The Lieutenant (1975 Original Broadway Cast Recording) - Thought to be lost

[a12la]

Posted: 12/30/18 at 10:24pm

In 1975, Best Musical nominee "The Lieutenant", a rock opera about the trial of Lieutenant William Calley Jr. during the Vietnam War, recorded a cast album, but it was never released to the public, as the show closed after just nine performances and seven previews. However, a few promotional copies of the album on vinyl made it out in to the public and have been passed around collectors and traders for the past 44 years. However, to the best of my knowledge, nothing from this recording had ever been digitized, and as a result, this excellent show has essentially been forgotten.

A few months ago, I stumbled upon a copy of the cast recording on a vinyl collectors site and I decided to buy it (it only cost me $150, which was significantly less than I expected), to preserve it forever. Today, I finally got around to not only ripping the audio from the vinyl, but tracking and cleaning up the audio as well. Here's a link to the album: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1z9381RLr8i7SJsb-gPbREJPHLBRPH64B

Also included are the high-quality lossless audio files that I ripped directly from the two LPs. These don't have any of the edits I made to clean up the scratches and pops, and aren't split up by track, but I thought some of you might be interested in them as well.

I hope you all enjoy this bit of Broadway history, that was presumed lost for so many years. Updated On: 12/30/18 at 10:24 PM

[HogansHero]

Posted: 12/30/18 at 11:35pm

and Carmine Ragusa is the Lieutenant!

[Niles Silvers]

Posted: 12/31/18 at 8:04am

There have been digital files floating around for a while, but I've never heard them, so thanks for this bit of theatrical history.  Was there two different covers for the 2 LPs because the one I saw was different.   

[ceisen]

Posted: 12/31/18 at 10:07pm

Thanks so much for posting this! What a great find! I've been a cast album collector for years and never knew this was even recorded. If I remember correctly, it got fairly decent reviews but was overshadowed by the bigger musicals of that season, The Wiz and Shenandoah.

Thanks again-I can't wait to listen.

[Niles Silvers]

Posted: 12/31/18 at 10:38pm

Slightly OT: happened to watch a video of the 1975 Tony Awards the other day.  Strangely,, it did not feature performances of the nominated musicals, but it did feature one of the most bizarre opening numbers ever, complete with a black-faced Al Jolson impersonator, who somehow missed his opening cue.  Maybe The Lieutenant was too controversial for prime time?  Who knows.

[a12la]

Posted: 1/1/19 at 1:57am

Niles Silvers said: "There have been digital files floating around for a while, but I've never heard them, so thanks for this bit of theatrical history. Was there two different covers for the 2 LPs because the oneI saw was different."

Nope, both LPs were in one sleeve, with this as the cover. The cover art on castalbums.org (which is basically the only record I can find of this album existing) looks to me like cropped show art (as it doesn't say anything like "Original Broadway Cast Recording"). Is that the art you're talking about.

Also, I'm curious as to where these files were floating around, because I looked in a lot of places trying to find them before I went through the trouble of making this rip but I couldn't find anything anywhere.

[Niles Silvers]

Posted: 1/1/19 at 3:47am

 

This guy claimed to have some recordings, but I never followed through and asked about them.

http://castalbums.org/forums/recordings/The-Lieutenant-1975-Original-Broadway-Cast/618

Here is the cover, but I'm thinking it might be from the Playbill.



Regards

[round2]

Posted: 1/2/19 at 2:59pm

This is an unexpected buried nugget. Thank you! Hadn't expected to ever get to hear recordings from this musical, which seemed extremely bold in its subject matter, so directly confronting Americans with one of our worst failures, in the My Lai Massacre. Curious how well it was handled. Did anyone here see it? 

Updated On: 1/2/19 at 02:59 PM

[Girafarig]

Posted: 5/25/21 at 11:27pm

I know this is such an old thread but I want to say thank you for this!!! This has honestly turned into a new fav for me :) Apparently they were considering a revival in 2018... here's hoping that turns into something some day!!

I also tried my hand at making an upscaled version of the album cover that goes around using a slightly higher quality scan of the playbill. Idk if this'll be useful for anyone but I thought I'd share :) 730 x 730 instead of 200 x 200. https://imgur.com/JcD7VFH

Updated On: 5/26/21 at 11:27 PM