Broadway legend Bernadette Peters lends her celebrated voice to the Rodgers and Hammerstein songbook on her new recording. The album, called simply "Bernadette Peters Loves Rodgers and Hammerstein," will be released in March 12 on the Angel label.
The album is arranged and conducted by Jonathan Tunick and produced by Richard Jay-Alexander and Tunick. The song list—which features three selections from Carousel, as well as tunes from The Sound of Music and South Pacific (including, curiously enough, "There Is Nothin' Like a Dame")—is as follows:
"It's a Grand Night for Singing"
"If I Loved You"
"The Gentleman Is a Dope"
"It Might as Well Be Spring"
"Out of My Dreams"
"So Far"
"I Haven't Got a Worry in the World"
"Mister Snow"
"Some Enchanted Evening"
"There Is Nothin' Like a Dame"
"You'll Never Walk Alone"
"Something Good"
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Peters is more typically associated with modern composers rather than the shows of musical theatre's golden age. She is best known for her parts in Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods and won her first Tony Award for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song and Dance. However, her most recent stage assignment was one of the classic roles in musical history: Annie Oakley in Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun. The part won her a second Tony. Peters new stage role will be as Mama Rose in Gypsy. The show will bow on Broadway in spring 2003.
—By Robert Simonson