Call Me Madam is a pure adrenalin shot of circa-1950 zeitgeist, a screwball comedy pulled from the headlines with impeccable timing. The show was conceived as a vehicle for Ethel Merman, at that moment arguably the biggest star in Broadway musicals, and reunited her with Irving Berlin, composer/lyricist of her blockbuster 1946 hit Annie Get Your Gun. A red-hot ticket when it opened on October 12, 1950 at the Imperial Theatre, Call Me Madam proved to be the blockbuster Merman and Berlin hoped for. They were in the very best of hands: George Abbott directed, Jerome Robbins choreographed and the casting was supervised by Abbott’s new young assistant, Harold Prince. The cast included an Oscar-winning leading man (Paul Lukas), the bright new presence of Russell Nype as Mrs. Adams’s lovelorn attaché and – as Merman’s underutilized understudy – the young Elaine Stritch. The capitalization for the entire show came from NBC and its record division, RCA Victor. Unfortunately a big problem loomed as Merman was under contract to Decca Records who refused to release her to star in what was sure to be a hit record. Ultimately, RCA Victor turned to one of its hottest singers, Dinah Shore, to step into Merman’s shoes for the original cast recording. It rose to No. 6 on the Billboard album chart but by the late 1950s, it had been deleted from the catalog. The recording got an LP reissue in 1977 but it disappeared again until this Masterworks Broadway release, and is the first and only authorized CD version of RCA Victor’s Call Me Madam digitally remastered from the original tapes.

Though Irving Berlin came from the old school of Broadway songwriters, he was also highly adaptable. He approached his assignment as substitute for Jerome Kern (who had died suddenly) on Dorothy and Herbert Fields' musical about Annie Oakley in the spirit of integrated musicals that producers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had established with Oklahoma! only three years before. Berlin's songs for Annie Get Your Gun were all about character and plot, from the bawdy "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" in which Annie affirms the value of a common-sense barnyard education, to the witty "Anything You Can Do," which illuminates her final confrontation and reconciliation with love interest Frank Butler. Ordinarily, that should have meant that the songs were less easy to extract for the hit parade, but in fact Berlin's score produced more chart hits through cover versions than any Broadway score before or since. Star Ethel Merman and her co-star Ray Middleton were Broadway veterans of the pre-microphone era, experts at projecting their voices from the footlights to the rear balcony, and their stage styles carried over to the cast recording. Merman, of course, possessed a clarion voice that was never better represented than in songs like "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" and "I Got the Sun in the Morning," while Middleton's sonorous baritone informed "The Girl That I Marry" and "My Defenses Are Down." But even though Berlin wrote simply and directly, the singers hit his meanings as surely as they did his notes. The result was exactly what a cast album should be, an accurate representation of the music of a show. And since this show was a landmark in Broadway history, that made the cast album an important contribution to musical history as well as an aural delight.

Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou won Tony Awards for their performances in this Stephen Sondheim musical about a homicidal barber and a cannibalistic baker in London. Here it is on CD in all of it's depraved glory!

