A Stephen Sondheim Evening in Bloomington, MN

Stephen Sondheim
must be one of the most anthologized Broadway composers, his shows having been cannibalized into several revues, re-conceived
musicals
, and concert performances. This is a particularly good one. It is a concert featuring a cast of eight, among them
Cris Groenendaal
,
Bob Gunton
George Hearn
, and
Angela Lansbury
, recorded in 1983 and featuring songs written for shows ranging from
Sondheim
's unproduced first effort,
Saturday Night
, to what was then his latest,
Merrily We Roll Along
. Particularly notable are the songs cut from shows, such as
"There's Something About a War"
from
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
. The composer himself turns up toward the end to play piano for
Lansbury
on
"Send in the Clowns"
and help sing
"Old Friends."
[The original two-LP set released in 1983 (CBL2-4745) contained 21 selections. When the album was released on CD in 1994 (09026-61174-2), two songs,
"Fear No More"
and
"You're Gonna Love Tomorrow,"
were cut to keep the time down to the limits of one CD.] ~ William Ruhlmann