Masterworks Broadway Announces More Winter 2016 CD Releases!

Masterworks Broadway announces a slate of releases for Winter 2016 including the release of three classic albums from the archives – Sweet Charity (February 12), Salad Days (March 18), and Kismet (April 15). And, on February 26, Masterworks Broadway releases The Essential Stephen Sondheim, celebrating the 85th birthday year of the legendary theater composer and lyricist. Upon release, each title will be accompanied by new album pages and photos.

Winner of the 1967 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Musical, Sweet Charity stars Juliet Prowse as everyone’s favorite dance-hall hostess in the Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields musical. Also featuring Red McLennan, Josephine Blake, and Paula Kelly, the production originated in Las Vegas at the newly opened Caesar’s Palace earlier that year. Sweet Charity – The Original London Cast Recording will be officially released for the first time on CD in the U.S. February 12, 2016.

Stephen Sondheim, the pre-eminent Broadway composer and lyricist of the modern era, has been awarded eight Tonys, eight Grammys, an Oscar, a Pulitzer Prize, five Oliviers and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Essential Stephen Sondheim spans this iconic artist’s unparalleled career, from West Side Story (1957) through Passion (1994), and also includes important works from his forays into television and film. This new 2-CD collection features performances by Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin, Ethel Merman, Jason Alexander, Angela Lansbury, Elaine Stritch, Victor Garber, Barbara Cook, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Dean Jones, Glynis Johns, Marni Nixon, Lee Remick, Jim Walton, Lonny Price, Peabo Bryson, Nancy Wilson and many more. The Essential Stephen Sondheim will be released on February 26.


Starring Eleanor Drew, John Warner, Salad Days was commissioned in 1954 by the Bristol Old Vic. The show ran there for three weeks and then moved to the Vaudeville Theatre in London, where it played for a then unprecedented 2283 performances. With music by Julian Slade, and book and lyrics by Dorothy Reynolds and Slade, the story features a young and impetuous couple, a tramp who possesses a magic piano that makes everyone who hears it dance and a flying saucer that ultimately helps track down the piano when it goes missing. Salad Days – Original Cast Recording will be released on March 18.

Famed composer Richard Rodgers produced a series of musical revivals for Lincoln Center from 1964-1969 at New York’s City Center. Kismet opened for a limited summer run in June 1965 starring Alfred Drake, recreating his Tony-winning role as the Hajj, as well as Henry Calvin from the original Broadway production. "Bored," a song written by Robert Wright and George Forrest for the 1955 movie version, was added to the score of the Tony-winning Best Musical for this production. Also staring Anne Jeffreys, Lee Venora, Richard Banke, Rudy Vejar, Albert Toigo, and Anita Alpert, Kismet – Music Theater of Lincoln Center Cast Recording will be released on April 15, 2016.