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Sony's new series of remastered classic original cast recordings--each volume comes as a three pack--is an unbeatable bargain, bringing together legendary milestones from the rich history of Broadway. Most of the civilized world identifies Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic
The Sound of Music with the Robert Wise film, one of the most successful movie musicals of all time. But not only does the original cast recording feature different tunes, but Captain Von Trapp is played by heavyset folksinger Theodore Bikel, a far cry from young Christopher Plummer, while Mary Martin was much older than the film's Julie Andrews. But the stage version is, in many ways, more faithful to the Von Trapp Family Singers' true story. The original Broadway cast recording of
Annie still has as much charm as it did in 1977. Charles Strouse wrote the snappy music and Martin Charnin's clever lyrics capture the misery of the Great Depression, the glitter of the upper-crust life, and the character of the FDR administration. Andrea McArdle shines in the title role, most notably with the classic anthem "Tomorrow," while Tony-winner Dorothy Loudon and Reid Shelton provide support as the hag Miss Hannigan and the benevolent Daddy Warbucks, respectively. This remastered edition includes as bonus material 17 minutes of tape Strouse and Charnin recorded for backers' auditions in 1972. Since the original 1944
On the Town had never been properly recorded, original cast members Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Nancy Walker, and Chris Alexander finally got in a studio in 1960 while Bernstein himself conducted the New York Philharmonic. The Philharmonic can be a bit stiff at times, but this tale of three sailors on leave in New York is so full of energy and humor that it could be done by a string quartet and still blow the roof off.
