Theater News

Masterworks Broadway to Release Herman, Sondheim Collections and Podcasts

Nine recordings of musicals by Broadway composer/lyricist Jerry Herman will be available in a new digital-only collection from Masterworks Broadway on Tuesday, August 5 through digital service providers, including iTunes and Amazon MP3 stores. Physical CDs, complete with each album’s original cover art and liner notes, will be available only through ArkivMusic.

The collection includes the first digital release — and first release ever — of the London cast recording of Hello, Dolly! starring Mary Martin. Also included will be the first digital releases of he original cast recordings of Milk and Honey and The Grand Tour, the historic 1967 recording of Hello, Dolly! with an all-African-American cast led by Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway, and an orchestral celebration entitled Jerry Herman’s Broadway, led by Herman’s longtime musical collaborator, Don Pippin. The collection also includes the original Broadway cast recordings of La Cage Aux Folles, Hello, Dolly!, Mame and Dear World, in which all titles include new digital booklets.

In conjunction with the digital collection, Masterworks Broadway will introduce a podcast series on iTunes featuring interviews with Herman, Angela Lansbury, Harvey Fierstein, and other musical theater superstars telling intimate stories and discussing the creation and enduring appeal of Herman’s musicals.

To highlight the 25th anniversary of the Broadway premiere ofLa Cage aux Folles, Herman has recorded a special reminiscence of how he came to write the show’s anthem “I Am What I Am,” which appears in as a new bonus track on the original cast recording; while the Dear World recording has been supplemented with a newly recorded bonus track on which Herman plays piano on “And I Was Beautiful.”

In related news, on September 29, the company will release The Story So Far, a boxed set of Stephen Sondheim’s works, including 33 previously unreleased tracks. Masterworks Broadway will be doing a Podcast series with Sondheim in conjunction with the release, in which he will answer questions sent to sondheimquestions@masterworksbroadway.com.

For more information, visit www.masterworksbroadway.com.