The recording utilizes the orchestrations from the musical's 1956 film adaptation, restoring three songs cut from the movie: "Shall I Tell You What I Think of You", "My Lord and Master", and "I Have Dreamed".[2][3] The supporting cast includes Lea Salonga and Peabo Bryson as Tuptim and Lun Tha, with Marilyn Horne singing "Something Wonderful".[2]
Released on CD, cassette, and vinyl (in Europe only), the album incorporates spoken dialogue from the musical to maintain the dramatic structure of the musical.[3] Its creation was part of a larger celebration of Rodgers and Hammerstein's work, timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of their first collaboration, Oklahoma!.[4]
The project represented a return to musical theater for Julie Andrews, who had been absent from the genre for many years. For Ben Kingsley, it marked a rare foray into musical performance.[1] The album was nominated for a Best Musical Show Album.[5]
William Ruhlmann from AllMusic rated the album four out of five stars and called it "the exception to the many opera-singers-doing-a-musical recreations", praising Andrews' "brilliant" singing and Kingsley's "contemporary, distanced cool". The review also highlighted Mauceri’s orchestral choices.[2]
Linda Sanders from Entertainment Weekly gave the album a C, criticizing its perceived lack of charm. She said Ben Kingsley fails to match Yul Brynner's iconic King, while Julie Andrews plays Anna more like a stern leader than a warm governess. The star-studded cast, she argued, ultimately weakens the magic of the classic musical.[6]
Theatre writer John Kenrick praised the studio cast recording chiefly due to Julie Andrews' "magical" performance as Anna. He also admired John Mauceri's orchestrations with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, particularly their performance of "Shall We Dance", which he felt surpassed the original film version. Kenrick recommended the recording as an indispensable addition to any musical theater collection.[7]
Commercial performance
The album debuted on the US Billboard 200 at #135 on October 24, 1992,[8] and spent four weeks on the chart.[9] On the Billboard Top Classical Crossover Albums chart, it peaked at #1.[10] PolyGram Classics reported initial shipments of 175,000 units.[11] In the UK, the album debuted at #57 on October 10, 1992, and dropped to #72 in its second and final week.[12]
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.
