Hugh Fordin, the 2001 Grammy Award-nominated producer of cast albums for The Music Man and Kiss Me, Kate, will produce a live album of Barbara Cook's Feb. 2 concert at Carnegie Hall.

Cook's previous Carnegie Hall concert albums are favorites among her fans. The onetime Broadway star of Candide, The Music Man and She Loves Me will sing with a quintet musical-directed by Wally Harper. Actor-singer Malcom Gets ("Caroline in the City," A New Brain) will join her.

The program is expected to be laced with songs by Sondheim, expanding on Cook's new act that played Feinstein's at the Regency in fall 2000 and was later refined for performances at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, Dec. 29-31.

The Cook concert disc will be on the DRG label, and is expected in stores by March 27. Producer Fordin has helmed several Cook discs. The 73-year-old Cook is earning raves for her mellow performances and her still-healthy soprano.

Her recent performances included songs by Stephen Sondheim, but other works as well, drawing on a list of songs Sondheim said he wished he wrote. Tickets ($20-$38) are still available for Cook's 8 PM Feb. 2 Carnegie Hall concert. For information, call (212) 247 7800.

To see the Playbill On-Line Brief Encounter interview with Barbara Cook, click here.

— By Kenneth Jones