Amanda Prahl - Page 4

Reviewing the cast album for Ain't Too Proud, the new bio-musical tracing the origins of the Motown vocal group the Temptations, is an unusually tricky task. How does one really review music that has been iconic in the pop lexicon for half a century? For the most part, the original cast recording is a mixture of straightforward covers, interspersed with bits of dialogue so that it doesn't appear just as a cover album. Thanks to a ridiculously talented cast, it pretty much succeeds.

With his new album Coming Home to You, Michael Ball expands his reach with a sound that's part country, part easy listening pop. It's an admirable effort, but one that sometimes falls flat.

Musical theatre is the land of collaboration, and anyone who's ever tried to write a musical knows that it can be a land filled with landmines. But for the ladies of the new musical Marie, Dancing Still, their collaboration seemed downright fated.

The newly released West End cast recording of Heathers includes all the fan-favorite songs from the original version, as well as a few new additions. For longtime fans, it's a welcome treat to have an updated version, but it's unlikely to win over longtime skeptics.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that there can never be enough Jane Austen adaptations - at least not for Austenites like me. Coincidentally, the theatre world is newly home to not one, but two works based on Austen's masterpiece Emma: Paul Gordon's musical adaptation, a regional staple for years, has finally received a cast recording.

In 2010, the musical comedy Band Geeks premiered at Goodspeed, and now, almost nine years later, its score is finally available for listening. The EP of Band Geeks features seven of Mark Allen, Gaby Alter, and Tommy Newman's catchy songs. While it's very clearly a product of its time - that late 2000s/early-Glee era pop sound - every song is funny and earnest with charm to spare.

There are few things as difficult as penning a follow-up to a beloved classic. That's the challenge that faced the writers of Disney's Mary Poppins Returns, the next-generation sequel to the iconic 1964 film. Fortunately for us all, veteran songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman were more than up to the task, creating a score that seamlessly blends in with our favorite songs of old while producing some new magical moments of its own.

When it comes to sweeping, grand romances, the musicals from the 'golden age' of the mid-20th century can't be beat - including Brigadoon, which most recently received a production at New York City Center in 2017. Starring Kelli O'Hara and Patrick Wilson, the cast album is a lush rendering of the magical musical set in the mists of the Scottish Highlands.

The intersection of Broadway/opera and sacred music seems like a natural fit. Both are often larger than life, both speak to a very specific message, and both use a wide range of instrumentation and vocals. On Sarah Brightman's new album, Hymn, she combines the two genres to mixed effect. While the more traditional sounds are lovely and suit her voice well, the contemporary songs tend to be overwrought.

Since its inception in 2015, the Broadway Princess Party concert series has gone from a cute one-time show to a fan favorite at Feinstein's/54 Below to a nationwide tour complete with a full-fledged merchandise line. Now, they're expanding the brand once again, with the Broadway Princess Holiday Party, touring through California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and New York this December. It's a new twist on a concept that's won hearts for its sometimes-winking but genuine and heartfelt embrace of nostalgia, optimism, and girl power.

With his latest album, As Time Goes By, Boe tackles a slightly different genre, covering a variety of mid-century standards with a lounge-style, big-band sound. This branching out is a delightful new avenue for Boe that his fans will be sure to enjoy, although the album is not uniformly excellent.

When it comes to 'how I got here' stories, Ásta Bennie Hostetter's is both incredibly unique and incredibly familiar. The costume designer, currently represented off-Broadway by Roundabout's Usual Girls, tells a story of surprise revelations and 'almosts' that will probably sound familiar to a lot of theatre artists.

Melissa Errico is one of the most reliable theatre divas in contemporary musical theatre. With her fierce belt and a knack for finding the most interesting moments in music, it's no surprise that she's released an album of Sondheim music. The surprise in Sondheim Sublime is which style of Sondheim she chooses: not the sly, sharp, witty Sondheim, but the bittersweet, thoughtful songs that sometimes get lost in the shuffle.

While Broadway struggles to find ways to support new work that isn't star-studded or based on an existing property, off-Broadway theatres are embracing new voices at every turn. Among the non-profits on a mission is WP Theater, the oldest American theater company dedicated to the work of women, trans, and non-binary artists. Its producing artistic director, Lisa McNulty, is exactly the kind of leader the community needs: dedicated, open, and passionate about getting the voices heard that need to be heard.

Figure skating and musical theatre feel like perfect partners: both involve heightened drama, intense training, and occasionally questionable costume choices. So it seems incredible that there hasn't really been a musical about figure skating before - until now.

As far as wacky titles go Who's Your Baghdaddy? Or, How I Started The Iraq War is a doozy. First-time listeners might be a little wary of this wacky, weird concept, but they'd be missing out. The musical, whose original cast recording is out now, follows a group of intelligence officers who stumble into a series of discoveries that lead the world into the Iraq War. If that doesn't sound like compelling material for a musical - just stay with me for a moment.

The album for the new dance musical The Beast in the Jungle is not your typical cast recording. Actually, it's not a cast recording at all, but a score recording that's purely instrumental. Even though the lack of dialogue and character voices makes it a more challenging score to listen to out of context (as opposed to a typical "cast album"), it's a truly masterful and moving score in its own right.

If you haven't heard of Abby DePhillips yet, now would be a good time to get acquainted. The social-media maven and up-and-coming producer is a rarity in the theatre world: a star in the making who has never actually set foot on a Broadway stage. Instead, she's quickly becoming an icon for people who are passionate about theatre but are seeking a different path, away from audition rooms and bright spotlights. 

Linda Eder's career has had the kind of variety many performers would envy: everything from Broadway to solo albums to concert halls. If You See Me, her latest release, is her seventeenth solo album, which itself is an applause-worthy feat. The album itself is mostly a greatest-hits journey through theatre history, from Gershwin to Sondheim and plenty of others in between. Although some of the tracks don't quite hit the mark, others are genuinely wonderful.

There's a fairly good chance that Lynn Ahrens wrote one of your favorite songs. Over the past few decades, she's written songs for beloved titles such as Schoolhouse Rock, Anastasia, Once on This Island, Seussical, and Ragtime. Alongside longtime collaborator Stephen Flaherty, she's been part of pretty much every theatre lover's life.