Posted on Thursday, July 22, 2010
L. Gardner
We were reminded this past week of an episode of Newhart called "Hi, Society"; the main plot involves Dick escorting Stephanie to a posh party in New York City, where she instructs him that whenever he's at a loss for words, to "throw your head back in a playful manner and laugh knowingly" (advice that's come in handy here at PS Classics, by the way). But the subplot -- the relevant plot here -- concerns one L. Gardner, a guest at the inn who checks in while everyone's asleep, and the ongoing efforts of Joanna, George and Larry to determine if L. Gardner is a man or a woman. Only the two Darryls have actually seen L. Gardner, and of course, they're mute. When one of the Darryls mimes that L. Gardner is a woman, and the other mimes that L. Gardner is a man, Larry is left to conclude that L. Gardner must be (wait for it) "a swing dancer from the road company of the lilting Jerry Herman musical La Cage aux Folles."

We were reminded of this episode this past week because we will, to our delight, be recording the new Broadway cast album of the lilting Jerry Herman musical LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, starring Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge, and winner of three 2010 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Actor in a Musical.  Look for a late September release, or preorder your copy here, and receive it two weeks ahead of street date!

Posted on Sunday, July 4, 2010
on a desert island with thee
With over ninety CD's in our catalog now, we realize it's gotten harder for newcomers to our site to browse through our product, in search of what they might like best. So over the next few weeks, we're going to be asking folks on our staff to suggest 15 "desert island" tracks from our catalog -- i.e., stranded on a desert island, these are the tracks they'd most want on their iPod, or iPhone, or iWhatever.

We started with PS Classics co-founder Tommy Krasker, but since he doesn't actually own an iPod or iPhone, the whole concept baffled him, and he chose instead to list fifteen tracks that, over the years, he's found himself listening to repeatedly: not just once or twice, but repeatedly. We gave him just three minutes to list them, so that he wouldn't have time to think about a "balanced" program, or whom he might be omitting.

Click here for his choices, alphabetically, with iTunes links, in case you want to listen along.

Posted on Tuesday, June 1, 2010
ten years
That's how long we've been in business now, since the release of (A&R Director) Philip Chaffin's WHERE DO I GO FROM YOU? (designed as a one-off, with no thought of actually becoming an ongoing label) back in November of 2000. It's also how long (Executive Producer) Tommy Krasker has had the honor of working with Stephen Sondheim, since he produced the cast recordings of Saturday Night and Sweeney Todd: Live at the New York Philharmonic back in the spring of 2000. (It's also a key plot point in the Friends episode entitled "The One With Joey's Big Break" -- "she's been dead for ten years" -- but that's not really relevant here.) So it seems fitting that during this anniversary year, PS Classics should have the opportunity to celebrate Sondheim's legacy with the two-disc original Broadway cast recording of SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM, which we'll be recording this coming Sunday and Monday and which you can preorder here now and receive the week of August 9th, a full three weeks ahead of street date.

With our ten-year anniversary upon us, we've also taken this opportunity to engage designer Mark Bakalor to create a new PS Classics website: one that will make it a little easier for customers to maneuver among our 90 CD's, search our catalog (e.g., "What CDs are Rebecca Luker on?"), check out What's New, and find product best-suited to their particular tastes.

Posted on Sunday, May 23, 2010
Michael Kuchwara (1947-2010)
“When you're young, your whole life is first times: first date, first prom, first time you fall in love. And then one day you look up and your life is full of last times.” – Karen MacKenzie, Knots Landing

The first time I met Mike Kuchwara was in 1987, when the AP assigned him to write up a production of Lady, Be Good! I helped revive. We became fast friends. In those days before caller ID, when he would call me and I'd answer the phone, he'd announce himself as "AP Theatre Desk," and I'd respond excitedly "Kuch!" A call from Mike was always a treat. At some point, Mike and I discovered we were both fans of Knots Landing, which only strengthened our bond. When Mike learned that I was obsessed with TV ratings, he started faxing me the weekly TV ratings every Tuesday afternoon, hot off the AP presses. Those continued to arrive every Tuesday until a week before he died. When Philip and I started PS Classics, we made sure Mike got a courtesy copy of all our CD's, but that didn't stop him from visiting our website every time we had a new release and purchasing additional copies as gifts for friends; his sweetness and generosity were boundless.

The last time I saw Mike Kuchwara was at the recording session for The Story of My Life. He was writing a story about the value of recording cast albums of short-lived shows, but he was also there as a fan -- not just of the show, but much more to the point, of theatre in general. Mike loved theatre; during the 23 years I knew him, his enthusiasm never waned. He was tireless. And just as he was rarely unkind when he penned a negative review -- he could be critical, but so rare in this business, never gratuitously unkind -- he was a gentleman in real life. A good man, a dear friend. Loyal and thoughtful and caring. Philip and I will miss him dearly.

