, which held ownership of the rights, and even the soundtrack album has been out of print for years; I somehow acquired a Japanese CD pressing that sounds like it was transferred directly from the LP master tape, with no digital processing or remastering whatsoever. The film stars Sidney Poitier as Porgy, Dorothy Dandridge as Bess, Sammy Davis, Jr. as Sportin’ Life, Pearl Bailey as Maria, Brock Peters as Crown, Ruth Attaway as Serena, and Diahann Carroll as Clara, but only Davis, Bailey, and Peters do their own singing — and, for contractual reasons, Davis is not heard at all on this album. Instead, Cab Calloway sings Sportin’ Life’s “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and “There’s a Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon for New York” with an engaging personality that lacks the sense of evil necessary for the character. (At least Calloway here sings most of the notes as written, in contrast to the 1952 live performance recording reviewed above.) Another oddity of the film and the soundtrack recording is that, due to the rapidly changing racial sensibilities at the time, some of the performers sing the Catfish Row denizens’ dialect as originally written, but others do not; for example, in “I Can’t Sit Down,” the chorus sings “Today, I is gay and I’s free,” but Pearl Bailey sings “Today, I am gay and I’m free.” What we have presented here are pretty much the songs of Porgy and Bess; the movie retained very little of the opera’s sung dialogue, and there is none on the album. Despite its flaws, this recording is worth tracking down if only for baritone Robert McFerrin’s extraordinary performance of Porgy’s music, dubbed for Poitier, and Adele Addison’s lovely singing for Dandridge. Both rein in their operatic voices somewhat for the film medium, but they still sing beautifully under the skillful, respectful musical direction of André Previn and Ken Darby. — M.P.

Studio Cast, 1963 (RCA) (5 / 5) There are many recordings of highlights from Porgy and Bess, but this one is exceptional for its superb singing, conducting, and sound quality. Opera diva Leontyne Price had one of the most beautiful voices of the 20th century. She toured in the role of Bess for two years (1952-54), and posterity should be grateful that she commercially recorded large portions of this score when she was in her vocal prime. Her Porgy on tour and on the album is William Warfield, to whom Price was briefly wed; the marriage may not have worked out, but they sure make beautiful music together, she with her glorious soprano and he with his warm baritone. Less successful is McHenry Boatwright, who brings a somewhat stuffy operatic sound to the role of the brutal Crown, but it’s great to have original Sportin’ Life John Bubbles on hand. Although his voice had weakened with age by the time of this recording, Bubbles still gives us style for miles. Price and Warfield also sing sections of the score that were written for other characters, but this compromise in faithfulness to the narrative is justified when we hear Price’s thrilling renditions of “Summertime” and “My Man’s Gone Now.” Skitch Henderson conducts with tremendous verve, and the technical quality of the recording is astoundingly good. Be sure to attenuate the volume control of your sound system during the orchestral postlude to “There’s a Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon for New York” if you don’t want to disturb your neighbors. (Fun bit of trivia: In the album’s final track, in the sung dialogue section leading into “I’m on My Way,” one of the supporting singers comes in late for her entrance with the line “It’s way up north, past the custom house”  but the producers didn’t bother to do a retake.) — M.P.

Studio Cast, 1976 (London, 3CDs) (4 / 5) For 40 years after the premiere of Porgy and Bess, no truly complete recording of the score was available. Then, two such recordings were released in 1976. This one features the first-rank conductor Lorin Maazel leading the Cleveland Orchestra. If some of his choices of tempo are a little eccentric, none of them are damaging, and the performance is very laudable overall. Willard White is a strong Porgy, if perhaps a bit too bass-sounding for some tastes, while Leona Mitchell is in fresh and beautiful voice as Bess. McHenry Boatwright, who was Crown on the 1963 recording, is back, and he sounds even stodgier here. But Barbara Hendricks as Clara, Florence Quivar as Serena, and Francois Clemmons as Sportin’ Life are very well suited to their roles, and the large chorus sounds fine even though it’s apparently not authentic in terms of racial makeup. The excellent quality of the recorded sound helps make this a full, rich, and exciting recording that probably would have achieved greater popularity if not for its having been bettered by the one reviewed immediately below. — M.P.

Houston Grand Opera Cast, 1976 (RCA, 3CDs) (5 / 5) A superb production of a great American work marked the country’s bicentennial when the Houston Grand Opera’s Porgy and Bess came to Broadway in 1976. Because this complete recording was based on an actual stage production (which was performed live with a fair amount of cuts), it has a palpable theatricality, and John DeMain’s conducting of the score is beyond criticism. The solo singers are generally excellent, if only definitive in one case: Larry Marshall is the best Sportin’ Life on records. Donnie Ray Albert displays a strong baritone as Porgy, but his voice may strike some listeners as a bit too darkly “operatic” for the part, and his sibilant esses are somewhat distracting. As Bess, Clamma Dale proves herself to be a great singing actress, and one of the sexiest-ever exponents of the role. The other singers on hand help to make this recording really special: Betty Lane offers an ethereally beautiful performance of “Summertime,” Wilma Shakesnider is immensely moving in Serena’s “My Man’s Gone Now,” Carol Brice’s Maria is a force to be reckoned with, and Andrew Smith has just the right voice for  Crown. The large chorus and orchestra sound fabulous throughout. Although Albert’s Porgy is not quite all that we might wish it to be, this set still rates five stars because it’s by far the most satisfying of the three note-complete recordings of a true American masterwork. — M.P.

Studio Cast, 1989 (EMI, 3CDs) (1 / 5) What might have been an estimable recording of a Glyndebourne Festival Opera production of Porgy and Bess is largely undone by Simon Rattle, whose work here comes across as that of a conductor more interested in calling attention to his presence at the podium than in interpreting this work according to the composer’s intentions. Several of the tempi that Rattle sets for the London Symphony Orchestra are ridiculously fast, others are absurdly slow, and there is no sense of dramatic cohesion throughout the opera. That’s unfortunate, because the singers are strong: Willard White is back as Porgy, sounding even better than before, and he’s superbly partnered by the Bess of Cynthia Haymon. Also happily on hand are Gregg Baker as the sexiest Crown imaginable, Damon Evans as a slick, very well-sung Sportin’ Life, and Harolyn Blackwell as a pure-toned Clara. After the fact, this recording served as the soundtrack for a 1993 video version of Porgy and Bess that’s deplorable not only because it’s so badly lip-synched, misdirected, and poorly conducted, but also because it was apparently sanctioned by the Gershwin estate in lieu of a TV telecast of the contemporaneous Metropolitan Opera production. — M.P.

