Original cast recording of score by Richard Peshkin. Gail Byer, Steve Carroll, Philip Chaffin, J.R. Coley, Justin Figueroa, Peter Librach, Missy McArdle, Janna Morrison, Colleen Pagano, Neva Rae Powers, Troy Stanley, and Ashley Wilcox. "It's Boca Baby," "A Little Tact," "All Alone," "Golf's a Bitch," "He Gets Me," "Nothing Prepared Me for Her," "A Better Me," "Balmy Boca Date Night," "Someone Else's Children," "Another Day in Paradise," "There's Something About Her," "I'm in a Pickle," "Chemistry," "You Never Let Go of a Dream," "Tough Love," "All Our Sons Are Gods," "There's a Place," "It's Boca Baby (Finale)." Produced by Michael J Moritz Jr. Released 6/5/20. Also at BroadwayRecords.com.
BLU-RAY/DVDs Now Available:
Deanna Durbin Collection I
(Kino Classics - new 3-disc Blu-ray set)
Three musical films starring Deanna Durbin: 100 Men and a Girl, Three Smart Girls Grow Up, It Started with Eve. Extras: audio commentary by film historian Stephen Vagg (100 Men and a Girl); audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan (It Started with Eve); theatrical trailers.
Victor and Victoria (Viktor und Viktoria)
(Kino Classics - new Blu-ray/DVD)
1933 musical film that was the basis for the 1982 American musical film and 1995 Broadway musical Victor/Victoria. Starring Renate Müller and Hermann Thimig. Produced in the final days of the Weimar Republic. Extra: audio commentary by film historian Gaylyn Studlar. 98 minutes.
Books Now Available:
August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (The Fourth Wall)
(Routledge - Paperback Book/Kindle Edition)
By Ladrica Menson-Furr. Gives readers an overview of the work from its inception through revisions and stagings in regional theatres and Broadway, exploring its use of African American vernacular genres - blues music, folk songs, folk tales, and dance - and 19th Century Southern post-Reconstruction history. Ladrica Menson-Furr presents Joe Turner's Come and Gone as a historical drama, blues drama, American drama, great migration drama, and the finest example of Wilson's gift for re-locating the African American experience in urban southern cities as the beginning and not the end of the African American experience. 160 pages.
Flop Musicals of the Twenty-First Century: How They Happened, When They Happened (And What We've Learned)
(Routledge - new paperback book/Kindle Edition)
By Stephen Purdy. A historical narrative of a group of musicals that cost millions, were created by world-renowned writers and directors, and that had spectacular potential... but bombed anyway. 118 pages.
Plays Worth Remembering - Volume 1 and Volume 2: A Veritable Feast of George Ade's Greatest Hits
(Ade Royalties and Publishing - Vol. 1 Kindle Edition/Vol. 2 Kindle Edition)
Two-volume set of 14 plays and two silent film screenplays by turn-of-the-20th century American playwright George Ade. Many of these works have never been published before and some do not exist in complete form anywhere else. Ades plays offer a valuable and funny commentary on politics, community and social norms in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Released 5/1/20. Also available: Hardcover boxed set with brief autobiography, a description of Ade's early years as a playwright, hand-drawn stage designs and choreography suggestions, photos, poster art, and much more.
Shakespeare for Squirrels: A Novel
(William Morrow - Hardcover Book/Paperback Book/Kindle Edition/Audiobook on CD/Audible Audiobook)
By Christopher Moore. Narrator: Euan Morton. "Shakespeare meets Dashiell Hammett." "A rollicking tale of love, magic, madness, and murder ... a Midsummer Night's noir." 288 pages.
The Summer Set: A Novel
(Graydon House - Paperback Book/Kindle Edition/Audiobook on CD/Audible Audiobook)
By Aimee Agresti. Novel set in the world of theater people. 384 pages. Released 5/12/20.
