Masterworks Broadway continues to explore the rich history of its unrivaled Off-Broadway catalogue with the release of two cast recording rarities previously unavailable in CD - Elephant Steps: A Fear Radio Show available May 7th and Clownaround available June 4th.
With Elephant Steps, composer Stanley Silverman and librettist Richard Foreman created a work that remains a prime example of mixed-means theater, where sound and light, language and music, images and movement, graphics and films, incense and machinery, props and performers are incorporated into a spectacular mix. Elephant Steps will be released exclusively for purchase via MasterworksBroadway.com on May 7th in a limited quantity of physical CDs as well as digital download. The CD will be available via Manufacture-On-Demand through Arkiv Music June 4th, plus downloads through digital service providers the same day.Foreman, the iconic avant-garde theater pioneer and founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, and Silverman, the Obie and Drama Desk winner and classical composer whose Broadway credits include Ah, Wilderness! and Bent, conceived Elephant Stepsas a phantasmagorical radio show. Elephant Steps was once described by Jerome Robbins as reminding him of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds of 30 years before. Michael Tilson Thomas leads the cast and instrumental ensemble - including raga group, gypsy ensemble and elephants - and even sings one of the roles in this vibrant recording that perfectly evokes the '60s zeitgeist in all its psychedelic glory.Videos