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Kritzerland is proud to present two new releases:
THE STREETS OF NEW YORK
Music by Richard B. Chodosh
Book and Lyrics by Barry Alan Grael
On October 28, 1963, one of the most tuneful and delightful off-Broadway musicals opened at the Maidman Playhouse (later the John Houseman). It was called The Streets of New York and it captivated audiences and critics alike. The reviews were stellar, with Newsweek calling it, “The brightest musical of this season and maybe next, with a lilting score which often engages the ear with a contrapuntal complexity Broadway musicals never dare.” The book and lyrics were by Barry Alan Grael, who was, at the time, also an up-and-coming actor. The score was by Richard B. Chodosh, who’d been trying to break into musical theater all during the 1950s. They began working on the show in 1959.
The company made a cast album in April of 1964, but it was a very hard to find LP, even then. The show served as a launching bad for director Joseph Hardy, who would go on to helm such plays and musicals as Play It Again, Sam (starring and written by Woody Allen), You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Child’s Play, Gigi, and Romantic Comedy. Choreographer Neal Kenyon would go on to another huge off-Broadway success as director and choreographer of Dames at Sea. Actor Ralston Hill would go on to memorably play Charles Thomson in the musical 1776 on Broadway and then in the film version, and David Cryer would also go on to do 1776 on Broadway, as well as Phantom of the Opera and Evita, as well as appearing in several well-known films. And, most interestingly, the show’s standbys included some folks who’d go onto have rather significant careers: Julia Migenes and John Shuck.
Today, The Streets of New York is pretty much a “forgotten musical” but it shouldn’t be. The score is tuneful and appealing, and the book is witty and clever. The cast album was released on CD in 1995. That CD has been long out of print. The original recording was done hastily and not very well, and it was not especially well mastered on top of that, so it’s a pleasure to revisit this wonderful score and to help the sound as much as we could, thanks to mastering engineer James Nelson.
THE STREETS OF NEW YORK is limited to 500 copies only and priced at $19.98, plus shipping. This is a PRE-ORDER – CDs will ship by the second week of May, but never fear, we’ve actually been averaging three to five weeks early in terms of shipping ahead of the official ship date. To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com. Also note that your PayPal receipt is the only receipt you get – we don’t send out confirmations beyond that.
Kritzerland is also proud to present an Encore release of a much-requested title, in a whole new configuration that brings three wonderful scores together:
LAURETTE, RASHOMON, DEATH OF A SALESMAN – INCIDENTAL MUSIC FOR THREE PLAYS
MUSIC COMPOSED BY ELMER BERNSTEIN, LAURENCE ROSENTHAL, AND ALEX NORTH
Incidental music in straight plays has been a regular occurrence on Broadway, with many top composers creating the scores.
Laurette, a play about the legendary actress Laurette Taylor, closed out of town before it ever reached Broadway. Judy Holliday starred, along with Joan Hackett, Patrick O’Neal, Bibi Osterwald, and Nancy Marchand. The incidental music to the play was written by the great film composer Elmer Bernstein. The music is pure Elmer, some of it prefiguring the delicate colors that he would use for his masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird. This wasn’t slumming for Mr. Bernstein – he obviously took the same care that he did with his film scores – the themes are beautiful and richly melodic in the classic Bernstein style.
Rashomon began life as two short stories written by the great Japanese writer, Ryunosuke Akutagawa. It was famously adapted for the screen by Akira Kurosawa in 1950. In 1959, Fay and Michael Kanin adapted Rashomon for the stage, using many elements from the Kurosawa film that were not present in the short stories. The incidental music for Rashomon was composed by Laurence Rosenthal. Rosenthal, had written the dance music for the Broadway musicals The Music Man and Goldilocks, and the original score to Arthur Laurents’ play A Clearing In The Woods. He would go on to write several of the best film scores of the 1960s, including his classic music for A Raisin in the Sun, Requiem for a Heavyweight, The Miracle Worker, Hotel Paradiso, The Comedians, and Becket, the latter three films all directed by his Rashomon director, Peter Glenville. He also wrote the score for the Broadway musical Sherry! based on The Man Who Came to Dinner. The score is marvelous and very inventive, making use of certain traditional sounds of the Kabuki theatre and Oriental music, filtered through Rosenthal’s musical sensibilities.
