From the Special Tony Playbill

Playbill traveled to the hills of Georgia to report back on how a helicopter flown in the Vietnam War takes center stage in an outdoor staging of Miss Saigon.

Although the late Goddard Lieberson, responsible for producing the original Broadway cast albums of such classics as West Side Story, Gypsy, Camelot, Cabaret, and The Most Happy Fella, is widely (and deservedly) regarded as the foremost figure in his field, it's sometimes difficult to forgive some of his choices. True, he was, unlike today's cast album producers, at the mercy of LP length, so cuts were inevitable, with dance music, reprises, and entr'actes tending to fall by the wayside. But beyond that, Lieberson liked to refashion for disc what was being heard every night in the theatre; he would make numerous alterations in the score, creating new lead-ins or false endings, and almost always eschewing dialogue. For this reason, "Some People" on the Gypsy album has a fake orchestral intro (the "I Had A Dream" theme), and we're deprived of hearing Ethel Merman speak the great words ("Anybody that stays home is dead! If I die, it won't be from sittin'! It'll be from fightin' to get up and get out!") that lead into the song, and the chords that should punctuate those words.

Although the late Goddard Lieberson, responsible for producing the original Broadway cast albums of such classics as West Side Story, Gypsy, Camelot, Cabaret, and The Most Happy Fella, is widely (and deservedly) regarded as the foremost figure in his field, it's sometimes difficult to forgive some of his choices. True, he was, unlike today's cast album producers, at the mercy of LP length, so cuts were inevitable, with dance music, reprises, and entr'actes tending to fall by the wayside. But beyond that, Lieberson liked to refashion for disc what was being heard every night in the theatre; he would make numerous alterations in the score, creating new lead-ins or false endings, and almost always eschewing dialogue. For this reason, "Some People" on the Gypsy album has a fake orchestral intro (the "I Had A Dream" theme), and we're deprived of hearing Ethel Merman speak the great words ("Anybody that stays home is dead! If I die, it won't be from sittin'! It'll be from fightin' to get up and get out!") that lead into the song, and the chords that should punctuate those words.

David Goodrich wonders if it will ever end.

David Goodrich wonders if it will ever end.