Editorial Reviews

Despite its deliberately provocative title, RCA Victor's The Only Broadway CD You'll Ever Need really claims only to "give an overview of what 'Broadway' music is about," according to compiler Bill Rosenfield. What it really does is survey the last 50 years of theater music from the point of view of the most popular songs from the genre available in the company's vaults. RCA was the last of the major labels to begin recording Broadway cast albums, not entering the field until 1947's Brigadoon (from which "Almost Like Being in Love" is included here). Even then, it had to compete with the others and didn't really emerge as an equal competitor until the 1960s. As a result, relatively few of these tracks, which are presented chronologically by each show's opening date, come from original cast recordings, being drawn rather from revival casts, TV soundtracks, and individual artist discs for the most part. Nevertheless, some major performers sing songs associated with them: Ethel Merman and "There's No Business Like Show Business," Carol Channing and "Hello, Dolly!," Zero Mostel and "If I Were a Rich Man." The set seems designed for the casual and recent fan of Broadway, who won't be upset that Cabaret's "Money" and 42nd Street's "Lullaby of Broadway" are technically movie songs or that Colm Wilkinson never sang "The Impossible Dream" on stage, and who will recognize the material from four shows that were still running on the album's release date, Titanic, Ragtime, and revivals of Chicago and Cabaret. But this is a Broadway without Andrew Lloyd Webber and with precious little Stephen Sondheim (despite RCA's extensive Sondheim holdings), which means it doesn't really address much of theater history from the mid-'60s on. Thus, even as a label sampler, The Only Broadway CD You'll Ever Need is woefully inadequate. William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

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