CD & DVD Reviews

Reviewer: Holly Spanner Prodigy is a new musical by Jake Brunger and Pippa Clay. It was commissioned and developed by the National Youth Music Theatre, premiering in August 2015 at the St. James Theatre in London. The narrative follows the nervous excitement of five young finalists in a reality television show, each competing to become Britain’s top new classical music ...

Reviewer: Mark Clegg Jukebox musicals (new shows featuring pre-existing songs) often employ parody and deliberate cheesiness in their plot and libretto. Obvious examples would be We Will Rock You and Rock of Ages, and arguably Mama Mia contains more than a faint whiff of gorgonzola. Disaster! takes things several steps further by wildly parodying a film genre ripe for lampooning: ...

Reviewer: Mark Clegg It’s probably fair to say that Ziegfeld Follies star Fanny Brice would be no more than a footnote in history if it weren’t for the musical Funny Girl. Premiering on Broadway in 1964 thirteen years after her death, the show charts both the professional and personal highs and lows of the unconventional comic performer. It’s probably also ...

Reviewer: Holly Spanner Currently performing with The Midtown Men, a high-octane band performing hits from the sixties, Michael Longoria made his Broadway debut in Hairspray, after graduating with a BFA in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. This is Longoria’s debut Solo Broadway Album, and as the title of the album suggests, Broadway Brick by Brick is a ...

Reviewer: Mark Clegg Variety it’s said is the spice of life, a saying that the folks at 54 Below and Broadway Records have proven with their fast-growing and diverse collection of Live at 54 Below recordings. Over the past few years the club (housed in the basement of Studio 54, hence the name) has been home to the cream of ...

Music: Burt Bacharach New Arrangements: Kyle Riabko Reviewer: Niall Harman Burt Bacharach is one of the most successful composers of recent decades, scoring hit after hit throughout the sixties and beyond, making for one of the most outstanding back catalogues in popular music. So it is perhaps inevitable that his music would one day be given the jukebox musical treatment. ...

Music: Jerry Bock Lyrics: Sheldon Harnick Reviewer: Mark Clegg In 1963 a year before their magnum opus Fiddler on the Roof, lyricist Sheldon Harnick and composer Jerry Bock collaborated on this musical adaptation of Miklos Laszlo’s play Parfumerie. While the show itself is not well remembered, many will be familiar with the plot which has been adapted both as The ...

Writer: Steve Martin Music: Steve Martin and Edie Brickell Lyrics: Edie Brickell Reviewer: Holly Spanner Having played the banjo from a young age, writer and composer Steve Martin previously collaborated with lyricist Edie Brickell on their 2013 bluegrass album Love Has Come For You. The collaboration proved to be a success, the title track scooping a Grammy for Best American ...