Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. Today, there's some newer KISS, some obscure Duke Ellington, and a few rare cast albums - plus a way you can help out some writers in need. KISS, Sonic Boom (UMe) (iTunes / Amazon) After a mid-'90s reunion of the classic KISS line-up, the band dynamics began to shift again In the early 21st
Fun, laughs, good time... The team of director-choreographer Bob Fosse, librettist Neil Simon, composer Cy Coleman, and lyricist Dorothy Fields made good on those promises with the 1966 Broadway debut of Sweet Charity. Based on Federico Fellini's film Nights of Cabiria, the musical depicted the bittersweet romantic adventures of dance hall hostess Charity Hope Valentine, so memorably created onstage by Gwen Verdon and introduced on film by Shirley MacLaine. The splashy production reopened the
If there's a sound associated with playwright Neil Simon, it's that of laughter. And if it's a musical sound, it's the sound of Neal Hefti. The late composer (1922-2008) created the memorable theme that introduced The Odd Couple to the big screen in 1968, and has been subsequently heard on television in 1970, and once again today in a small-screen revival. Varese Sarabande's We Hear You series has recently offered a tale of two Neil/Neals with the world premiere releases on CD of the original