Nashville Symphony Concert Cast, 2006 (Decca, 2CDs) (3 / 5) A major impetus for the Nashville Symphony’s 2006 concert performances of Porgy and Bess, and this subsequent recording, was to present the score as heard in the original Broadway production, with cuts that were sanctioned by the composer, rather than with excisions (and restorations) made by others over the decades. The issue here is that some of the cuts made for Broadway were approved by Gershwin only with reluctance, to reduce the sheer length of the massive work and also because he realized that the full-length title role would be basically unsingable for eight performances a week. Also, some of the edits here seem to have been done after recording, and by no means seamlessly. At any rate, the cuts are what they are, and the performance overall is creditable if nothing special. Mauceri has done a lot of American musical theater as well as opera, so his reading of the score is somewhat more effective than Simon Rattle’s or Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s, but nowhere near as assured as Lehman Engel’s, Skitch Henderson’s, or John DeMain’s. The cast is strong across the board, headed by the excellent Alvy Powell and Marquita Lister, who had previously appeared together as the title couple in performances at the New York City Opera. — M.P.

Styriarte Festival Cast, 2009 (Sony Music-RCA Red Seal, 3CDs) (2 / 5) The packaging of this recording makes it clear who’s intended to be its main focus: Nikolaus Harnoncourt, an Austrian conductor known for his historically informed performances of music primarily from the Classical and pre-Classical eras, which predate the time of the composition of Porgy and Bess by a great many years. Here,  he leads the soloists, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the Arnold Schoenberg Choir (?!)  in a live performance that has many moments of ineffable beauty and great power when heard in isolation. But sadly, much of the musical direction and choral singing is overly precious, and the movement of the drama is so lugubrious  that the whole is lesser than the sum of its parts. Contributing to this problem is the fact that bass-baritone Jonathan Lemalli as Porgy has a sound so dark and cavernous in tone that he’s unable to bring any lighter vocal or emotional colors to the role, and the weight of his voice sometimes drags down the pitch. Faring somewhat better is Isabelle Kabatu as Bess, but she also sounds a bit too “operatic,” and her diction is wanting. (Both leads occasionally display obvious non-American accents, particular in some of their spoke-sung lines.) As for the rest of the cast, while Michael Forest’s Sportin’ Life is plagued by an unfortunate wobble, it’s great to hear Roberta Alexander — once famous as a lyric soprano — in the character mezzo role of Maria, and to have Gregg Baker back as Crown years after his triumphs in the role in several previous presentations of this work, including the 1983 Broadway run and the 1989 Glyndebourne Festival Opera production that yielded the Simon Rattle recording. (Note: For these performances, Harnoncourt edited the score to more or less accord with what was originally performed on Broadway in 1935, but a major, historically significant restoration is the unique “Symphony of Noise,” played by the percussionists at the start of the final scene. ) — M.P.

Broadway Cast, 2012 (PS Classics, 2CDs) No stars; not recommended. The high-handed use of the inaccurate title The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess for this production, with the annoying subtitle “The Broadway Musical,” is only the beginning of its problems. (In a nutshell, and for the record: DuBose Heyward wrote the vast majority of the original work’s libretto to George Gershwin’s music, with Ira Gershwin collaborating only as far as penning a very small percentage of the lyrics himself, apparently including Sportin’ Life’s songs, and polishing others.) On the other hand, in a sense, this isn’t a re-titling of what used to be known in all of its various versions as Porgy and Bess, but rather a still-incorrect label for a radical revision of the piece that has resulted in a foul concoction. What has been done to the score here in terms of editing, rearrangements,  re-orchestrations, and transpositions to make it more of a “musical” than an opera is well-nigh criminal, and believe it or not, there are actually rewrites of a few of the lyrics — some with a nod toward “political correctness,” others for who knows what reasons. If the great musical theater singer Audra McDonald had trained and developed her voice in the operatic sphere, she might have been a Bess for the ages, but here she’s done in by all of that futzing with the music, as well as by an overly dark and inward misconception of the character. Norm Lewis has displayed his gorgeous, warm, pop-tinged baritenor to great advantage is many musical theater roles, but he’s over-parted as Porgy; in “I Got Plenty of Nothing,” as it’s titled here, he has to keep switching octaves because not all of the notes as written are in his range, even with modulations of key within the song. Some of the other cast members, notably Phillip Boykin as Crown and David Alan Grier as Sportin’ Life — here, “Sporting Life” — somehow manage to emerge from this debacle relatively unscathed, but the minuses of this recording so greatly outweigh the pluses that, in sum, it can’t be recommended for listening. — M.P.

Metropolitan Opera Cast, 2020 (Metropolitan Opera, 3CDs) (4 / 5) When Porgy and Bess was created in the mid 1930s, there were discussions about having the world premiere presented by the Metropolitan Opera. That didn’t happen, largely for logistical reasons, including the fact that the Met would have had to engage an entirely new company of black singers. So the work was first produced on Broadway, as noted above. The Met didn’t get around  to this American masterpiece  until 1985, with a production that starred Simon Estes and Grace Bumbry — and, yes, with most of the rest of the company jobbed in. That production was granted no official audio or video recording, but the Met’s new production in 2019 has been well documented in both media. Here is an audio recording of a live performance that offers much in the way of first-rate musical values. Eric Owens with his warm, ample baritone is a solid if rather stolid Porgy,  lacking in energy and personality as compared to his recorded predecessors in the role. Closer to ideal is Angel Blue’s vocally resplendent and dramatically vital Bess, missing only perhaps a little bit of passion in the character’s more desperate moments. Standouts among the remainder of the cast are Latonia Moore as Serena, Golda Schultz as Clara, Alfred Walker as Crown, Frederick Ballentine as Sportin’ Life, and the veteran, star mezzo Denyce Graves as Maria. The Met’s world-class orchestra is skillfully conducted by David Robertson with a full grasp of the work’s proper style. Although there were significant cuts in the gargantuan score for this production — as compared to the Met’s first P&B, which was presented virtually complete — the recording still spreads over three 3CDs. — M.P.

Original Broadway Cast, 1997 (Varèse Sarabande) (5 / 5) Play On! was at least the fourth musical adapted from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to play, albeit briefly, in New York. This version moved the action to Harlem, circa the 1940s. The noble Count Orsino of the original became the greatest jazzman of his time, a composer and bandleader named “the Duke” — and if there’s any doubt as to who inspired the character, the musical’s songs were all taken from the catalog of Duke Ellington. The trouble with the show is that, even though the songs make dramatic sense as slotted, the book writing is deadly. But what you’ll find on the recording is one terrific Ellington song after another, gorgeously arranged by Luther Henderson. There are famous titles — “Take the ‘A’ Train,” “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” — and others not-so-famous, such as “Hit Me With a Hot Note and Watch Me Bounce.” All of them are wonderfully performed by Tonya Pinkins, Cheryl Freeman, Carl Anderson, Lawrence Hamilton, André De Shields, and Larry Marshall. — David Wolf

