Music from Plays

[Katurian2]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 8:41pm

Has there ever been a recording released of the music from a straight (non-musical) play? Some of the numbers within recent shows in memory are so breathtaking, I have the urge to hear them again. (Examples that stick out in my mind are "Coast of Utopia" and "The Pillowman") Does anyone else have any other examples?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 9:38pm

Lincoln Center Theatre's "Twelfth Night"

[professor]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 9:59pm

There was a CD made of the music from Suzan Lori Parks' play "Topdog Underdog."

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 12:15am

I know of very few recordings of incidental music from Broadway productions of plays, at least recordings connected with original productions.

The CD Unsung Sondheim has the incidental music that Sondheim wrote for two Arthur Laurents plays, Invitation to a March and The Enclave.

Jule Styne's music for the Broadway production of Brecht's Arturo Ui can be heard on I'm the Greatest Star, the second volume of the two CDs of the complete Styne overtures on JAY.

Paul Bowles's music for The Glass Menagerie can be heard on the recording of the play with Jessica Tandy, Julie Harris, Montgomery Clift, and David Wayne, which is available on CD.

I think that Alex North's music for Death of a Salemsan can be heard on the recording starring Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock, which is also available on CD.

Moving off a bit from relatively contemporary plays, there's a recording of Duke Ellington's music for Timon of Athens, first heard in part at Stratford, Ontario, then heard more complete years later in the National Actors Theatre Broadway production.

Of course, lots of great composers of the past wrote music for plays, a lot of which has been recorded many times. But I don't think you're looking for stuff by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Sibelius, or Shostakovich.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 12:26am

There's a CD of Mary Zimmerman's production of METAMORPHOSES.

There's also a soundtrack from the Broadway production of THE GRADUATE, if you count that.

I wish they had recorded THREE DAYS OF RAIN...it was so brilliant.

[elmore3003]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 9:24am

Wasn't there a recording of Laurence Rosenthal's score for the Broadway production of RASHOMON with Claire Bloom and Rod Steiger?

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 9:57am

I think that back in the '50s and '60s there were perhaps a few such recordings that have never been issued on CD. I think there may have been one for Vernon Duke's score for Time Remembered.

EDIT:

I forgot about Paris '90, Cornelia Otis Skinner's one-woman show about Belle Epoque Paris, which had songs and incidental music by Kay Swift. This has been issued on CD.

Also, there is that recent recording of Bernstein's songs and incidental music for Peter Pan. As far as I can tell, and contrary to what the conductor's notes on the recording say, Bernstein's incidental music (and not just four of his songs) was heard in the 1950 Broadway production, though the incidental music was replaced for the 1950 recording by music by Alec Wilder, written specifically for the recording. (Of course, Wendy's songs have also been recorded separately by other performers.)


Updated On: 1/12/07 at 09:57 AM

[tazber]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 1:17pm

Nicholas Nickelby by Stephen Oliver