2017 Tony Award Season Album Review

Broadway Records has done it again. They have given us a treat of album, this time one that celebrates the 2016-2017 Broadway Season. What a terrific idea to create a compilation of the best-of-the-best, one song from almost every musical that opened on Broadway leading up to this year’s Tony Awards. It’s an archive of a year’s worth of Broadway excitement for fans to look back at a period of musical theatre. It makes one wonder why someone hasn’t done this sooner. Make no mistake, the 2017 Tony Award Season album will be a welcome addition to your musical theatre library.

Dear Evan Hansen: 13 BETTER Reasons Why

In its own right, Dear Evan Hansen is a thrilling and topical musical addressing the isolation so many of us feel. In this day and age, bullying leads to suicide, anxiety leads to building protective walls. Dear Evan Hansen demonstrates how the arts can respond to societal ills and makes a case for our individual and collective healing through the catharsis of relevant and timely musical theatre. It’s an inspiring story about how one of these disconnected people, frozen by their own inability to reach past their self-prescribed detachment, finally learns how to break down the walls that have crippled him with anxiety and depression. Sure, it comes with its complications and a handful of misconceptions and lies, but it is essentially a fairy tale for those of us who have felt, like Evan, that we are invisible and/or unworthy.

Anastasia Cast Recording: A Review

Though it may have received a lukewarm reception from critics, the original cast recording of the Broadway musical Anastasia gives no indication that this show has any failings. In fact, the lush and lively cast album from Broadway Records is a delight from start to finish. The Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty score percolates with energy and sumptuous voices. The songs that have been kept from the 1997 film are as wonderful as they ever were, but even more importantly, the new ones written for this Broadway mounting sparkle and reveal new depths to the characters, the story, and the mood of the piece.

Magical Musical Menken Moments in Disney Films

Anyone who loves Disney films has been enchanted by the music of Alan Menken. His melodies are both infectious and magical, capturing the musical tone of each character they bring to life. Arguably, all his songs are terrific, so making a top ten list is futile and someone’s favorite will always be left out. However, the ten that I have chosen to celebrate are, in my estimation, the perfect marriage of Menken melody with magical Disney moments. I hope you will enjoy my compilation, the “Magical Musical Menken Moments in Disney Films”.