AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

Doing some random surfing over the weekend and dropped by the Original Cast Records site (www.originalcastrecords.com). They (meaning Bruce Yeko) are taking up where Footlight Records left off with regard to the U.K. label Stage Door Records. OCR is now the exclusive U.S. distributor for the label.

The site is saying that there will be four new titles available in 2009, but until then, are offering up the following:

• Ruggles Of Red Gap – Jule Styne's 1957 TV Musical …the disc also has 9 Jane Powell pop songs from 1957 Verve
• Hermione Gingold 1953 Live @ Cafe De Paris - which also includes 10 songs from Gingold's career of revue songs
• Shirley Jones Then & Now - featuring songs from soundtracks including 4 from April Love and 13 newly recorded from her hit movies plus "Beauty & Beast," "Memory" and "You'll Never Walk Alone"
• New Faces of 1956 - Broadway Cast With Inga Swenson & Maggie Smith; the disc also includes bonus tracks of the Broadway cast of Mrs. Paterson starring Eartha Kitt
• Wish You Were Here - the Broadway Cast, plus 4 bonus tracks 2 sung by Rome and 1 hit sung by Eddie Fisher
• On Your Toes - 1950s Columbia studio cast with Jack Cassidy, plus the 1957 studio Pal Joey sung by Big Band Stars Martha Tilton & June Hutton
• Boulevard (Sunset), sung by Gloria Swanson and written by Dickson Hughes in a studio demo; the two disc set also includes 6 songs from Swanson 30s film musicals

I have a couple of these ("Ruggles," & "New Faces") and look forward to checking them out.

Also want to mention that Idina Menzel's newest single – "Hope" – has been recorded to raise funds for Stand Up 2 Cancer (www.standup2cancer.org). Proceeds from digital downloads of the song (which is terrific) help support Stand Up's terrific work. You can stream the song by visiting:

http://streamos.wbr.com/wmedia/wbr/idinamenzel/audio/idinamenzel_001_hope_128.wax

To purchase, visit: http://www.standup2cancer.org/store

--- Andy Propst