-- Tommy Krasker

Posted on Sunday, April 11, 2010
that woman who mooned Atlanta
Occasionally, when a celebrity dies, we're tempted to print a brief remembrance. But we recognize that others could honor their legacy far more eloquently than we could, so we let the moment pass, unacknowledged. But for Dixie Carter, who passed away yesterday, we'll make an exception. During the final season of Designing Women, when the show was on its last legs, Ms. Carter noted that the cast was doing the best they could, but "if it's not on the page, it's not on the stage." The truth is that, even when the show was in its prime, the best Designing Women scripts -- head-and-shoulders above most TV fare -- wouldn't have been nearly as memorable without Ms. Carter's sharply-etched characterization and delivery. "In the end, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks about you," Julia Sugarbaker advised her sister near the end of one Emmy-nominated episode. "In the end, all that really matter is what was true, and truly felt." What's "true" is that Ms. Carter brought us hours of viewing pleasure, and left us with decades of memories and quotes. And for that, we want to thank you (Ray Don)...

Posted on Friday, March 5, 2010
spring fever
In one of our About Us columns a year or two back, we hinted that we were at work on two vintage musicals. KITTY'S KISSES was one, which upon its release last fall prompted the most reviews of any cast album in five years, with raves from Playbill to Theatermania, from D.C. to Cleveland to Houston to San Francisco, from London to Australia. The second vintage musical is the 1934 Harold Arlen/Ira Gershwin/Yip Harburg revue LIFE BEGINS AT 8:40, which the Library of Congress will be presenting in concert on March 22, and which we will then be taking into a New York studio the following week to preserve on disc, with a 24-piece orchestra and a cast headed by Kate Baldwin, Philip Chaffin, Christopher Fitzgerald, Montego Glover, Rebecca Luker, Brad Oscar, Faith Prince, Graham Rowat and Jessica Stone. Aaron Gandy is the conductor, the score includes both the familiar and the forgotten, and we're aiming for a summer release.

Posted on Friday, January 29, 2010
in the castle of the King of the Belgians
This is usually our “quiet” time of year – that brief hiatus between our fall and spring releases. But late in 2009, two shows opened that we knew we wanted in our catalogue, so we’ve been spending our winter months readying cast albums of two classic musicals: FINIAN’S RAINBOW, which we’ve written up a few times here, and the new Broadway production of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angela Lansbury and Alexander Hanson. For those unfamiliar with Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s “heady, civilized, sophisticated and enchanting” (The New York Times) “perfect romantic comedy musical” (The New Yorker), it’s one of the true glories of the American stage, and its felicities are everywhere apparent in this new production. A co-production with our colleagues at Nonesuch Records, we’re looking to a late winter release.

Posted on Monday, January 24, 2010
Woody's comin'
We were saddened – like so many theatre fans – by the closing of FINIAN’S RAINBOW last weekend, but we’re delighted that this glorious production will live on (aurally, at least) in our New Broadway Cast Recording, due in stores February 2nd. Our offices are currently closed for two weeks (as they’d put it in Glocca Morra, we’re “on holiday”), so we won’t be doing our usual early websales for FINIAN’S. Best way to get it : via Amazon, who typically begin shipping the Friday before street date. Or, if you’re in the New York area on February 1st, one day prior to release, the principal cast of FINIAN’S RAINBOW will be performing and signing CD’s at the Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Center at 5 PM – so you can be the first in your neighborhood to get a FINIAN’S album, and get it signed.

Posted on December 6, 2009
so sugar candish, so ginger beer
The classic American musical FINIAN’S RAINBOW returned to Broadway on October 29, 2009, to rave reviews. The New York Times predicted “permanent sunshine” for this “thoroughly winning and joyous” production; Variety hailed it as an “infectious charmer, with one of Broadway’s consistently melodious scores”; while the critic for The Wall Street Journal stated simply, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more musically satisfying show.” Featuring some of the wittiest, most heartfelt and memorable songs ever written for the stage (including “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?” “Old Devil Moon,” and “Look to the Rainbow”), Burton Lane and Yip Harburg’s score – rendered here by a cast of 30 and a full orchestra -- remains one of Broadway’s finest. The acclaimed cast includes Broadway stars Jim Norton, Cheyenne Jackson and Christopher Fitzgerald, plus our own Kate Baldwin in a star-making turn. Tomorrow we’ll have the honor and pleasure of preserving this musical theatre treasure on disc, and come February 2nd, PS Classics’ New Broadway Cast Recording will hit stores and “carry you away on a cloud of melody, magic and make-you-swoon performances” (New York Daily News).

