PS Classics
Encyclopedia
PS Classics is a record label
that specializes in musical theatre
and standard vocals. Founded in 2000
by Grammy-nominated freelance producer Tommy Krasker and singer/actor Philip Chaffin, their releases have been critically acclaimed for their meticulous sonic detail and high-quality packaging and artwork.
Recent Broadway cast recordings from PS Classics include Xanadu
, The Frogs
, the revivals of 110 in the Shade
, Pacific Overtures
, Fiddler On The Roof
, and Nine
, as well as the premiere recordings of Grey Gardens
, A Year with Frog and Toad
, My Life With Albertine
, Zanna, Don't!, Through The Years
, Striking 12
, Only Heaven
and First Lady Suite
. In May, 2006, PS Classics released their first London cast album, the London revival of Stephen Sondheim
's Sunday in the Park with George
. PS Classics has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, for the cast albums of Company
, Grey Gardens
, Assassins
and Nine
. In an unprecedented move, it recorded Grey Gardens twice, replacing the off-Broadway recording with a complete Broadway recording. The latter recording was Grammy nominated. Having a long-standing association with Stephen Sondheim
, the label has released seven albums of work by the composer. They also have long-standing relationships with composers Maury Yeston
and Ricky Ian Gordon
.
In addition to their Broadway cast albums, PS Classics has also released a slew of solo albums by Broadway and cabaret stars such as Christine Andreas
, Tony Award nominee Kerry Butler
, Tony Award winner Victoria Clark
, Tony Award nominee Jason Danieley
, Jackie Hoffman
, Lauren Kennedy
, Grammy nominee Maureen McGovern
, Jessica Molaskey
, Jane Olivor
, label co-owner Philip Chaffin, the band Groovelily
, and several others. They also issued the CD debut of Charlotte Rae
's 1955 solo album, "Songs I Taught My Mother" as well as the songbook albums of composers Maury Yeston
and Georgia Stitt.
PS Classics has also partnered with the Library of Congress
on their acclaimed "Songwriter Series", in which musical theatre composers/lyricist sing their own work. Four composers have been released through PS Classics: Hugh Martin
, Charles Strouse
, Jonathan Larson
and Howard Ashman
. In 2008, PS Classics released its first soundtrack, for the critically acclaimed musical film, Were the World Mine
. They also made their first foray into opera
, releasing Ricky Ian Gordon's The Grapes of Wrath
, in a live recording of the Minnesota Opera
production.
PS Classics also maintains a not-for-profit companion label, PS Classics, Inc., which is dedicated to the location and restoration of lost scores and musical theatre material. Their first project was the restoration and all-star recording of Fine and Dandy, a 1930s musical by Kay Swift
, one of the first female composers on Broadway
. Their recent releases include two volumes of the Sondheim Sings series, a collection of demo recordings by composer Stephen Sondheim
which highlight some of his early, lesser-known work.
The PS of PS Classics is named for Krasker and Chaffin's two dogs, Please (an Australian cattle dog) and Sumner (a bull terrier). PS Classics is based in Bronxville, New York
.
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
that specializes in musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
and standard vocals. Founded in 2000
2000 in music
See also:* 2000 in music Record labels established in 2000-Events:*January – Gary Glitter is released from jail, two months before his sentence for sexual offences ends.*January 1**John Tavener is knighted in the New Year's Honours List....
by Grammy-nominated freelance producer Tommy Krasker and singer/actor Philip Chaffin, their releases have been critically acclaimed for their meticulous sonic detail and high-quality packaging and artwork.
Recent Broadway cast recordings from PS Classics include Xanadu
Xanadu (musical)
Xanadu is a musical comedy with a book by Douglas Carter Beane, music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar, based on the 1980 cult classic film of the same name which was, in turn, inspired by the 1947 Rita Hayworth film Down to Earth. The title is a reference to the poem, Kubla Khan, or A...
, The Frogs
The Frogs (musical)
The Frogs is a musical "freely adapted" by Stephen Sondheim and Burt Shevelove from The Frogs, an Ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, originally performed in Yale University's gymnasium's swimming pool in 1974....
, the revivals of 110 in the Shade
110 in the Shade
110 in the Shade is a musical with a book by N. Richard Nash, lyrics by Tom Jones, and music by Harvey Schmidt.Based on Nash's 1954 play The Rainmaker, it focuses on Lizzie Curry, a spinster living on a ranch in the American southwest, and her relationships with local sheriff File, a cautious...
, Pacific Overtures
Pacific Overtures
Pacific Overtures is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, a libretto by John Weidman, and additional material by Hugh Wheeler. The musical is set in 1853 Japan and follows the difficult Westernization of Japan, through the lives of two friends caught in the change...
, Fiddler On The Roof
Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem...