Original Broadway Cast, 1955 (Capitol/DRG) (4 / 5) Listening to a second-rank score, a longtime musical theater lover will marvel at how often just-above-par tuners were a dependable source for Hit Parade clicks. “Young and Foolish,” sung here by David Daniels and Gloria Marlowe, was a major chart-buster thanks to teens of the 1950s, who were becoming the largest segment of the 45-rpm record-buying public. But “It Wonders Me,” “Plain We Live,” and “It’s a Helluva Way to Run a Love Affair” also turned up on the airwaves and in nightclubs — to the gratification, surely, of composer Albert Hague and lyricist Arnold B. Horwitt. Another big number, “This Is All Very New to Me,” is interpreted by the wonderful Barbara Cook on this cast album. The plot, hardly the stuff of great dramatic literature, concerns a couple of Manhattan so-so sophisticates who wander to Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania and get mixed up in the restrained romantic entanglements of some stage-quaint Amish folks. The cast boasts a number of accomplished vocalists. Shirl Conway, with her astringent approach to a comic ditty, nails “It’s a Helluva Way …” to the back wall. Cook, whose soaring tones are never flowery (as opposed to Marlowe’s), shows up enthusiastically in the forefront of three songs. Lively Nancy Andrews takes the lead in “Plenty of Pennsylvania” and in the very cute “City Mouse, Country Mouse.” Franz Allers conducts impeccably. — David Finkle

Original Broadway Cast, 1972 (Motown/Decca) (3 / 5) Stephen Schwartz wrote the score for this hippy-dippy medieval musical. John Rubinstein starred as the son of Charlemagne, roaming the Holy Roman Empire looking for the meaning of life and instead finding war, sex, patricide, and — finally! — the love of a good woman. The oddball story was all-that-jazzed up by Bob Fosse, whose sexy, inventive staging made the show one of the biggest hits of the decade. Even with a fundamentally weak concept, there’s much to like here, starting with the unique, folk-jazz sound of the score. “Magic to Do,” led by narrator/emcee Ben Vereen, is the definitive band-of-strolling-players opening number; and Pippin’s first solo, “Corner of the Sky,” is a stirring piece of writing. Also hard to resist is that paean to pagan joys “No Time At All,” which provided veteran trouper Irene Ryan with her career sign-off. A very young Jill Clayburgh offers a lovely reading of the clear-eyed ballad “I Guess I’ll Miss the Man,” and Vereen and Rubinsten demonstrate split-second timing in the duet “On the Right Track.” The pure 1970s soft-pop orchestrations are, surprisingly, by Ralph Burns, who apparently could work in just about any style. As a result, this is one of the most intimate-sounding of all Broadway albums. — David Barbour

Australian Cast, 1974 (EMI/no CD) (2 / 5) This recording doesn’t start off all that well, as both Ronne Arnold in the role of the Leading Player and the ensemble sound a little pitch-shy at moments in “Magic to Do.” Indeed, the members of the ensemble don’t sing as well throughout as did their counterparts on the original Broadway cast album; note, for example, how the gorgeous harmonies in the climactic section of “Glory” have been completely eliminated here. Despite a few moments of strain, Johnny Farnham as Pippin displays a strong, youthful-sounding voice that’s mostly very enjoyable in his solos, nearly all of which are sung in higher keys than the originals.  David Ravenswood is a properly pompous Charlemagne, but whatever personality Jenny Howard brings to Berthe’s song “No Time at All” doesn’t compensate for her trouble matching pitches.  Catherine Hewett performs “I Guess I’ll Miss the Man” with lots of emotion, and she sounds lovely when harmonizing with Farnham in “Love Song.” The finale cut here is notable for including a reprise of the “Think about the sun, Pippin” chorus after Pippin’s epiphany (“I’m not a river or a giant bird”), which certainly doesn’t fit in with the ending of the show as originally directed by Bob Fosse. (Perhaps this was the curtain call music?) — Michael Portantiere

South African Cast, 1975 (Bell/no CD) (3 / 5) Sammy Brown as the Leading Player displays a singing voice similar in style, timbre, power, and control to Ben Vereen’s, which of course is meant as a compliment. Hal Watters as Pippin sounds lovely and persuasive in the ballads, and he also possesses the vocal goods for the musical/emotional climaxes of Stephen Schwartz’s great songs. Jo-Ann Pezarro as Fastrada has a lot of fun with “Spread a Little Sunshine,” and if Bess Finney as Berthe is not quite a match for Broadway’s Irene Ryan when it comes to sheer joie de vivre  and comic brio, she sings a lot more of “No Time at All” — and hits a lot more of the notes on pitch — than did Jenny Howard of Australia. The choral work is solid throughout the album, and the orchestrations sound great as recorded here; they are the originals for the most part, but note the cool harpsichord effect at the beginning of “I Guess I’ll Miss the Man,” sung persuasively by Andre Hattingh. — M.P.

Broadway Cast, 2013 (Ghostlight) (3 / 5) Removing Bob Fosse’s staging from Pippin necessarily created a vacuum that Diane Paulus, this revival’s director, filled with a whole lot of everything: magic acts, acrobats, circus performers, and brassier new orchestrations by Larry Hochman. You may miss the imperturbable cool of the original recording, but this one has its compensations, beginning with Patina Miller, whose sassy, high-energy Leading Player is a constant delight. Matthew James Thomas’s Pippin is even better sung than John Rubinstein’s original, Terrence Mann amusingly captures Charlemagne’s fat-headed pomposity (even in “War is a Science,” still the show’s weakest number), and Rachel Bay Jones gives a charming, screwball spin to Catherine (the Jill Clayburgh role). In a class by herself is Andrea Martin; her recorded performance of “No Time at All” is necessarily missing the acrobatic turn that brought audiences to their feet in mid-number, but her warm, bigger-than-life persona comes through loud and clear. As Fastrada, the villain of the piece, Charlotte D’Amboise was sly and stylish on stage, but on the album she seems to be trying a little too hard. There are some changes in the lyrics of a few songs, and this recording of the score is more expansive than its predecessor; the scorching sex ballet that follows the sweet ballad “With You” is included here,  and there’s also an entr’acte, which the intermissionless original production never had. — D.B.

Original Broadway Cast, 1955 (RCA) (3 / 5) Rodgers and Hammerstein may not have been the ideal team to put the chippies and layabouts of John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row onstage in a musical; it’s tantalizing to consider what Frank Loesser, who was first approached to adapt Steinbeck’s Sweet Thursday, would have wrought. Still, the score of the shortest-running R&H Broadway show is lovely, full of Oscar Hammerstein’s humanity and Richard Rodgers’ surprising melodic turns. Listen to the composer’s wondrous harmonics in “Suzy Is a Good Thing,” for example. Evidently, Helen Traubel’s whorehouse madam failed to convince in the theater, but she’s fine on disc. Even better are the young lovers, the soulful Judy Tyler and the always reliable William Johnson, genuinely sexy together and apart. As for the choral ensembles, they’re lively and lusty. The overture is incomplete here; the second verses of each song, even the excellent “The Man I Used to Be,” are missing; and the album is capped by an illogical finale that crams as many hopeful hits as possible into a few minutes. But the recording is valuable as an aural document of the original production of a rare flop from a team that was much more used to great success. — Marc Miller

