The CD Was Better

On a similar note as the CDs you don't like:

What CDs did you enjoy, but didn't like the show upon viewing?

For me:

Ragtime
Jekyll and Hyde (Broadway)
Witches of Eastwick
Footloose

---

RAGS by Strouse and Schwartz.

One of the most moving, stirring scores in the past 30 years. Yet moment-to-moment, the show is dreary, plodding. Falling in love with it again on CD, I saw a decent production at the Papermill Playhouse. The book scenes just laid there, keeping the numbers at arms length. Even the triangle fire tragedy is muted, offstage. Curious if anyone else feels this way about RAGS (Musicman, we've debated this I know...).

---

Titanic
Les Mis
Miss Saigon

Jekyll and Hyde
Jesus Christ Superstar
Aida

---

Jekyll and Hyde


Thats the only one that really comes to mind right now...I love the music, but hated the show. Of course, I saw it when I was around 10 years old, so maybe my opinion will have changed by now, but I highly doubt it.

Actually, the Jekyll and Hyde production the accompanied the 2-CD concept recording (which also starred Bob Cuccioli and Linda Eder) was far superior to the Broadway production. The staging, costumes and choreography were great. The show only needed a couple of minor changes and it would have rivaled Phantom of the Opera as one of Broadway's top shows.

Also agree with Rags - love the CD, but the show iteself drags. It's too bad. Could've been a great comeback for Strouse. The poor man has had one of the most bizarre careers in Broadway history.

---

Phantom of the Opera.

I loved the show, but for some reason I liked listening to the cd better, so i could visualize what I thought waht was going on.

They're Playing Our Song;

A gleeful collection of songs with terrific orchestrations nicely performed by two attractive stars;

And the script, with a running time of close to three hours, is about a desperate and unfunny pair of forced neurotics who have less fascination than a herd of water buffalo.

My own life holds more interest.

---

PB ENT.1 - When the double concept CD of J&H with Warlow was released, it was being premiered in its first proscenium staging in Houston and Seattle years before it went to Broadway. There were 3 pre-Broadway productions in Houston before the show finally went to NY. The first production at the Alley Theatre (which also premiered Wildhorn's Svengali and Civil War) is considered by most who saw it as the favorite. It included Good and Evil as a song for the owner of the bar where Lucy performed. The Alley is mostly a thrust stage, so the show was remounted for a large proscenium to generate interest in a Broadway production. The first proscenium production was my favorite and closely resembled the double CD recording with the exception of The World Has Gone Insane (which was cut). Only a few minor changes were necessary to tighten the show, but they couldn't stop. The third production was like a cut-and-paste version of the second with a patchwork of inserted and deleted material and did not flow well at all. Bring on the Men started as an all-female cabaret act and was restaged to resemble more like something on a New Orleans Mardis Gras float. Finally the show was almost entirely rewritten and restaged for Broadway and remains one of the worst Broadway musicals I have seen. The original sets and lighting were far superior including a huge lab that bubbled, sparked, and fizzed. There was an enormous mirror behind the lab. A recording of Cuccioli as Hyde was projected onto the mirror for The Confrontation and the music was meticulously timed so the actor performed a duet with himself ending with the dramatic destruction of the lab. A series of lights were embedded into the stage floor that lit only the actors faces at the end of a beautiful choreographed "Facade". There were no costumes that resembled Les Mis or vacation slide-show projections of London to remind the audience of the setting. I only wish fans of the show could have seen the amazing second pre-Broadway production. If it had gone to Broadway, the show would have been HUGE.

---

The Grass Harp is one of the most brilliant cast albums ever made but it just didn't work quite as well on stage.

As much as I loved Titanic on stage - the CD worked even better since it seemed to come off as a concept album (likewise "Candide" - the original album was never surpassed on stage).

J&H's Broadway cast album (not the pre-Broadway concept albums) had full orchestrations, whereas the stage show at the Plymouth seemed not only squeezed onto a stage far too small for the scope of the production but also had too sparse instrumentation in comparison.


The classic cast albums of the 50s and 60s are much better than the shows were on stage - i.e. Christine, Goldilocks, First Impressions, Oh! Captain, Saratoga (blame muddled or just plain bad books). Even Whoop-up and Donnybrook which are fun on disc thanks to Susan Johnson but didn't quite make it so effectively on stage.