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman opened on Broadway on February 10, 1949 at the Morosco Theatre. The result was an instant classic and it won many awards and a Pulitzer Prize. The incidental music for the play was written by Alex North. Director Elia Kazan asked North to write music for the play (he’d previously written the score for a documentary for Kazan). North soon went west to Hollywood, where he quickly became one of the greatest film composers in history, turning out brilliant scores to A Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata (both for Kazan), and many others, including his all-time classic, Spartacus. Ironically, he’s probably best known for his song “Unchained Melody” (from the film Unchained) – that song, with lyrics by Hy Zaret, is one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century. North’s incidental music for Death of a Salesman is classic North, scored for a very small ensemble that somehow never seems small, but just seems right. He would later use many of the themes in the film version, but there’s something about these lean and spare original versions that are haunting and wonderful.
Kritzerland previously released all three of these scores – Laurette was coupled with a Bernstein film score called Prince Jack, while a separate release coupled Rashomon and Death of a Salesman together. For this release, we’ve put the three theater scores together and completely remastered them. Technology has come a long way since these were originally released on CD, so we asked Chris Malone, who is one of the best music restoration experts and who has saved many wonderful works from oblivion, to work his magic here.
LAURETTE, RASHOMON, DEATH OF A SALESMAN – INCIDENTAL MUSIC FOR THREE PLAYS is limited to 500 copies only and priced at $19.98, plus shipping. This is a PRE-ORDER – CDs will ship by the second week of May, but never fear, we’ve actually been averaging three to five weeks early in terms of shipping ahead of the official ship date. To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com. Also note that your PayPal receipt is the only receipt you get – we don’t send out confirmations beyond that.
 
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What a pleasant surprise -- I acted in THE STREETS OF NEW YORK while studying drama at CMU in the Sixties. A happy memory, but I never knew a cast album had been recorded. My order for both these CD's has now been placed.
Incidentally, Bruce, I'm on your mailing list, so I always receive your announcement e-mails, and I've been wondering if there's any reason why you can't insert on these notices a link back to Kritzerland, as opposed to directing us to go there. Such a link would make it all the easier for us to buy your stuff...
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What a pleasant surprise -- I acted in THE STREETS OF NEW YORK while studying drama at CMU in the Sixties. A happy memory, but I never knew a cast album had been recorded. My order for both these CD's has now been placed.
Incidentally, Bruce, I'm on your mailing list, so I always receive your announcement e-mails, and I've been wondering if there's any reason why you can't insert on these notices a link back to Kritzerland, as opposed to directing us to go there. Such a link would make it all the easier for us to buy your stuff...
Isn't there a link to Kritzerland in those blasts?
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Posted: |
Mar 27, 2019 - 1:02 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Incidentally, Bruce, I'm on your mailing list, so I always receive your announcement e-mails, and I've been wondering if there's any reason why you can't insert on these notices a link back to Kritzerland, as opposed to directing us to go there. Such a link would make it all the easier for us to buy your stuff...
--------------------------------
Isn't there a link to Kritzerland in those blasts?
Yes there is:
THE STREETS OF NEW YORK is limited to 500 copies only and priced at $19.98, plus shipping. This is a PRE-ORDER - CDs will ship by the second week of May, but never fear, we've actually been averaging three to five weeks early in terms of shipping ahead of the official ship date. To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com. Also note that your PayPal receipt is the only receipt you get - we don't send out confirmations beyond that. [emphasis added]
The link takes you to the general Kritzerland page, and since these are new releases, the new releases show at the top of the page. I suppose you could instead (or also) include the specific page links:
http://www.kritzerland.com/streets_ny.htm
http://www.kritzerland.com/trio.htm
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I wonder how many people have the original CD releases for these three scores? I mean, we're talking about Elmer Bernstein and Alex North and Laurence Rosenthal here. It was fun to be able to fit all three on one CD.