Encores! Cast, 2012 (Ghostlight) (3 / 5) The New York City Center Encores! series had a surprising go at Pipe Dream in 2012, and this nearly note-complete recording (it’s missing the “Witches’ Chorus”) is the happy result. In a major bit of rethought casting, Leslie Uggams is Fauna, and if you can accept how different she is from the operatic Helen Traubel, you’ll appreciate the warmth and humor she brings to the part. While Laura Osnes lacks Judy Tyler’s spectacular low notes, she fully inhabits the self-doubt, sass, and self-discovery that reside in Suzy. Will Chase’s Doc is a little callow, but well sung; the role of Mac fits Tom Wopat like a comfy pair of overalls; and Stephen Kallem nails Hazel. Drawn from sections of several performances recorded before not particularly enthusiastic live audiences during the show’s brief Encores! run, the album is sonically excellent and gratifyingly thorough as compared to RCA’s original Broadway cast album, which is notably stingy on second verses, musical scenes, and John Morris’s sensational dance music. More intimate than most R&H, Pipe Dream is nicely represented here, and the material is revealed to be earthier than Hammerstein is generally given credit for. — M.M.

Studio Cast, 1962 (Columbia/Sony) (3 / 5) This 1930s topical revue is legendary for its original cast of talented shop workers from the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union. Featuring songs by Harold Rome and sketches by Marc Blitzstein (among others), Pins and Needles wore its pro-labor, pro-union bias on its sleeve. But, in a bid for popularity, the writers pulled their punches. What began as mild political satire became anodyne as, over the course of a three-year run, new material — some of it by John Latouche — was interpolated. The show began performances in 1936 at the Labor Stage, but didn’t open officially until 1937. It later moved uptown, spawned a national tour, and ultimately was seen by more than a million theatergoers in New York and on the road. With a run of 1,108 performances, it held the longevity record for Broadway musicals prior to Oklahoma! This recording, made to commemorate the revue’s silver anniversary, saved Rome’s perky ditties from being lost (as were many of the show’s sketches), and has ensured that Pins and Needles is one of the few early Broadway revues known for its entire score rather than just for the odd “standard.” The music, originally arranged for two pianos, is played here on piano, guitar, bass, and drums under the direction of Stan Freeman. The vocalists — including Rome himself, Jack Carroll, Rose Marie Jun, Alan Sokoloff, and the 20-year-old Barbra Streisand — are very engaging. The charm of numbers such as “Sing Me a Song of Social Significance,” “Not Cricket to Picket,” and “Doing the Reactionary” compensates for the recording’s audio flaws.  — Charles Wright

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1978 (Original Cast Records/no CD) No stars; not recommended. Time was when you could buy an original cast recording with a reasonable amount of confidence. If a score got recorded, it usually meant that it was a work of some quality. Not so here. Piano Bar is a musical that takes place in — well, a piano bar. It throws together four strangers who sing about their pasts, their hopes, and their despair. The paper-thin characters and their petty problems are of extremely limited interest. Doris Willens’ weak lyrics are predictable and undramatic, while Rob Fremont’s music is simply monotonous. The high-powered cast features Kelly Bishop, Karen DeVito, Steve Elmore, Richard Ryder, and Joel Silberman (as the piano player), all for naught. — David Wolf

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1975 (Gallery/no CD) (3 / 5) Composer Harvey Schmidt has consistently written lovely, dramatic, and distinctive music. Philemon  is the story of Cockian, a street clown in ancient Rome, who is pressured by a Roman commander to impersonate the Christian leader Philemon and who eventually becomes ennobled enough to experience martyrdom. Schmidt’s songs are striking and effective, as are the lyrics of his collaborator, Tom Jones. The opening number, “Within This Empty Space,” establishes the raw theatricality and elements of ritual common to so many Schmidt-Jones shows while also introducing us to Cockian and to the specific, vaguely primitive sound of this score. Jones’ script and lyrics are more complex than usual, and all of the characters are distinctly limned from a musical standpoint. The cast is solid without ever being flashy. It’s headed by Dick Latessa as Cockian; Howard Ross as the Roman Commander; Michael Glenn-Smith as a young prisoner whom Cockian betrays; Kathrin King Segal as Kiki, Cockian’s performing partner; Virginia Gregory as the wife he has abandoned; and Leila Martin as the real Philemon’s wife. If you’re curious, you may be able to track down this long-out-of-print recording, or a tape of the TV version of the musical that featured the original cast.  — David Wolf

Original London Cast, 1986 (Polydor, 2CDs) (2 / 5) Andrew Lloyd Webber’s score for this virtually through-sung musical based on the famous novel by Gaston Leroux contains many wonderful melodies; unfortunately, as has been pointed out by sharp-eared critics, some of them are not quite original. Various tunes in The Phantom of the Opera owe much to the work of such composers as Claude Debussy, Giacomo Puccini, and Frederick Loewe. Of the songs that seem to be original, several are pretty but stylistically inappropriate to the time period in which the show is set; for example, “Think of Me,” with its aggressively dotted rhythms. For that matter, the arrangement of the title song makes it sounds like a disco number. Charles Hart’s lyrics (additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe) range in quality from good to poor. The most successful sections of the score are its lighter moments, particularly the “Notes” / “Prima Donna” sequence. Given the general level of the material, the performance is not bad overall. Michael Crawford is quite compelling as the Phantom; his mannerisms and odd vocal timbre are well suited to a character who’s supposed to be a freakish madman, and with the help of skillful audio engineering, Crawford delivers some spine-tingling high notes. His Christine, Sarah Brightman, sounds fine when singing in the middle of her range at a dynamic level no greater than mezzo forte, but her soprano thins out and become shrill when it rises in pitch and volume, and her vibrato is too heavy for the weight of her voice. Steve Barton sings well as Raoul, especially in the beautiful “All I Ask of You.” The recording gets one grudging star for its few nice moments, but don’t take that as a recommendation to buy it. A final insult: In its initial release, this two-CD set wasn’t tracked, so the only way you could skip to various sections of the score was to press and hold the forward or backward search buttons on your CD player. Reportedly, Lloyd Webber insisted on this, because he had conceived Phantom as a unified, complete work and wanted listeners to experience it as such. (No comment!)  — Michael Portantiere

Original Canadian Cast, 1990 (Decca) (1 / 5) As the Phantom on this recording, Colm Wilkinson displays a strong, beautiful, emotionally expressive voice, yet some listeners will find his mannerisms and his Scottish accent intrusive. Also, the broad pseudo-British accents of several other members of the cast are laughably stilted. Rebecca Caine’s soprano is mediocre as heard in Christine’s songs, and her pronunciation is very poor. Byron Nease’s Raoul sounds fine when he’s not overacting and artificially darkening his voice. For some reason, many of the lyrics as set down on this recording are revisions of the originals — but the new versions aren’t superior, just different. This one-disc recording of the score’s “highlights” is a better option for purchase than the two-disc London album because it’s shorter, it’s cheaper, and you don’t have to sift through lots of dross to get to the few songs that are well written and don’t call to mind the melodies of other composers. — M.P.