, and Nine
Nine (musical)
Nine is a musical with a book by Arthur Kopit, music and lyrics by Maury Yeston. The story is based on Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical film 8½...
, as well as the premiere recordings of Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens is a 1975 documentary film by Albert and David Maysles, with Susan Froemke, Ellen Hovde, and Muffie Meyer. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive socialites, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived at Grey Gardens, a decrepit mansion at 3 West End Road in...
, A Year with Frog and Toad
A Year with Frog and Toad
A Year With Frog and Toad is a musical written by brothers Robert and Willie Reale , based on the Frog and Toad children's stories written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel...
, My Life With Albertine
My Life With Albertine
My Life with Albertine is an Off-Broadway musical with book by Richard Nelson, music by Ricky Ian Gordon, and lyrics by both. The 2003 musical is an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical novel by Marcel Proust, entitled In Search of Lost Time....
, Zanna, Don't!, Through The Years
Through the Years
"Through the Years" is the title of a song written by Steve Dorff and New York native Marty Panzer, and recorded by American country music artist Kenny Rogers....
, Striking 12
Striking 12
Striking 12 is the music group GrooveLily's off-Broadway holiday musical, based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl".The cast recording was released in 2004 by PS Classics.- Track listing : # Violin Ascension# Overture...
, Only Heaven
Only Heaven
Only Heaven is the fourth album by Industrial band The Young Gods.-Accolades:The information regarding accolades acquired from AcclaimedMusic.net-Tracklisting:# "Outside" - 0:31# "Strangel" - 3:07# "Speed of Night" - 6:00...
and First Lady Suite
First Lady Suite
First Lady Suite is a chamber musical by Michael John LaChiusa. The musical contains four separate segments about four of the First Ladies of the United States of America and the people surrounding them. They are: Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Eisenhower, Bess Truman, and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy...
. In May, 2006, PS Classics released their first London cast album, the London revival of Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
's Sunday in the Park with George
Sunday in the Park with George
Sunday in the Park with George is a 1984 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. The musical was inspired by the painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat...
. PS Classics has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, for the cast albums of Company
Company (musical)
Company is a musical with a book by George Furth and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The original production was nominated for a record-setting fourteen Tony Awards and won six....
, Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens is a 1975 documentary film by Albert and David Maysles, with Susan Froemke, Ellen Hovde, and Muffie Meyer. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive socialites, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived at Grey Gardens, a decrepit mansion at 3 West End Road in...
, Assassins
Assassins (musical)
Assassins is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by John Weidman, based on an idea by Charles Gilbert, Jr. It uses the premise of a murderous carnival game to produce a revue-style portrayal of men and women who attempted to assassinate Presidents of the United States...
and Nine
Nine (musical)
Nine is a musical with a book by Arthur Kopit, music and lyrics by Maury Yeston. The story is based on Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical film 8½...
. In an unprecedented move, it recorded Grey Gardens twice, replacing the off-Broadway recording with a complete Broadway recording. The latter recording was Grammy nominated. Having a long-standing association with Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
, the label has released seven albums of work by the composer. They also have long-standing relationships with composers Maury Yeston
Maury Yeston
Maury Yeston is an American composer, lyricist, educator and musicologist.He is known for writing the music and lyrics to Broadway musicals, including Nine in 1982, and Titanic in 1997, both of which won Tony Awards for best musical and best score. He also won a Drama Desk Award for Nine...
and Ricky Ian Gordon
Ricky Ian Gordon
Ricky Ian Gordon is an American composer of songs, stage musicals and opera. The death of his lover from AIDS inspired Dream True and Orpheus and Euridice...
.
In addition to their Broadway cast albums, PS Classics has also released a slew of solo albums by Broadway and cabaret stars such as Christine Andreas
Christine Andreas
-Biography:BroadwayAndreas was born in Camden, New Jersey. She made her Broadway debut in a 1975 revival of Angel Street. The following year she was cast as Eliza Doolittle in the 20th Anniversary production of My Fair Lady, for which she received the Theatre World Award...
, Tony Award nominee Kerry Butler
Kerry Butler
Kerry Marie Butler is an American actress known primarily for her work in theatre.-Early life and career:...
, Tony Award winner Victoria Clark
Victoria Clark
Victoria Clark is an American musical theatre singer and actress. Clark has performed in many Broadway musicals and in other theatre, film and television work, and her soprano voice can be heard on numerous cast albums and several animated films...
, Tony Award nominee Jason Danieley
Jason Danieley
Jason D. Danieley is an American actor, singer, concert performer and recording artist. He is married to fellow Broadway star, Marin Mazzie-Biography:...
, Jackie Hoffman
Jackie Hoffman
Jacqueline Laura Hoffman , known as Jackie Hoffman, is an American actress and stand-up comedian known for her facially-contorting expressions, and one-woman shows of Jewish-themed original songs and monologues...
