This special Harry Connick Jr. release features two distinct albums, packaged in a unique slip case.
One album includes the original cast recording from the Broadway hit "The Pajama Game."
The second album includes a selection of new recordings from "Thou Shalt Not" featuring Kelli O’Hara. All of these songs were written, arranged and orchestrated by Harry Connick, Jr.
Harry On Broadway, Act I, a two CD collection of Broadway music performed by Harry Connick, Jr. The new collection, released by Columbia Records, includes separate discs devoted to The Pajama Game Cast Album and Thou Shalt Not and will be in stores on Tuesday, May 9.
The first disc included in Harry On Broadway, Act I is devoted to the new Broadway cast recording of the Roundabout Theatre Company's critically-acclaimed revival of "The Pajama Game, " starring Harry Connick, Jr. in his Broadway stage debut, Kelli O'Hara, and Michael McKean. Based on the novel, "7-1/2 Cents, " by Richard Bissell, "The Pajama Game" is set in the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory during a strenuous labor negotiation and centers on the simmering romance between a handsome new manager and a lovely union representative that is threatened by the impending strike. With book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell and music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, the original 1955 Broadway production of "The Pajama Game" won three Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The current production, part of the 40th anniversary season of the Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director), is in performance at the American Airlines Theatre through June 17, 2006 and is directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. http://www.RoundaboutTheatre.org
In addition to stellar interpretations of the musical's classic songs including "Hey There, " "Steam Heat, " and "Hernando's Hideaway, " both the Roundabout Theatre production and The Pajama Game Cast Album feature three songs -- "If You Win, You Lose" and "The Three of Us, " written by Richard Adler, and "The World Around Us, " written by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross -- not included in the original production.
Thou Shalt Not, the second CD in the Harry On Broadway, Act I collection, showcases "The Pajama Game" stars Connick and O'Hara performing jazz interpretations of songs written by Connick for the Broadway musical "Thou Shalt Not." The program includes songs featured in the 2001 Broadway production, which received a Tony nomination for Best Score, as well as music written for but not included in the production. With the exception of "The Other Hours, " which Connick sang on his platinum-selling Sony/Columbia album Only You, none of the songs on Thou Shalt Not have been previously recorded in vocal versions or sung by Harry. The Harry Connick, Jr. Quartet, which features Charles "Ned" Goold (tenor saxophone), Neal Caine (bass), and Arthur Latin, II (drums), appear throughout the Thou Shalt Not album to provide Connick (who also plays piano) and O'Hara with swinging and sophisticated accompaniments.
