Why didn't the 1980 WSS Revival get a recording?

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 2:40pm

Ok, at the risk of sounding like Brian (Bryan?) why didn't this get a recording? From what I've watched on YouTube the cast is pretty top notch, and it's West Side Story, it basically sells itself.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 7:08pm

It wasn't as common the for revival casts to be recorded, particularly if the original OCR was still in circulation.

The same season as the WEST SIDE revival there was also a revival of OKLAHOMA! RCA did record this, probably so they could add an album of OKLAHOMA! to their catalogue.

After CD's and digital recording acme in there was more of a push to record new versions of older shows, but rarely did the revival recordings challenge the originals.

Updated On: 3/15/09 at 07:08 PM

[TheCharleston]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 7:10pm

He spells it 'Bryan'.

[elmore3003]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 7:38pm

Why didn't the Lincoln Center production in the late 60s with Kurt Peterson and victoria Mallory not get recorded? I would think RCA at the time would have wanted the show in their catalogue.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 3/15/09 at 11:03pm

RCA did the shows from the first three years shows (MERRY WIDOW, KING AND I, CAROUSEL, KISMET, SHOW BOAT and ANNIE GET YOUR GUN) but in 1967 the music theatre of Lincoln center went to one show a summer. Columbia did SOUTH PACIFIC (1967) but no one recorded WESS SIDE STORY (196 or OKLAHOMA! (1969) and the revival of OKLAHOMA! actually lost money. After that the series was discontinued.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 1:17am

plus the times were not the best for Broadway recordings in 1980, were they?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 1:41am

Maybe not 1980 specifically, but I'd imagine they picked up once the mega musicals hit.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 2:26am

I could be wrong, but wasn't the 1980 revival widely regarded as a flop? I don't think it lasted a full year, and I thought i remembered reading that the critics didn't care for it much either. If this is true then that is probably why they chose not to record it. If this is not the case, then who knows? Revivals and studio casts certainly got recorded all the time.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 2:38am

No, the reviews had nothing to do with it. As I said, very few revivals in the late 70's/early 80's were recorded. Those that were recordede were usually shows that did not have cast albums (The revivals of NO NO NANETTE, IRENE, VERY GOOD EDDY)The labels then were more interested in recording new shows.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 6:45am

I am not entirely sure I can agree with that. The classics that got revived in the tail end of the 70s got recordings. We had Oklahoma, The King and I, Guys and Dolls, and My Fair Lady all done post 1975. We had Candide in '74 and again in '82 (although the '82 production was technically an opera production and not Broadway).
Then there were the shows that were revived on both Broadway and the West End at about the same time and therefore only one recording was released, and ended up being the London casts like Cabaret, Camelot, and Gypsy. Two of those revivals had the same leads on both side of the pond.
These are just recordings I have in my collection, there may well be more. So to say that revivals weren't getting recorded in the 70s and early 80s does not see entirely accurate to me, and would suggest there must be another reason for West Side Story not being recorded.
Updated On: 3/16/09 at 06:45 AM

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 8:42am

IIRC, the revival wasn't all that well-received. Decent but not great reviews.

It ran 333 performances, a pretty good showing given how long revivals tended to run at that time.

Still, as mentioned, RCA recorded Oklahoma!, which ran 293 performances, and Columbia recorded My Fair Lady, which ran 377 performances. So it certainly wasn't that the revival of WSS wasn't reasonably popular as revivals went at the time. With the exceptions of No, No, Nanette and The King and I, revivals just didn't run that long back then. Most of those shows hadn't been gone that long.

I'd guess that no one recorded the last two Music Theatre of Lincoln Center productions because the earlier ones probably hadn't sold that well. Perhaps the Carousel did, maybe the Kismet, but I'm guessing that most of the others didn't. I'm not even sure those did.

I seem to think, but I may be wrong, that RCA didn't record The King and I until after it was clear that it was going to be a big hit. And it really was a big hit. My memory is that when it closed, it was still doing great business. It closed either because Brynner wanted a break or it was decided to go back on the road with it.

And perhaps the success of the King and I recording led RCA to record Oklahoma!

"We had Candide in '74 and again in '82 (although the '82 production was technically an opera production and not Broadway)."

Also, the New York City Opera recording was of a new version and it was recorded by New World, a government-subsidized nonprofit label, not a label that generally recorded musicals. The production was a big hit for City Opera. But the label that recorded it didn't have to worry too much about whether it sold well.