Film Soundtrack, 2004 (Sony) (1 / 5) Whatever one’s opinion of The Phantom of the Opera in musical or dramatic terms, its title role offers a golden opportunity for a leading man with a beautiful and distinctive singing voice. So it seems almost perverse that the fellow who was chose to play the Phantom in the 2004 film version was — Gerard Butler, a Scottish stage and film actor who had no previous musical experience other than having sung in a rock band as a young man while studying to be a lawyer, and whose voice, as it eventually became clear to anyone who saw the film and/or heard the soundtrack recording, was not up to the demands of pop-opera arias like “Music of the Night.” In the role of Christine, Emmy Rossum displays a soprano that’s very pretty, if rather thin, and at least her singing isn’t plagued by that awful, quivering, Sarah Brightman vibrato. The best vocalist among the three major leads is Patrick Wilson as Raoul, though his all-American accent in both his songs and the dialogue included on the recording is distracting in context, making him sound like a fish out of water. Minnie Driver’s singing as Carlotta was dubbed by opera singer Margaret Preece, who does a fine job with “Prima Donna” and her other vocal moments — and, in recorded dialogue, we do get to hear the amusingly over-the-top Italian accent Driver developed for the role. As might be expected, the large orchestra hired to record the film soundtrack sounds wonderful playing lush orchestrations crafted along the lines of the stage originals. Like the Canadian cast recording reviewed above, the soundtrack album contains one disc’s worth of highlights, so if you want to hear more of the Phantom score as heard in the movie, you’ll have to buy or rent it on video. — M.P.

Royal Albert Hall – 25th Anniversary Cast, 2011 (Decca Broadway, 2CDs)  (2 / 5) This live recording of a fully-staged presentation of Phantom at London’s Royal Albert Hall in celebration of the show’s 25th anniversary stars Ramin Karimloo, an Iranian/Canadian singer-actor who has become a major presence on the London and New York stages in recent years, and Sierra Boggess, the American musical theater star who originated the title role in The Little Mermaid on Broadway and who would go on to play the female lead in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock. Both are extraordinarily gifted from a vocal standpoint — his strong, exciting bari-tenor has plenty of “ping,” her soprano is creamy and sumptuous, with no flutter — and are therefore a pleasure to hear in this music, if you like the score to begin with. Hadley Fraser sounds virile, romantic, and very appealing as Raoul. The performance, also available on video, features a cast and orchestra of more than 200, with special guest appearances by Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, plus Colm Wilkinson,  Anthony Warlow (who played the title role in the Australian production), Peter Jöback (who has starred as the Phantom in the West End, on Broadway, and in Sweden), and John Owen Jones (from the London and 25th anniversary tour productions). It’s all quite lavish and over-the-top, very much in keeping with the general tone of a modern-day poperetta that has become a worldwide phenomenon. — M.P.

Studio Cast, 1993 (RCA) (4 / 5) Unfortunately, Maury Yeston (music and lyrics) and Arthur Kopit (book) began work on their own adaptation of the Gaston Leroux potboiler The Phantom of the Opera concurrently with the Andrew Lloyd Webber version, but Loyd Webber got his to the stage first; so this Phantom, with just as lush music and vastly superior lyrics, has never gotten any closer to Broadway than New Jersey. The whole sordid mess is recounted by Kopit in his notes for this recording, very well produced by Yeston, Steve Vining, and Bill Rosenfield. Yeston’s wide-ranging score roams from the Gothic breast beating of “Paris Is a Tomb” to the lilt of “Melodie de Paris” to the foxtrot “Who Could Ever Have Dreamed Up You?” The sturdy Richard White, in the title role, doesn’t really get to show his stuff till the revelatory 11-o’clock number, “My Mother Bore Me”; but he gives that song the full treatment, going vocally and histrionically to the top, yet not over it. Glory Crampton, as Christine, sounds sweet but thin in her upper range. On the other hand, it’s a pleasure to have the underemployed Meg Bussert as Carlotta, deliberately screeching her way through “As You Would Love Paree” and having lots of hammy fun with “This Place Is Mine.” Jack Dabdoub and Paul Schoeffler are helpful in supporting roles, and Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations and conducting are, as usual, superb. Best of all, it’s refreshing to hear a Phantom that is musically satisfying and not lyrically pinheaded. — Marc Miller

Original Broadway Cast, 1954 (RCA) (4 / 5) James M. Barrie’s ever-young story of the boy who wouldn’t grow up has been a favorite in print and on the stage and screen for more than a century. While Maude Adams was long the most celebrated of the stage Peter Pans, at least two generations of American kids had as their touchstone the all-singing, all-flying Mary Martin. The musical became legendary because of television, not Broadway, where it had a less than spectacular run; a West Coast tryout had been problematic, and before the show opened in New York, its Moose Charlap-Carolyn Leigh score was bolstered with some major new contributions from Jule Styne, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green. The result may not always be faithful to Barrie, but with Martin starring and director Jerome Robbins in charge, it’s irresistible. The cast recording preserves most of the production’s sparkle; the wonderful score includes “I Gotta Crow,” ”I’m Flying,” and all the sing-along others. Martin is in peak form, far fresher vocally than she would be for the 1960 television taping (two earlier telecasts had been live), and a peerless Cyril Ritchard is Captain Hook. Happily, the recording has received a clear, high-quality digital transfer. The album is pure magic, and not just because of Tinker Bell or fairy dust.  — Richard Barrios

Studio Cast, 1997 (JAY) (3 / 5) Despite its difficult aerial demands, the Moose Charlap-Carolyn Leigh-Jule Styne-Betty Comden-Adolph Green Peter Pan has become a stage perennial. Two Peters have fared especially well: Sandy Duncan, who starred in a smash Broadway revival in 1979, and former Olympic gymnast Cathy Rigby, who toured extensively with the show in the 1990s-2000s and headlined four Broadway engagements. While the Duncan production did not yield a cast album, Rigby left both video and audio souvenirs of her performance. And guess what, kids: She’s good! Her voice has much of the sheen of Mary Martin’s, without the coyness, and her characterization is completely valid. “Mysterious Lady,” which always seemed more a Martin showpiece than a fitting part of the show, is gone, but the rest of the score gets first-class treatment here. Alas, Paul Schoeffler as Captain Hook is no match for his energetic adversary — let alone for his predecessor, Cyril Ritchard, whose humor and verve are nowhere to be found here. The rest of the cast is acceptable. The theatrical thrill of the 1954 recording is replaced by a more generic 1990s performance style, but, as even staunch Martin devotees might admit, Rigby soars. — R.B.

