CD & DVD Reviews

Book and Lyrics: Dana Leslie Goldstein Music: Jon Goldstein Reviewer: Donna Kelly Following its recent New York premiere run at the historic Theatre 80, Broadway Records has released the a new Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording of Liberty: A Monumental New Musical. Liberty: A Monumental New Musical tells the story of a determined, young French immigrant who arrives alone in New ...

Reviewer: Mark Clegg In Mel Brooks' The Producers Leo Bloom suggests that a production of a new script they are reading wouldn't last a night. "A night?" Max Bialystock replies "This play's guaranteed to close on page four!" One of the shows featured on this CD of the West End's commercial car crashes didn't even manage to make it to ...

Reviewer: Holly Spanner When Side Show opened in 1997 on Broadway, it was billed as being commercially disastrous. It did however generate a substantial a cult following and has since been recently revived at the St James Theatre, only to close after less than two months in early 2015. The production explores the incredible and touching true story of conjoined ...

Reviewer: Holly Spanner Tokio Confidential premièred Off Broadway in 2012, withmusic and lyrics by Eric Schorr. It was made possible through support from the Asian Cultural Council, Japan Foundation New York, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. The musical takes place in the late 19th Century, in a time when tattooing has been ...

Book, Music &Lyrics: Benjamin Till Additional Lyrics: Nathan Taylor &Sir Arnold Wesker Reviewer: Jacqui Onions Brass is the cast recording of the musical commissioned and presented by National Youth Music Theatre to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War. It tells the story of a group of friends, and members of the local brass band, that enlist ...

Music: John Kander Lyrics: Fred Ebb Conductor: David Loud Reviewer: Jackson Cooper Some of the greatest accomplishments of music were written later in a composer’s career: Verdi’s Falstaff, Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique” Symphony, Mozart Requiem, etc. Perhaps time and maturity gives composers enough momentum to keep writing into their later years…and over a long period of time. Future theatre textbooks will look ...

Music/Lyrics: The Sherman Brothers, Robert J Sherman, Al Sherman Director: Stewert Nicholls Conductor: Colin Billing Reviewer: Jackson Cooper It’s like hearing your childhood stripped down to 4 people, a narrator, and a piano. If your childhood could also be a history lesson of one of the most memorable, tuneful musical duos since Rodgers and Hammerstein, A Spoonful of Sherman offers ...

Book/Lyrics: Jonathan Christenson Reviewer: Charlotte Robson Edgar Allen Poe may seem a strange choice for a musical biopic. However, this darkly brilliant cast recording of Catalyst Theatre’s Off Broadway production lifts elements from the writer's life and work, real and imagined, to chart his course from ignominious birth to aptly-titled "mysterious" demise. The tiny cast of seven show astounding measures ...