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Mamma Mia!
Release Date: 2008-07-08
Sales rank: 3
Bringing the timeless lyrics and melodies of iconic super group ABBA to movie audiences, this summer is the season for Mamma Mia! Meryl Streep leads an all-star cast in the feature-film adaptation of the beloved musical that has been seen by more than 30 million people in 160 cities and 8 languages around the world. Meryl Streep plays an independent, single mother and owner of a small hotel on an idyllic Greek island, about to let go of her spirited daughter whom she’s raised alone. But the young bride has secretly invited some guests of her own three men from her mom’s past, one of whom is the girl’s biological father. Over 24 chaotic, magical hours, new love will bloom and old romances will be rekindled, in this warm and hilarious adaptation of one of the most popular musicals ever written. |
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Gypsy - 2008 Original Broadway Cast
Release Date: 2008-08-26
Sales rank: 23
Curtain Up! The smash Broadway musical comes
to life in this all new cast recording! It's the
new 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, starring
Tony and Olivier Award-winner Patti LuPone as
the indomitable Momma Rose.This classic American musical by Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim about a fractured family stars the larger-than-life, true Broadway diva LuPone heading the cast as the stage mother of all stage mothers, determined to make a star out of at least one of her children. Four-time Tony-winner Boyd Gaines is the
beleaguered Herbie, a gentlemanly candy
salesman and reluctant theatrical agent who
loves Rose, and Tony-winner Laura Benanti
is the wallflower-turned-world-famous-stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, one of Rose s two daughters. |
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Camp Rock
Release Date: 2008-06-17
Sales rank: 25
More than anything, Mitchie wants to spend her summer at a prestigious rock camp in order to pursue her dream of becoming a singer. Mitchie thinks her prayers are answered when her mother gets them jobs at the camp as cooks. Upon arriving at camp, Mitchie discovers the competition among the campers is tough both in the classroom, and for the attention of Shane - a teen pop star, and this summer's celebrity teacher. Shane (Joe Jonas)- who is seeking inspiration for his own music - overhears Mitchie singing, but never sees her face. Haunted by her unique sound, he sets off to find the girl behind the beautiful voice as she confronts her fears and learns to step into the spotlight. Walt Disney Records proudly presents the SOUNDTRACK to the HOTTEST DISNEY CHANNEL MOVIE OF THE YEAR! Featuring musical superstars, JONAS BROTHERS plus a whole new cast of musical talent that's sure to be the SUMMER'S BIGGEST HIT! |
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Mamma Mia! The Musical Based on the Songs of ABBA: A Decca Broadway Original Cast Recording (1999 London Cast)
Release Date: 2000-10-17
Sales rank: 60
Put together by Abba's own Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, Mamma Mia! manages to cram over 20 of the Swedish supergroup's songs into a threadbare plot. It goes a little like this: Young Sophie is getting married and she's trying to identify which of three men is her father. That's about it. Wisely, the musical doesn't mess around with the songs, save for the insertion of some dialogue or for having some of them performed by a man (it works amazingly well). Abba fans will jump on this import of the London production, but traditional fans of musical theater should consider it as well. After all, Andersson and Ulvaeus's songs have always felt as if they were more than isolated pop gems and actually belonged to a longer narrative. --Elisabeth Vincentelli |
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Wicked (2003 Original Broadway Cast)
Release Date: 2003-12-16
Sales rank: 48
No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: WICKED
Title: ORIGINAL CAST RECORDING
Street Release Date: 12/16/2003
Domestic
Genre: CAST RECORDINGSOne of the most common complaints about musicals is that the books are flimsy pretexts from which to hang numbers. Wicked runs into the opposite problem: it has a great plot, but too often the songs just get in the way. Based on Gregory Maguire's novel of the same name, Wicked tells us what happened between Glinda the Good and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, before Dorothy showed up in Oz. And the show is lucky to boast a pair of ace leading women in the main roles. As Glinda, Kristin Chenoweth delivers a sensational star turn, displaying a crystal-pure voice and sharp comic timing; Idina Menzel lends her powerful pipes to the tricky role of Elphaba. Unfortunately, you wish they had better material to work with. Stephen Schwartz's pop score is often dragged down by overly synthetic orchestrations and sentimental lyrics (think Chicken Soup for the Witch). Still, at its best Wicked is a seductive slice of popular entertainment that could well give a younger audience a lasting taste for musical theater. --Elisabeth Vincentelli |
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Once
Release Date: 2007-05-22
Sales rank: 68
Even those allergic to musicals may be won over by Once, a tender-hearted Irish romance with songs by Czech Republic–born Markéta Irglová and Frames frontman Glen Hansard. (The film's director, John Carney, actually used to play bass in the group.) The trick here is that Irglová and Hansard also play the leads; because their characters are shown busking, writing music, or rehearsing, the songs are smoothly integrated in the film. The overall acoustic mood won't surprise fans of the Frames--some tracks ("Say It to Me," "When Your Mind's Made Up") have even popped up on the band's albums, though the arrangements are more pared-down here, befitting the scruffy, street-musician setting. Being the lesser-known entity, Irglová feels like a revelation; she sounds a bit like a folkie Björk on "If You Want Me," and her song "The Hill" is downright heartbreaking. Irglová and Hansard had already made the 2006 album The Swell Seasontogether, so their collaboration here feels really organic--they sound particularly good together on the title track, for instance. Now that's the kind of magic you want from musicals. --Elisabeth Vincentelli |
