Nov 1, 1977 THE KING AND I with Yul Brynner & Constance Towers. I had just arrived in NYC that morning and had no show booked for this Tuesday evening so went to teh Uris Theater box office and bought a seat Row J, Centre orchetrsa. Later when RCA released the cast album I discovered that the day before (Oct 31) they had been in studio making the album.
Also that trip saw Liza Minnelli in THE ACT, the original casts of ANNIE and I LOVE MY WIFE. Others shows: A CHORUS LINE, THE MAGIC SHOW and the flop 10th anniversary revival of HAIR. (Cast members told us they were closing the next day - Sunday.)
And yes, I saved my playbills and most ticket stubs. Sadly the stub for THE ACT has been lost.
Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com