The disc, on the DRG label, revives and preserves in a studio the 2003 City Center Encores! concert of the classic operetta, with a 40-piece orchestra conducted by Rob Fisher. The album is a rare new disc of an old American operetta (representing the roots of modern American musical theatre), and will be recorded over two days in the last week of January.
The cast mirrors the Encores! company: Christiane Noll, Peter Benson, Rodney Gilfry, Simon Jones, Burke Moses, Lauren Ward and F. Murray Abraham.
The 1928 Sigmund Romberg show „ with book and lyrics by Hammerstein, Frank Mandel and Laurence Schwab „ played Manhattan's City Center March 27-30, 2003. Songs from the work include "Stout-Hearted Men," "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise," "One Kiss," "The Girl on the Prow," "Marianne," "Love Is Quite a Simple Thing," "Wanting You" and "Lover Come Back to Me."
The musical was billed as "loosely based on a true story" and "follows a French aristocrat with revolutionary sympathies who is wanted by the French authorities. Captured in New Orleans, he is being returned on the ship 'New Moon,' when the crew mutinies." Gary Griffin directed the concert version.
The New Moon played 509 performances in 1928, making it a huge hit for the time. It was also one of the last operettas to succeed on Broadway and one of the final triumphs of Romberg, who also wrote Blossom Time and The Desert Song. *
The Encores company included Rodney Gilfry, Christiane Noll, Lauren Ward, Burke Moses, Peter Benson, Simon Jones, Danny Rutigliano, Alix Korey, Brandon Jovanovich, Alex Sanchez, Mary Ann Lamb, and F. Murray Abraham, with Anne Allgood, Ravil Atlas, Christopher Eaton Bailey, Tony Capone, Marie Danvers, Colm Fitzmaurice, Ann Kittredge, David Masenheimer, Jason Mills, Morgan Moody, Karyn Overstreet, Devin Richards, Vale Rideout, Rebecca Robbins, Margaret Shafer, Rebecca Spencer, Susan Wheeler, John Wilkerson, Jennifer Chase, Julie Cox, Alexandra de Suze, Cherry Duke, Sherrita Duran, David Gagnon, Cara Johnston, Daniel Judge, Sara Lerch, Kenneth Overton, John Pickle, Douglas Purcell, Katherine Jacque Schmidt, Sam Smith, Keith Spencer, J.D. Webster.
Orchestrations are by Emil Gerstenberger, Alfred Goodman, Hans Spialek.
*
DRG producer and president Hugh Fordin is a 2004 Grammy Award nominee for his Broadway cast album of the Flower Drum Song revival.
