Original london cast in Original Cast Music

"Hot Mikado [Original Cast Recording]" (04/17/2001) Soundtracks Original Cast, Original Cast (Label)

"70, Girls, 70 [Original London Cast]" (07/01/2003) Soundtracks Original Cast, Jay RecordsComposer: John Kander. Lyricist: Fred Ebb. Original London Cast: Dora Bryan, James Gavin, Shezwae Powell, Pip Hinton, Stephanie Voss, Buster Skeggs, Joan Savage, Len Howe, Brian Greene . Personnel: Martin Frith (flute, clarinet, saxophone); Trevor Barber (trumpet); Joe Stewart (piano); Julian Kelly (synthesizer). Liner Note Author: Michael Kennedy.

"A Saint She Ain't" (04/17/2001) Soundtracks Original Cast, Original Cast (Label)

"The Witches of Eastwick [Original London Cast]" (08/19/2003) Pop Vocal Original Cast, First Night (USA)Music & lyrics composed by John Dempsey and Dana P. Rowe. Principal cast includes: Ian McShane (Daryl Van Horne); Lucie Arnaz (Alexandra Spofford); Maria Friedman (Sukie Rougemont); Joanna Riding (Jane Smart); Rosemary Ashe (Felicia Gabriel); Peter Joback (Michael Spofford); Caroline Sheen (Jennifer Gabriel); Stephen Tate (Clyde Gabriel). Producers: David Caddick, John Dempsey, Dana P. Rowe. Recorded at Whitfields Street Studios, London, England on September 11-22, 2000. This 2000 CD is a recording of the musical THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK starring Lucie Arnaz. The disc features 18 songs.

"The Pajama Game [Original London Cast] [Sepia]" (04/22/1997) Pop Vocal Original Cast, Jay RecordsThe Original London Cast version of THE PAJAMA GAME features the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of John Owen Edwards. Composed by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. Principal cast: Ron Raines, Judy Kaye, Kim Criswell, Brookes Almy, Avery Saltzman, David Green, Margery Beddow, Elaine Orbach, Susan Scott Flynn, Theodore Pappas. Composer: Richard Adler . Lyricist: Jerry Ross . Original London Cast: David Green, Judy Kaye, Kim Criswell, Ron Raines, Avery Saltzman, Brookes Almy. The original London cast album of The Pajama Game was recorded in September 1955, just prior to the show's October 13 opening. (It had opened on Broadway the previous year.) That means that, by the terms of European copyright law on recordings, it passed into the public domain on January 1, 2006. Sepia Records, which specializes in creating unlicensed versions of such just-out-of-copyright material, responds here with a CD that begins with the 16 tracks featured on the old HMV LP, then adds ten bonus tracks. The London production of The Pajama Game ran a profitable 588 performances. As demonstrated here, the production succeeded by providing a near-copy of the Broadway version. A frequent problem with British productions of American shows is that the accents aren't very good, but that is not the case here. Of the principals, Max Wall and Frank Lawless sound somewhat British, but even their voices are not way off, and the rest of the cast sounds convincingly American. They also handle the score well, from the hit novelty tunes like "Hernando's Hideaway" and "Steam Heat" to the hit ballad "Hey There." Canadian Edmund Hockridge, in the leading male role played by John Raitt on Broadway, is equally big-voiced on such songs as "A New Town Is a Blue Town," and Australian Joy Nichols is just as good as the female lead. There's not much reason for an American who owns the original Broadway cast album to buy this very similar recording, but it's almost as good. The ten bonus tracks that expand the running time to 78-plus minutes consist of tracks from singles made by Nichols in the late '40s and early '50s. Most of these are novelty songs typical of the time, which she handles good-naturedly, joined by such partners as Dick Bentley and Jimmy Edwards, who also appeared with her on British radio during the period. ~ William Ruhlmann The 1954 American musical The Pajama Game was still going strong on Broadway on October 13, 1955, when a successful London production opened for an eventual run of 588 performances. As demonstrated on the London cast album, the production succeeded by providing a near-copy of the Broadway version. A frequent problem with British productions of American shows is that the accents aren't very good, but that is not the case here. Of the principals, Max Wall and Frank Lawless sound somewhat British, but even their voices are not way off, and the rest of the cast sounds convincingly American. They also handle the score well, from the hit novelty tunes like "Hernando's Hideaway" and "Steam Heat" to the hit ballad "Hey There." Canadian Edmund Hockridge, in the leading male role played by John Raitt on Broadway, is equally big-voiced on such songs as "A New Town Is a Blue Town," and Australian Joy Nichols is just as good as the female lead. There's not much reason for an American who owns the original Broadway cast album to buy this very similar recording, but it's almost as good. ~ William Ruhlmann