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Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific (The New Broadway Cast)
Release Date: 2008-05-27
Sales rank: 167
The landmark musical's first-ever Broadway revival! The curtain rang down on Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific in 1954 after five years of extraordinary acclaim and countless awards including nine Tonys and a Pulitzer. Based on James Michener's Pulitzer Prize winning book Tales of the South Pacific, the musical is set on a tropical island during World War II and tells the sweeping romantic story of two couples - U.S. Navy nurse Nellie Forbush and French plantation owner Emile de Becque and Marine Joe Cable and a young local native girl Liat - and how their happiness is threatened by the realities of the war and by their own prejudices. Considered by many the finest musical ever written, the score's songs include such musical theater classics as "Some Enchanted Evening," "Younger Than Springtime," "Bali Ha'i," "There is Nothin' Like a Dame" and "A Wonderful Guy." |
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Jersey Boys (2005 Original Broadway Cast Recording)
Release Date: 2005-11-01
Sales rank: 84
Recounting the rich history and reliving the timeless sounds of the phenomenal Frankie Vallie & The 4 Seasons, the new Broadway musical Jersey Boys answers the musical-and philosophical question, "How did four would-be wise guys from Newark, NJ, become one of the greatest chart-topping successes in pop music history?" Jersey Boys celebrates legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito, and Nick Massi who, as the 4 seasons, wrote their own songs, invented their own identity, and sold 175 million records worldwide-all before they were 30. Although it squarely falls in the "jukebox musical" category, Jersey Boys doesn¹t try to integrate its songs in an artificial plotline. The show tells the story of the early-1960s group the Four Seasons, and the musical numbers tend to be introduced in context, as when songwriter Bob Gaudio comes up with a tune, or the quartet performs a show. This allows Jersey Boys to flow better than some of ill-fated peers, and the actors can shine without having to bend backward to accommodate an inane book. The show's most (only) daring move is to start with a hip-hop-tinged French-language version of "December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)," an actual hit in France in 2000. After that it's all VH1-biopic territory, but it's done with so much flair, taste and energy that the ride's a fun one. The Four Seasons had enough hits ("Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Rag Doll," etc.) to easily fill an evening at the theater, so it's left to the cast to do right by them. And it does, particularly John Lloyd Young as the band¹s star lead, Frankie Valli. Young hits all the falsetto notes and brings real freshness to the part. His "Can¹t Take My Eyes Off You," a second-act peak, is signed, sealed and delivered with a star's acumen. --Elisabeth Vincentelli |
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The Dark Knight Limited Edition
Release Date: 2008-07-15
Sales rank: 281
Special Edition Digipak of The Dark Knight. This Original Motion Picture Soundtrack returns with the ASCAP winning composers from Batman Begins- Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer and seven time Oscar nominee James Newton Howard- for a powerful orchestral score. |
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Music for the Motion Picture Into the Wild
Release Date: 2007-09-18
Sales rank: 118
track listing and sequence subject to changeTaking a break from his day job fronting rock heavyweight Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder immerses himself into the big-screen story of a young man who gives all his money to charity and hitchhikes to a new life--and his eventual death--in the wilds of Alaska. Prompted by the film's creator, Sean Penn, to contribute to the musical score, the Seattle musician tackled the entire project, playing every instrument on the soundtrack's nine original and two cover songs. Vedder contemplates the traveler "setting forth in the universe" in the opener "Setting Forth," then tracks in the remaining songs the realizations and disillusionments that follow. A wish comes true in banjo-plucked "No Ceiling" to "up and disappear," while affluence is questioned on the hard-rocking "Far Behind," with Vedder singing, "Empty pockets will/Allow a greater sense of wealth." No song in the album's first half exceeds two-and-a-half minutes, remedied by Vedder's pertinent five-minute stamp on the remake of Indio's "Hard Sun," complete with eerie backing vocals by Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker. The songwriter puts wealth on the hot seat in "Society," questioning, "If less is more/How you keepin' score?" The darkly sung folk song bookends the reticent declaration "Guaranteed," wonderfully delivered and quietly strummed, in which the prodigal Vedder wraps the journey in one line: "Leave it to me as I find a way to be/Consider me a satellite forever orbiting." (The record is packaged like a hardcover book, with vivid photography and lyrics.) --Scott Holter |
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