Editing Cast recording (section)

===Columbia===
[[Columbia Records|Columbia]]'s first original Broadway cast album was the 1946 revival of ''[[Show Boat]]'', soon followed by an album of ''[[Finian's Rainbow]]''. In 1948 Columbia introduced the Lp to the record market and soon offered LP editions of their 78-rpm sets.  The first cast album recorded as an LP was Cole Porter's ''[[Kiss Me, Kate]]'', which was a big hit on records and was followed by the blockbuster Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ''[[South Pacific (musical)|South Pacific]]''. The producer of these albums was Goddard Lieberson, who brought unquestionable taste and skill to translating a Broadway show to records. He didn't just record the songs. It was his goal to make the album an enjoyable listening experience for home listeners who, quite often, had not even seen the shows.  Recorded in an old converted church on 30th street in New York City, Columbia's albums had a lush, open, spacious sound. When stereo came along in the late 1950s, Lieberson used stereo placement to enhance the performances but avoided any gimmicks. As a result, Columbia's albums of ''[[Kismet (musical)|Kismet]]'', ''[[The Pajama Game]]'', ''[[Bells Are Ringing (musical)|Bells Are Ringing]]'', and ''[[Flower Drum Song]]'' remain classics in the field.

In 1956, Lieberson persuaded CBS to put up the entire capitalization for Lerner and Loewe's ''[[My Fair Lady]]''. This ensured that Columbia got the cast album rights and that CBS held all film and TV rights to the property.  The show was the biggest hit of the decade, selling out for nearly 6 years on Broadway. The original cast album reached #1 on the Billboard charts, and stayed on the charts for nine years. Because the Broadway cast had been recorded only in monaural, when the cast opened it in London Columbia re-recorded it in stereo. The label later offered the film soundtrack and a 1976 20th anniversary revival cast albums as well as recordings in French, Italian, Spanish and Hebrew.

The profits from the ''My Fair Lady'' album financed many of Columbia's subsequent original cast and classical recordings.

The label recorded Frank Loesser's near sung-through musical ''[[The Most Happy Fella]]'', virtually complete and issued it as a 3-record set as well as a single Lp of highlights.  Lieberson made sure that important scores were recorded even if the shows were not box office successes. Thanks to his foresight the original casts of  ''[[Candide (musical)|Candide]]'', ''[[Anyone Can Whistle]]'', and ''[[Goldilocks (musical)|Goldilocks]]'' are preserved.

Columbia recorded as many hits as they did flops - ''[[Gypsy (musical)|Gypsy]]'', ''[[The Sound of Music]]'', ''[[Bye Bye Birdie (musical)|Bye Bye Birdie]]'', ''[[Camelot (musical)|Camelot]]'',  ''[[Sweet Charity]]'', ''[[Mame (musical)|Mame]]'', ''[[1776 (musical)|1776]]'', ''[[Cabaret (musical)|Cabaret]]'', ''[[West Side Story]]'', ''[[Company (musical)|Company]]'', ''[[A Little Night Music]]'', and ''[[Annie (musical)|Annie]]''.

In the 1980s, the label began to withdraw from the cast album field as RCA began to dominate it. Sony bought CBS records in the late 1980s and began reissuing many older cast albums on the Sony Broadway label in 1991–94 and later the Sony Columbia Broadway Masterworks labels. The few, mainly obscure flops, that Sony chose not to reissue were farmed out to DRG and other specialty labels.

The merger between Sony and BMG in 2004 has resulted in a new label called Masterworks Broadway and now that Sony has taken over the entire operation they have started allowing outside companies such as DRG to re-release many of the rarer cast albums from the combined Columbia and RCA Victor catalogues. Masterworks Broadway has also launched a new website offering the combined Victor and Columbia catalogues.