Since the pandemic, there has been a renewed interest in filming professional theatrical productions and making them available on streaming platforms, but this desire is often thwarted by significant legal and financial difficulties. Historically, only a handful of plays and musicals have been professionally filmed, and even fewer are made commercially available after an initial showing on television or elsewhere.
Instead of pro-shots, we have (at least for musicals) cast albums, which have preserved the scores and performances of productions going all the way back to the golden age of Broadway. While cast albums are no longer expected to be Billboard bestsellers, and most people probably stream them rather than purchase a disc or digital copy, cast albums have arguably become more vital than ever in raising awareness of a show both during and after its initial run.
Famously, the Joe Iconis musical “Be More Chill” rose from obscurity following its 2015 world premiere at a regional theater in New Jersey thanks to the massive popularity of its cast album on social media, which led to a 2018 Off-Broadway production that then transferred to Broadway.
Similarly, “Six,” has also benefited from the viral energy and awareness of an online fanbase that developed through exposure to its London and Broadway cast albums, which have reportedly now been streamed collectively over one billion times.
Roughly thirty years ago, when I first became interested in (and then obsessed with) musical theater, it was primarily through exposure to cast albums, which allowed me to experience both new musicals that I was unable to attend in person as well as historic productions of classic scores.
Today, someone who has not attended any of the musicals of the past Broadway season can experience most, if not all, of them through a subscription to a streaming music service such as Apple Music or Spotify. Or, in my case, I can experience them again and perhaps have different reactions or newfound appreciations.
To be honest, I did not fall completely head-over-heels for any of the new Broadway musicals of this past season, but many have individual songs that are worth a second listen, including “Tulsa ’67,” the opening number of “The Outsiders,” and “The March” sequence from “Suffs.” (My favorite new musical of the season, the Off-Broadway hit “Dead Outlaw,” will eventually be released as a complete audio recording by Audible.)
Many new musicals that did not succeed commercially on Broadway this season received cast albums, which could inspire other theater companies to produce them, including “Days of Wine and Roses” (which has a contemporary opera-like score by Adam Guettel), “How to Dance in Ohio,” “Lempicka,” “The Heart of Rock and Roll,” and “Harmony.”
Likewise, “The Connector,” which received its world premiere Off-Broadway and received a recording, could follow in the footsteps of other musicals by Jason Robert Brown that gained popularity through their cast albums such as “Songs for a New World” and “The Last Five Years.”
The most interesting cast album of the past season belongs to a play with music, namely “Stereophonic,” which provides a complimentary but distinct experience compared to watching the play itself. Although technically a cast album, it is meant to evoke the kind of 1970s rock album that the play’s characters struggle to perfect.
Also noteworthy is “Here We Are,” which preserves the world premiere production of the final score by the late Stephen Sondheim, which may gain appreciation through further exposure. That being said, I am more enamored with the cast album of the Broadway revival of “Merrily We Roll Along,” even though “Merrily” has admittedly already received a number of recordings (including the unbeatable album of the original production).
Finally, while studio cast albums (as in cast albums not connected to a live production) have become increasingly rare, for fans of classic musical theater, I highly recommend the first-ever recording of the complete score (with no cuts or omissions) of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” with its full original orchestrations, conducted by John Wilson. This will be soon followed by a complete recording of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Carousel.”
