Carmen Jones (1943  Original Broadway Cast)
Carmen Jonesis one of the weirdest projects to ever hit the American musical theater. In 1943, lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II adapted Georges Bizet'sCarmenfor Broadway. The music was pretty much left intact, but Hammerstein transferred the action to WWII America. Carmen's tobacco factory  became Carmen Jones' parachute factory, bullfighter Escamillo became boxer Husky Miller, and so on. As if this weren't enough, there also was the "small" detail of casting the show only with African-Americans. All in all, this ambitious endeavor makes Baz Luhrmann'sLa Bohemeseem timid. Hammerstein's attempt at writing "black" hasn't aged all that well, but many of the show's songs retain a surprising impact. The feverish intensity of "Beat Out dat Rhythm on a Drum," for instance, hasn't dimmed over the years, and the song's been covered by a wide variety of performers, from Pearl Bailey and Marc Almond to Mandy Patinkin. The track is reprised as a bonus track at the end of the CD in a version sung by Kitty Carlisle (who's rather stiff compared to the show's June Hawkins).--Elisabeth Vincentelli