The Golden Apple Like You've Never Heard It Before! Sung-Through Broadway Rarity to Get Live, Full-Length Cast Album | Playbill

News The Golden Apple Like You've Never Heard It Before! Sung-Through Broadway Rarity to Get Live, Full-Length Cast Album The Golden Apple, the rarely-seen 1954 musical by John Latouche and Jerome Moross that produced the single "Lazy Afternoon," will receive its first-ever, full-length cast album featuring nearly 90 minutes of previously unrecorded material, the Grammy-nominated record label PS Classics announced Feb. 20.

The original 1954 Broadway production, which launched the career of Kaye Ballard, was preserved on a 50-minute LP, capturing only a portion of the award-winning musical's score.

The two-disc PS Classics album, which captures 135-minute sung-through musical in its entirety, will be released May 19. The album will be produced by PS Classics co-founder Tommy Krasker. Moross' daughter, Susanna Moross Tarjan, serves as executive producer.

PS Classics' live release stems from a fully-staged production of The Golden Apple, featuring an orchestra of 38 playing the original orchestrations, which was presented last fall at Lyric Stage in Irving, TX. The final four performances were recorded by PS Classics for the new album.

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Christopher J. Deaton and Kristen Lassiter in The Golden Apple at Lyric Stage Photo by James Jamison/Lyric Stage

The 43-member Lyric Stage cast, whose performances are featured on the disc, included Christopher J. Deaton as Ulysses, Kristen Lassiter as Penelope, Danielle Estes as Helen, Deborah Brown as Mother Hare and Andy Baldwin as Menelaus.

The production was directed by Stefan Novinski and choreographed by John de los Santos, with music direction by conductor Jay Dias. Krasker told Playbill.com, "Susanna and I have been talking about a full-length recording of The Golden Apple for over two decades now; I mean, to have an award-winning musical, and one of this caliber, where less than half the score has been preserved on disc – it's mind-blowing. When I was freelance producing in the '90s, I tried to convince a half-dozen labels to underwrite a recording, but with no luck. So when Susanna called me last fall and said that Lyric Stage was doing a fully staged production, with the original orchestrations, it seemed like a prime opportunity. And when we heard the production, we realized it was the perfect chance to preserve The Golden Apple in its entirety. We recorded the last four performances, and have spent the winter editing and mixing. This is a true labor of love, and I'm thrilled with the results."

Written by composer Moross and librettist Latouche, The Golden Apple opened Off-Broadway at The Phoenix Theatre on March 11, 1954, before transferring to Broadway on April 20, 1954. Critics praised the musical that blended American folklore and Greek myth, taking inspiration from Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" and re-setting it in the turn of the century American Northwest.

The album is currently available for pre-order at PSClassics.com. Numerous cast albums are also available at PlaybillStore.com.

 
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