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The reader no doubt already has some of these titles, but perhaps there's something that has thus far been overlooked. Let it be added that the 2011 Broadway cast album of Stephen Sondheim's Follies is not included on this list, as my copy only just arrived. It clearly belongs on your list, though. I'll get to it in my next column.

If you want to browse further, visit PlaybillStore.com to view theatre-related recordings for sale.

The Broadway hit of the year, lest you haven't heard, is The Book of Mormon [Ghostlight]. The show can be described, I guess, as The Producers only with a good score. Or maybe what Frank Loesser would be writing if he were writing today. The cast album is quite as funny as the show; there are many jokes here that you might well have missed in the theatre, due to all that pesky laughter. The score by Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez artfully serves the piece. Yes, there are some tender spots (like "Sal Tlay Ka Siti"), but it's things like the rambunctious hilarity of the opening number "Hello!" and the improbable nobility of "I Believe" that make score and show irresistible.

	Cover art for Death Takes a Holiday

Maury Yeston's Death Takes a Holiday [PS Classics PS-1104] was problematic on stage, the problem seeming to stem from the source material. (This was one of those continental post-World War I plays about dying, not dying, and love continuing past death.) Matters were not helped by the bumpy gestation of the piece. The project was abandoned a decade ago; librettist Peter Stone died; and then librettist Thomas Meehan came in to complete the book. Peter Stone was a librettist of note, with 1776 to his credit, while Tom Meehan is perhaps Broadway's most financially successful librettist, with Annie and The Producers. I wouldn't think to mix Stone and Meehan, though, and the results did not play well.

That said, this is Maury Yeston at the keyboard, he of Nine, Grand Hotel and Titanic. Yeston is one of the most original and most interesting of our contemporary Broadway composers; his scores tend to work even when the shows themselves don't. Much of the Death Takes a Holiday score is ravishing, and well worth your attention. Even though the show, in the state that it was in at the Laura Pels last summer, was less than enthralling.

	Cover art for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Our third CD from a new musical is in some ways the most interesting. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown [Ghostlight 8-4447] was roundly condemned when it opened last November, and not without reason. It was a musical on the verge of a nervous breakdown, given a frenetic production which — as it turned out — hindered rather than helped. I gave it an unfavorable review, though nowhere near as scathing as those of some of my colleagues; while I addressed the numerous faults, I took care to salute the creators for what they bravely attempted. I also suggested that this thing might make a whole lot more sense when and if they gave us a cast album.

And so it does. I discussed this CD at length when it was first released. Listening to it now once again, months later, I find myself enjoying it even more. "Lovesick," "My Crazy Heart," "Model Behavior," "Island," "On the Verge," "Mother's Day," "Invisible," "Shoes from Heaven" — that's a lot of tracks that I keep going back to. Songs that did not necessarily work in performance at the Belasco. Upon consideration, Women on the Verge seems to be a distaff Company transported to Madrid; only there was so much going on, in the innovative but ineffective production, that we kept losing sight of Bobby Baby. Or rather Sherie Rene Scott as Pepa, the central woman on the verge.

And let's give honorary mention to Adam Gwon's Ordinary Days [Ghostlight 8-4444]. If you are still unfamiliar with this young composer, do yourself a favor and listen to "I'll Be Here." Audra MacDonald stopped the show at her recent Carnegie Hall concert with this song; the original cast performance, sung by Lisa Brescia, is also highly effective. Gwon is someone to listen for.