To allow the company of Bells Are Ringing to continue its fine-tuning process during Broadway previews, the planned cast album recording of the revival has been bumped from March 26 to April 23, record producer Hugh Fordin told Playbill On-Line.
"Since they're still tweaking the musical sections as well as the overall running time, I've decided to push back till after Bells opens," Fordin said. Release date in the DRG Records label will be June 4.
Fordin was twice nominated this year for Grammy Awards for producing cast albums of The Music Man and Kiss Me, Kate.
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The Bells Are Ringing score includes "The Party's Over," "Just in Time," "Long Before I Knew You" and the lesser known, "Better Than A Dream," which was added to the original Broadway run after a year and was not recorded on the original cast album. The song is also heard in the 1960 film version. Bells Are Ringing, in which an answering service operator meddles in the life of her clients (and falls in love with one of them) offers a breezy, satiric, but sweetly affectionate view of then modern New York City. The Comden-Green Big Apple is a place were subway rides turn friendly ("Hello, Hello There!"), meetings in the park become reasons for singing ("Just in Time") and celebrity soirees can make a working-class girl feel inferior ("The Party's Over").
The score also includes "Mu-Cha-Cha," "I Met a Girl," "It's a Simple Little System," "Salzburg," "I'm Going Back," "Long Before I Knew You," "Is It a Crime?," "It's a Perfect Relationship" and "The Midas Touch."
For the revival, Don Sebesky handles orchestrations, David Evans is musical director. The production opens at the Plymouth Theatre April 12.
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Producer Fordin earned two Grammy Award nominations as producer of both Kiss Me, Kate (preserved on the DRG label, with Paul Gemignani and Don Sebesky as co- producers) and The Music Man (on the Q Records label). Both shows are still going strong on Broadway.
The 43rd Grammy Award nominations were announced Jan. 3. The competing recordings in the Musical Show category in 2001 were Aida, Kiss Me, Kate, The Music Man, Swing! and Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party. Aida won, it was announced Feb. 21.