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I do! But I’m certainly intrigued if the sound quality is a significant upgrade...
Yavar
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"I wonder how many people have the original CD releases for these three scores? I mean, we're talking about Elmer Bernstein and Alex North and Laurence Rosenthal here. It was fun to be able to fit all three on one CD."
Yes, it is fun; that's why I ordered my copy. That, and because I'm such a spendthrift.
Getting back to the linkless e-mails: I never took the instruction to "just visit www.kritzerland.com" as a link. It never looked like a link to me, the Luddite Cyberpunk, because it was in plain black print, not purple (as it appears in the post above), but I went back just now to check it out. When I clicked on the "www.kritzerland.com," son of a gun, the font went from black to blue, so suddenly it did look like a link after all. Only, get this -- it still didn't do anything. It linked me to nowhere. I don't know if there's a problem with me, or my laptop, or my server, or what. I'm going to have to check with my i.t. guy...
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I wonder how many people have the original CD releases for these three scores? I mean, we're talking about Elmer Bernstein and Alex North and Laurence Rosenthal here. It was fun to be able to fit all three on one CD.
I have them already, don't need them again. If some Label was to bring out Elmer Bernstein's Where's Jack(1969) or any previously unreleased Bernstein or Alex North scores I'd order them in a flash.
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I wonder how many people have the original CD releases for these three scores?
Why should you of all people wonder? Looking at the original pages on your site...
http://www.kritzerland.com/elmer.htm
http://www.kritzerland.com/salesman.htm
...I conclude that roughly 1000 people have the original CD releases for these three scores (plus Bernstein's Prince Jack), seeing as how they are both long sold out at that quantity. 
Yavar
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I wonder how many people have the original CD releases for these three scores?
Why should you of all people wonder? Looking at the original pages on your site...
http://www.kritzerland.com/elmer.htm
http://www.kritzerland.com/salesman.htm
...I conclude that roughly 1000 people have the original CD releases for these three scores (plus Bernstein's Prince Jack), seeing as how they are both long sold out at that quantity.
Yavar
We are usually being told that only a handful of people buy these type of releases, yeah? So Bruce is probably baffled as to where all the copies of the previous "sold out"editions went to, and if there are another "handful" who might be hanging about somewhere waiting to snaffle up another 1000 copies of the same scores...with dramatically proved sound!? It's hard to figure out these things sometimes, lol!
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Why does anyone re-release something that sold out quickly over a decade or so? Because there's a new batch who weren't doing this all those years ago. I had many requests, especially for the Laurette score. Frankly, if Chris weren't involved I wouldn't have done it, but he is and I did.
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Well justified! Chris makes everything better!
Yavar
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Just FYI, I have been going to the Kritzerland site since yesterday to look for the two new releases, but they weren't showing up. I had to clear my history and cache to see the updated site. But they're there for me now!
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Well justified! Chris makes everything better!
Yavar
Bruce will enter his house justified... especially if he can bring out some more Bernstein and North...and the Fox Box Set for Cody and PFK, lol!
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There is a LOT of incidental music for plays - Sondheim did three plays and I recorded two of them for the Unsung Sondheim album - those are wonderful pieces. And several notable composers of today have done B'way and off-B'way incidental scores.
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There is a LOT of incidental music for plays - Sondheim did three plays and I recorded two of them for the Unsung Sondheim album - those are wonderful pieces. And several notable composers of today have done B'way and off-B'way incidental scores.
And some of those incidental scores were later developed into film scores (Becket, to name just one example).
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Happy to see three Kritzerland titles in the SAE weekly to ten - The Cardinal, Laurette, and surprisingly, The Streets of New York, just to show you there's a world outside of soundtracks on SAE.
I will also tell you that The House that Dripped Blood is down to under 100 copies.
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