Producer Jamie Hendry and Sony Masterworks Broadway are pleased to announce the release of the original cast recording of new musical The Wind in the Willows with book by Julian Fellowes, music by George Stiles and lyrics by Anthony Drewe. The cast of the new West End musical headed to the studio earlier this month to record the 20-track album.With music and lyrics by Olivier Award-winners George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, the album features the original West End cast of THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, accompanied by a fourteen-piece band. The album is produced by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe and co-produced by Simon Lee. Tris Penna is the executive producer.The original London cast is led by actor, comedian and presenter Rufus Hound as the amazing ‘Mr Toad’ with West End stars Simon Lipkin as ‘Rat’ and Craig Mather as ‘Mole’; EastEnders actor Neil McDermott as ‘Chief Weasel’; Coronation Street and Boy Meets Girl star Denise Welch as ‘Mrs Otter’ and West End legend Gary Wilmot as ‘Badger.  Also included are Chris Aukett, Joel Baylis, Jenna Boyd, Abigail Brodie, Abigail Climer, Jorell Coiffic-Kamall, Nicole Deon, Emilie du Leslay, Joshua Gannon, James Gant, Evan James, Michael Larcombe, Bethany Linsdell, Ryan Pidgen, Adam Vaughan, Georgie Westall and Natalie Woods. The cast album also features Dylan Mason, Patrick Sullivan and Karli Vale who recently appeared in the show’s pre-London tour.Based on Kenneth Grahame’s treasured novel which has captivated generations of readers for over a century, THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS has been adapted for the stage with a book by Academy Award-winning screenwriter and Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes.This riotous comedy follows the impulsive Mr Toad whose insatiable need for speed lands him in serious trouble. With his beloved home under threat from the notorious Chief Weasel and his gang of sinister Wild Wooders, Toad must attempt a daring escape leading to a series of misadventures and a heroic battle to recapture Toad Hall. Featuring eye-poppingly beautiful design, exuberant choreography and a gloriously British score, The Wind in the Willows brings an explosion of anarchy, humour and heart to the world-famous London Palladium.TRACKLIST1. Spring2. Messing About In a Boat3. Speed Is Of The Essence4. One Swallow Does Not a Summer Make5. The Open Road6. The Hedgehog's Nightmare7. The Amazing Mr Toad8. The Wild Wooders9. Autumn10. A Friend Is Still a Friend11. Toad's Escape12. As If In A Dream13. We're Taking Over the Hall14. To Be A Woman15. A Place to Come Back To16. The Wassailing Mice17. The Greatest Great Escape18. Hush!19. The Fight20. Finale

The 1955 Studio Cast of Carousel was the first comprehensive recording of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s great score. Metropolitan Opera stars Patrice Munsel and Robert Merrill bring their sumptuous voices to the roles of Julie Jordan and Billy Bigelow plus a cast that includes the future “Mrs. Brady,” Florence Henderson, Tony-winner George S. Irving, Gloria Lane and Herbert Banke. Legendary Broadway maestro Lehman Engel conducts this recording, of which Richard Rodgers wrote, “It is my hope that you will enjoy the splendid artists who have made this album as much as I enjoy them.”

A classic Sondheim favorite with such hits as "Finishing the Hat," "Putting It Together" and "Move On", featuring unforgettable performances from Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters.

Music from the new Broadway hit, Jersey Boys, that celebrates the incredible musical legacy of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

2018 release. The Broadway musical adaptation of the 2004 hit comedy movie, Mean Girls is written by Tina Fey and the music features songs written by Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin. After rave reviews off Broadway and in preview shows, Mean Girls is sure to be the next in line of Broadway musicals to become a pop culture phenomenon.

Includes liner notes by Bill Rosenfeld.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
GREAT MUSICALS is part of RCA's 100 Years Of Music series.

Amelie is a re-conception of the Broadway musical based on the beloved, Oscar-nominated film. The story of an astonishing young woman who lives quietly in the world, but loudly in her mind. She secretly improvises small but extraordinary acts of kindness for those around her. When a chance at love comes her way, she realizes that she'll have to risk everything and say what's in her heart. Amelie is nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.

Sony Masterworks Broadway is proud to announce the release of the Funny Girl New Broadway Cast Recording. Starring Emmy Award Nominee Lea Michele as Fanny Brice, Tony and Olivier Award nominee Ramin Karimloo as Nick Arnstein, the cast also features Tony & Drama Desk Award Nominee Jared Grimes and four-time Tony Award nominee Tovah Feldshuh. (Sony)

& JULIET / O.B.C.R. - The full West End creative team reunites for the Broadway production of & Juliet and includes David West Read (Book), Max Martin (Music & Lyrics), Luke Sheppard (Direction), Jennifer Weber (Choreography), Bill Sherman (Musical Supervision, Orchestrations and Arrangements), Soutra Gilmour (Scenic Design), Paloma Young (Costume Design), Howard Hudson (Lighting Design), Gareth Owen (Sound Design), Andrzej Goulding (Video & Projection Design) and J. Jared Janas (Hair, Wig & Makeup Design) and Dominic Fallacaro (Music Director). US Casting is by Stephen Kopel and Carrie Gardner, CSA. & Juliet is Executive Produced on Broadway by Eva Price.