Posted on November 2, 2009
"magic occurs"
A few years ago, in our About Us column, we spoke about how hard it is to determine which CD’s will “catch on”: how we always choose projects for artistic reasons, but that sometimes projects take on a life of their own that carries them beyond what we could have foreseen at the time. Georgia Stitt came to us in the summer of 2008 with an early mix of her ALPHABET CITY CYCLE, and we told her how much we loved the cycle, and adored the singer – although we didn’t know who she was. Her name, Georgia told us, was Kate Baldwin, and although we should have known her name from her many Broadway and regional credits (including a She Loves Me at Williamstown that still has people talking), well, sometimes we’re a little behind the times. But we thought Kate was a phenomenal talent, so after Georgia’s song-cycle was successfully launched, we spoke with Kate about doing a solo album. We announced the upcoming disc last spring – a celebration of songs penned by Burton Lane and Yip Harburg, both separately and together – and the album hit stores on October 20th.

Nine days later, Kate opened in Finian’s Rainbow on Broadway, and the following morning, she was the toast of New York, with some of the most rapturous reviews we’ve read. The New York Times noted, “Ms. Baldwin has appeared on Broadway before and has a solid list of regional and Off Broadway credits. But never has she made the bewitching impression she does here. Magic occurs whenever Ms. Baldwin has a chance to sing.” The Wall Street Journal called her “the real deal,” Variety hailed her “revelation,” and Entertainment Weekly proclaimed her “a gem.” The Associated Press found her “radiant,” while NY1 cheered, “The true gold in this show is Kate Baldwin. An engaging actress with a bent for comedy and a glorious set of pipes, she is divine!”

You can hear Kate in action by picking up a copy of LET’S SEE WHAT HAPPENS, as she takes on fifteen tunes by Lane & Harburg with breathtaking assurance, creativity, and elan. Equally at home with the tender ease of “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?” as she is with the swinging drive of “Come Back to Me,” Kate mines the rich lyrics of the smoldering “Paris Is a Lonely Town,” exudes romance and wit in “How About You?” and brings down the house with the raucous “I Don’t Think I’ll End It All Today.” We couldn’t be more proud of this album, and we’re delighted for Kate that her recent Broadway triumph will no doubt entice even more customers to discover her on disc. (FYI, in addition to being a glorious talent, Kate's one of the nicest people in the business.)

“Oops, I’m getting old. I remember when record companies made records because some records just had to be made. Such is the case with PS Classics’ forgotten musicals series and their newest entry: a studio revival of a 1926 summer musical that was a hit in its time but is now completely forgotten. Rounding up a studio cast of label stalwarts, producer Tommy Krasker clearly grew up on the records of Goddard Lieberson. Sounding every bit like a classic 1950s Columbia Records soundtrack (with today’s technology behind it), this set merits the Midwest Record highly-coveted jaw-dropping 4 ‘goddamn’s. If you aren’t a Broadway fan and can’t wrap your head around an hour of whimsy and top-shelf vocal performances, such is your loss. Someone put TARP money to good use and give this record company a blank check to make more records that need to be made. Everyone involved should take a deep bow.”

One quick clarification: the marvelous artists involved aren’t exactly “label stalwarts” (although we do work with them every chance we get!), but they are most assuredly some of the best performers in the business: Kate Baldwin, Andréa Burns, Danny Burstein, Victoria Clark, Christopher Fitzgerald, Malcolm Gets, Rebecca Luker, Sally Wilfert and Jim Stanek, among others. If you haven’t had the chance yet to pick up KITTY’S KISSES and luxuriate in a bit of Twenties foolishness and fun, you can do so by clicking here.

Meanwhile, maybe not since our simultaneous releases of MY LIFE WITH ALBERTINE and ZANNA, DON’T! have we been working at the same time on two more startlingly different musicals than THE STORY OF MY LIFE and our upcoming November release, GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL!, which we recorded back in April. A two-man musical starring Christopher Fitzgerald and Jeremy Shamos, GUTENBERG played off-Broadway in 2007. The New York Times called it “a smashing success,” the Associated Press hailed it as “hysterically funny,” and, well, it only took us two years to assemble cast and authors in the recording studio. A spoof of passionate musical theatre writers, GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL! casts Christopher and Jeremy as two desperate and bravely untalented songwriters performing a backers' audition for their new musical about the inventor of the printing press. With an unending supply of enthusiasm, the two authors sing all the songs and play all the parts in their crass historical epic. GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL! was nominated for the 2007 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and the 2007 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical, and its authors were nominated for the 2007 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical. Now, at long last, we’ve preserved it on this Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording, due in stores November 3rd.