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.

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1988 (DRG) (2 / 5) Here is one of the most disappointing cast albums ever made in that it utterly fails to capture the hilarity of this show. Oil City Symphony was a straight-faced send-up of small-town musical programs, with a cast/creative team that consisted of Mike Craver, Debra Monk, Mark Hardwick, and Mary Murfitt. The show’s great appeal lay in the ingenuous earnestness of a group of people trying their best to present a concert in their decorated high school gymnasium, but goofing up — rather than measuring up — all along the way. Oil City was performed with no winking and no irony, and after each performance, lemonade and cookies were served in the lobby by the smiling cast. The score features new songs by the creative team, along with ringers such as “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” “Dizzy Fingers,” and “Stars and Stripes Forever.” One interpolation was Ernest Gold’s “The Exodus Song,” for which Monk, a vision of ex-debutante propriety, played the drums with a vengeance. She really whacked the bejesus out of that trap set, unleashing what seemed to be a millennium’s worth of pent-up frustration. It was uproarious. Other songs were touching and charming, always presented in character. Oil City Symphony was the funniest musical revue of its time, but admittedly, it would have been very difficult to preserve its brilliance in an audio-only recording, and this album does not succeed in doing so. — Ken Bloom

Original London Cast, 1963 (Decca/Must Close Saturday) (4 / 5) A hit in London, a flop d’estime on Broadway, and the basis of a very odd film, Oh! What a Lovely War was a show that slotted vintage World War I tunes amid sketches/vignettes while the names of battles and numbers of war dead rolled by on an upstage flashing-lights billboard. Directed by Joan Littlewood, the show was billed as a “musical entertainment,” but the material can be quite upsetting. This recording captures its essence to strong effect with lengthy sequences of the score and dialogue. Many of the tunes are familiar, but some of them are outfitted with special wartime lyrics. The numbers are alternately sardonic (a postwar parody of the famous Kern song “They Wouldn’t Believe Me”), amusing (the saucy “Hitchy-Koo,” the recruiting song “I’ll Make a Man of You”), and moving (Ivor Novello’s “Keep the Home Fires Burning,” beautifully sung by Myvinwy Jenn). A particularly poignant sequence takes place on Christmas Eve in a trench, as English soldiers make temporary peace with German soldiers; it concludes with Victor Spinetti as an emcee leading a lighthearted “Goodbye-ee” that fades into sounds of distant gunfire. — Jeffrey Dunn

Film Soundtrack, 1969 (Paramount/no CD) (2 / 5) Directed by Richard Attenborough, the film version of Oh! What a Lovely War found its own way to interpret the kaleidoscope of scenes and songs from the dazzling stage show. Unlike the London cast album, which includes a lot of dialogue, the soundtrack LP has only the songs. Some of them are given big, Hollywood-style orchestrations, others are arranged and performed more atmospherically, and there are also some medleys and instrumental tracks. “Belgium Put the Kibosh on the Kaiser” is charmingly sung by Jean-Pierre Cassel. In a recruiting sequence, Peggy Allen lends her bland soprano to “We Don’t Want to Lose You,” but then Maggie Smith takes over and grabs our attention with “I’ll Make a Man of You.” Smith has a commanding belt that will surprise listeners; her performance alone makes the soundtrack album noteworthy. Most of the other singing is lacking in personality, and because the songs are heard completely out of context, they aren’t as heartbreaking as they are on the stage cast album. — J.D.

Studio Cast, 1955 (Columbia/Sony) (2 / 5) With a score by George and Ira Gershwin, and a book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, this 1926 lark is a tuneful jaunt through the then-familiar territory of Long Island rum running, society marriages, and mistaken identities. The first attempt to set the score down intact was this recording, produced by Goddard Lieberson and conducted by Lehman Engel. Unlike some other titles in Columbia’s 1950s series of studio recordings of significant shows, Oh, Kay! at least preserves the period sound of the score, with twin pianos and a Grapelli-like jazz violin. But the sluggish tempi and the casting don’t do these nimble songs justice. Barbara Ruick is a sweet Kay, and her “Someone to Watch Over Me” is heartfelt if glacially slow, but her cooing soprano lacks variation. Jack Cassidy, always perfect as a shallow cad, doesn’t sound like he’s kidding his own oiliness here; he just sounds oily. The comic numbers assigned to Allen Case call not for voice, but for personality, and Case seems to have left his outside the studio. The recording also suffers from having one of those annoying greatest-hits finales tacked on. It all makes for easy listening, but the slow tempi dominate, so much so that the whole thing seems to have been wrapped up in slipcovers. The remastered CD features a few bonus tracks: Mary Martin singing “Maybe,” and two dizzy-fingers piano displays by George Gershwin.  — Marc Miller

