A recording of the music used in the Tony Award-winning show Contact will be released by RCA Victor on March 6. Contact opened on March 30, 2000, at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, after a successful run Off-Broadway at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre.
The album will feature all the disparate tunes to which director Susan Stroman set her choreography. Most of the selections were used in the final and longest part of the triple-tiered Contact. That section, also titled "Contact," concerned a suicidal ad exec who discovered a reason to live in the form of a silent girl in a yellow dress who arrives at a pool hall every night to dance with, and entrance, all comers. Among the songs used by Stroman were "Sing Sing Sing" by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra, "Simply Irresistible" by Robert Palmer and "Put a Lid on It" by the Squirrel Nut Zippers.
The musical's first section, "Swinging," features only "My Heart Stood Still," performed by jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli. The remaining episode, "Did You Move?," is made up of classical pieces by Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Bizet.
Contact engendered a furor of controversy when it came time for 2000's awards to be given out. Many contended that the show, which had no original score and no one in the cast sang, was not strictly a musical. Nevertheless, it was nominated by many groups for the "best musical" prize, and won the lion's share of trophies, including the Tony Award for best musical.
The order of songs is as follows:
• "Swinging":
• "My Heart Stood Still," performed by Stephane Grappelli • "Did You Move?"
• "Anita's Dance" from Edvard Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite," No. 1
• "Waltz Eugene" from "Eugene Onegin," Op. 24, by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
• "Farandole" from "L'Arlesienne Suite," No. 2, by Georges Bizet
• "Contact"
• "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You," Boyd Gaines
• "Put a Lid on It," Squirrel Nut Zippers
• "Sweet Lorraine," Stephane Grappelli
• "Runaround Sue," Dion
• "Beyond the Sea," Royal Crown Revue
• "See What I Mean?," Al Cooper and His Savoy Sultans
• "Simply Irresistible," Robert Palmer
• "Do You Wanna Dance?," The Beach Boys
• "Topsy," Royal Crown Revue
• "Sing Sing Sing," Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
