The Act (cast recording)

The Act is the original cast recording to musical drama of the same name, starring Liza Minnelli, with music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb. The album documents Minnelli's return to a Broadway vehicle after a 12-year absence, featuring her performance as a fading film star attempting a Las Vegas comeback. Recorded in a single marathon session at New York's A&R Recording Studios in April 1978, the cast album underwent an unusual production history. While originally slated for release by Columbia Records, it was ultimately produced by Hugh Fordin's DRG Records and distributed nationally through a manufacturing and marketing agreement with RCA Records.

The recording presents Kander and Ebb's contemporary 1970s-infused score, which incorporated disco rhythms and electric guitar elements, departing from their characteristic period works. For the album, songs were edited to remove dialogue and trimmed to conventional song structures, with the track sequence reorganized from the stage production. The commercial release was promoted following Minnelli's Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical , though the show itself had received mixed critical reception. The cast album had a brief chart appearance, peaking at number 188 on the Cash Box Top Albums chart, and has been reissued multiple times, often repackaged as a Liza Minnelli solo album rather than as an original cast recording.