Off-Broadway Cast, 1960 (20th Century-Fox/Stet) (1 / 5) When Stet picked up the rights to this long-forgotten revival cast album, it plastered the names of cast members Linda Lavin and Penny Fuller in big block letters on the cover, despite the fact that both were merely members of the chorus. On the other hand, Eddie Phillips, who has two big numbers, isn’t billed at all. There are missing songs, interpolations from other scores, and new, slapdash lyrics by Wodehouse; “You’ll Still Be There,” originally “Dear Little Girl,” doesn’t even scan neatly. The snatches of dialogue included here show a certain patronizing attitude toward the material, as if to say: “Look, it’s 1960 and we’re much smarter now!” The arrangements for an anorexic combo are cutesy, and the cast is uneven. David Daniels, with his solid baritone, is a fine Jimmy, but his Kay, Marti Stevens, drifts in and out of her Mayfair accent. She also has the odd habit of speaking whole verses of her lyrics, though not for any lack of singing ability. The recording is over in 36 minutes, and Gershwin’s melodic magic does survive the mishandling. It’s okay, but it’s not Oh, Kay! (The CD also includes selections from Leave It to Jane.) — M.M.

Studio Cast, 1995 (Nonesuch) (5 / 5) A sheer delight, this reconstruction of Oh, Kay! takes certain liberties: It has new orchestrations by Russell Warner, some of the songs are re-sequenced, and some cut material has been restored. Still, the recording is utterly faithful to its Jazz Age heritage. Dawn Upshaw’s Kay is fervent, girlish, whimsical, and miles away from the opera-house haughtiness that sometimes is displayed when crossover artists attempt the Great American Songbook. Her “Someone to Watch Over Me” is melting and persuasive, her “Maybe” is pensive and touching, and her general command of musical theater vernacular is total. Similarly, Kurt Ollmann’s Jimmy is no opera snob slumming on Broadway; rather, he’s a chipper juvenile with a lot of voice. In other roles, Robert Westenberg, Liz Larsen, and Patrick Cassidy (who rips through “Fidgety Feet”) are stylistically perfect. There are some fun surprises, too: Susan Lucci pouts amusingly as Jimmy’s bitchy fiancee, and Fritz Weaver bloviates entertainingly as her pompous pater. Eric Stern’s 23-piece orchestra is just the right size for this score and has a clean, unaffected sound. Kevin Cole and Joseph Thalken tear irresistibly through some twin-piano arrangements. The handsome CD booklet contains informative, engaging notes by Lee Davis, producer Tommy Krasker, and Evan Ross. — M.M.

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1972 (Bell/no CD) (4 / 5) After appearing in Noël Coward’s last musical, The Girl Who Came to Supper, Roderick Cook compiled a revue of Coward’s songs that was first produced as Noël Coward’s Sweet Potato, a quick Broadway flop in 1968. Cook tried subsequent assemblages of Coward material in different cities with different titles, and finally returned to New York with Oh Coward! The revue enjoyed a successful Off-Broadway run. Coward’s songs — and excerpts from his verse, plays, and memoirs, which serve as linking narration — are delightfully entertaining as presented here. No one ever wrote comic songs like this fellow; he chose his words with specificity, using them with precision and a demented logic. When Coward turned serious, his work was almost as impressive, if not so unique. He is well served in Oh Coward! by the layout of the material (roughly according to subject), and also by the three-member cast: Cook and comic actress Barbara Cason are very effective, and Jamie Ross is an only slightly weaker link. — David Wolf

