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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZTER labelThat's Entertainment Records, a UK label formed by John Andrew Yap (most CDs available on JAY in USA). Born in Malaysia, graphic designer Yap became an opera fan at an early age, then discovered the musical show; soon having an absurdly large record collection he opened a record shop called That's Entertainment in Drury Lane (the heart of London's historic theatre district), outgrew it and moved to St Martin's Lane, selling to fans and radio stations all over the world. His first record productions were Nashville New York (mounted in Islington, from Ogden Nash, Kurt Weill and Vernon Duke) and review Betjemania (poems and writings of poet laureate John Betjeman), both limited editions that sold out quickly; then success with TV soundtrack of Royal Shakespeare Company's adaptation of Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby (music by Stephen Oliver, directed by Trevor Nunn). He sold the shop to his partner and never looked back. A deal with publishers Orbis for a partwork (collectable magazine) series on musical shows helped finance the Original Masterworks series, new recordings of West Side Story, On The Town, Kiss Me Kate, Guys And Dolls, South Pacific, My Fair Lady and many others. Yap always found albums disappointing because they were only highlights (e.g. My Fair Lady never included the 'Embassy Waltz'), and revivals usually used reduced forces; TER has put out a few of those too, e.g. the Chichester Festival Theatre's '89 version of Sondheim's A Little Night Music with 13 musicians, but his new studio recordings were full-size and sumptuous: incredibly, many of TER's new recordings were the first complete ones. TER had released about 150 CDs by '97, not only original recordings but restoring to the catalogue such OC sets as Shire and Maltby's Baby '83 and the off-Broadway Weill/Brecht Threepenny Opera (with Lotte Lenya) '54, as well as British productions of Sondheim, the English National Opera's Street Scene (Weill), the Donmar Warehouse Threepenny Opera (with biting updated lyrics), Scottish Opera's Candide (Bernstein), others by Bob Merrill, Sandy Wilson, Lloyd Webber, Sigmund Romberg, Kander and Ebb, Wright and Forrest, Gilbert and Sullivan, Gian-Carlo Menotti, Invade My Privacy (celebrating the lyrics of Fran Landesman), Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock (Old Vic production '85 with Patti Lupone) and much else, as well as TV music and albums by Elizabeth Welch, Bertice Reading, Sally Burgess, Ethan Freeman, Adelaide Hall, Salena Jones and others. |