As it turned out, I think it sold very well compared to most other New World recordings, which they probably expected and was probably part of the reason they recorded it. For most labels, it would not have been considered a chance to have a hit recording. For New World, it was.

"Then there were the shows that were revived on both Broadway and the West End at about the same time and therefore only one recording was released, and ended up being the London casts like Cabaret, Camelot, and Gypsy. Two of those revivals had the same leads on both side of the pond."

True for Gypsy, but not quite true for the other two. If you're referring to the Wayne Sleep recording of Cabaret and the Prince-directed Broadway revival, the productions were completely different. The London one was directed by Gillian Lynne and was in no way a recreation of the original staging, as the Prince-directed revival was to some degree.

And though Harris was Arthur in both the Broadway and London Camelot revivals, the other leads were different: Meg Bussert and Richard Muenz on Broadway, Fiona Fullerton and Robert Meadmore in London.





Updated On: 3/16/09 at 08:42 AM

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 12:07pm

Because it was a critical and financial flop revival of a show that already had a cast recording and a soundtrack. Not worth it.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 12:16pm

Also, Bernstein wasn't crazy about the Tony. If they had recorded it with either of the understudies, Steve Bogardus or Brent Barrett, it would have been spectacular.

The "Boy Like That"/"I Have a Love" between Debbie Allen and Josie DeGuzman was breathtaking.

And there would have been a recording of Harolyn Blackwell's "Somewhere" before she became an opera star.

[Pianolin717]

Posted: 3/16/09 at 12:27pm

have there even been any "recordings" made of the revival?

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 1:23pm

I am not entirely sure I can agree with that. The classics that got revived in the tail end of the 70s got recordings. We had Oklahoma, The King and I, Guys and Dolls, and My Fair Lady all done post 1975. We had Candide in '74 and again in '82 (although the '82 production was technically an opera production and not Broadway).


Good point.

I think that at the time it was on case-by-case basis. It was not a foregone conclusion that even successful revivals would be recorded the way most successful new musicals were.

Columbia recorded MFL in 1976 because they had done very well with the Broadway, London and Film cast albums (plus several foreign albums as well.) The 20th anniversary came to town with a great deal of fanfare and was expected to be a major hot. (Notice that no one recorded the 1981 revival with Harrison.)

RCA Red Seal had a new Broadway division headed by Thomas Sheppard. KING & I was a big hit, and was in desperate need of a new cast album. Decca's old set was done for 78-rpms and heavily cut. The film soundtrack also cut the score. The Lincoln Center revival was more complete but had some vocally unsteady leads. The revival with Brynner had gotten sensational reviews, was doing excellent business and Sheppard got permission to record a lot of material (dance music, scenes, reprises, transitions) that were usually cut from records. In fact THE KING & I was 66 minutes - an exceptionally long LP at the time. (The ONLY number he didn't record as the Uncle Thomas ballet. Of course that would have pushed the album to 2 records. Still it would be nice to find out they recorded it and it's in the RCA vaults awaiting issue. An abridged version was on the 1964 Lincoln Center album - wit a big write up in the jacket saying "First time on records!")

As it turned out KING & I sold very well and was one of the first cast albums RCA transferred to CD. (It could use an upgrade now.)

Motown Records who had done well with PIPPIN and perhaps felt that a modern stereo cast album of G&D would challenge the older Decca album - the only cast album of the show available then did the GUYS AND DOLLS cast album. They were wrong. Decca's continued to sell well - even in a horrible sounding fake stereo edition - while Motown's set lived for years in cut-out bins.

THREEPENNY OPERA was an entirely new translation and far different from Blizstein's 1954 version (and even that was expurgated for the M-g-M Lp.) Joe Papp's production of PIRATES OF PENZANCE was a natural for Warner/Elektra since Linda Ronstadt was one of their artists.

Thomas Sheppard said in an interview some years ago the decision record a revival depended a on the star power, what other recordings were available, and the show's long run and touring prospects.


The industry was changing in the late 1970s. Columbia, which had been the dominant label since the early 1950s, was gradually getting out of the cast album business. They let Liza Minnelli go and opted not to record her show THE ACT (1977) and the album was not done until the spring of 1978 just a few weeks before the show closed, a early release by DRG. Decca had been bought by MCA and had gotten out of cast albums in the late 1950s. Capitol also got out of the cast album market after their disastrous FOLLIES album. Sheppard was working under RCA's classical (Red Seal) division and compared to some classical releases, the cast albums were selling quite well.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 2:06pm

This one will.