Original Broadway Cast, 1958 (Columbia/DRG) (4 / 5) For their Broadway songwriting debut, the Hollywood team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans freely adapted/the British film The Captain’s Paradise and did outstanding work. Here is a full, integrated score that nimbly tells the story of a sea captain (Tony Randall) with a prim English wife (Jacquelyn McKeever) just outside London and a sizzling French mistress (Eileen Rodgers) in Paris. True, some of the lyrics snicker sophomorically about sex or contort themselves wildly to rhyme (“This report is special on / How I achieve my echelon”). But consider the compensations: a tuneful, generally clever set of songs with one hit (“All the Time”) and some other fine writing (“You Don’t Know Him,” “Surprise”), plus a supercharged atmosphere and game principal performances. The supporting cast is strong, too: Edward Platt reveals a sturdy bass-baritone in the lovely “It’s Never Quite the Same,” and the great Susan Johnson gives all she’s got to “Give It All You’ve Got.” (Her inflection on “Save your strength for the honeymoon and give it all you’ve got” is packed with innuendo.) Oh Captain! didn’t run very long, and the score isn’t absolutely top-drawer; but there are many nice moments here, and the album is a lesson in how a recording produced by Goddard Lieberson makes second-rate material sound first-rate. — Marc Miller

Original Broadway Cast, 1969 (Aidart/DRG) No stars; not recommended. Given that numerous scores by Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, and Jerome Kern remain unrecorded, the existence of this album — and its reissue on CD — is outrageous. Oh! Calcutta! was a good idea: an erotic revue written by such interesting and gifted people as Samuel Beckett, Jules Feiffer, John Lennon, and Sam Shepard. (Exactly who wrote what was revealed for the first time in Sherman Yellen’s excellent CD booklet notes.) But the show was developed by people with no musical theater experience or skill. In fact, it’s almost perversely unmusical in design and direction. Oh! Calcutta! famously played much of its marathon run to non-English-speaking tourists, who bought tickets not for the Beckett but because the cast members took off their clothes. The music recorded here isn’t theatrical at all; rather, it’s soft rock of no particular quality, like the background score of a movie. Professional actors-singers are featured in only three of the 12 cuts. The others are performed by composers Robert Dennis, Peter Schickele, and Stanley Walden, who — collectively known as The Open Window — make up the show’s band. Only one of the selections, “I Like the Look,” sounds like a theater song. I mention this because it’s the last track on the album, so you’ll probably never hear it. — David Wolf

Original Broadway Cast, 1981 (Original Cast) (3 / 5) It may have been pure folly for Donald Driver and Michael Valenti to invite comparison to The Boys from Syracuse with this modern musical retelling of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, reset in the Middle East. In fact, they were rewarded with a three-performance run. Still, there’s much to enjoy on this 49-minute cast album, starting with Valenti’s tuneful, singable melodies. Songs like “Everybody Calls Me by My Name,” “OPEC Maiden,” and “How Do You Want Me?” radiate goodwill. Driver’s lyrics are good-natured throughout. The songs are sung by an exceptionally rich-voiced young cast, with David Carroll, Judy Kaye, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Larry Marshall giving their all. (Listen to Mastrantonio’s insane high note at the end of “That’s Him.” What planet is it from?) Not all of the material is golden, and the recording’s inclusion of several cut numbers — “Revolution,” “It’s a Man’s World,” “My World’s Comin’ Unwrapped” — only justifies their excision. But this show was honest and unpretentious, and its best qualities are nicely captured here. — Marc Miller

Broadway Cast, 1952 (Capitol/DRG/Angel) (3 / 5)  The first musical to win a Pulitzer Prize, Of Thee I Sing (1931) is glorious. With music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin, and a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, the show’s Jazz-Age score is exuberant and ingenious, and its skewering of American politics — particularly presidential campaigns — has, if anything, grown more relevant with the passing years. There is no cast album of the original production, but a 1952 revival, directed by Kaufman himself, yielded this recording. All the principal music is here, with revised orchestrations by Don Walker and a few rewritten lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Jack Carson may have seemed an unlikely choice for presidential candidate John P. Wintergreen, but he sings smoothly, exhibiting real warmth in “Who Cares?” His Mary, Betty Oakes, is bland. As his running mate Throttlebottom, Paul Hartman shares star billing but claims only one number. Jack Whiting’s Chief Justice has this song-and-dance man’s customary panache, while Lenore Lonergan as Diana Devereaux offers a truly bizarre performance; throaty and off key, she turns her vocal liabilities into character points and is quite funny and original. Maurice Levine conducts with energy and briskness.  — Marc Miller

