Happy in the Morning: Sony Masterworks Reissues Lauren Bacall, Mickey Rooney Musicals and More

Last week, we told you about Masterworks Broadway's search for suggestions of cast albums to reissue on vinyl. This week, the label has just announced three new releases in their ongoing download/CD-R program.

The first up on July 17 (this Friday) is the 1957 television cast of Pinocchio starring Mickey Rooney. This is not the Disney musical, but a version of the story featuring music by Alec Wilder and lyrics by William Engvick. It has only been available on CD before by public domain sources, such as Sepia's 2008 edition. Next, on August 14th, comes Woman of the Year, the 1981 Kander and Ebb musical comedy starring Lauren Bacall and featuring some of the duo's most delicious songs including "One of the Boys," "The Grass Is Always Greener" and the lush ballad "Sometimes a Day Goes By." This album has been on CD twice before, most recently in a 1997 Razor and Tie edition, but is currently out of print. The last project being announced is the 1968 London revival production of The Beggar's Opera, available on September 18. This eighteenth century show was the basis for The Three Penny Opera and this production's album was last on CD in 1994 from the Sony West End label. It is also currently out of print. This will be its U.S. CD(-R) debut.

All three titles will be available on the above dates exclusively through MasterworksBroadway.com for about a month and then available at all major digital services for download and Arkiv Music for the CD-R versions. (Amazon also makes the CD-Rs available, usually at a later date.) More details can be found in Sony Masterworks' press release below. Following that, we've got the full tracklisting for each album.

NEW YORK - Masterworks Broadway continues to make good on its promise to make available its extensive catalog of cast recordings with the release of three classic albums from the archives - Pinocchio (July 17), Woman of the Year (August 14), and The Beggar's Opera (September 18). Upon release, each title will be accompanied by new album pages and photos on MasterworksBroadway.com.

Pinocchio, a nearly forgotten television musical special starring Mickey Rooney, was originally broadcast October 13, 1957 on NBC and never repeated again. The production featured a script by Yasha Frank and musical numbers by Alec Wilder and William Engvick. In addition to Rooney, the cast also included Fran Allison famous for her work on TV's Kukla, Fran and Ollie; Stubby Kaye, the bouncing comedian of Guys and Dolls and Li'I Abner, and Martyn Green, the inimitable Gilbert and Sullivan star. Pinocchio, officially available for the first time on CD, will be released exclusively for purchase via MasterworksBroadway.com on July 17 in a limited quantity of Manufacture-On-Demand CDs as well as digital download. The CD will be available through Arkiv Music on August 14, plus streaming and downloads via digital service providers the same day.

Lauren Bacall might have been the unlikeliest candidate ever for Broadway-diva musical stardom - you had to love her to love her singing - but she absolutely nailed it. And twice. Her first musical, Applause (1970), had given her glorious second act to a film career that was as uneven as it was memorable. Her second, Woman of the Year, only reaffirmed that triumph when it opened at the Palace Theater on March 29, 1981. Based on the classic Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn film, Woman of the Year features music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb with an all-star cast including Harry Guardino and scene stealer Marilyn Cooper. The New York critics loved not only Bacall and Cooper but also Kander and Ebb's songs. In the New York Post, Clive Barnes wrote that the "melodious score by John Kander and the witty lyrics by Fred Ebb mark their best collaboration yet for the musical theater, and that includes Cabaret." The New York Times's Frank Rich wrote, "From the moment we hear the cheering overture ... it's clear that the score is flush with melodic ballads and show-biz brio." The show won Tonys for Bacall, Cooper, Kander and Ebb and Peter Stone, who wrote the book. Woman of the Year will be released exclusively for purchase via MasterworksBroadway.com on August 14 in a limited quantity of Manufacture-On-Demand CDs as well as digital download. The CD will be available through Arkiv Music on September 11, plus streaming and downloads via digital service providers the same day.

Richard Pilbrow and Harold Prince's production of The Beggar's Opera opened September 1968 at the Apollo Theatre in London. Starring Peter Gilmore, James Cossins and Jan Waters, the production was first performed at the Cambridge and Edinburgh Festivals and later for London Weekend Television. The story of Macheath and his band of beggars and thieves (and the basis for Kurt Weill's more frequently performed The Three Penny Opera), John Gay's classic eighteenth century ballad opera still delights audiences centuries later. The Beggar's Opera will be released exclusively for purchase via MasterworksBroadway.com on September 18 in a limited quantity of Manufacture-On-Demand CDs as well as digital download. The CD will be available through Arkiv Music on October 16, plus streaming and downloads via digital service providers the same day.