recordings released in '86

After realizing that Edwin Drood and the Sweet Charity revival recording was from the '86 season and both are out-of-print. This got me thinking, was anything else from the '86 season recorded and then out of print?

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The big news on the recording scene was the beginning of mass marketing of Compact Discs and several cast albums began appearing from RCA and Columbia. By the end of the year there were 2 dozen cast albums available!

1986 was a weak year on Broadway:

Jan 23 : JEROME KERN GOES TO HOLLYWOOD (Flop revue, Not recorded - although the London production was)

Jan 29: UPTOWN...IT'S HOT! (Flop Revue. Not recorded)

Apr 10: BIG DEAL (Flop. Not recorded - score used old songs)

Apr 27: SWEET CHARITY (Flop Revival - Recorded by EMI. Deleted)

Aug 7: HONKY TONK NIGHTS (Flop. Not recorded)

Aug 10: ME AND MY GIRL (HIT! Recorded by MCA. Still in print.)

Aug 21: RAGS (Flop. Recorded by Sony with Julia Migenes replacing Teresa Stratas. Still available.)

Oct 16: RAGGEDY ANN (Flop. Not recorded)

Oct 22: INTO THE LIGHT (Flop. Not recorded)

Nov 5: L'CHIAM - TO LIFE (Flop. Not recorded)

Nov 17: OH, COWARD! (Flop revival. Not recorded.)

Nov 24: SMILE (Flop. Not recorded.)

THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD and JERRY'S GIRLS both arrived in December 1985. DROOD, had a 17-month run but was still unprofitable. It was recorded by Polydor, the CD deleted. Reissued by Varese-Sarabande. The reissue is now out-of-print.

JERRY'S GIRLS was recorded by TER while on its pre-Broadway tour. The 2 CD set is still available on JAY. The show was a flop on Broadway. Chita Rivera broke her leg in a taxicab accident and was out of the show for several weeks hurting the already nervous box office.

By late 1986 the usual doomsayers were predicting Broadway's final demise but just around the corner (March 1987) was LES MIZ, followed 9 months later by PHANTOM and suddenly the fabulous invalid was alive and well with ticket "brokers" raking in the dough scalping seats to the two sell-out hits.

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