CAST RECORDINGS
Using the astonishingly fresh music of Jerome Kern and the lyrics of over a dozen of his collaborators, including Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, and P.G. Wodehouse, THE LAND WHERE THE GOOD SONGS GO, a new revue, weaves the stories of three couples (how they meet, fall in love, and face life's inevitable challenges) into a theatrical song cycle that sparkles with wit, tenderness, and warmth. A cast of top Broadway talents -- Kate Baldwin, Heidi Blickstenstaff, Rebecca Luker, Philip Chaffin, Graham Rowat and Matthew Scott -- offer delectable renditions of over 30 Kern songs, for which music director David Loud provides brand new vocal arrangements and orchestrations: standards such as “A Fine Romance”, “Long Ago (and Far Away)” “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” and “The Way You Look Tonight,” as well as forgotten tunes like "An Irish Husband," "Bill's a Liar," "We're Crooks," "The Subway Express," "Ain't It Funny...?" and "Never Marry a Girl." THE LAND WHERE THE GOOD SONGS GO was first presented in New York City at Merkin Concert Hall in November of 2010, leading Playbill to rave, "For fans of Jerome Kern, [it's] a religious experience."
Could SWEET BYE AND BYE be the greatest theatre score no one’s ever heard? It certainly boasts an amazing pedigree: music by Vernon Duke, lyrics by Ogden Nash, a book by S. J. Perelman and Al Hirschfeld. It crashed and burned during its pre-Broadway tryout in 1946 for various reasons -- some conceptual, some creative, some casting-related -- but at the end of the day what’s left is a glorious collection of songs: restlessly inventive, playful and romantic -- perhaps Vernon Duke’s finest theatrical achievement. A futuristic farce sending up big business, telecommunications, robotics, space travel, self-help groups and even the traditions of courtship and matrimony, at heart SWEET BYE AND BYE is a simple love story with some of the most beautiful ballads Broadway had ever heard. Featuring a cast of Broadway and recording veterans -- including Danny Burstein, Philip Chaffin, Jim Stanek, Heidi Blickenstaff, Graham Rowat, Michele Ragusa, Telly Leung, Sara Jean Ford and, in the starring role originated by Dolores Gray, Marin Mazzie (with guest appearances by Fred Applegate, John Cullum, Georgia Engel, Joel Hatch, Edward Hibbert and Rebecca Luker) -- SWEET BYE AND BYE is perhaps the ultimate jewel in the crown of PS Classics’ forgotten musicals series.
LIFE BEGINS AT 8:40 – featuring Arlen's ebullient melodies, Gershwin and Harburg's smart and playful lyrics, and captivating performances by an all-star cast including Bert Lahr and Ray Bolger – was one of the most lavish revues of the 1930s, and a solid hit of the 1934–5 season, spawning such standards as “You're a Builder-Upper” and “Fun to Be Fooled.” But it wasn't until 75 years later that the score would be heard again, in a concert presented in March 2010 at the Library of Congress, supervised by Betty Auman and Robert Kimball and sponsored by the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts.
That performance – featuring a full 24-piece orchestra conducted by Aaron Gandy and a cast of Broadway and recording veterans including Kate Baldwin, Philip Chaffin, Christopher Fitzgerald, Montego Glover, Rebecca Luker, Brad Oscar, Faith Prince, Graham Rowat and Jessica Stone – has been stunningly preserved in this new studio cast album. Arlen, Gershwin and Harburg's witty and effervescent score (set to the original orchestrations by Hans Spialek, Robert Russell Bennett and Don Walker, faithfully restored by Larry Moore) is brought vividly to life in PS Classics' world premiere recording.
Suggested by the letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, LOVEMUSIK features a book by Pulitzer and Tony Award®-winner Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy, Parade), and was directed by 21-time Tony Award® winner Harold Prince (The Phantom of the Opera, Cabaret, and Sweeney Todd).
LoveMusik follows the lives of the unlikeliest of lovers – the brilliant, intellectual German composer Kurt Weill (Michael Cerveris) and the woman who became his muse and star, Lotte Lenya (Donna Murphy). LoveMusik is an epic romance, set in Berlin, Paris, Broadway and Hollywood, spanning 25 years in the lives of this complicated couple.