Dessa Rose, adapted from the novel by Sherley Anne Williams, returns writer Lynn Ahrens and composer Stephen Flaherty to similar themes and historical territory as their better known Ragtime. Although synopsis and script are provided in this beautifully produced package, the drama is fully conveyed through a continuous narrative that moves effortlessly between speech and song. The story follows the intertwining lives of a black slave girl and a high-class white woman in America in the early 1800s, through which they emerge as all too human in their frailties and strengths. That the work deals with its subject in an honest, complex and unromanticised way is a major factor in the show’s success.

The music is so tightly woven with the dialogue as to seem sometimes fragmentary (many very short tracks are listed): this is a recording for the full dramatic sweep, not the take-out hit. The blending of eclectic styles – gospel, Broadway, ragtime, folk, African percussion – is impressive and the instrumental sound is clear but never swamping. ‘Capture the girl’ is memorably subtle in writing and performance, and the Act 2 sequence ‘In the bend of my arm’ through to ‘A Pleasure’ generates a sustained musical impetus to match the dramatic. This studio recording was made by the original cast of the Lincoln Center Theater staging from spring 2005 and benefits from the live performing experience of the ensemble: dialogue and vocals are first-rate and committed throughout, with LaChanze (Dessa Rose) and Rachel York (Ruth) powerful and convincing.