|
Theater Related Books |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The TheaterMania Guide to
Musical Theater Recordings
Edited by Michael Portantiere |
Published 2005
416 Pages
Indexed by Composers/Lyricists
Back Stage Books, New York
List price $19.95 |
Click here to buy this book
 |
This could well be the most expensive $19.95
book you ever buy, for no matter how comprehensive you think your collection
of show music may be, you will find dozens, or even hundreds of things you
didn't even know you wanted to own. With each costing about as much as the
book itself, they could quickly set you back a great deal. But what
pleasures you will get if you pursue the impulses generated by this superb
compendium of information and opinion on that art form which, despite
repeated pronouncements of its ill health and impending demise, keeps
on producing gem after gem after gem. Collectors may need comprehensive data
base type assemblages such as the Potomac Region's own Jack Raymond's
Show Music on Record with its cross referenced listings without
commentary, but for most who want a guide to delve into this marvelous
field, this manual is a treat. |
Contents: Single paragraph descriptions of
each commercially available recording of the scores of over 600 musicals
which have had professional productions in New York, each written by one of
sixteen knowledgeable writers on musical theater. Some of the shows are
obscure (remember Al Carmine's Promenade?) and some are famous (the book has
descriptions of fourteen recordings of the score of Show Boat). Each
is accompanied by a ranking on a five-stars maximum scale.
The contributors all have impressive credentials
in the field and many are just the people you might want to ask for
recommendations if you were choosing between competing recordings or between
competing shows. There is theater columnist Peter Filichia. There is Ken
Bloom, the author of the comprehensive directory American Song, and
Gerard Alessandrini who has made a career out of his love of musical theater
music with his Forbidden Broadway series. The editor and the major
contributor is Michael Portantiere, the editor-in-chief of TheaterMania.com
and former editor of InTheater magazine. These people know their stuff and
aren't hesitant about providing their frequently interesting and often
informative opinions. Each entry is signed so you can tell whose opinion you
are getting.
The same weekend the book arrived in the mail
we were attending two fairly obscure musicals being performed in the Potomac
Region. The book included write ups of both
You Never Know, the rarely produced Cole Porter 1938 musical that had a
"world premiere cast recording" in 2001, and
Das Barbecü, the
1994 off-Broadway country-western treatment of Wagner's Ring.
Both write-ups accurately described both the show involved and the
recording. To test the coverage, we checked out a sampling of the entries
for some of our favorites:
- Peter Filichia's enthusiasm for
Avenue Q supports its 5 stars for both the
quality of the score and the fabulous recording.
- Marc Miller gives a deserved three stars
to the Broadway recording of 110 in the Shade, but slights JAY
records' Masterworks studio recording which is due at least one more star
than the three he gave it.
- Jeffrey Dunn had the task of writing up
all fourteen Show Boats. The results make interesting reading as
a group. He gets it right when he says that John McGlinn's three-disc
complete recording "is the one indispensable recording of Show Boat."
- David Barbour is a bit harsh on the
two-disc studio cast of Breakfast at Tiffany's which he awards a
single star. But his write up is informative and even tempting for those
who would like to know the score of one of Broadway's biggest flops which
David Merrick closed before its opening night despite strong interest in
what would have been the Broadway debuts of Mary Tyler Moore and Richard
Chamberlain.
- Jeffrey Dunn is right-on about the
differences between the two available versions of Destry Rides Again,
the superb (four stars) original Broadway cast recording with Dolores Grey
and Andy Griffith and the lamentable London version with Alfred Molina and
Jill Gascoine to which he wouldn't even assign one star.
- Richard Barrios packs a lot of information
and enthusiasm into his write-up of the Encores! concert cast recording of
Louisiana Purchase which would make us go right out and buy it if
it wasn't for the fact that we already have it and love it.
- David Barbour is fair in selecting the
original 1996 London cast recording of Martin Guerre over its
revised 1999 version.
- Gerard Alessandrini gives one more star
than the four we'd give for the fabulous London concert cast recording of
Cole Porter's early Nymph Errant. He finds "both "Sweet Nudity" and
"The Physician" a bit more enjoyable than we do but he sure is right about
the rest of it.
If the above peaks your interest, beware. The
actual volume is full of temptation. |
|
|
|
