Isn't It Romantic? Stage Door Collects Rarities from Broadway and West End Star Sally Ann Howes

Isn’t It Romantic? Stage Door Collects Rarities from Broadway and West End Star Sally Ann Howes

February 24, 2022 By Joe Marchese — 1 Comment

Sally Ann Howes Another Time Another Place — BUY NOW FROM STAGE DOOR RECORDS

Over the course of an extraordinary seven-decade career, Sally Ann Howes exemplified entertainment royalty. Born in London into a showbiz family, she starred on stage, screen, and television, sang in front of three U.S. Presidents, originated roles on Broadway and in the West End, appeared on the cover of Life, and earned a Tony Award nomination. Now, just months after her passing on December 19, 2021 at the age of 91, Stage Door Records is celebrating the legacy of this Truly Scrumptious artist with a new collection due tomorrow, February 25.

Another Time, Another Place is the first anthology of Howes’ recordings, concentrating on the luminous star’s early years including performances from the London productions of Bet Your Life (1952), Romance in Candlelight (1955), Summer Song (1956), and Broadway transplant Paint Your Wagon (1953, in which she starred opposite her father, Bobby Howes). The collection continues with cuts from the television musical Gift of the Magi (1958) and Broadway show Kwamina (1961), both of which were composed by Howes’ then-husband Richard Adler (The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees). Howes’ engagement in the groundbreaking if short-lived Kwamina was her first time creating a role on the Broadway stage following her acclaimed and highly-publicized run as Julie Andrews’ replacement in My Fair Lady. (An expanded edition of the Kwamina cast recording was reissued on CD by Stage Door in 2020.)

Stage Door’s release then premieres on CD seven selections from rare broadcast transcription discs. These include classic Rodgers and Hart (“You’re Nearer,” “Isn’t It Romantic,” “Falling in Love with Love”) and Cole Porter standards (“Easy to Love,” “Night and Day”) plus Broadway fare from Lerner and Loewe (“Almost Like Being in Love” from Brigadoon) and Bob Merrill (“It’s Good to Be Alive” from New Girl in Town). Brigadoon was a show close to Howes’ heart; she received a Tony nomination for her role in the 1962 New York City Opera production and reprised her performance for President and Mrs. Kennedy. She returned to the musical in 1966 for an Emmy Award-winning television production starring Robert Goulet and future Columbo star Peter Falk. The collection is rounded out by Howes’ 1962 transcription take of her standout song from Kwamina, “Another Time, Another Place.”

Following the period covered in this release, Howes went on to further triumphs onstage (including a 1964 leading role opposite Steve Lawrence in Broadway’s What Makes Sammy Run, two engagements as Desiree in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music at New York City Opera, a Main Stem star turn in 2000’s James Joyce’s The Dead, and a return to My Fair Lady as Mrs. Higgins in Trevor Nunn’s grand touring revival) and on screen (most notably starring as Truly Scrumptious opposite Dick Van Dyke in the beloved 1968 family musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang).

Stage Door’s release of Sally Ann Howes’ Another Time, Another Place features new liner notes by musical theatre historian George Dansker, and is limited to just 500 units. It’s made possible via current U.K. public domain laws and arrives in stores tomorrow, February 25, in the U.K. and March 4 in North America, but pre-orders placed directly from Stage Door typically ship earlier. You’ll find the complete track listing and pre-order links below.

Sally Ann Howes, Another Time, Another Place (Stage Door STAGE 9091, 2022) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Stage Door Records)

I Love Him As He Is (from Bet Your Life)
What Care I (from Bet Your Life)
All for Him/I Talk to the Trees/How Can I Wait? (from Paint Your Wagon)
Live a Little, Love a Little – with Jacques Pils (from Romance in Candlelight)
My Heart Says Yes (from Romance in Candlelight)
Just Around the Corner (from Summer Song)
My Darling Carolka (from Summer Song)
Summer Song (from Summer Song)
I’ll Be Remembering (from Summer Song)
Christmas in Your Heart (from Gift of the Magi)
What to Do? (from Gift of the Magi)
What’s Wrong with Me (from Kwamina)
What’s Happened to Me Tonight (from Kwamina)
Another Time, Another Place (from Kwamina)
Isn’t It Romantic
You’re Nearer
Falling in Love with Love
It’s Good to Be Alive
Almost Like Being in Love
Easy to Love
Night and Day
Another Time, Another Place (Alternate Version)

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Cast Recordings, Popular Standards/Vocal

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Sally Ann Howes

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.