Theater News

DRG Plans to Record Cast Album of Encores! Face the Music

Walter Bobbie and company in Face the Music(© Joan Marcus)
Walter Bobbie and company in Face the Music
(© Joan Marcus)

DRG Records plans to make a cast recording of the City Center Encores! production of the 1932 Irving Berlin-Moss Hart musical Face the Music, which has just completed its five-performance run. The dates of the studio sessions and the recording’s release are not yet confirmed.

The show starred Walter Bobbie, Judy Kaye, Lee Wilkof, Meredith Patterson, Jeffry Denman, Eddie Korbich, Mylinda Hull, Timothy Shew, Felicia Finley, and Chris Hoch. It was directed by John Rando and choreographed by Randy Skinner. Rob Fisher served as musical director.

Face the Music tells of a theatrical producer who’s trying to raise capitalization for his latest Broadway revue, Rhinestones of ’32. Since it’s the height of the Depression, the only source of money is the New York City police, who want to empty their “tin boxes” before they’re caught red-handed. The score includes the lovely ballad “Soft Lights and Sweet Music” and the breezy, optimistic “Let’s Have Another Cup of Coffee,” along with such lesser-known Berlin songs as “Two Cheers Instead of Three,” “If You Believe,” and “Lunching at the Automat.”

The DRG recording will be the label’s eighth Encores! cast album. Many of the Encores! shows have gone unrecorded for financial reasons; the most recent CD, The New Moon, was released on the Ghostlight label in 2004.

For more information visit www.drgrecords.com.