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Hair - Actors' Fund of America Benefit Recording
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Great Joy - A Gospel Christmas
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Myths And Hymns (1998 Off-Broadway Cast, Originally Saturn Returns)
: :Until this disc, Adam Guettel was best known as the mastermind behind Floyd Collins, the gut-wrenching, boundary-breaking piece of musical theater that never gained the popularity it deserved. Myths & Hymns is another beast altogether, though just as interesting. Guettel has created a song cycle based loosely on Greek mythology and lyrics he discovered in an antique hymnal. These 15 songs are a combination of art song and show tune, but all are interesting. 'Icarus' is funky jazz in which the composer duets with Lawrence Clayton. 'There's a Land' is transformed ...
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I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky
: :Until this disc, Adam Guettel was best known as the mastermind behind Floyd Collins, the gut-wrenching, boundary-breaking piece of musical theater that never gained the popularity it deserved. Myths & Hymns is another beast altogether, though just as interesting. Guettel has created a song cycle based loosely on Greek mythology and lyrics he discovered in an antique hymnal. These 15 songs are a combination of art song and show tune, but all are interesting. 'Icarus' is funky jazz in which the composer duets with Lawrence Clayton. 'There's a Land' is transformed ...
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Only Heaven: A Musical Work by Ricky Ian Gordon Based on the Poetry of Langston Hughes
: :Fans of Ricky Ian Gordon's collection of songs Bright Eyed Joy have already sampled eight songs from Only Heaven and will find even more to enjoy on this complete, 74-minute recording of the song cycle. Though Gordon is considered a rising star of American musical theater, Only Heaven is not a musical. But it is a stage work, 29 songs set to the writings of Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes (texts are included), and realized by seven singers, dancers, and a handful of instruments (including Gordon at the piano). While we ...
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Bright Eyed Joy: The Songs of Ricky Ian Gordon
: :Along with Michael John LaChiusa and Adam Guettel, Ricky Ian Gordon is one of the Young Turks of New York's musical theater. Like them, Gordon shuns both the accessible pop of a David Yazbek and the bombast of a Frank Wildhorn, preferring instead to write post-Sondheimian art songs. The numbers here (with lyrics by Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker, James Agee) span two decades. They are marvelously interpreted by the likes of Audra McDonald, Dawn Upshaw, Darius de Haas, and Judy Blazer. Blazer ambles through 'Resumé/Wail/Frustration' with delicious ...
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Dreamgirls in Concert (2001 Concert Cast)
: :A Chorus Line may be better known, but Dreamgirls was a towering achievement for director Michael Bennett. Loosely based on the Supremes' story, the 1982 musical told a typical show-biz tale of fame, backbiting, and survival. As is often the case for one-night only events, the cast in this concert version (recorded in New York on September 24, 2001) is led by an eye-popping assortment of Broadway powerhouses: Lillias White (The Life), Audra McDonald (Ragtime, Marie Christine), and Heather Headley (Ragtime). McDonald reveals a previously undisclosed comic streak, while Headley confirms ...
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Day Dream - Variations on Strayhorn
:Description:An astonishing vocal acrobat, Mr. de Haas combines the timbre of a pure wind instrument with a fearless but disciplined theatricality and the swinging authority of a jazz powerhouse.--Stephen Holden, The New York Times. Produced by Tommy Krasker. Songs: My Love Is As a Fever, Take the 'A' Train, Your Love Has Faded, Passion Flower, A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing, Lush Life, Pretty Girl, Take All My Loves, Satin Doll, Something to Live For, Just A-Sittin' and A-Rockin', House on a Hill, Got No Time, Love Came, Blood Count, Day ...
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The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (2007 Studio Cast)
from: Ghostlight
:Album Description: The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, with music & lyrics by Kristen Childs; the story - what's a black girl from sunny southern California to do? White poeple are blowing up black girls in Birmingham churches. Black people are shouting 'Black is beautiful' while straightening their hair and coveting light skin. Vivea Stanton's answer: Slap on a bubbly smile and be as white as you can be! In a humorous and pointed coming of age story spanning the 60's through the 90's, Viveca blithely sails through the ...
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