PS Classics is a record label that specializes in musical theatre and standard vocals, founded in 2000 by Grammy-nominated freelance producer Tommy Krasker and singer/actor Philip Chaffin.
PS Classics has also partnered with the Library of Congress on their acclaimed "Songwriter Series", in which musical theatre composers/lyricist sing their own work. Four composers have been released through PS Classics: Hugh Martin, Charles Strouse, Jonathan Larson and Howard Ashman. In 2008, PS Classics released its first soundtrack, for the critically acclaimed musical film, Were the World Mine. They also made their first foray into opera, releasing Ricky Ian Gordon's The Grapes of Wrath, in a live recording of the Minnesota Opera production.
PS Classics also maintains a not-for-profit companion label, PS Classics, Inc., which is dedicated to the location and restoration of lost scores and musical theatre material.[2] Their first project was the restoration and all-star recording of Fine and Dandy, a 1930s musical by Kay Swift, one of the first female composers on Broadway. Their recent releases include two volumes of the Sondheim Sings series, a collection of demo recordings by composer Stephen Sondheim which highlight some of his early, lesser-known work.
The PS of PS Classics is named for Krasker and Chaffin's two dogs, Please (an Australian cattle dog) and Sumner (a bull terrier).[3] PS Classics is based in Bronxville, New York.
Company is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth. The original 1970 production was nominated for a record-setting 14 Tony Awards, winning six. Company lacks a linear plot, depicting instead a story occurring in the mind of the central character, a concept musical composed of short vignettes, presented in no particular chronological order, linked by a 35th birthday.
Bernadette Peters is an American actress, singer, and children's book author. Over a career spanning more than six decades, she has starred in musical theatre, television and film, performed in solo concerts and released recordings. She is a critically acclaimed Broadway performer, having received seven nominations for Tony Awards, winning two, and nine nominations for Drama Desk Awards, winning three. Four of the Broadway cast albums on which she has starred have won Grammy Awards.
Maury Yeston is an American composer, lyricist and music theorist.
Jonathan Tunick is an American orchestrator, musical director, and composer, and one of sixteen "EGOTs" - people to have won all four major American showbusiness awards: the Tony Awards, Academy Awards, Emmy Awards and Grammy Awards. He is best known for orchestrating the works of Stephen Sondheim, their collaboration starting in 1970 with Company and continuing to the present day.
Thomas Z. Shepard is an American record producer who is best known for his recordings of Broadway musicals, including the works of Stephen Sondheim. Shepard is also a composer, conductor, music arranger and pianist.
Judy Kuhn is an American actress and singer, known for her work in musical theatre. A four-time Tony Award nominee, she has released four studio albums and sang the title role in the 1995 film Pocahontas, including her rendition of the song "Colors of the Wind", which won its composers the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
The Golden Apple is a musical adaptation of parts of the Iliad and Odyssey with music by Jerome Moross and lyrics by John Treville Latouche. The musical premiered Off-Broadway in 1954 and then transferred to Broadway.
Nine is a musical with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston, and a book by Arthur Kopit. It is based on Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical 1963 film 8½.
Laura Ilene Benanti is an American actress and singer.
Rebecca Luker was an American actress, singer, and recording artist noted for her "crystal clear operatic soprano" and for maintaining long runs in Broadway musicals over the course of her three decade long career. The New York Times compared her to actresses such as Barbara Cook and Julie Andrews. She was nominated for three Tony Awards, three Outer Critics Circle Award, and two Drama Desk Awards.
Melissa Errico is an American actress, singer, recording artist and writer. She is known for her Broadway musical roles such as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, and Kurt Weill's One Touch of Venus, as well as her recordings of musical theater classics, including albums of songs by Stephen Sondheim and Michel Legrand. In recent years she has also become a contributing writer to The New York Times.
December Songs is a song cycle by Maury Yeston, best known as the musical theatre composer-lyricist responsible for the music and lyrics of Nine, Titanic, Phantom, Death Takes a Holiday, and part of Grand Hotel. The work is a 'retelling' of Franz Schubert's Winterreise,, with a cabaret sensibility. The songs in both December Songs and Winterreise are linked as a sequence of reflections by the singer taking a lonely walk in winter, thinking back on his or her lost love. The piece crosses over the line from classical music to Broadway to cabaret. Where the Schubert masterpiece features words by Wilhelm Müller portraying a jilted young man's wandering the snows of the Vienna Woods and ultimately sinking into madness, the Yeston lyrics depict a contemporary young woman wandering a snowy Central Park in New York City and finding recovery and hope on her journey.
Elena Shaddow is an American singer and actress. She is originally from Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
Laura Ann Osnes is an American actress and singer known for her work on the Broadway stage. She has played starring roles in Grease as Sandy, South Pacific as Nellie Forbush, Anything Goes as Hope Harcourt, and Bonnie and Clyde as Bonnie Parker, for which she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. She also starred in the title role of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway, for which she received a Drama Desk Award and her second Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.
Norm Lewis is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in Europe, on Broadway, in film, television, recordings and regional theatre. Productions that he has been involved in include Dessa Rose, Miss Saigon, The Wild Party, and several others.
Titanic is a musical with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Peter Stone. It is based on the story of the RMS Titanic which sank on its maiden voyage on April 15, 1912.
Larry Hochman is an American orchestrator and composer. He has won four Emmy Awards for his original music on the TV series Wonder Pets! and a Tony Award for his orchestrations for The Book of Mormon.
Death Takes a Holiday is a musical with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Peter Stone and Thomas Meehan. The story is adapted from the 1924 Italian play La Morte in Vacanza by Alberto Casella, which was adapted in English for Broadway in 1929 by Walter Ferris. That play was made into a 1934 film of the same name starring Fredric March, which was remade in 1998 as Meet Joe Black, starring Brad Pitt. The story of the musical is about lonely Death, who takes the form of a handsome young prince to understand human emotion. He falls in love with an engaged young woman and learns about love and sacrifice.
Tom Sawyer: A Ballet in Three Acts premiered on October 14, 2011 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri. The score is by composer Maury Yeston, with choreography by William Whitener, artistic director of the Kansas City Ballet. The ballet is based on Mark Twain's 1876 novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Bernadette Peters is an American actress, singer, and children's book author. She is a critically acclaimed Broadway performer, having received seven nominations for Tony Awards, winning two, and nine nominations for Drama Desk Awards, winning three. Peters has appeared extensively in film and on television, having been nominated for four Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards, winning one. She has also recorded solo albums, and four of her cast albums have won Grammy Awards.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