Gershwin began work on An American in Paris in the spring of 1928 and it's premi�re by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Walter Damrosch took place later that year on 13 th December in Carnegie Hall (three years earlier in the same venue Damrosch had conducted the first performance of Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F). In this hugely popular one-movement symphonic poem, whose colorful orchestration includes four saxophones and several taxi horns, the composer intended 'to portray the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises and absorbs the French atmosphere'. The melancholic blues theme announced by the solo trumpet, suggesting a sudden bout of homesickness on the part of the protagonist, is one of the finest Gershwin wrote. Following the premi�re in Boston's Symphony Hall of his Second Rhapsody, conducted by Serge Koussevitsky on 29 th January 1932, Gershwin and several friends took a two-week holiday in Havana. The composer, fascinated by the small Cuban dance orchestras with their novel rhythms and unusual percussion instruments such as guiros, maracas, claves and bongos, was inspired to write the Cuban Overture. He orchestrated the work between 1 st and 9 th August 1932, completing it just a week before the first All-Gershwin Concert at the Lewisohn Stadium in New York, an open-air concert attended by some 18,000 people which was, according to the composer, 'the most exciting night I have ever had'. Cast in Gershwin's characteristic fast-slow-fast form, he wrote that he had 'endeavored to combine the Cuban rhythms with my original thematic material. The result is a symphonic overture which embodies the essence of Cuban dance'. Gershwin's magnum opus, the three-act opera Porgy and Bess, was written to a libretto by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin. Based on Heyward's novel Porgy about life among the black inhabitants of Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina, the opera was started in late February 1934 and the seven hundred page full score was completed in September 1935. Heyward memorably described the idiosyncratic working methods of the Gershwin brothers, who 'would get at the piano, pound, wrangle, swear, burst into weird snatches of song, and eventually emerge with a polished lyric'. It numbers amongst it's classic songs 'Summertime', 'I Loves You, Porgy' and 'It Ain't Necessarily So'. The orchestral suite heard on this recording, the Symphonic Picture from Porgy and Bess arranged by Robert Russell Bennett, has become the standard version since it's premi�re in 1943, this despite the fact that Gershwin made his own arrangement in 1936. Evidently long forgotten about by the time Bennett made his arrangement, Gershwin's suite was retitled Catfish Row by Ira when it was rediscovered in 1958. The opera, a commercial and critical failure at the time, is now recognized as one of the greatest achievements of twentieth-century American music.

One of the most beloved, widely performed musicals of the last 25 years, Once on This Island introduced Broadway to the songwriting team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Seussical). Nominated for eight Tony Awards® including Best Musical and Best Score

"A 90-minute Caribbean fairy tale told in rousing song and dance, this show is a joyous marriage of the slick and the folkloric, of the hard-nosed sophistication of Broadway musical theater and the indigenous culture of a tropical isle." – Frank Rich, The New York Times

Masterworks Broadway is proud to announce the release of the New Broadway Cast Recording of Merrily We Roll Along. This first ever Broadway revival of the musical is directed by multi-Olivier Award� winner Maria Friedman, and features music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, a book by George Furth, and is based on the original play by George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart. Starring Daniel Radcliffe as Charley Kringas, Jonathan Groff as Franklin Shepard, and Lindsay Mendez as Mary Flynn, Merrily We Roll Along also features Krystal Joy Brown as Gussie Carnegie, Katie Rose Clarke as Beth Shepard, and Reg Rogers as Joe Josephson. - Spanning three decades in the entertainment business, Merrily We Roll Along charts the turbulent relationship between composer Franklin Shepard and his two lifelong friends - writer Mary and lyricist & playwright Charley. An inventive cult-classic ahead of it's time, Merrily We Roll Along features some of Stephen Sondheim's most celebrated and personal songs.

Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) 2015 two CD set. The original Broadway cast album of Hamilton, a fusion of hip-hop and pop-driven musical theater, is now available from Atlantic Records. Cast members from the blockbuster new musical Hamilton, which recently opened to widespread critical acclaim at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, began recording their parts for this release in August of this year. This two-disc album was produced by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter, founding members of the Grammy-winning hip-hop band, The Roots.

2024 release, a concept album from Lin-Manuel Miranda and co-writer Eisa Davis inspired by the 1979 film The Warriors. The album was executive produced by Grammy-winning rapper Nas and produced by Grammy-winning musician Mike Elizondo. The album follows a New York City gang that must travel across the city after being framed for the murder of Cyrus, a respected rival gang leader. The album is a mix of legendary artists like Lauryn Hill and Busta Rhymes, Broadway people like Phillipa Soo and Amber Gray, Kim Dracula (who plays the villainous Luther) and Julia Harriman who sings the role of Mercy.

