With dueling Merman biographies being released just prior to her birth centennial in 2008 (see review above of Caryl Flinn's Brass Diva), Kellow's slimmer tome is the livelier of the two with new interviews with friends, family and co-workers bringing vibrant life and clarity to even familiar anecdotes. Kellow (The Bennetts: An Acting Family) is less interested in digging for psychological insights and bluntly paints a more temperamental portrait of the Broadway belter, but readers will be swept up in the colorful eyewitness accounts of her stage triumphs (Anything Goes; Call Me Madam; Annie Get Your Gun; Gypsy; Hello, Dolly!) and her less successful attempts to move from stage to screen (There's No Business Like Show Business; It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World). With four failed marriages (including a legendarily short one to Ernest Borgnine—she flew back alone from their honeymoon after just two days), a distant relationships with her son and daughter (who died of an accidental overdose in 1967) and volatile personality, there's plenty of diva drama. She found a younger audience with appearances on Love Boat and a show-stopping cameo in Airplane!, but an inoperable brain tumor finally silenced the bombastic singer in 1984. Testimonies from those who were there during her decline bring an emotional wallop to her final days. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov. 5)
Brian Kellow
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For nearly three decades Ethel Merman virtually guranteed Broadway success. This in-depth portrait details her career, marriages, affairs, and her children. It includes a complete glossary of all of Merman's appearances.
Broadway star Ethel Merman's voice was a mesmerizing force and her vitality was legendary, yet the popular perception of La Merm as the irrepressible wonder falls far short of all that she was and all that she meant to Americans over so many decades. This marvelously detailed bio…
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Audible has a packed slate of new releases and live programming arriving this September, featuring everything from conversations with Barack Obama and a return to the fan-favorite Bobiverse to Colin Kaepernick's deeply personal story and more.
The Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show will record a cast album, featuring Rachel Dratch as “Narrator,” Luke Evans as “Frank-N-Furter,” Amber Gray as “Riff Raff,” Stephanie Hsu as “Janet,” Juliette Lewis as “Magenta,” and more.
This Ain’t No Disco: World Premiere Recording – Songs from the Musical by Stephen Trask and Peter Yanowitz is out now in digital and streaming formats.
Night Side Songs – the cast album of the transformative new musical produced by Lincoln Center Theater at LCT3 / the Claire Tow Theater – is available in streaming and digital formats now with a music video for My Stuff out now.
The original Broadway cast recording for Schmigadoon! is currently available to stream everywhere you listen to music.
Composer Yu-Peng Chen, known for scoring Genshin Impact, will release a 12-movement symphonic suite for piano and orchestra tracing a journey from birth to farewell.
Night Side Songs – the cast album, will be released in streaming and digital formats.
BroadwayWorld has your exclusive first listen to Lena Hall singing Lay Your Head from This Ain’t No Disco: World Premiere Recording – Songs from the Musical.
The musical Suffs is being adapted into a young adult novel! The book is written by the musical's writer, Shaina Taub, alongside author Betsy Cornwell.
Tony Award-winning producer and founder and CEO of Broadway Plus, Nathaniel Hill, is releasing a book.
Composer Micah Levy has released a revised, updated version of his orchestral children's album, previously performed by the Dallas, San Diego and Utah Symphonies, for streaming platforms.
Center Stage Records will release This Ain’t No Disco: World Premiere Recording – Songs from the Musical by Stephen Trask and Peter Yanowitz in digital and streaming formats.
That Parenting Musical recently recorded a studio cast album starring Christopher Jackson, Kara Lindsay, Bonnie Milligan, Max Mendoza Crumm, Vidushi Goyal, and Scott Rathbun, with a release date yet to be revealed.
Joy Machine Records will release two new singles from the upcoming album Beau: The Musical (Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording) in August, with a full album due this fall.
Octoverse Media and Warner Music Group's Arts Music will release the cast album of the Lincoln Center Theater musical, with a single from THE LAZOURS' score out now.
Studio Seven Classical has rereleased Robert Miller's MA PETITE FLEUR, a string quartet arranged by David Shenton, in a newly remixed and remastered version.
The Tony Award winning Best Musical Schmigadoon! released its second single from the original Broadway cast recording, “Tribulation,” featuring Tony Award-nominee Ana Gasteyer, the Schmigadoon! Original Broadway Company and the Schmorchestra.
Atlantic Records has unveiled the pre-order for CATS: The Jellicle Ball (Original Broadway Cast Recording), the official companion to the wildly acclaimed Tony Award-winning musical revival.
Empire: Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording has been released in digital and streaming formats.
Atlantic Records will release physical editions of Tony Award-winner Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years (25th Anniversary Live at the London Palladium), starring Rachel Zegler and Ben Platt.
The musical comedy concept album, featuring Chris Sullivan and Kimiko Glenn, is now streaming after its songs and cast drew more than 10 million views online.
Keke Palmer's audio comedy THE WEDDINGS OF LADY MISS JACQUELINE will premiere on Audible, featuring Sheryl Lee Ralph, Danielle Brooks and Zachariah Porter, alongside a trailer for a companion microdrama series.
An EP of songs from Romero & Juliet, a new musical based on elements from Shakespeare’s timeless love story and the zombie lore of filmmaker George Romero, has been released.
The 2025 Broadway Cast Recording of CHESS will be released on CD and vinyl next month.
Two-time Tony nominee Bill Russell has written a memoir chronicling his path from a South Dakota upbringing to a career as a Broadway writer, with a New York book signing planned to mark its release.
TCG Books will publish Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Pulitzer Prize-finalist play EVERYBODY, now available for pre-order ahead of its release.
Star Machine The EP will be released on all major streaming services, featuring six tracks from the original new musical Star Machine.
Center Stage Records announced the release of Sappho: The Poetess, an EP written and performed by Hayley Canham, ahead of performances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and London's Young Vic.
Heartbeat Opera will release its first full-length recording, an English-language, Broadway-infused reimagining of Massenet's opera, made at Power Station Studios with Lexicon Classics.
A five-song studio cast recording of the new musical about balloonist Sophie Blanchard is available for streaming, featuring Tony winner Lauren Patten and Britney Coleman.
