blog.castalbums.org

From Sepia Records:

For our September releases, we revisit three musicals that played in the West End in 1960. Firstly, the CD reissue of The Most Happy Fella celebrates composer Frank Loesser‘s centenary. The original London cast included leading names of the day such as Inia Te Wiata, Helena Scott, and Art Lund, who bring their unique interpretations to this important score. Our release also features five bonus tracks from the show sung by Edmund Hockridge.

Winner of the 1959 Evening Standard Award for Best Musical, Make Me an Offer reunited David Heneker and Monty Norman, two of the leading figures in British musical theatre. Here, we couple the original cast album with the first-ever release of excerpts from a live TV performance of the show. This reissue is also enhanced by extensive liner notes written by Monty Norman, who has also contributed photographs from his private archive.

Our third cast album is a newly-remastered version of Julian Slade’s 1960 hit Follow That Girl. Our new release features not only the cast album but also seven bonus tracks, including cut songs and production images.

A stalwart of the West End, Millicent Martin‘s career has spanned six decades. As our fourth release in this batch, we are proud to release her debut solo CD, which was recorded at the peak of her career on the British stage. As well as enjoying numerous successes as an actress in musical theatre, Martin has also won popularity in recent years for her TV appearances, and we hope that this CD release will serve as a useful tribute to her musical roots.

Prospect Theater Company is throwing a CD release party for the original cast recording of the new bluegrass musical Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge on June 30.  Adapted from J. M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World by composer Peter Mills and director Cara Reichel, Golden Boy made its world premiere at 59E59 Theaters in April of 2009.   Golden Boy – the tale of an unlikely hero, a backwoods romance and a slapdash murder – features music and lyrics by 2010 Kleban Prize Winner Peter Mills. The recording is produced by Great White Wax and is the first commercially released CD of Mills’ work.  More information & tickets are available on the Prospect Theater Company website.

The new revival of Stephen Sondheim‘s A Little Night Music, currently playing on Broadway, will record a cast album on January 4, 2010. The revival stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury and is based on a production that originated at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory. Tommy Krasker will produce the new recording, a joint venture between PS Classics and Nonesuch.