"Aspects of Love [Original London Cast] [Slipcase]" (05/23/2006) Pop Vocal Original Cast, Decca (USA)Principal cast: Ann Crumb (Rose Vibert), Michael Ball (Alex Dillingham), Kevin Colson (George Dillingham), Kathleen Rowe McAllen (Giulietta Trapani), Paul Bentley (Marcel Richard), Diana Morrison (Jenny Dillingham), Laurel Ford (Elizabeth), David Greer (Hugo Le Meunier), Sally Smith (Chanteuse). Orchestra personnel: David Randall (violin), Donald McVay (viola), Robert Bailey (cello), John Marson (harp), Anthea Cox (flute, piccolo, alto flute), Leslie Craven (clarinet, bass clarinet), Josephine Lively (oboe, cor anglais), John Franchi (saxophone, clarinet, flute), David Lee (horn), Geoffrey Eales (piano, celeste), Michael Dixon (keyboards), Michael Brittain (bass), Ian Chopping (percussion). Recorded at Olympic Studios, London. All music written by Andrew Lloyd Webber. All lyrics written by Don Black and Charles Hart. The tracks on these CDs are labelled by scenes. Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber. Originating in London in 1989, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love was poorly received when it crossed the ocean to New York. Of course, compared to the success Webber had achieved with The Phantom of the Opera, nearly any response would have seemed cold. Still, Aspects of Love is a hard sell: a young man falls for an actress who in turn falls for his older uncle who already has a mistress. The actress and uncle have a daughter, who then falls for the young man. The score contains the beautiful "Love Changes Everything," and Michael Ball (the original Marius in the London version of Les Miserables) gives a wonderful performance. Aspects of Love is a bit of an acquired taste, but it does have some worthwhile moments. ~ Sarah Erlewine

"Wish You Were Here/Paint Your Wagon [Sepia]" (02/01/2005) Pop Vocal Original Cast, Sepia RecordsPersonnel: Jerry Wayne, Ken Cantril, Shani Wallis, Mark Baker, Philip Green, Sally Ann Howes, Wally Stott, Bruce Trent, Elizabeth Larner, Dickie Henderson, Christopher Hewett, Joe Leader, Bretton Byrd, Bobby Howes. Wasting no time after the 50-year copyright expiration on these 51-year-old recordings, originally released by such British labels as Philips, Columbia, and HMV, Sepia Records has compiled this CD containing unlicensed tracks based on three early-'50s American musicals that opened in London in 1953: Wish You Were Here (songs by Harold Rome); Paint Your Wagon (songs by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe); and Guys and Dolls (songs by Frank Loesser). (There is also one song from the 1952 British musical Bet Your Life sung by cast member Sally Ann Howes, who went on to appear in Paint Your Wagon.) They are presented in what might be termed descending order of significance, at least in the sense of the extent to which they represent original cast recordings. First up is perhaps the slightest of the three in purely artistic terms, Wish You Were Here, the show based on the 1937 play Having Wonderful Time about an adult summer camp in the Catskills. It played nearly 600 performances on Broadway and close to 300 in London, largely on the strength of the hit title song and the novelty of having a swimming pool on-stage. Rome's score is occasionally amusing, but not nearly as effective as that for his earlier Pins and Needles, and the British cast, affecting American accents, isn't nearly as effective as the native one heard on the original Broadway cast recording. But, unusual for Britain at this time, this is a full-length cast album of 16 tracks (originally released in a seven-disc set of 78s), and one of them is "Nicer Than People," a song added to the show after the Broadway opening and not heard on the American album. More typical of British record marketing at the time was the abridgement of Paint Your Wagon into four medleys for a two-disc EP running only 12 minutes. The show was actually more successful in the West End (477 performances) than on Broadway (289) and boasted a cast led by real-life father-and-daughter team Bobby and Sally Ann Howes. They sound good on the choruses and bits of dialogue heard here, but there really isn't enough of the music. Finally, the 1953 British production of Guys and Dolls, which featured most of the original American cast, didn't really have a cast album, but the two British performers with featured roles, Lizbeth Webb and Jerry Wayne, did make some pop recordings of their songs from the show, and they are included as bonus material here. Altogether, that makes for 72 and a half minutes of British show music circa 1953, and if the performers rarely outshine their American models, the disc nevertheless should be of interest to show music fans on both sides of the Atlantic. ~ William Ruhlmann

"Joyce Grenfell Requests the Pleasure of Your Company" (04/12/2005) Soundtracks Original Cast, Sepia RecordsComposer: Richard Addinsell. Lyricist: Joyce Grenfell. Original London Cast: Joyce Grenfell, Beryl Kaye, Paddy Stone, Irving Davies. Additional personnel: Beatrice Lillie.