Television Cast, 1972 (Columbia/no CD) (1 / 5) In 1972, with “Archie Bunker for President” bumper stickers on every Ford Pinto and a theater-of-the-absurd presidential race in full swing, CBS trotted out Of Thee I Sing as a vehicle for some of its top sitcom stars. Carroll O’Connor played Wintergreen, and the network advertised, “Tonight: Archie Bunker becomes President!” O’Connor displays a serviceable Irish tenor and a nice way with a lyric. His Mary, Cloris Leachman, is similarly passable, and Michele Lee is a high-voltage Diana Devereaux. Otherwise, this hard-to-find LP is not worth the search. The score is garishly orchestrated and conducted, and the generous helping of laugh-track-supported dialogue that’s included confirms one’s suspicions that this is a fatally dumbed-down adaptation of the original show, replacing the smart Kaufman-Ryskind dialogue with exchanges better suited to Green Acres. — M.M.

New York Concert Cast, 1987 (Sony, 2CDs; paired with Let ‘Em Eat Cake) (2 / 5) Conducted by Gershwin scholar Michael Tilson Thomas and presented with great fanfare at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a 1987 concert version of this gem of a show yielded a studio recording that is the most complete, most faithful Of Thee I Sing album available. Unfortunately, gleeful as the material is, the presentation is a little stiff. Larry Kert as Wintergreen is a fine singer, but here he exhibits all the personality of tofu. Maureen McGovern as Mary Wintergreen has more presence but less to do. Jack Gilford, who had played Throttlebottom on TV, is endearing — but, by this time, his voice had aged and weakened almost to a whisper. The best performance comes from Paige O’Hara, whose Diana Devereaux is vocally secure and dizzily funny. Yet even she over-punches her line readings; I smell a director who insisted on socking everything across the footlights, even in the recording studio. The digital stereo helps bring out the brassy orchestrations, and the notes in the accompanying booklet are authoritative. — M.M.

London Concert Cast, 1990 (EMI) (5 / 5) Here is a rare find: a lost gem of a musical by Cole Porter that was produced in England but never on Broadway. This star-studded 1990 concert performance of the score was recorded live in London. The music represents Porter at his melodic best, and the lyrics are so sublimely witty that they warrant repeated listening for one to fully grasp the sharpness and comedic effect of his remarkable word play. So much of the album is laugh-out-loud funny that you’ll want to play many of the tracks several times to savor all the jokes. Among the luminaries in the cast are Alexis Smith, Larry Kert, Lisa Kirk, Kaye Ballard, Patrice Munsel, and Patricia Hodge, who offers a pristine rendition of that wonderful Porter paean to life and lust, “Experiment.” Other standout cuts are “The Cocotte,” “Solomon,” the hilarious throwaway number “Sweet Nudity,” and “How Could We Be Wrong?” The ballad “You’re Too Far Away” is lovely, but the most famous song in the score is the comic marathon “The Physician,” sharply performed by Lisa Kirk, who sails through the various choruses with glee and relish. For this performance, the entire score was reorchestrated by Jim Tyler and Michael Gibson; with Donald Pippin and David Firman at the twin pianos, the effect is gloriously authentic. Steven Hill’s vocal direction is impeccable, and the recording culminates in a bouncy choral reprise of “Experiment.” Those searching for a classic show score that’s fresh, naughty, and not over-familiar should seek out this album. — Gerard Alessandrini

Original Off-Broadway Cast, 1993 (DRG) (2 / 5) Can anyone blame Iibrettist-composer-lyricist Dan Goggin for not wanting to mess with the formula that made Nunsense such a success? Of course not. Still, Nunsense II might have been more original. The score of the sequel does more than pay homage to its predecessor; again, there’s an upbeat opening chorus, a nun ballerina song, an understudy’s lament, a puppet-aided comedy number, a lengthy first-act finale dance, a gospel showstopper, and so on. Goggin even unapologetically quotes the previous show’s music in “The Biggest Still Ain’t the Best” and “Look Ma, I Made It.” The numbers that do incorporate new ideas — “We’re the Nuns to Come To” (in which the sisters consider starting a burial service), the envious “Padre Polka,” and the effervescent can-can “Yes, We Can” — are more fun than the retreads. Kathy Robinson, Mary Gillis, and Lyn Vaux are acceptable replacements for the originators of their roles, but returning cast members Christine Johnson and Semina De Laurentis shine most brightly, particularly in (respectively) the joyous “I Am Here to Stay” and the emotional “No One Cared Like You.” Michael Rice’s musical direction is, once again, just right. All in all, Nunsense II works best if you don’t know the original. — Matthew Murray