New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Masterworks Broadway announces its Autumn 2016 releases including three classic albums from the archives - Simply
Heavenly - 1957
Original Broadway Cast Recording (October 14), A Christmas Carol - 1995 Original Cast Recording (November 4) and
Spoon River Anthology - 1963
Original Broadway Cast Recording (November 11). Upon release, each title will be accompanied by new album pages and photos on MasterworksBroadway.com.
Starring Claudia McNeil and Melvin Stewart, Simply
Heavenly was written by Harlem renaissance poet Langston Hughes based on his novel "Simple Takes a Wife and Other
Simple Stories." With music by
David Martin, Simply
Heavenly was originally produced for the Off-Broadway 85th Street Playhouse. The show transferred to Broadway's Playhouse Theatre on August 20th 1957 when fire violations forced the closure of the original venue. Hughes continually looked to the musical stage for success following the groundbreaking 1947 original production of Kurt Weill and Elmer Rice's Street Scene for which he wrote lyrics. Set in Harlem of the '50s, Simply
Heavenly follows Jess
Simple as he tries to raise enough money for a divorce so he can marry his new love and eloquently captures the color, humor and poetry of that time and place. McNeil had made her Broadway debut as a replacement cast member in the groundbreaking original Broadway production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. She would later originate the role of Lena Younger in
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun both on Broadway and in the feature film. Simply
Heavenly - 1957
Original Broadway Cast Recording will be officially released for the first time on CD in the U.S. October 14, with streaming and downloads available the same day.
Based on Charles Dickens' 1843 classic novella, A Christmas Carol was presented annually at New York City's Paramount Theatre in Madison
Square Garden from 1994 through 2003. Over its nine years, A Christmas Carol featured a slew of notable actors as "Scrooge" including F. Murray Abraham, Tim Curry, Tony Randall, Roddy McDowall (in his final role), Frank Langella, Tony Roberts, Jim Dale, and
Roger Daltrey. A Christmas Carol featured a creative team of Broadway's heavy hitters: Alan Menken, Music; Lynn Ahrens, Book and Lyrics; Mike Ockrent, Book and Direction and Susan Stroman, Choreography. A Christmas Carol - 1995 Original Cast Recording will be released on November 4, with streaming and downloads available the same day.
Charles Aidman adapted and starred in
Spoon River Anthology, a play with music based on Edgar Lee Masters' renowned collection of short free-form poems. With music by Naomi Caryl Hirshhorn and Hal Lynch,
Spoon River Anthology weaves the epitaphs of the residents of fictional small town
Spoon River into a chilling history of turn-of-the century America. Also starring Betty Garrett, Joyce Van Patten and Robert Elston, the show opened at the Booth Theatre on
September 29, 1963 and ran for 111 performances. The
Original Broadway Cast Recording of
Spoon River Anthology makes its CD debut November 11, with streaming and downloads available the same day.
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Simply
Heavenly - 1957
Original Broadway Cast Recording:
Available October 14
Tracklist:
Prelude and Simply Heavenly
Let Me Take You for a Ride
Broken Strings
Flying Saucer Monologue
Did You Ever Hear the Blues?
I'm Gonna Be John Henry
When I'm in a Quiet Mood
Look for the Morning Star
Gatekeeper of My Castle
Let's Ball Awhile
Beat It Out, Mon
The Men in My Life
Good Old Girl
Mississippi Monologue and Finale
A Christmas Carol - 1995 Original Cast Recording
Available November 4
Tracklist:
Overture
The Years Are Passing By
Jolly, Rich and Fat
Nothing to Do with Me
Link by Link
The
Lights of Long Ago
Mr. Fezziwig's Annual Christmas Ball
A Place Called Home
Money Montage
Abundance and Charity
Christmas Together
Dancing on Your Grave
Yesterday, Tomorrow and Today
Christmas Day
God Bless Us, Everyone
Spoon River Anthology - 1963
Original Broadway Cast Recording:
Available November 11:
Tracklist:
"He's Gone Away" / The Hill
Tom Beatty
"Spoon River"
Benjamin Painter / Mrs.
Benjamin Painter
Margaret Fuller Slack
Knowlt Hoheimer / Lydia Puckett
Fiddler Jones
Ollie McGee /
Fletcher McGee
Lucius Atherton
"Times Are Getting Hard" / Eugene Carman
"The Water Is Wide" /
William and Emily
George Gray
Harry Williams
"Paper of Pins"
Roscoe Purkapile / Mrs. Purkapile
Shack Dye / "
Freedom" /
Hannah Armstrong / Faith Matheny
"
Illinois"
Mrs. Charles Bliss
Pauline Barrett / The Village Atheist /
Mabel Osborne /
Franklin Jones
"In the Night" / Dippold the Optician / "In the Night" (reprise)
Alexander Throckmorton
Amanda Barker / Willard Fluke / Lois Spears
Abel Melveney
Hod Putt
Indignation Jones / Minerva Jones / Doctor Meyers / Mrs. Meyers / Willie Metcalf / "I Am, I Am" / Barney Hainsfeather
Lucinda Matlock / "Spoon River"
Petit the Poet
Anne Rutledge / "Spoon River" / Last Poem