MUSIC to be released this Friday, June 12:
Royalties soundtrack
(Republic Records - new album)
Soundtrack from new Quibi series starring Darren Criss, which features original songs and ten music videos by Darren Criss, featuring performances by Jordan Fisher, Julianne Hough, Jackie Tohn, Bonnie McKee, Jennifer Coolidge, Lil Rel Howery, Mark Hamill, Rufus Wainwright, and Sabrina Carpenter, and Criss. "This is a Theme Song," "Just That Good," "Break It In," "Let Your Hair Down," "Kick Your Shoes Off," "Mighty As Kong," "I Am So Much Better Than You At Everything," "Make You Come True," "Prizefighter," "Also You," "I Hate That I Need You," "Perfect Song."
Recordings RECENTLY MADE AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER:
Rags: The Musical
(Ghostlight Records - new on CD)
London cast recording of Stephen Schwartz / Charles Strouse score. Recently played a limited run at Park Theatre, London. Carolyn Maitland, Dave Willetts, Sam Attwater, Debbie Chazen, Alex Gibson-Giorgio, Rachel Izen, Samuel Jones and Jude Muir, Martha Kirby, Oisin Nolan-Power, and Jeremy Rose, Arthur Boan, Angela Caesar, Adam Crossley, Drew Dillon, Matthew Gent, and Natasha Karp. Executive-produced by Stephen Schwartz. Nick Barstow, music producer and orchestrator. "Opening," "If We Never Meet Again," "Greenhorns," "Brand New World," "Edge of A Knife," "The Fabric of America," "Penny a Tune," "Bella's Song (Part One)," "Meet an Italian," "Friday Night Prayers," "No More Nightmares," "Little Lady," "Cheer Up, Chaimlet," "Blame It on the Summer Night," "For My Mary," "Take Our City Back," "Rags," "On the Fourth Day of July," "Yankee Boy," "Uptown," "Wanting," "Three Sunny Rooms," "Kaddish," "Bella's Song (Part Two)," "If We Never Meet Again (Reprise)," "Bread and Freedom," "Children of the Wind," "Finale." Joe Bunker, musical director. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Joe and Nikki Davison at Auburn Jam Music. Released earlier on mp3 and at iTunes.
Books/Plays RECENTLY MADE AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER:
American Utopia
(Bloomsbury - Hardcover Book)
Features the words and lyrics from David Byrne's recording and subsequent theatrical concert, with artwork by Maira Kalman (who designed the art for the Broadway show's curtain). Edited and designed by Alex Kalman/What Studio?. 160 pages.
Break an Egg!: The Broadway Cookbook
(Insight Editions - Hardcover Book)
By Tara Theoharis. 55 recipes inspired by favorite musicals from The Sound of Music to Hamilton, including Eggrolls for Mr. Goldstone served with a side of Too Darn Hot Sauce; Another Vodka Stinger, The Wizard and Ice, Schnitzel With Noodles, Mamas Well-Peppered Ragu, Angel (Food Cake) of Music. With illustrations and photographs. 128 pages.
Magic Time: A Memoir - Notes on Theater & Other Entertainments
(Smith & Krause - Hardcover Book/Paperback Book)
By Edwin Wilson (theatre critic for the Wall Street Journal 1972-1995). The memoir begins with Wilson's earliest foray into playwriting, then on to Yale where he was a student and a professor. He was assistant to producer Lewis Allen and had a hand in the production of Big Fish, Little Fish and the film version of Lord of the Flies, directed by Peter Brook. Wilson taught at Hunter College and later at the CUNY Graduate Center for more than forty years. He was theatre critic for the Wall Street Journal from April 21, 1972, through the next twenty-three years, and the author of numerous books about American theatre. 312 pages.