Television Cast, 2014 (Broadway Records) (2 / 5) The ratings for the 2013 NBC live telecast of The Sound of Music were so high as to make a follow-up inevitable. If the choice of Peter Pan was predictable in some ways, it was also a tad perplexing, given the existence (and, now, availability on home video) of three versions starring Mary Martin. In the event, the ratings showed a marked falling-off from TSOM, and the reviews were mixed at best. There were, indeed, several odd casting and staging choices in the production, but it should be noted that it’s far less stressful to listen to this audio recording than to watch the show. Yes, Christopher Walken’s Captain Hook is still monumentally peculiar, but just hearing his odd tones is less disorienting than seeing him as well. Unlike Walken, Allison Williams can sing, and her Peter sounds appealing, if somewhat generic. As with the aforementioned NBC Sound of Music, genuine musical theater pros were cast in support, here Christian Borle as Smee/Mr. Darling and Kelli O’Hara Mrs. Darling. (Why does Smee, rather than Captain Hook, double in the role of the father?  Well, would you want Walken’s Hook for your dad?) Several new songs were added to so-so effect, and there was little surprise that “Ugg-a-Wugg” was given a lyrical overhaul to avoid offense. The “Tarantella” and “Tango” were expanded to amusing effect, but though the recording overall is relatively painless and well done, it’s no match for that superb original cast album. — R.B.

Original Broadway Cast, 1950 (Columbia/Sony) (1 / 5) This is a little-known, unusually lackluster score by Leonard Bernstein, not the beloved Peter Pan musical of four years later. Except for students of its composer, it’s hard to imagine anyone actually wanting this recording. It presents a straightforward version of James Barrie’s play, edited for records in the manner of a radio drama, with some songs interspersed. Only five musical selections are included; the ballet music and “Never Land,” written for two mermaids, were not recorded. A song for Captain Hook (“Walk the Plank”) and one for the Pirates (“Pirate Song”) are both exactly what you’d expect. The other numbers, sung by Wendy, are “Peter, Peter” (the only song with any dramatic function), “Build My House” (a soprano snooze), and “Who Am I?” Bernstein wrote both music and lyrics for the songs, which he wanted to reuse when he was asked to provide a score for the subsequent production of Peter Pan that would star Mary Martin. Here, Jean Arthur is rather charming as Peter. Boris Karloff is a surprisingly effective Captain Hook, and Marcia Henderson sings Wendy’s songs in a soprano that you may appreciate more than I do. — David Wolf

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2001 (Fynsworth Alley) (3 / 5) James Hindman’s goofy, marvelous spoof/homage Pete ‘n’ Keely stars George Dvorsky and Sally Mayes as Pete Bartel and Keely Stevens, a pair of bitterly divorced songbirds who have been coerced into performing on a TV reunion special. Material that might have been overly campy in other hands is just right when delivered by the divine Mayes and Dvorsky. The song list combines standards (“This Could Be the Start of Something Big,” “But Beautiful”), a patriotic classic (“The Battle Hymn of the Republic”), and new songs by director-lyricist Mark Waldrop and musical director-composer Patrick Scott Brady. “Wasn’t It Fine?” is the one serious song among the new ones, and it’s lovely. The comic highlights are the hilarious “Cross Country Tour,” a six-minute medley that mentions every state in the union, and then some; “Tony ‘n’ Cleo,” which presents highlights from the couple’s one Broadway show, a stereotypical 1960s musical ostensibly based on Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra; and “Love,” not a funny song in itself, but interspersed with hilarious, rapid-fire rounds of jabs. Brady leads the crack eight-piece band, and production photos in the CD booklet offer a glimpse of Bob Mackie’s lavish costumes. — Seth Christenfeld

Original London Cast, 1998 (JAY) (3 / 5) Before their huge success with TV’s Friends, David Crane and Marta Kauffman wrote this amusing theater piece in collaboration with lyricist Seth Friedman and various composers. No cast album of the original 1985 Off-Broadway production was made; this is a recording of the 1998 London staging that featured David Bardsley, Martin Callaghan, Marcus Allen Cooper, Christina Fry, Ria Jones, and Summer Rognlie. As the title suggests, Personals is about people who run “personals” ads. The characters include a shy teenager who, believing that he’s the last remaining virgin, advertises for a teacher of “extra-curricular activities” and gets nearly 100 responses; a young woman who’s open to dating for the first time since her marriage broke up; and a lonely man who’s trying to concentrate on a book while hoping for the doorbell to ring. The typesetter who works on the ad page sings about the pleasures that he and his wife have found with their new partner, a bisexual dwarf: “So my wife and I have fallen for a guy who’s three foot two — well, so would you!” Despite its seemingly absurd premise, the song becomes moving at the end. In the best piece, “Moving In With Linda,” a man’s old girlfriends pop out of his suitcases and trunks; the music and lyrics for this item are by Stephen Schwartz, who also wrote the impressive opening and closing numbers. The rest of the songs are by Michael Skloff, Alan Menken, Seth Friedman, Phillip Friedman, and William Dreskin. — David Wolf

Original Broadway Cast, 1994 (Angel) (3 / 5) One of Stephen Sondheim’s most daring achievements, Passion is also one of his most divisive: Some people respond to the work’s uncompromising nature, while others find its story off-putting from beginning to end. Nevertheless, the score is committed and, yes, passionate. With a book by James Lapine, the show is based on Ettore Scola’s 1981 film Passione d’Amore, which was adapted from Igino Ugo Tarchetti’s 1869 novel Fosca. It concerns an Italian military officer named Giorgio who is obsessively pursued by and eventually falls in love with an unattractive, infirm woman named Fosca — much to the chagrin of his lover, the already-married Clara. While many of the show’s situations border on the melodramatic, there’s a brutal honesty about the characters’ actions and feelings that gives Passion just the bite and heat it needs. The recording runs under an hour, and omits much music and dialogue, but what’s included is lush and heavily emotional. These songs embrace or suffocate you as they define every facet of the intertwining relationships at the musical’s core. Jere Shea (Giorgio), Donna Murphy (Fosca), and Marin Mazzie (Clara) give rich performances, pulsing with blood and full of heart. Murphy, in particular, brings a startling intensity to her every spoken and beautifully sung word. The supporting cast members have little to do, but both Gregg Edelman as Fosca’s cousin and Tom Aldredge as a military doctor are fine. — Matthew Murray

Original London Cast, 1997 (First Night) (3 / 5) This recording is almost 20 minutes longer than the Broadway album, containing more music as well as dialogue, but both are roughly equal in terms of performance quality. Maria Friedman’s Fosca is more strident than Donna Murphy’s; her portrayal is not as well layered and, therefore, is less sympathetic. Michael Ball brings a raw sexual energy to the role of Giorgio. Helen Hobson, as Clara, presents a casting problem: She seems harsh, cold, and false in her declarations of love for Giorgio, which somewhat reduces the overall effect of the piece. But, in supporting roles, Hugh Ross and Paul Bentley sound more dynamic than their New York counterparts. Fans of Passion will want to have both the Broadway cast album and this one. — M.M.

