LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts/ CineMedia Promotions) Masterworks Broadway continues to make good on its promise to make available its extensive catalog of cast recordings with the first official digital release of two classic show albums. Lady in the Dark (1963 Studio Cast) and Bravo
Giovanni (1962 Original Broadway Cast) will be available on Tuesday, April 9th as downloads through all major digital service providers and are accompanied by new album pages and photos on MasterworksBroadway.com.
Lady in the Dark, with book by Moss Hart, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and music by Kurt Weill, opened on Broadway in 1941 and enjoyed a run of over 400 performances. The studio cast album from 1963 stars Risë Stevens, one of the Metropolitan Opera's all-time divas, who passed away in March at the age of ninety-nine. This version of Lady in the Dark also stars John Reardon, Adolph Green,
Stephanie Augustine, Kenneth Bridges and
Roger White, all under the musical direction of Lehman Engel. Originally released on CD on the Masterworks Heritage imprint, this currently out-of-print recording also features several bonus selections conducted by Maurice Abravanel, music director for the original Broadway production, including comedian
Danny Kaye's uproarious version of the tongue-twisting patter song "Tschaikowsky and Other Russians."
Based on
Howard Shaw's novel "The Crime of
Giovanni Venturi," about a restaurant owner whose business is threatened when a fast-food place opens down the street, Bravo
Giovanni opened on Broadway in May of 1962 and received Tony® nominations for Best Original Score, Best Choreography and Best Conductor and Musical Director. The cast featured Metropolitan Opera baritone Cesare Siepi, and Broadway veterans Michelle Lee and
George S. Irving, as well as Lainie Kazan in her Broadway debut. The digital release of Bravo
Giovanni includes a bonus track of Michelle Lee singing one of the show's stand out songs, "Steady, Steady" from her 1966 solo album "A Taste of the Fantastic."
