AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

Ghostlight Records

This labels has delivered a truly extraordinary range of music during the past year. Under the founder Kurt Deutsch's stewardship, Ghostlight has released three original Broadway cast recordings: Passing Strange, In the Heights, and 13. Not only have these shows been preserved on disc, they've also made exceptional use of digital downloads to expand the reach of show music to new generations. Passing Strange and 13 were both released digitally before they hit brick and mortar stores, and for "Heights," just Grammy-nominated, the company produced a quartet of singles that are appropriate for airplay on pop channels.

In terms of gift-giving, any of these discs would be great for the musical theater enthusiast, and because of their pop roots, each disc has a special appeal for people who may not necessarily think they'd like an original cast recording this season. Stew's Passing Strange, with its driving rock beat and indie sensibility, would be a great disc to share with someone who spends most of his or her time surfing through contemporary rock. The Tony Award-winning Latin score from Lin-Manuel Miranda for "Heights" makes it a grand gift for the person who gravitates toward the stylings of Celia Cruz or Mark Anthony. And Jason Robert Brown's smart songs for the tween-set in "13" make this a grand gift idea for the HSM fanatic that you know.

It's worth noting that these discs come generously packed booklets, that feature full-color photos, lyrics and terrific liner notes, marvelously continuing the tradition of having original cast recordings serve as the record (no pun intended) of the production for theater fans.

In addition to these cast recordings, Ghostlight also preserved two off-Broadway shows and two L.A. productions during the past year. In the former category, one show truly stands out – Make Me a Song, the delightful revue of composer-lyricist William Finn's work.In "Song," tunes from most of Finn's major shows are represented – the "Falsettos" trilogy, "New Brain" and "Elegies" are represented alongside other shows like the almost forgotten Romance in Hard Times and an unproduced musical version of Kaufman and Ferber's The Royal Family. The spirited and emotional vocals from the show's four-person ensemble somehow make Finn's already infectious tunes even more so, and this two-disc set is a grand way to celebrate Finn's achievements, and as a gift, is a great way of introducing him to people who might not be aware of the breadth of his work. The company's second off-Broadway cast recording is of Mark Baron and Jeffrey Jackson's musical Frankenstein. It's has been released under the auspices of the newly created "Friends of Ghostlight" label, and really is good for the person who wants a copy of every cast recording that comes out during the year

From the other coast come two highly different releases. The first is of the Blank Theatre Company's production of Michael John LaChiusa's Little Fish, a show about a young woman's travails in life after quitting smoking that debuted in New York at Second Stage Theatre a few seasons back. Like the company's release of First Lady Suite, "Fish" is notable for two reasons – and will be welcome as a gift for them as well. It not only preserves the work of one of the country's most exciting musical theater composers, but it also has been sumptuously produced so that the intricacies of LaChiusa's writing are evident. For a recent production of Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney's Reefer Madness, Ghostlight has gone all out with a two-disc set that features not only the cast recording, but also the movie soundtrack. This might seem a bit much for a tongue-in-cheek musical theater piece, but there's so much cleverness involved, it all seems grandly worthwhile in an off-kilter sort of way.

Tomorrow, more on discs from both Ghostlight and PS Classics.

---- Andy Propst

Fans of legendary singer and performer Liza Minnelli got an early holiday present with the opening last night of Liza's at the Palace…!, a limited one month engagement that brings Minnelli, in almost all of her glory, back to Broadway.

Directed and choreographed by Ron Lewis, and featuring a great-sounding band under the direction of conductor Michael Berkowitz, with another grand entertainer in his own right, Billy Stritch, at the piano, "Palace" divides into two parts. During the first half of the evening, Minnelli, looking fit as a fiddle in a white-sequined pantsuit, offers up some of her signature numbers like "Maybe This Time" and "Cabaret" with gusto. Her voice zings around the theater, and with these two songs, which she's been singing for some thirty-plus years now, there's a palpable electricity. Perhaps even more exciting is her delivery of "My Own Best Friend," another John Kander and Fred Ebb song, which Minnelli turns this into an anthem of survival and as her rendition soars to its conclusion, she transforms what is a duet in Chicago, the show from which it comes, into a personal triumph along the lines of And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going from Dreamgirls.

Among Minnelli's other varied, and often intriguing, selections during the first act of "Palace:" Charles Aznavour's "What Makes a Man a Man?" – which she delivers with quiet power and poignancy, and "If You Hadn't, But You Did", a comic song from Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, which she serves up after offering some humorously self-mocking comments about marriage, and in particular a recent one of hers.

The first half of "Palace" is rounded out with "Palace Medley" – a suite of songs from the years that the theater itself was the pinnacle of the country's vaudeville circuit and a sequence that her mother delivered in the same space. David Zippel, John Kander and Billy Stritch have given the medley a new introduction, and Minnelli has a ball with songs like "Shine on Harvest Moon" and "My Man" (of course one of her mother's signature tunes) and lighting designer Matt Berman wisely makes sure that the theater itself turns into a character while the medley moves forward, illuminating the intricate proscenium arch of the theater.

Minnelli starts and finishes the second half of "Palace" with other Kander and Ebb songs from her signature songbook, and in between these numbers, she pays tribute to songstress, songwriter, and general "renaissance woman" Kay Thompson, who just also happened to be Minnelli's godmother. Here, Minnelli resurrects some of Thompson's own songs – "Hello, Hello" and "Jubilee Time" as well as some of the songs that are associated to this day with the performer, notably the Gershwin's "Clap Yo' Hands," which Thompson delivered in the movie Funny Face.

Unfortunately these numbers, which feature some intense choreography from Lewis for Minnelli and the four terrific male singers (Johnny Rodgers, Cortés Alexander, Jim Caruso and Tiger Martina) who are with her during this portion of the show, prove to be a challenge for Minnelli – not vocally, but rather physically. During the spoken portions of the tribute on opening night, Minnelli was audibly winded, and it was difficult to not worry about the performer's ability to continue. Any concerns, though, were (and most likely will be) unfounded as she recovered beautifully, and continued to belt out numbers like "Mammy."

The new around Broadway this holiday season has been pretty dark with news arriving daily about shows closing. Minnelli, and company, are helping to make the Great White Way a little brighter.

---- Andy Propst

Liza's at the Palace…! continues through December 28. Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8PM with matinees on Sundays at 3PM. On Wednesday, December 24th there will be a special 3PM matinee performance and no 8PM evening show. Tickets prices range from $125 to $55 and can be purchased by calling 212-307-4100 or 800-755-4000 or by visiting www.ticketmaster.com. Further information, and online ticketing, is available at www.LizasAtThePalace.com