Reviews of Cast Recordings, Soundtracks from Musicals & Music

It’s a title that almost screams ‘First World Problems’: Girl In A Crisis. Flic (Lorna Want) is really a young lady rather than the dictionary definition of ‘girl’ (that is, ‘a female child’), and though her problems are indeed, as it transpires, rather negligible on a global scale, they are at least amusing to listen to in their absurdity in this cast recording. Flic … [Read more...]

With even the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization going for alternative takes on showtunes from that era (in the form of a series of videos under the umbrella heading ‘R&H Goes Pop!’ on YouTube), and so many other radical reinterpretations of musical theatre numbers out there, experiencing a show like Musicality - Stars From The West End is rather like coming … [Read more...]

There’s a living room ambience to this recording, which goes well with its first incarnation as a production at the Jack Studio Theatre in south-east London, a fifty-seat venue. This cast recording immediately draws the listener in during the opening number ‘The Oaken Barrel’, and while some of melodies may be more than a tad repetitive, the same could be said for … [Read more...]

These days, one of the most notable things about Neil Diamond’s extraordinary career is the continuing success of his 1969 hit Sweet Caroline. You hear it everywhere, not just coming from bar room wall speakers but from the throats of enormous stadium crowds at sporting events. This gives rise to the strange phenomenon of tens of thousands of men and women singing … [Read more...]

Hearing orchestral versions of songs made popular by The Beatles isn’t a brand-new phenomenon. Later in 2019, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra will also tour, providing orchestral renderings of the Fab Four’s back catalogue, and the London-based Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has previously released an album called Symphonic Sgt. Pepper, which does what it … [Read more...]

I went along to this concert version of Girlfriends towards the end of 2018 and I must confess I wasn’t exactly blown away – the actors were in fine form, but it felt to me as though this fairly subtle musical would have been better played by a chamber orchestra rather than a full one, and I was most grateful for the spoken narration, by Group Captain Victoria Gosling … [Read more...]

There aren’t very many albums like this one out there. Behind the Curtain: Broadway Composers & Lyricists Sing Their Songs, does exactly what the title suggests – a number of songwriters introduce and sing songs they have written. Each song is also introduced by the person who sings it, to give it some background. On the whole, these nuggets of information were … [Read more...]