Description
High Button Shoes was the first Broadway musical by composer Jule Styne (Gypsy, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Funny Girl) and lyricist Sammy Cahn (Three Coins in the Fountain, All the Way, High Hopes, Call Me Irresponsible, Love and Marriage, Come Fly with Me, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!). Following a successful Broadway production in 1947, London in 1948 and multiple productions in the decades immediately following, the show and its tuneful score has almost been 'forgotten', until an celebrated revival in 2026 by Guildford School of Acting.
Stewart Nicholls, Associate Professor and Programme Leader of the BA (Hons) Musical Theatre Course at Guildford School of Acting/University of Surrey comments: "Although Frank Sinatra and Doris Day recorded the 'hit' songs from High Button Shoes, only a handful of numbers from the original 1947 Broadway cast were preserved on primitive 78rpm records, giving little indication of the sheer scope of the full score. We are honoured that the Styne and Cahn estates gave Guildford School of Acting permission to record a new cast album featuring the exceptional vocalists of our 2026 production of High Button Shoes. Following the success of our 2025 cast album of Grab Me A Gondola, we are delighted to collaborate once again with Stage Door Records to release this disc, preserving the complete score of High Button Shoes for future performers, scholars and musical theatre enthusiasts".
This professionally recorded cast album preserves the full score of High Button Shoes:
- All songs and dances previously recorded in truncated form now recorded in their entirety
- Premiere commercial recordings of 5 songs, 5 reprises, 3 dances & 2 finales
- Extensive sleeve notes and synopsis
- Multiple production photographs
The BA (Hons) Musical Theatre course at Guildford School of Acting is situated on the campus of University of Surrey and is one of the leading Musical Theatre schools in the world. Following its 2026 production of High Button Shoes, the BA (Hons) Musical Theatre course collaborated with University of Surrey's world-famous Tonmeisterr BSc/BMus course to record and preserve the complete score of the Musical.