Off-Broadway Cast, 2013 (PS Classics) (3 / 5) The uncountable problems that plagued John Doyle’s 2013 Off-Broadway production of Passion matter far less on this recording than they did in the theater. Ryan Silverman and Judy Kuhn embrace their inner smoldering as Giorgio and Fosca, turning out performances of tangible if not expansive feeling that sell all the basic emotions at the musical’s heart. Though we get rather less fire and urgency than on the OBCR, their interpretations work given the generally pulled-back atmosphere of the proceedings, and Jonathan Tunick’s smart reductions of his own original charts (carefully conducted by Rob Berman) are in line with an appropriately intimate experience. The characterizations of the supporting cast, including  Stephen Bogardus as the Colonel and Tom Nelis as the Doctor, are understated, but not destructively so. Rebecca Luker, who for the recording spelled the sidelined-by-illness third star, Melissa Errico, sounds older and more distant than Silverman and Kuhn, which results in a wobblier-than-ideal love triangle. Still, a bomb of a revival producing a reasonably persuasive recording is an achievement worthy of note by understandably incredulous Sondheim fans. — M.M.

Studio Cast, 1994 (Elektra-Nonesuch) (4 / 5) Pardon My English,  the 1933 musical that had the shortest Broadway run of any Gershwin show, makes for a most entertaining recording. The wonderful songs are mostly unfamiliar, but Eric Stern’s conducting is lively, and the original orchestrations sound strong rather than distractingly antique. The show has a troubled history: After a hellish gestation during which the original cast members quickly departed, Pardon My English was totally rewritten by Herbert Fields and Morrie Ryskind. Then Ryskind decamped, as well. Jack MacGowan, who had scripted Girl Crazy, came in and did last-minute doctoring just before the New York opening. Of course, George and Ira Gershwin had to do considerable jiggering of the score to suit the revised plot and characters. Although the story makes little sense, the songs are delightful. “Isn’t It a Pity?” is certainly the best of them, but obscure numbers such as “Where You Go, I Go” and “I’ve Got to Be There” are as enjoyable as some of the Gershwin gems you’ve been listening to and loving all your life. There are also a few “lyric fun” songs: “Freud and Jung and Adler,” “He’s Oversexed,” and “My Cousin in Milwaukee.” The first-rate cast of this recording is headed by John Cullum, William Katt, Arnetia Walker, and Michelle Nicastro. — David Wolf

Original Broadway Cast, 1999 (RCA) (4 / 5) Composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown earned a Tony Award for his work on Parade, his first Broadway score. Although this dark musical about the blatantly anti-Semitic murder trial, conviction, and eventual lynching of Leo Frank in Atlanta, GA during the early years of the 20th century had only a limited run at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, it yielded a fine cast recording. Alfred Uhry’s book for the musical is distancing, and so was Harold Prince’s direction of the show, but Brown’s score is excellent. Note the evocative Southern flavor that’s so vital to the story’s Georgia setting in the beautiful opening anthem, “The Old Red Hills of Home,” and the heavy blues strains in the chain-gang song “Feel the Rain Fall.” Also exciting: the eight-song trial sequence, which runs the gamut from sentimental to comic to soulful, and the show’s dynamic second-act duets, “This Is Not Over Yet” and “All the Wasted Time.” These are put across with gusto by Brent Carver and Carolee Carmello, who each have strong solo moments as well (his “How Can I Call This Home?” and her “Do It Alone”) but who truly soar when singing together. The rest of the cast is equally top-notch: Rufus Bonds, Jr., Don Chastain, John Hickok, Herndon Lackey, Jessica Molaskey, Evan Pappas, Christy Carlson Romano, John Leslie Wolfe, and the ensemble all come across beautifully. If not every song on the album is a gleaming gem, it’s an impressive score overall. — Matthew Murray

London Cast, 2007 (Warner Music Group) (3 / 5) The black-and-white cover suggests everything you need to know about this recording of Parade: It’s raw, intense, and quietly powerful. Jason Robert Brown’s glorious and moving score is presented compellingly with harsh but beautiful orchestrations, and most of the cast does an admirable job, even if their performances are not as extraordinary as their counterparts in the two Broadway recordings. The main attraction of this album is its completeness; entire scenes are preserved with dialogue included, making the listening experience especially intense. The recording’s primary detriment is the performance of Bertie Carvel as Leo Frank. Carvel is not Jewish, and the accent he uses for the role borders on offensive — not to mention that his Leo is so grotesque and unlikable that the focus of the show is thrown off center, and the relationship of the central couple is almost wholly unbelievable. As a result, the haunting “Sh’ma” that comes near the end of the show does not pack quite the punch that it should. On the other hand, Lara Pulver gives a lovely performance as Lucille Frank, her initial quietness building up to a powerful explosion in the show’s second act. Several of the supporting roles are doubled on this recording, and the concept is generally successful; Shaun Escoffery, as Jim Conley and Newt Lee, brings these two characters to such vivid and terrifying life that the listener is glad he was handed both roles. The ensemble cast is excellent: Malinda Paris brings a surprising but effective glee to “A-Rumblin’ and A-Rollin’,” and the sequence involving “The Factory Girls” is gripping. Overall, this recording succeeds in conveying the power of Parade, but with two  other brilliant cast albums available, it’s likely that only completists will consider it a necessary possession. — Charles Kirsch

Broadway Cast, 2023 (Immersive Music/Interscope Records) (5 / 5) From the moment when Charlie Webb, as an anonymous Confederate soldier, begins to sing with incredible clarity and power of “The Old Red Hills of Home,” it’s clear that this is an excellent cast recording of a superb production of Parade. Indeed, it doesn’t miss a beat, with its pitch-perfect cast and stirring orchestrations by Don Sebesky and the show’s composer, Jason Robert Brown (slightly altered from the originals). Ben Platt is the ultimate Leo Frank: quiet, humorous, and with enough charisma that listeners may have to wipe quite a few tears from their eyes as the tragedy of his story unfolds. Micaela Diamond is a new Broadway phenomenon at the ripe age of 23, exhibiting a maturity befitting the character, along with a hauntingly lovely voice that makes songs such as “You Don’t Know This Man” ring out with pathos. In the midst of the debate about “authentic” casting, this production makes a strong case for it; the history of anti-Semitism speaks through Platt and Diamond in a way that it could not through some of their predecessors in these roles. On top of that, their voices blend with unbelievable beauty in “This Is Not Over Yet.” All of the other cast members perfectly embody their characters: Kelli Barrett’s “My Child Will Forgive Me,” which takes a journey from self-flagellation to a final moment of anti-Semitism, is a master class in musical theater acting; Alex Joseph Grayson’s “Blues: Feel the Rain Fall” is nothing short of terrifying; and Douglas Lyons and Courtnee Carter’s duet “A Rumblin’ and A Rollin’” provides powerful context for the story, along with beautiful vocals. This story is, in fact, so tragically real that the album can be hard to get through, but if you attend it all the way through to Platt’s heartbreaking “Sh’ma” and the finale, you may find the catharsis that only a truly great show can bring. — C.K.

