** Cirque du Soleil's Varekai @ United Center now through Aug. 24
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There are probably enough jokes and stories about gay men and Broadway cast recordings to write a musical about the subject,
or at least an amusing musical review. Gay men, lesbians and straight people alike have an assortment of cast recordings, from
brand new productions to expanded and remastered reissues, from which to choose when they are feeling dramatic or theatrical.
The big winner at the 2003 Tony Awards was Hairspray and one listen to the Hairspray Original Broadway Cast Recording (Sony
Classical) and it's easy to understand why. Like its equally wonderful and gay-friendly 2002 Tony winning predecessor The
Producers, Hairspray is based on a movie, the John Waters opus of the same name. Hairspray contains memorable numbers, co-
written by collaborators and life partners Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and equally memorable performances by lead actors
Marissa Jaret Winokur as Tracy Turnblad and Harvey Fierstein as Tracy's mother Edna. Hairspray celebrates dancing, teenage
rebellion ('Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now') and big Baltimore hairdos ('It's Hairspray'), and also works in issues of race and equality ('Run
And Tell That'), social change (the wonderful 'Welcome To The 60's' featuring a buoyant Fierstein) and physical size ('Miss
Baltimore Crabs') all via songs that you are sure to find yourself humming long after they end.
On a somewhat smaller scale the original cast recording for Elegies: A Song Cycle (Fynsworth Alley), which had a limited off-
Broadway run in the spring of 2003, is described as a series of 'poetic and deeply personal character studies about friends, family
and colleagues,' that Tony Award-winning writer and composer William Finn has 'loved and lost.' With equal helpings of humor and
sorrow, the cast of five, which includes Betty Buckley, perform these touching and transcendent songs about the famous ('Joe Papp')
and the fabulous (gay filmmaker Bill Sherwood in 'Mark's All-Male Thanksgiving') and a Finn ('14 Dwight Ave., Natick,
Massachusetts' about Finn's mother Barbara) with the greatest respect for the material and the writer himself.
Premiering on Broadway almost 40 (!) years ago, Hello, Dolly! is openly gay composer Jerry Herman's multi-Tony Award-winning
crowning achievement. Hello, Dolly!: Broadway Deluxe Collector's Edition (RCA Victor) stars Carol Channing in the role of
matchmaker Dolly Levi and includes cast members Charles Nelson Reilly (Cornelius Hackl) and Eileen Brennan (Minnie Fay) as two
of her matches. This significantly expanded cast recording includes a lengthy interview with Ms. Channing, and true Broadway
aficionados will appreciate the six bonus tracks featuring songs from the show performed by the various Dollys from over the years,
including Mary Martin, Pearl Bailey, and Ethel Merman.
Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit's Nine, the musical based on Federico Fellini's classic film 8 1/2, is in the midst of a well-received
and Tony Award-winning revival on Broadway. Nine: The New Broadway Cast Recording (PS Classics) stars Antonio Banderas in
the lead role as female-obsessed Italian filmmaker Guido Contini, Mary Stuart Masterson as his long-suffering-wife Luisa, Jane
Krakowski as his oversexed mistress Carla, Chita Rivera as his impatient producer Liliane, among others. Tommy Tune directed the
original Broadway production, which opened in 1982, and starred the late Raul Julia as Contini, Karen Akers as Luisa, the late Anita
Morris as Carla, and Liliane Montevecchi as Liliane. The Original Cast Album of Nine: The Musical (Sony Classical/ Columbia/
Legacy) is now available in an expanded double-disc set which includes a few previously unavailable bonus cuts. Both recordings
contain such recognizable numbers as 'Unusual Way,' 'Only With You,' and 'Be Italian,' to mention a few.
From late twentieth century Italy to the shtetls and pogroms of turn-of-the-century Russia in Fiddler On The Roof: Broadway
Deluxe Collector's Edition (RCA Victor). The Hal Prince/Jerome Robbins collaboration, in the exceptionally prolific 1964 Broadway
theater season (see Hello, Dolly! above), starred Zero Mostel in lead role of Tevye, and counted future Golden Girl Beatrice Arthur
playing Yenta the Matchmaker, Austin Pendleton as Motel the tailor, Bert Convy as Perchik and the late Leonard (Boys In The Band)
Frey as Mendel. Among the bonus tracks you will find an interview with lyricist Sheldon Harnick and 'dropped' songs such as 'When
Messiah Comes' and 'How Much Richer Could One Man Be?.'
If you were fortunate enough to attend a performance of Elaine Stritch's one-woman show At Liberty heard the legendary star of
stage and screen talk about her role as cruise director Mimi Paragon in the Noel Coward musical Sail Away. The reissued Original
London Cast Recording of Sail Away (Fynsworth Alley) features Stritch's singular renditions of musically comedic numbers such as
'Useless Useful Phrases,' 'You're A Long, Long Way From America,' and 'Why Do The Wrong People Travel?'
Composer Michel LeGrand made his Broadway debut with his score for Amour: Broadway Premiere Recording (Sh-K-Boom), a
musical Magritte painting, starring gay actor Malcolm Gets. The Tony-nominated musical had a short run on Broadway, but lives on in
this recording, which also features the talents of Melissa Errico.
John & Jen: Original Cast Recording (Fynsworth Alley) is a two-person musical about a brother, John, and his older sister, Jen.
This musical portrait of sibling revelry and rivalry was written by Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald features James Ludwig and
Carolee Carmello in the title roles.
Currently on tour across the country, as well as being shown on Bravo, Cirque Du Soleil's latest extravaganza Varekai (RCA
Victor) has its own score, written by Violaine Corradi. The usual blend of the exotic and the high-flying, like many of the Cirque Du
Soleil 'soundtracks,' Varekai takes on a life of its own, even after the big top is taken down and the circus leaves town.
