Broadway's Prize-Winning Musicals: An Annotated Guide for Libraries and Audio Collectors

Broadway’s Prize-Winning Musicals is an indispensable guide for collectors of audio recordings of Broadway’s award-winning musicals. It presents, for the first time in one volume, shows that were recipients of Tony Awards, New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, or Grammy Awards. Also featured are the recordings of shows selected on the more subjective basis of listening enjoyment or budgetary considerations. This comprehensive approach helps librarians and fans compile a well-balanced collection by providing as diverse a selection of musical styles as possible, always keeping in mind the historical and artistic importance of individual shows, scores, or performances. A fascinating introduction to recorded musicals, it provides a select listing of the best and most readily available award-winning shows representing the entire span of the genre’s history.

The first volume ever to organize Broadway musicals into groups by major musical awards, this guide is an essential tool for libraries with audio visual departments, audio collectors, music fans, critics, performers, producers, and patrons of the arts. Some of the intriguing information found in this book includes:

• a handy checklist of titles, record labels, and inventory numbers
• plot summaries, cast lists, key song titles, positive and negative reviews, composer information, background information, and notations on any film versions of the show
• the unique contributions of such Broadway greats as Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, Stephen Sondheim, and many others
• a guide to finding out-of-print recordings
• a bibliography of musical histories and biographies of composers
• a guide to recorded anthologies
  
  In addition to being a user-friendly guide to collecting recorded shows, Broadway’s Prize-Winning Musicals also serves as a basic reference work on the musical theater, its history, and its most honored productions. Readers are treated to a history of the genre through its annual award ceremonies, providing a unique overview as well as an impartial means of selecting and building a core collection of representative shows for home or library. The scope of shows included ranges from the earliest operettas through to the most recent award-winners. All of the most well-known and critically acclaimed shows are included in this delightful book, such as A Chorus Line, Phantom of the Opera, Damn Yankees, Fiddler on the Roof, Annie, West Side Story, Cabaret, Guys and Dolls, Evita, Kiss Me, Kate, The King and I, My Fair Lady, plus many, many more. Light and user-friendly language makes the volume accurate without being pedantic, knowledgeable without being dry, and equally accessible to both established collectors and beginners.

Oklahoma! was the first musical to have an original cast recording of the whole show. This book is a passport for the record collector to the world of recordings of the American musical theater.

The first four chapters describe musicals that won awards: Tonys, the New York Drama Critics Circle, the Pulitzer Prize, and the recording industry's Grammy. Each chapter begins with brief information on the award; then winners are described by year. Each entry notes authors, cast, and opening date. The critical reception of the show is described, and the original cast recording is cited. The final chapter provides a selection of other musicals, based on the historical and artistic importance of the show, score, and performances.

The prologue to the book presents a historical overview of the musical, an offspring of the European operetta. Since this work lists the best recordings of musicals, a history of that technological development is included as well. Appendixes tell where and how to search for old recordings of musicals and list books and recorded anthologies of musicals. There are subject and song indexes.

For libraries starting a collection of recordings of musicals, this will be an effective point of departure. Libraries serving patrons who are record collectors will find it a useful source, too.