Album musical

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An album musical is a type of recording that sounds like an

Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume One: The Early Years (1961).[citation needed
] On most contemporary concept albums, the performers or bands sing as themselves, whereas on an album musical the performers are playing characters in a story.

Some original album musicals have later been expanded into staged musicals, including

Tommy. Although Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice may have been anticipating later stage productions when they recorded their two-LP albums of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita
, at the time of their initial release they were, in essence, album musicals.

Recordings

The album musical as a distinct type of recording was popularized by composer/conductor

LP records.[citation needed] Although Manhattan Tower was performed in concert halls, Las Vegas, on television (with Ethel Waters, Cesar Romero and Phil Harris) and later re-recorded on separate record albums by both Patti Page and Robert Goulet, it was never actually presented as a stage musical. Jenkins later created the album musicals California: A Musical Narrative, Seven Dreams, and The Letter starring Judy Garland
.

In 1954,

McCann-Erickson, an advertising agency, wrote the music and lyrics for an album musical called The Body in the Seine, featuring Broadway performers Alice Pearce and George S. Irving, among others, in the hope of finding a book writer to expand his score into a Broadway musical. Because of the limited release of the album, The Body in the Seine is one of the rarest album musicals.[2]

A 1957 MGM recording, Frankie and Johnny, with music by

Robert Cobert and lyrics by Dion McGregor, featured Danny Scholl (Top Banana), Joan Coburn (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), Nat Frey (Damn Yankees) and MGM recording artist Mary Mayo. Also in the cast were Frank Aletter (Bells Are Ringing), Peggy Cass (Auntie Mame) and William Lanteau (Newhart). The recording, which features dialogue and songs, is a complete musical drama with orchestrations by Philip J. Lang.[3] It is unrelated to the 1966 movie starring Elvis Presley
.

A 1959 album musical called Clara, featuring Broadway performers

Martin Beck Theater in February 1960. Betty Garrett, repeating her role from the record, was joined on stage by her husband, Larry Parks, Biff McGuire and Eddie Bracken
.

One of the best-selling album musicals of the early 1960s was

Broadway.[4]
By the time the proposed production was cancelled, Freberg had moved on to other projects and Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume Two was not released until 1996, with several of the surviving cast members from the original album, along with several new performers.

In 1963,

musical director Gerald Dolin. The solo performer is the pseudonymous
Julie Hamilton.

The Who's Tommy, The War of the Worlds, The Wall and American Idiot
.

An interesting variation on the album musical is A Complete Authentic Minstrel Show released in both

African-Americans, the genre quickly lost public favor with the birth of the civil rights movement. Although the recorded material is not original, the fact that the album simulates a live stage performance (without actually be derived from such a performance) makes it a form of album musical. Epic Records released two minstrel show recordings of its own a few years later called Gentlemen, Be Seated! and its sequel, Gentlemen, Be Seated! (Again). Similar albums were created that simulate old vaudeville and burlesque
shows.

Frank Zappa's Joe's Garage (1979) and Thing-Fish (1984) were album musicals. The material of Thing-Fish was presented as an "original cast recording"; Zappa had intended to stage it as a play, but was unable to find financing, and it was subsequently staged after his death, as was Joe's Garage. Joe's Garage was a satire of music censorship in the form of an anti-music government propaganda play, while Thing-Fish encompassed conspiracy theories surrounding AIDS and satire of Broadway tropes, racial stereotypes, homosexuality, political correctness and feminism.

A more recent album musical is

Hungarian-American composer and playwright Bálint Varga and lyricist Lia Barcellona Tamborra's d'ILLUSION: The Houdini Musical (2020), inspired by the life of illusionist/stunt performer Harry Houdini (played by Julian R. Decker). All of the participating actors, voice talents and musicians recorded their parts remotely from all over the world while quarantined inside their homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the performing arts.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ timegoesby.net blog on Manhattan Tower
  2. ^ Second Hand Rose Music
  3. ^ castalbums.com on Frankie and Johnny
  4. ^ holeintheweb.com Stan Freberg’s United States of America
  5. ^ The Ballad of Fanny Hill song titles
  6. ^ wfmu.or on Fax Records
  7. ^ Somerset Records discography
  8. ^ BWW News Desk. "d'ILLUSION: The Houdini Musical Releases Theater Audio Experience". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2020-09-12.

External links

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