Les Miséerables and Its Afterlives
(Routledge - Paperback Book)
Paperback version of 2015 book by Kathryn M. Grossman and Bradley Stephens. Offers analysis of both the Victor Hugo novel itself and its adaptations: more than 60 international film and television variations, numerous radio dramatizations, animated versions, comics, stage plays, and the world's longest running musical, which itself has generated a wealth of fan-made and online content. Draws together essays from across a variety of fields, combining readings of Les Misérables with reflections on some of its multimedia afterlives, including musical theater and film from the silent period to today's digital platforms. The contributors offer new insights into the development and reception of Hugo's celebrated classic, deepening our understanding of the novel as a work that unites social commentary with artistic vision and raising important questions about the cultural practice of adaptation. 262 pages.
My White Best Friend: (And Other Letters Left Unsaid)
(Oberon Books - Paperback Book/Kindle Edition)
By Jasmine Lee-Jones. Rachel De-Laha, editor. Originally commissioned by The Bunker Theatre as a festival that ran in 2019. 23 letters that engage with a range of topics, from racial tensions, microaggressions and emotional labour, to queer desire, prejudice and otherness. Includes work from Zia Ahmed, Travis Alabanza, Fatimah Asghar, Nathan Bryon, Matilda Ibini, Jammz, Iman Qureshi, Anya Reiss, Somalia Seaton, Nina Segal, Tolani Shoneye, Lena Dunham, Inua Ellams, Rabiah Hussain, Mika Johnson, Jasmine Lee-Jones, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, Shireen Mula, Ash Sarkar, Jack Thorne and Joel Tan. 280 pages.
Oklahoma!: The Making of an American Musical, Revised and Expanded Edition
(Oxford Univ Press - Paperback Book)
By Tim Carter. Revised edition of 2007 book which tells the full story of the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. Now, Carter draws further on recently released sources, including the Rouben Mamoulian Papers at the Library of Congress, with additional correspondence, contracts, and even new versions of the working script used—and annotated—throughout the show's rehearsal process. Carter also focuses on the key players and concepts behind the musical, including Lynn Riggs's "Green Grow the Lilacs," and the Theatre Guild's Theresa Helburn and Lawrence Langner, who brought Rodgers and Hammerstein together for their first collaboration. Part of Oxford's "Legacy Series." 336 pages.
The Theatre and Films of Conor McPherson: Conspicuous Communities
(Methuen Drama - Paperback Book)
By Eamonn Jordan. Patrick Lonergan and Kevin J. Wetmore Jr. Critical Companions series editors. Offers a detailed and engaging critical analysis of the plays and films of Conor McPherson, considering issues of gender and class disparity, violence and wealth in the cultural and political contexts in which the work is written and performed, as well as the inclusion of song, sound, the supernatural, religious and pagan festive sensibilities through which initial genre perceptions are nudged elsewhere, towards the unconscious and ineffable. Supplemented by a number of contributed critical and performance perspectives, including an interview with Conor McPherson. 248 pages. Released earlier in hardcover and Kindle versions.
The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett: Krapp's Last Tape
(Faber & Faber - Paperback Book)
With notes by Professor Knowlson. Samuel Beckett directed Krapp's Last Tape on four separate occasions: this volume offers a facsimile of his 1969 Schiller-Theater notebook. 320 pages.
The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett: The Shorter Plays
(Faber & Faber - Paperback Book)
With notes by Professor Gontarski. Completes this series of notebooks, with Play, Come and Go, Eh Joe, Footfalls, That Time and What Where. 512 pages.
Understanding Tracy Letts
(Univ of South Carolina Press - Paperback Book/Kindle Edition)
By Thomas Fahy. First book dedicated to the writing of Tracy Letts. An introduction to his plays and an invitation to engage more deeply with his work. Part of Understanding Contemporary American Literature series. 144 pages.
OTHER NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Added, release date unknown:
Our Table: A New Musical
(Broadway Records - new album)
Score by David Shire and Adam Gopnik. Recorded live at Melissa Errico, Constantine Maroulis, Andy Taylor. Music Director: Deniz Cordell. Concert based on original production at Long Wharf Theater.
Compiled by Talkin' Broadway Staff.
Corrections and questions may be directed to SoundAdvice@talkinbroadway.com
A Little More Alive: Nick Blaemire
Boca Bound