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1960 (Kapp/Decca) (2 / 5) This topical revue served as a calling card for a young composer-lyricist named Jerry Herman. It remains a pleasant diversion if you’re in the right mood. By 1960, Herman’s remarkable facility for songwriting was fully in place — although it’s a little disorienting to hear the melody of “Show Tune,” later used for “It’s Today” in Mame, and an overture passage that was recycled for “I Want to Make the World Laugh” in Mack & Mabel. Dody Goodman and Charles Nelson Reilly deliver the comedy material, including the notably dirty “Save the Village,” in which Goodman protests shutting down the Women’s House of Detention on Sixth Avenue (“There’s love in the laundry / There’s love in the showers / There’s love in the clinic”); “Confession to a Park Avenue Mother,” in which Reilly shamefacedly admits loving a girl from the West Side; “Maria in Spats,” about Maria Callas’s banishment from the Metropolitan Opera (“Why can’t I play the Palace / If Judy can play the Met?”); and “Jolly Theatrical Season,” which spoofs flop shows. The uneven but generally enjoyable ballads are handled by big-voiced unknowns Lester James, Fia Karin, and the astonishing Richard Tone, who has one number only: “Two a Day,” a salute to vaudeville that brings down the house even on disc. — David Barbour

Original Broadway Cast Members, 1940 (Decca) (3 / 5) Piggybacked onto the Decca CD issue of the Call Me Madam studio album starring Ethel Merman are four selections from Panama Hattie in their first appearance since their original 78rpm release in 1940. They certainly don’t represent Cole Porter at his best in songs such as “My Mother Would Love You” and “Let’s Be Buddies.” Still, it’s nice to have these recordings, along with ”I’ve Still Got My Health” (in a cut-down version) and “Make It Another Old Fashioned, Please.” Merman performs them exactly as you’d expect, joined by eight-year-old Joan Carroll, who speaks her lines rather than singing them because of the child-labor laws of the era! Forgive me for admitting a preference for Kaye Ballard’s more complete “I’ve Still Got My Health” on Ben Bagley’s Cole Porter Revisited and Carmen Alvarez’s more nuanced “Make It Another Old Fashioned, Please” on Bagley’s Decline and Fall album, but I wouldn’t want to be without these delightful Merman souvenirs. — David Wolf

Studio Cast, 1950 (Columbia/Sony) (5 / 5) Joey, a small-time entertainer bent on opening his own nightclub, drops his girlfriend, Linda, to bed Vera, a rich dowager who’s bonkers for him and who backs his venture. When this sophisticated saga premiered on Broadway in 1940 as Pal Joey, the production did not generate a cast album. But, over the next decade, the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart songs grew so in popularity that, by 1950, the score was ripe for a full recording. Conductor Lehman Engel and producer Goddard Lieberson created a cast album featuring the original Broadway leading lady, Vivienne Segal, as Vera. In place of Gene Kelly, who had been scooped up by Hollywood following his acclaimed stage portrayal of Joey, dancer Harold Lang was brought in, fresh from his Broadway triumph in Kiss Me, Kate. The results are spectacular. The performances on this recording are definitive and, for the most part, the original orchestrations are intact. Rodgers’ beloved melodies and Hart’s witty lyrics are a joy throughout. Segal delivers Vera’s solos, “What Is A Man” and “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” to perfection, and her two duets, “In Our Little Den of Iniquity” with Lang and “Take Him” with Beverly Fite as Linda, are just as great. Lang’s singing of “I Could Write a Book” as a duet with Fite is very persuasive, and his rendition of “You Mustn’t Kick It Around” will set you to dancing in your living room. — Gerard Alessandrini

Broadway/Studio Cast, 1952 (Capitol/Angel/DRG) (3 / 5) This first Broadway revival of Pal Joey, in 1952, was prompted at least in part by the solid success of Lehman Engel’s 1950 studio recording of the score (see above). Since that album was on the Columbia label, Capitol Records had to replace Vivienne Segal and Harold Lang, who starred in the revival, with two singers from its stable for the revival cast album. So here we have a cast recording without the stars of the production it was based on. Jane Froman as Vera and Dick Beavers as Joey sing the songs well from a musical standpoint, but they don’t quite connect with the caustic aspects of Hart’s lyrics — and another huge strike against this recording is the fact that some of those great lyrics have been rewritten and, in a few instances, sanitized. Also, the score has been re-orchestrated, and the results are pleasant enough but inferior to the originals. The album’s ace in the hole is Elaine Stritch’s unsurpassed performance of “Zip,” which catapulted her to stardom. Helen Gallagher’s tracks are also brilliant and brassy. (Note: A DRG CD reissue of this recording includes Jane Froman performing selections from With a Song in My Heart. It’s a nice match). — G.A.

Film Soundtrack, 1957 (Capitol) (2 / 5) Here’s a terrific Frank Sinatra album that has little to do with Pal Joey as seen and heard on Broadway, seeing as how the show’s score and story are all but lost in the film version. The arrangements, by Nelson Riddle and George Dunning, are swinging and cool. They make for some fine pop recordings of Richard Rodgers’ music, but Lorenz Hart’s brilliant work is not served as well. Most of his caustic and/or risque lyrics were changed, dropped, or clumsily “cleaned up” for the movie by an uncredited hand; gone, for example, are such great Hart lines as Vera’s “I’m vexed again, perplexed again, thank God I can be oversexed again!” Some of the background scoring is pleasant, owing more to the flexibility of Rodgers’ music than to Morris Stolloff’s musical direction. There is also an attractive “Joey” theme running through the film and recording, but it doesn’t seem to have been written by Rodgers — another uncredited mystery. The album’s best selections are “The Lady Is a Tramp” and “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” as sung by Sinatra. Both are classics, but neither song is from the original Pal Joey score. — G.A.

Encores! Cast, 1995 (DRG) (2 / 5) This is a worthy attempt at a complete stereo recording of Pal Joey, but even though the production that yielded it was  performed by solid pros, the cast album is generally dull. The major exceptions are Patti LuPone’s contributions. Perfectly cast as Vera, LuPone delivers Hart’s wry lyrics with savvy, and her versatile, pitch-perfect voice serves Rodgers’ music very well. Her standout number is “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” complete and uncensored. On the other hand, Peter Gallagher is not in good vocal form here, however well suited he is for the role of Joey in other respects. Many of Gallagher’s sustained notes in the ballads are slightly flat, and in the up-tempo numbers, he sounds lethargic. In the supporting role of Melba, Bebe Neuwirth doesn’t come across with enough sass or brass. And while the original orchestrations are here, the orchestra as conducted by Rob Fisher sounds sloppy and sometimes lags behind the singers. In sum, this recording is worthwhile mostly for LuPone’s performance and for the inclusion of “I’m Talkin’ to My Pal,” a great Rodgers and Hart song that was originally slated to end the show but was dropped during the pre-Broadway run in Boston. — G.A.