CDs Now Available:

Disney Dreamin' with Matthew Morrison
(Walt Disney Records - new on CD/on mp3/at iTunes)
Singer-actor Matthew Morrison sings classic Disney songs. "Friend Like Me," "Go the Distance" (available now), "You've Got a Friend in Me," "A Whole New World," "When I See an Elephant Fly," "The Second Star to the Right," "A Dream Is a Wish a Heart Makes," "You'll Be in My Heart," "When You Wish Upon a Star," "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah / The Bare Necessities."

The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess
(Metropolitan Opera - new on 3 CDs)
George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward. 2019 Metropolitan Opera cast. Eric Owens and Angel Blue in the title roles, with Latonia Moore, Golda Schultz, Alfred Walker, Frederick Ballentine, and Denyce Graves. Released digitally 1/17/20 at iTunes

Books Now Available:

The Inheritance (revised)
(Faber & Faber - Paperback Book)
Play by Matthew Lopez inspired by E. M. Forster's novel Howards End, and set in New York three decades after the height of the AIDS epidemic. Premiered in London in 2018. This edition includes revisions made for the 2019 Broadway production. 336 pages.

Playwrights on Television: Conversations with Dramatists
(Routledge - Paperback Book)
By Hillary Miller. Eighteen dramatists consider their professional paths and creative choices, from training and education to thoughts on craft and technique, and discuss a range of issues relevant to the development of dramatic writing today. Tanya Barfield, Jocelyn Bioh, Sheila Callaghan, Kristoffer Diaz, Bash Doran, Laura Eason, Madeleine George, Jason Grote, Jordan Harrison, David Henry Hwang, MJ Kaufman, Itamar Moses, Janine Nabers, Christopher Oscar Peña, Adam Rapp, Tanya Saracho, Diana Son, Tracey Scott Wilson. 18 black and white illustrations. 286 pages. Also available in Kindle Edition.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music (The Fourth Wall)
(Routledge - Paperback Book)
By Julian Woolford. In a series of short essays, the stage musical is re-examined from seven different perspectives, including how the musical heralded the end of an era on Broadway, its reinvention of history and biography, how the film version has influenced future stage productions and the ways in which it put child performers centre stage ... how, nearly 60 years after its stage debut, the musical has a direct impact on the modern world, through its recent iterations ... through Salzburg's recent embracing of the musical after years of ambivalence ... and The Sound of Music in the Middle East, where it has become a symbol of antifundamentalism. Also available in Kindle Edition.

Sondheim: Lyrics (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets Series)
(Everyman's Library - Hardcover Book)
Editors Peter Gethers and Russell Perreault. selection of the most memorable and beloved lyrics of Stephen Sondheim. Includes a selection of lyrics from across his career, drawn from shows including West Side Story, Gypsy, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and more. From the introduction by Peter Gethers: "Working with Stephen was a pleasure and an education. The process was largely my asking questions that he usually answered, my making comments that he usually told me were wrong, and my arguing that he was too hard on his own lyrics and that his self criticisms weren’t correct, arguments I won on a few occasions." 224 pages.

Recordings RECENTLY MADE AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER:

Cats
(Universal Pictures - new 2-disc blu-ray/DVD)
2019 film adaptation starring James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Robert Fairchild, Francesca Hayward, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson. Directed by Tom Hooper. Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Also to be available for streaming on Amazon Prime. Blu-ray set includes DVD and digital copy. Extras: 9 Lives: The Cast of Cats; Singing Live; Making Macavity; A Director's Journey; Making Music; The Art of Dance; Scaling Up; A Little Magic; The Dancers; Cat School; Feature Commentary with Director Tom Hooper; The Art of Dance. Also streaming on Amazon Prime.

Celebration OBC
(Harbinger Records - new on CD)
Deluxe remastered edition of the 1969 Broadway cast recording of Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones' score. Ted Thurston, Susan Watson, Keith Charles, Michael Glenn-Smith. "Celebration," "Orphan In The Storm," "Survive," "Somebody," "Bored," "My Garden," "Where Did It Go?," "Love Song," "I'm Glad To See You've Got What You Want," "It's You Who Makes Me Young," "Not My Problem," "Fifty Million Years Ago," "Under The Tree," "Winter And Summer," "Celebration." Booklet includes new liner notes by Tom Jones, notes by Susan Watson and Michael Glenn-Smith, and never-before-seen photos from the production.

