01:15:44 pm 
CDs/DVD: Notes on Some Feb. 3 Releases
Categories: UncategorizedToday, a host of new items of interest to theater fans hit store shelves. I've had a chance to preview most of them, so here are some brief thoughts.
Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway - the final performance of Jonathan Larson's multi-award winning show was captured in HD and subsequently show in movie theaters around the country. As you might imagine, it looks good and sounds great on disc and depending on which version you buy (DVD or Blu-Ray from Sony Pictures), the recorded show comes with a host of bonus features. I've spun through the ones that come on the DVD and admit to having a penchant for watching the folks as they wait on line for the ticket lottery on the show's last day. There's something about the teens and then the young adults, who've literally grown up with the show, talk about the musical that gets to me. Also, the mini-documentary about "The Final Days on Broadway" is quite satisfying.
Another Broadway performance that's been captured (sort of) is from Hybrid Recordings. It's Liza's at the Palace…, a two-disc set that preserves the songs that Minnelli performed during her limited engagement at Broadway's Palace Theatre over the holidays. The legendary performer sounds even better on these studio recordings than she did in the theater. The diction on "If You Hadn't, But You Did," a little blurry when heard live and amplified, is perfect here. Similarly, the strain of singing the full-two act piece in one night, which crept in during the second half of the show, when Minnelli pays tribute to godmother Kay Thompson, is completely absent. For those who managed to see the show, these discs will be a terrific keepsake, and for those who were unable to see Minnelli, the discs will only make them even sorrier they didn't.
Singer-songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway's latest CD, At Last (from Telarc Records), also hits stores today and this blues-y, jazzy disc is a delightful combination of standards, pop hits, and Callaway's original songs. On this one, I was hooked with the singer's joyous improvisations on the opening track, Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?" Somehow, a tune I've always thought to be melancholy turns into something celebratory. Callaway's take on "Lazy Afternoon" – from Jerome Moross and John Latouche's The Golden Apple - is gently seductive, The singer's delicacy with a tune is beautifully in evidence in her rendition of "Over the Rainbow," and her sensitivity as a writer of distinctive melodies with intelligent lyrics is probably best heard in the disc's penultimate track, a Latin-infused tune called "Finding Beauty." Not to be too coy, but this release is a beaut.
Also coming out today a quartet of Richard Rodgers releases that I'll be covering in the coming weeks for a piece I’m working on for TheaterMania. As most readers probably know, the centerpiece of these releases is the all-star recording of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Allegro, featuring Patrick Wilson in the central role of the allegorical figure Joe Taylor, Jr., and a host of other exceptional Broadway performers, such as Laura Benanti, Norbert Leo Butz, Judy Kuhn and Audra McDonald. The two-disc set, from Masterworks Broadway, comes with a handsome booklet that includes the libretto, a fascinating essay from Bert Fink of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, and a transcript of comments that Stephen Sondheim, who was an assistant on the original production, made when the show was produced at Encores! in 1994.
Also from Masterworks Broadway and ArkivMusic and available today: a trio of first-time digital releases of three other discs with Rodgers music. For those with a taste for the tracks only, the Music Theatre of Lincoln Center's Carousel, a studio recording of Oklahoma! featuring Nelson Eddy, and a New York Philharmonic recording of Rodgers' music, with the composer conducting, are all available on iTunes. For those who want to have the actual discs, ArkivMusic is once again partnering with Masterworks with print-on-demand releases, complete with newly printed booklets.
---- Andy Propst
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