Under the light of a full moon, something most curious occurs. Benjamin Button is born old. Bound to the fate of growing younger each day, Benjamin wants nothing more than to live a little life. But will he ever find a place to belong? With a breathtaking soundtrack brought to life by an extraordinary actor-musician ensemble, F. Scott Fitzgerald's iconic short story is relocated to a fishing village on the north coast of Cornwall by writing team Jethro Compton and Darren Clark. Winning three 2025 Olivier Awards for Best New Musical, Outstanding Musical Contribution (Darren Clark and Mark Aspinall), and Best Actor in a Musical (John Dagleish), the 14-strong cast of actor-musicians playing 30 instruments perform "MIRACLES OF DEXTERITY ON STAGE" (The Times) - bringing to life a heart-burstingly, magical tale of a love that defies all odds. From Darren Clark: "These songs have then been brought to life by an awe-inspiring company of actor musicians who put their heart and soul into every lyric and note of this score."

The world's longest running musical is celebrating it's 40th anniversary on October 8, 2025. To mark this event, we're re-releasing the recording of the 10th Anniversary Concert at the Royal Albert Hall on First Night Records. This first-ever release on LP has been remastered and compiled for 2 LP vinyl especially by Sir Cameron Mackintosh and his team. The full recording on 2 CDs is also being reissued. The celebrated concert starred a dream cast featuring Colm Wilkinson, Philip Quast, Michael Ball, Lea Salonga, Ruthie Henshall, Alun Armstrong, Jenny Galloway, Michael Maguire, Judy Kuhn, a company of 250 and the 70 piece London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by David Charles Abell.

Lionel Bart's musical masterpiece, freely adapted from Charles Dickens' novel, Oliver! Tells the story of the orphaned Oliver Twist, who escapes the harsh Victorian workhouse and takes refuge in London's murky underworld with the wily gang leader Fagin and his team of resourceful pickpockets led by the Artful Dodger. He finds a friend in the kind- hearted Nancy and when he's wrongly arrested for stealing, Oliver meets an unexpected saviour; but is happiness truly within his grasp? With a sensational score, including Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, You've Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two, I'd Do Anything, Oom Pah Pah, As Long As He Needs Me, and many more, the Olivier, Tony and Oscar-winning masterpiece vividly brings to life Dickens' ever-popular story of the boy who asked for more.

King Mackerel And The Blues Are Running

Now and Forever! This is the show which launched the blockbuster musical movement and played 18 years on Broadway. The unsurpassed original Broadway cast recording features the sensational Betty Buckley and her unforgettable rendition of the worldwide phenomenon hit, Memory.

Founded in 1924 MGM celebrates it's centenary and we pay homage with this 2 CD set of soundtrack favourites and some rare tracks sung by the stars! Included are the Show Boat sequence from Till the Clouds Roll By. From Easter Parade, we present the entire version of Fella with an Umbrella sung by Judy Garland & Peter Lawford. Other first time releases include Betty Garrett and Lotte Lehman in songs from Big City, & an alternate version of Hoe Down from Babes on Broadway with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney.(Contains 2 discs) Run time - 2 hours and 30 minutes.

First Time on CD! The early history of Broadway performance from stars Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, Beatrice Lillie, Eddie Cantor, and more (including Cole Porter singing "You're the Top") is preserved on this exclusive CD reissue.

Originals – Musical Comedy 1909-1935 is the perfect introduction to a lost world: the Broadway musical just as it was changing from a vaudeville-style entertainment to an art form. This unique collection from 1968 includes legendary names and recordings from the era: Blanche Ring’s “Rings on My Fingers,” Cole Porter himself singing “You’re the Top” and Fanny Brice in “Second Hand Rose,” along with Helen Morgan, Libby Holman, Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, Beatrice Lillie and the comedy team of Gallagher and Shean in the number that stopped The Ziegfeld Follies, “Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean.” Collectors will want to own this long-unavailable set and for younger listeners, it will be a fascinating piece of cultural archeology.

Classical Music