Grammy Award-winning producer Hugh Fordin, president of DRG Records, confirmed to Playbill.com that the 1932 Irving Berlin-Moss Hart musical will be preserved on CD with the recent Encores! cast. The release date of the new recording is currently scheduled for May 23.
The disc will introduce such Berlin obscurities as "Two Cheers Instead of Three," "If You Believe," "The Police of New York" and "Lunching at the Automat" to a new generation, and will also boast the standard "Soft Lights and Sweet Music." The show's satiric revue-like form (with shwobiz plot elements that pre-figured The Producers by 70 years) allowed Berlin to flirt with various styles of music, from torch song to march to spiritual to love ballad and up-tempo.
Face the Music will mark the eighth Encores! recording to be released on the DRG label. Fordin also produced the disc of the Encores! concert of St. Louis Woman, but on the Mercury label.
Directed by John Rando, the starry Face the Music cast included Walter Bobbie as Hal Reisman, Judy Kaye as Myrtle Meshbesher, Lee Wilkof as Martin Van Meshbesher, Meredith Patterson as Kit Bauer, Jeffry Denman as Pat Mason, Eddie Korbich as Joe Malarky, Mylinda Hull as Pickles Crouse, Timothy Shew as O'Rourke, Felicia Finley as Streetwalker and Chris Hoch as Rodney St. Clair.
The ensemble comprised Christine Arand, Heather Ayers, Sara Brians, Rachel Coloff, Rick Crom, Susan Derry, Jack Doyle, Jerold Goldstein, Todd A. Horman, Justin Keyes, Cara Kjellman, Robyn Kramer, Todd Lattimore, Mike Masters, Brent McBeth, Shannon Marie O'Bryan, Wes Pope, Eric Daniel Santagata, Jacqueline Thompson, Kevin Vortmann, J.D. Webster, Anna Aimee White and Kristen Beth Williams. Originally directed by George S. Kaufman, Face the Music concerns "a desperate producer in New York trying to raise the money for his latest revue, Rhinestones of '32. For investors, he finds crooked NYC policemen who want to lose all their dirty money before their 'tin boxes' are subpoenaed. The show flops on opening night, but becomes a smash hit when 'racy' material is added and the Vice Squad tries to shut it down."
The musical also features such Berlin tunes as "Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee," "Manhattan Madness," "I Say It's Spinach (And the Hell With It)," "Torch Song," "I Don't Wanna Be Married," "How Can I Change My Luck," "Well, of All the Rotten Shows," "Reisman's Doing a Show," "You Must Be Born With It," "Castles in Spain (on a Roof in Manhattan)," "Crinoline Days," "My Beautiful Rhinestone Girl," "A Toast to Prohibtion," "The Nudist Colony" and "The Investigation."
For more information visit www.drgrecords.com.
