Casting a Romantic Spell
Need some ideas for music to play come February 14? Or maybe a theater-related gift for your Valentine? Well, why not turn to the world of musical theater, where love is never far off? These 14 cast recordings are filled with romance and passion — and while not each and every track will fan the flames of desire, these shows’ scores and stories are filled with all of the requisite emotions for the holiday.
The Boy Friend (Original London Cast)
In this playful musical love letter to 1920s tuners, boys and girls are finding each other, losing each other and gleefully reaching their happy endings. Along the way Sandy Wilson’s songs — like the optimistic “Room in Bloomsbury” and “I Could Be Happy With You” and even the rueful “Fancy Forgetting” — speak genuinely to the nature of love across several generations.
Brigadoon (1957 Studio Cast)
Love blossoms in a Scottish town that appears out of the mists only once every 100 years or so in this Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe classic, which simply teems with love songs. Not only does the score boast the exultant “Almost Like Being in Love,” there’s also the deeply felt “There But For You Go I,” “Heather on the Hill,” and “From This Day On,” as well as the humorous “The Love of My Life.” And when there’s the likes of real-life husband and wife Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy, both at the top of their game as they are on the studio recording of this show, the effect is sublime.
A Catered Affair (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
A young couple’s announcement that they’re going to give themselves a quickie City Hall wedding sets off a chain reaction within the bride-to-be’s family in this haunting chamber musical that had a too-brief run on Broadway. Anyone who needs to find just one song to play on Valentine’s Day would do just fine by the show’s most overtly romantic ballad “Don’t Ever Stop Saying I Love You” (warmly delivered by Leslie Kritzer and Matt Cavanaugh). There’s also some fine reminders about the joys (and sadnesses) in long-term relationships to be found in this touching tuner.
Cyrano (1973 Original Broadway Cast)
No one has ever really satisfactorily musicalized Edmond Rostand’s classic love story about a man wooing a woman on another’s behalf, but this 1973 show recording pretty much fits the bill. Not only does it preserve Christopher Plummer’s Tony Award-winning performance in the title role, it features Anthony Burgess’ fantastically witty translation and lyrics and some absolutely ravishing melodies from Michael J. Lewis. It’s a long listen (two discs), so if you need to, simply jump to Leigh Beery’s crystalline delivery of “You Have Made Me Love” and “Love Is Not Love” — and make sure you listen to the dialogue which precedes the songs as they set the stage for them marvelously.
I Love You Because (2006 Original Off-Broadway Cast)
The two couples at the center of this vest-pocket musical might be sparring all the way through to their happy end, but much like Rachel and Ross on Friends one roots for them and feels how undeniably suited they are for one another on this tuneful recording. It doesn’t hurt that Colin Hanlon and Farah Alvin, who play the main characters, are thoroughly charming or that Ryan Cunningham’s lyrics (which fit Joshua Salzman’s brand of musical theater pop) are so astute.
Kiss Me, Kate [Original Broadway Cast]
After the exuberant opening choral number of this classic Cole Porter show, you get a trio of love songs back-to-back: the plaintive “Why Can’t You Behave?,” “Wunderbar,” and “So in Love” — and the depth of passion doesn’t stop with those three songs. The score also boasts “Were Thine That Special Face,” and the lovingly comic “Bianca,” alongside other classics. And simply put, Patricia Morrison, Alfred Drake and Lisa Kirk just can’t be beat in their interpretations of the numbers.
La Cage Aux Folles: New Broadway Cast Recording
Romance — both gay and straight — is at the center of this award-winning musical. On the gay side, it’s long-term partners Albin and Georges who get to share one of Jerry Herman’s most lush ballads, “Song on the Sand.” On the straight side, it’s Georges’ son Jean-Michel and his fiancé Anne, whose exuberant love for one another is expressed exquisitely with his number, “With Anne on My Arm.” As you’re considering which version of this show to listen to during the holiday, turn to the new Broadway cast recording. Tony Award winner Douglas Hodge and Kelsey Grammer make the affection that the main couple have for one another palpable throughout — even when the two characters are at odds with each other.
Once On This Island (Original Broadway Cast)
Can’t afford a trip to the Caribbean with your honey? Well, that’s okay; you can treat both of yourselves to a musical island vacation with this confection from Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens. At the show’s center is a contest between the Gods, who want to see if love has the power to conquer death. To accomplish this, they conspire to have a poor young girl fall in love with a prince, not expecting actual love to flourish. The exotically rhythmic score has some grand love songs, including the soaring “Forever Yours,” the rich in sentiment “The Human Heart,” and the haunting “When We Are Wed.”
Passion (Original Broadway Cast)
A musical about the obsessive and destructive love that a plain woman has for a gorgeous man may not sound like the best fodder for Valentine’s Day listening, but truth be told, the show has an incredible wisdom when it comes to matters of the heart. Stephen Sondheim was inspired to write the show, with James Lapine, by a new love, and the intensity of his feelings courses through the score, and reaches its peak with Donna Murphy’s impeccably delivered and ultimately devastating “Loving You.”
The Phantom of the Opera (Original London Cast)
Anyone who worries about romance dying with the ascendancy of Facebook and Twitter need only look to this long-running musical for assurance that it’s not. After 23 years on Broadway, the show’s going strong. Audiences still thrill to the love between Raoul and Christine (the late Steve Barton and Sarah Brightman are terrific together with the now-standard “All I Ask of You”), but also the bond between Christine and her mysterious guardian (the plaintive and heartbreaking Michael Crawford). There’s passion aplenty when they’re together, with the other classics from the show, and even in one that many people forget: the driving tango “Past the Point of No Return.”
She Loves Me (Original Broadway Cast)
You may know the story of this one from such films as Shop Around the Corner and You’ve Got Mail, but neither of those vehicles have Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock’s überly atmospheric score. Nor do they have the likes of Barbara Cook or Daniel Massey on hand to deliver such songs as the utterly charming “Ice Cream,” in which the heroine realizes her co-worker has feelings for her, and the exuberant title song.
The Secret Garden (Original Broadway Cast)
Okay, so the central couple in this show from Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon are separated by death — but that doesn’t stop the deep love Lily (Rebecca Luker) and Archie (Mandy Patinkin) feel for one another from simply springing off the album. Patinkin brings an exceptional depth of emotion to Archie’s memory of his first encounter with Lily in “A Girl in the Valley” and by the time the two sing “Where in the World” and “How Could I Know,” the show has an unmistakable power.
South Pacific (The New Broadway Cast)
This Rodgers and Hammerstein classic may have one of the most memorable break-up songs ever — “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair” — but like everything in this unconventional musical, there’s an unmistakable sense of love in the tune. And let’s face it: not only is the score, with “Some Enchanted Evening,” “Wonderful Guy,” “My Girl Back Home,” and even the strangely hypnotic “Bali Ha’i,” an aural feast for anyone feeling amorous, but the work of Kelli O’Hara, Paolo Szot and Matthew Morrison can’t help but make any listener feel warm but slightly tingly.
West Side Story (Original Broadway Cast)
The path of Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria is littered with some of the greatest theater loves songs from the last half century, including “Maria,” “Somewhere” (or “I Have a Love”) and the duet “Tonight.” There are myriad recordings of this one, but the first one’s the best, thanks to Carol Lawrence, Larry Kert, and especially Chita Rivera, whose delivery of “Anita’s gonna get her kicks – Tonight!” carries more passion in a few seconds than some shows can in 90 minutes.
