By Steven Suskin
04 Dec 2011

NEW RECORDINGS OF OLD SHOWS

	Cover art for Anything Goes

Anything Goes [Ghostlight 8-4450] has Sutton Foster, and Sutton Foster's Reno Sweeney is enough to make this one of the top Anything Goes recordings. Everything Foster does here works, and how. There are fine contributions, too, from Adam Godley and Jessica Stone. However, I lose my enthusiasm when the juvenile and the ingenue start singing those interpolated numbers. Fortunately, Foster sings on most of the tracks. The band sounds great, too, with the orchestrations from the 1987 Lincoln Center Theater revival enhanced by Bill Elliott.

This year saw two recordings of never-before-fully-recorded shows of importance. Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's Knickerbocker Holiday [Ghostlight 8-4450] is one of those scores I've always wanted to hear. I find that the songs which seemed intriguing when I plodded through the vocal score — "Nowhere to Go But Up!," "It Never Was You," "How Can You Tell an American," "Ballad of the Robbers," "September Song" — are indeed fascinating, and sound especially so as orchestrated by the composer. The ones that never seemed to amount to much, don't. But this CD, recorded live at two concerts by conductor James Bagwell and his Collegiate Chorale last January, is essential for fans of Weill. The cast is headed by Kelli O'Hara — very good in a relatively small role — and Victor Garber. Ben Davis and Bryce Pinkham also do quite well.

Strike Up the Band: The 1930 Broadway Score [PS Classics PS-1100] is precisely what the title indicates. This collaboration between the Gershwins and George S. Kaufman closed in Atlantic City in 1927. Kaufman handed over his libretto to Morrie Ryskind — his collaborator on the 1928 Marx Bros. musical, Animal Crackers. Ryskind prepared a heavily revamped version with a half-new score by George and Ira, which hit 42nd Street in 1930 and was an instant hit. (This resulted in Kaufman, Ryskind and the Gershwins combining for their 1931 Pulitzer Prize-winner, Of Thee I Sing.) Tommy Krasker of PS Classics some time ago released the 1927 version of Strike Up the Band on CD; the rest of the material was simultaneously recorded, but has only now been mastered and otherwise finished. The 1930 Strike Up the Band is considerably more accomplished than the tryout version, making this disc of major interest to Gershwin fans.

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