Ben Bagley's DeSylva, Brown & Henderson Revisited
(Kritzerland - new on CD)
Singers include Dorothy Loudon, Cab Calloway, Gloria DeHaven, Blossom Dearie, Margaret Whiting, Sandy Stewart and others. Musical direction and arrangements by Norman Paris. Remastered, plus bonus tracks. Cover artwork by Harvey Schmidt. Limited to 500 copies. To ship by the first week in April. At Kritzerland.com.

Mary Bridget Davies: Stay With Me - The Reimagined Songs of Jerry Ragovoy
(Broadway Records - new on CD)
Mary Bridget Davis (A Night With Janis Joplin) tribute to American songwriter Jordan "Jerry" Ragovoy. Some previously unreleased Jerry Ragovoy songs including "The Right of Way" and "Master of Disguise," and new arrangements of classics such as "Stay With Me," :As Long as I Have You" and "Move Me No Mountain." Produced by TJ Armand. Jointly released by Broadway Records, 1650 Records, and LOML Records. Also at BroadwayRecords.com.

Books/Plays RECENTLY MADE AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER:

Broadway in the Box: Television's Lasting Love Affair with the Musical
(Oxford Univ Press - Hardcover Book/Paperback)
By Kelly Kessler. Explores this rich, decades-long history by traversing musicals, stars, and sounds from film, Broadway, and Las Vegas to the small screen. From Rodgers and Hammerstein's appearance on the first Toast of the Town telecast and Mary Martin's iconic Peter Pan airings to Barbra Streisand's 1960s CBS specials, "The Carol Burnett Show," "Cop Rock," "Smash," "Galavant," "My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," Great Performances, and a string of one-off musical episodes of sitcoms, nighttime soaps, fantasy shows, and soap operas. 352 pages.

Broadway Tails: Heartfelt Stories of Rescued Dogs Who Became Showbiz Superstars (3rd edition)
(Lyons Press - Paperback Book)
Updated version of Bill Berloni's 2008 book about his work training animals for hundreds of films, commercials, and television shows as well as live theater, beginning with Annie. Tells the true stories of “throw-away” animals who came back to work with some of entertainment’s biggest names, names like Bernadette Peters, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mike Nichols, the New York City Ballet, and many more. 312 pages.

Climbing Rejection Mountain: An Actor's Path to Success, Stability, and Self-Esteem
(Applause - Paperback Book)
By Nick Wyman (Network, Catch Me If You Can) and Michael X. Martin (My Fair Lady, The Front Page, Bridges of Madison County). Full of practical advice and guidelines for approaching not only acting but life. Highlighted by anecdotes from Mr. Wyman’s long, illustrious career (sixteen Broadway shows) as well as dozens of clever, amusing cartoons by the noted Broadway actor (seventeen Broadway shows) Michael X. Martin. 224 pages.

Dark Star: A Biography of Vivien Leigh
(Bloomsbury Academic - Paperback)
By Alan Strachan. A completely new full-life portrait of Leigh, covering both her professional and personal life. Using previously unseen sources from her archive, recently acquired by the V&A, the author sheds new light on her fractious relationship with Laurence Olivier, based on their letters and diaries, as well as on the bipolar disorder which so affected her later life and work. Hardcover and Kindle Edition released earlier.

The New One: Painfully True Stories from a Reluctant Dad
(Grand Central Publishing - Hardcover/Kindle Edition/Audiobook on CD)
By Mike Birbiglia, with poems by J. Hope Stein. Basis for Mike Birbiglia's Drama Desk-winning 2018 Broadway show The New One. Sharing some of his darkest and funniest thoughts about the decision to have a child, his wife's pregnancy, and that first year with their child. 256 pages.

Six vocal selections songbook
(Hal Leonard - Paperback Book)
Songs from the 2020 Broadway show, with score by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Includes "All You Wanna Do," "Don't Lose Ur Head," "Ex-Wives," "Get Down," "Haus of Holbein," "Heart of Stone," "I Don't Need Your Love," "No Way," "Six."

OTHER NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Added, for summer 2020:

Diana: A True Musical Story
(Ume - new on CD)
Original Broadway cast recording of score by David Bryan. To be recorded first week of April. Cast includes Jeanna de Waal, Roe Hartrampf, Erin Davie, Judy Kaye. Ian Eisendrath, musical Supervisor and arranger, will produce. Expected release summer 2020.

Compiled by Talkin' Broadway Staff.