"Camelot" (03/14/2006) Soundtracks Original Cast, Jay Records

"Song & Dance [Original London Cast] [Slipcase]" (05/23/2006) Pop Vocal Original Cast, Decca (USA)Music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lyrics written by Don Black. Recorded live at The Palace Theatre, London, England. Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber. Following the success of Evita (first as a concept album in 1976, then as a West End and Broadway musical), composer Andrew Lloyd Webber split from his lyricist partner Tim Rice and embarked on a period of musical experimentation. His Variations, an instrumental work inspired by Paganini and written for his younger brother, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, was a best-selling album in Britain in 1978. In 1979, he became interested in shaping a one-woman show for West End veteran Marti Webb, who had taken over the title role in the London production of Evita. He approached Don Black, a successful British lyricist best known for his film songs, including "To Sir With Love," "Ben," and the Academy Award-winning "Born Free." (Despite being an established figure, Black, unlike Rice, was willing to collaborate without being given equal billing.) Black, who had spent years commuting between London, New York, and Los Angeles, proposed a storyline about a middle-aged British woman's romantic experiences in the two American coastal cities. Lloyd Webber agreed, and the two wrote Tell Me on a Sunday, to which the composer contributed a typically melodic pop/rock score, while Black displayed his detailed knowledge of a Briton's view of Greenwich Village, Rodeo Drive, and the Hollywood movie business. Webb performed the song cycle as a BBC television production in January 1980, and it was released as an album that just missed topping the British charts and spawned the top five single "Take That Look Off Your Face." In 1982, Lloyd Webber turned Tell Me on a Sunday and Variations into a theatrical evening called Song & Dance, with Webb taking up the first act and a dance troupe performing to the instrumental work in the second. The show opened at the Palace Theatre in London on March 26, and 12 days later, on April 7, 1982, it was recorded live for this original cast album. The original production ran for more than two years, and the show has since been revived successfully. Tell Me on a Sunday was, and would continue to be, a work-in-progress. The 1982 version is expanded from the TV production, with several new songs added: "The Last Man in My Life," "I Love New York," and "Married Man." As such, it is a fuller story, in fact, too full, if anything, as the sole character reels from one romance to another with successively less likely partners, from a Hollywood mogul ("Sheldon Bloom") to a youthful suitor ("It's Not the End of the World [If He's Younger]") to a "Married Man." More an oratorio than a theatrical work, it is held together by Lloyd Webber's winning pop melodies, Black's trenchant observations, and Webb's knowing, committed performance. It is notable that, though "Variation 5," heard in the second part, contains the melody, and there is an earlier version of the lyric in "When You Want to Fall in Love," also in the second part, "Unexpected Song," later to become an important part of Tell Me on a Sunday, is not featured here in its final form. Also, the version of the show that turned up on Broadway in 1985 was drastically revised by Richard Maltby, Jr., who dumped many of Black's lyrics. The chief loss in the later versions is the deletion of "The Last Man in My Life," an excellent song that can only be heard on this recording. As it was on the earlier album, Variations is a lively work that gives both Lloyd Webber's supporters and his detractors evidence to support their positions. It veers wildly from classical-sounding passages to pop/rock and even heavy metal, suggesting Beethoven one minute and Jethro Tull the next, before indulging in Henry Mancini-like jazzy soundtrack sounds. The live audience is appreciative of the music as well, no doubt, as the dance movements the mere listener cannot see, and it is clear that, even in what is nominally a chamber piece, Lloyd Webber remains essentially a theater music composer, deeply concerned with drama and dynamics, even if the res

"Gigi [1985 London]" (04/17/2001) Soundtracks Original Cast, First Night (USA)Principal cast include: Beryl Reid, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Sian Phillips, Geoffrey Burridge. Score written by Lerner and Loewe.