, Lauren Kennedy
Lauren Kennedy
Lauren Kennedy is an actress and a singer who has performed numerous times on Broadway. She most recently starred in the Off-Broadway show Good Ol' Girls at the Black Box Theatre during the 2009-2010 season...
, Grammy nominee Maureen McGovern
Maureen McGovern
Maureen Therese McGovern is an American singer and Broadway actress, well known for her premier renditions of the Oscar winning songs "The Morning After" from the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, and "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno in 1974.-Early life:McGovern was...
, Jessica Molaskey
Jessica Molaskey
Jessica Molaskey is a professional singer of torch songs and show tunes. She has appeared in a dozen Broadway shows such as the revival of Sunday in the Park With George and Cats and has premiered theater pieces off-Broadway, including the Jason Robert Brown 1995 musical Songs for a New World, and...
, Jane Olivor
Jane Olivor
Jane Olivor is an American cabaret singer. She was initially compared, often favorably, to Barbra Streisand and Édith Piaf.-Background:...
, label co-owner Philip Chaffin, the band Groovelily
GrooveLily
Groovelily is a trio, a pop band made up of Valerie Vigoda , Brendan Milburn , and Gene Lewin . The band was originally formed in 1994 as "The Valerie Vigoda Band." Groovelily's music combines classical music, musical theatre, jazz and rock...
, and several others. They also issued the CD debut of Charlotte Rae
Charlotte Rae
Charlotte Rae is a prolific American character actress of stage, comedienne, singer and dancer, who in her six decades of television is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Edna Garrett in the sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life...
's 1955 solo album, "Songs I Taught My Mother" as well as the songbook albums of composers Maury Yeston
Maury Yeston
Maury Yeston is an American composer, lyricist, educator and musicologist.He is known for writing the music and lyrics to Broadway musicals, including Nine in 1982, and Titanic in 1997, both of which won Tony Awards for best musical and best score. He also won a Drama Desk Award for Nine...
and Georgia Stitt.
PS Classics has also partnered with the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
on their acclaimed "Songwriter Series", in which musical theatre composers/lyricist sing their own work. Four composers have been released through PS Classics: Hugh Martin
Hugh Martin
Hugh Martin was an American musical theater and film composer, arranger, vocal coach, and playwright. He is best known for his score for the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me In St...
, Charles Strouse
Charles Strouse
Charles Strouse is an American composer and lyricist.-Life and career:Strouse was born and raised in New York City, the son of Ira and Ethel Strouse...
, Jonathan Larson
Jonathan Larson
Jonathan Larson was an American composer and playwright noted for the serious social issues of multiculturalism, addiction, and homophobia explored in his work. Typical examples of his use of these themes are found in his works, Rent and tick, tick... BOOM!...
and Howard Ashman
Howard Ashman
Howard Elliott Ashman was an American playwright and lyricist. Ashman first studied at Boston University and Goddard College and then went on to achieve his master's degree from Indiana University in 1974...
. In 2008, PS Classics released its first soundtrack, for the critically acclaimed musical film, Were the World Mine
Were the World Mine
Were the World Mine is a 2008 romantic musical fantasy film directed by Tom Gustafson and written by Gustafson and Cory James Krueckeberg.Were the World Mine is a story of gay empowerment, inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream...
. They also made their first foray into opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, releasing Ricky Ian Gordon's The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath (opera)
The opera version of The Grapes of Wrath was composed by Ricky Ian Gordon to a libretto by Michael Korie based on John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel of the same title. The three-act opera was originally commissioned by the Minnesota Opera and co-produced with Utah Symphony & Opera...
, in a live recording of the Minnesota Opera
Minnesota Opera
The Minnesota Opera is a performance organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was founded in 1963 by the Walker Art Center, and is known for premiering such diverse works as Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and Frankenstein by Libby Larsen...
production.
PS Classics also maintains a not-for-profit companion label, PS Classics, Inc., which is dedicated to the location and restoration of lost scores and musical theatre material. Their first project was the restoration and all-star recording of Fine and Dandy, a 1930s musical by Kay Swift
Kay Swift
Kay Swift was an American composer of popular and classical music, the first woman to score a complete musical. Written in 1930, Fine and Dandy includes some of her best known songs; the title song has become a jazz standard. "Can't We Be Friends?" was another important hit...
, one of the first female composers on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
. Their recent releases include two volumes of the Sondheim Sings series, a collection of demo recordings by composer Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
which highlight some of his early, lesser-known work.
The PS of PS Classics is named for Krasker and Chaffin's two dogs, Please (an Australian cattle dog) and Sumner (a bull terrier). PS Classics is based in Bronxville, New York
Bronxville, New York
Bronxville is an affluent village within the town of Eastchester, New York, in the United States. It is a suburb of New York City, located approximately north of midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County. At the 2010 census, Bronxville had a population of 6,323...
.