Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
A companion to the fabulous PBS series, the 21-song, 77-minute The Best of 'Broadway: The American Musical' provides about as good a single-disc compilation as anyone could hope for. (There's also a five-CD version.) What sets it apart from so many other 'best of Broadway' collections is its breadth--because it had access to a variety of record-label vaults it doesn't have to try to disguise gaps by using revivals or solo recordings. Here you get all the authentic stuff, including: Paul Robeson singing 'Ol' Man River' from the first modern American musical, Show Boat; Ethel Merman singing 'You're the Top'; the title song from Oklahoma!; Julie Andrews singing 'I Could Have Danced All Night' from My Fair Lady; West Side Story's 'America'; Betty Buckley singing 'Memory' from Cats; Hairspray's 'Good Morning Baltimore'; and 'Defying Gravity' from Wicked, the newest show discussed in the PBS series. And it's hard to argue with the songwriters represented: Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Frank Loesser, Lerner and Loewe, Leonard Bernstein, Bock and Harnick, Kander and Ebb, Stephen Sondheim, and Andrew Lloyd Webber, among others. Obviously, no single-disc compilation could ever please everyone (did we really need two ALW songs?), but as a sampler intended for people who watched the series and want to hear more of the Great White Way, The Best of 'Broadway: The American Musical' can't be topped. --David Horiuchi









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Disc 1:

1. There's No Business Like Show Business
2. Swanee
3. Ol' Man River
4. You're The Top
5. Oklahoma
6. Luck Be A Lady
7. I Could Have Danced All Night
8. America
9. My Favorite Things
10. People
11. If I Were A Rich Man
12. The Impossible Dream
13. Cabaret
14. Let The Sunshine In
15. Send In The Clowns
16. One
17. Tomorrow
18. Memory
19. The Music Of The Night
20. Good Morning Baltimore
21. Defying Gravity

Rating: - * Wonderful ... The range of songs chosen for this compilation is awesome. Just what I was looking for. Rating: - * Mixed Bag ... Note that some of the recordings are not in stereo. While I expected that for some of the very old songs recorded in the 1920's to 1940's, I thought that the songs from the 1950's and more recent would have been recorded in stereo. Rating: - * Some interesting choices, indeed ... This is a pretty good compilation, but I have to wonder at some of the choices that went into it. "Good Morning Baltimore" is almost the least impressive song from Hairspray. "You Can't Stop the Beat" was a much more anthemic song from that show. I agree that it's too bad Les Mis didn't make it in. I would have traded that for anything Sondheim, although that's a personal preference :) . Still, the opportunity to hear the original performers and orchestras perform these works, all in one place, is a great deal. Rating: - * Great CD ... This one plays in the car, on the ipod and in the house. When the kids were little they would ask if we could take them to "The Street". That is what they called Broadway (little did they know at that time how famous that street is). They still love it and we can not get enough of it. This CD covers the best and makes you want to go and see a live performance. You can not beat that. Rating: - * Yes this is Some of the Best of Broadway! ... This CD from Decca Broadway is a wonderful selection of some of the "Greatest Hits" of the Broadway stage. Decca and Sony have done an excellent job of remastering the various recordings, some of which still show some of their age, but come across quite well. Are there a lot of songs that I would have put on this disc? Yes, but the ones on here are good choices. I may have to get a copy of the Five disc set and the DVD's just to see if any more of my favorites made it on the list. What this disc seems to try to do is show the evolution of the Broadway song from it's early days to the present. It succeeds quite well I think. If you enjoy Broadway theater this CD is a must!