Recording Broadway: A Life in Cast Albums

Grammy Award–winning producer Shepard throws open the door to the recording booth in his exuberant and fine-grained debut memoir. Teaming up with journalist Wren (A Most Ingenious Paradox), Shepard traces his obsession with recorded sound from his New Jersey childhood (his grandfather bought him a phonograph when he was three years old) through a career spent making studio and original cast recordings of such Broadway musicals as 1776, Company, Sweeney Todd, and Chicago. Interwoven throughout are insights into such technological innovations as the 1948 introduction of the 33 1/3 rpm long-playing record, the addition of sound effects and other atmospheric touches to recordings, and the rocky transition to digital recording in the 1980s and ’90s. Shepard and Wren delve into the nitty-gritty of making a Broadway cast recording with genuine affection, though the minutiae sometimes detract from more colorful and accessible anecdotes about working with Julie Andrews, Angela Lansbury, Barbra Streisand, Elaine Stritch, and other stars (at 24, Streisand had “as canny an ear as any veteran I’d ever worked with,” recalls Shepard of a recording session where she correctly identified the take on which the orchestra had played best). Broadway aficionados will find plenty to enjoy. (Nov.)