"Hello, Dolly" 2017 Cast Recording- Page 5

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 3:04pm

This is recording is my first experience with Hello Dolly and I'm obsessed! Put on your Sunday clothes is my jam and Bette sounds like gold. Gavin Creel is my favorite tenor voice on Broadway and I'm so happy to have another recording with him on it. Also, I love Wall-E a whole lot more now.

[Cat Guy]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 3:23pm

It's Bette Midler.  I will love the cast recording.

Updated On: 5/12/17 at 03:23 PM

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 3:35pm

I still prefer the 1994 cast recording. It was much fuller and it's a lovely balance with the Orchestra and Performers. For instance, during Put On Your Sunday Clothes it feels like the ensemble is right there performing the piece with full choreography and in costume. This recording the song feels like a high school show choir gently performing the piece on risers. Not to mention the complete "I Put My Hand In."

[Valentina3]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 4:06pm

I just listen to Before The Parade Passes By and Hello, Dolly! from following versions - 

Original Broadway Cast Recording - Carol Channing, 1964
London Cast Album - Mary Martin, 1965 *
Broadway Cast Recording - Pearl Bailey, 1967
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Barbra Streisand, 1969
The New 1994 Cast Recording - Carol Channing, 1994
New Broadway Cast Recording - Bette Midler, 2017

Pearl Bailey's version for Before The Parade Passes By is my favorite, followed by Bette's.

Barbra's version of Hello, Dolly! is my favorite, followed by Carol Channing's 1994 version. 

Barbra sings it so smooth, I can never quite understand how she makes it work so well. There's affection, but great amount of sexual tension in her take of the song which makes me feel positively drunk.

* - My album's dated 1964, even though the show opened in London in 1965, not sure what's up with this.

[Margo319]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 4:14pm

Wow this cast recording sucks.  Their voices, the music, it's all so weak and under-whelming.  How disappointing.

[noradesmond]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 4:16pm

Valentina3 said: "I just listen to Before The Parade Passes By and Hello, Dolly! from following versions - 

Original Broadway Cast Recording - Carol Channing, 1964
London Cast Album - Mary Martin, 1965 *
Broadway Cast Recording - Pearl Bailey, 1967
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Barbra Streisand, 1969
The New 1994 Cast Recording - Carol Channing, 1994
New Broadway Cast Recording - Bette Midler, 2017

Pearl Bailey's version for Before The Parade Passes By is my favorite, followed by Bette's.

Barbra's version of Hello, Dolly! is my favorite, followed by Carol Channing's 1994 version. 

Barbra sings it so smooth, I can never quite understand how she makes it work so well. There's affection, but great amount of sexual tension in her take of the song which makes me feel positively drunk.

* - My album's dated 1964, even though the show opened in London in 1965, not sure what's up with this."

Dollypop can probably state more definitively, but didn't Mary Martin and cast tour internationally before settling in for a London run?  I remember a TV special called 'Dolly Tours The World' or something like that. Perhaps the recording was made before the London run. 

[DAME]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 4:42pm

I am very pleased with it. But I wish that finale was in there.

[Cat Guy]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 4:51pm

In 1967, I saw "Dolly" in London with Dora Bryan.  She had replaced Mary Martin the previous year.  Although not especially well known on this side of the Atlantic, Bryan was a much-loved star in Great Britain.  Her "Dolly" was wonderful.  When I see Bette later this year, it will mark exactly half a century since first I was introduced to "Dolly".  I may have aged, but "Dolly" hasn't.  

[Princeton78]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 5:09pm

Does this recording use the same overture they use in the theatre? If so, how disappointing! The one on the '94 recording gets your pulse racing...this one is....well... nice. 

[DAME]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 6:33pm

The one in the 94 recording was added just for that tour.  I believe the original production didn't have much of a overture. Dollypop would know.

Updated On: 5/12/17 at 06:33 PM

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 6:39pm

DrJekyll wrote: ONE STINKING PICTURE in the booklet. One. The one of Bette that we've all seen a bazillion times. 

Agree with you about the lack of pictures, but the booklet seems pretty good. I've only skimmed it but will read in full over the weekend. It is sad that even though the FINALE leads you to believe it's the entire cast performing...it is not...just Bette and David, as on the NPR stream.

Additionally, if you're listening to this as a Spotify Premium member, you are definitely getting a higher bitstream than the NPR stream. Depending upon your audio equipment, you should be able to hear a slight improvement. I'll be listening to the CD on the way home from work...in the car...and later at home. I did notice today that a high resolution download is available from HDTracks.com, but it is 48/24 as opposed to 96/24, 192/24 or DTS...

Updated On: 5/12/17 at 06:39 PM

[DAME]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 6:43pm

MichelleCraig said: "DrJekyll wrote: ONE STINKING PICTURE in the booklet. One. The one of Bette that we've all seen a bazillion times. 

Agree with you about the lack of pictures, but the booklet seems pretty good. I've only skimmed it but will read in full over the weekend. It is sad that even though the FINALE leads you to believe it's the entire cast recording...it is not...just Bette and David, as on the NPR stream.

 

"

AGREED!  But what is there is really good.  So relieved the CD sounds so good.  If those streams are always like that then they don't do themselves any advertisement favors.  

 

[RagtimeRay]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 8:50pm

DAME said: "The one in the 94 recording was added just for that tour.  I believe the original production didn't have much of a overture. Dollypop would know.

The original production had NO overture. The curtain rose as the orchestra played "Call on Dolly."

"

 

Posted: 5/12/17 at 9:29pm

Found on Instagram...

[broadwayboy223]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 9:33pm

Unfortunately I don't care for this album. Kate Baldwin is fantastic though. Even though Barbra was wayyyy to young for Dolly, I think what she did was expose how well the score could be sung and Bette isn't cutting it for me. 

[noradesmond]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 10:26pm

DAME said: "I am very pleased with it. But I wish that finale was in there."

Me too, Dame. Not sure why there is so much hate for it here. It's not perfect but it is full of wonderful performances and is a delight in spite of some unfortunate omissions to the score. 

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 10:41pm

To answer some questions:

Mary Martin brought DOLLY to London and was replaced by Dora Bryan--who was better received than Mary and did her own studio recording of the score.

As mentioned, the original '64 production lacked an overture because Gower Champion hated them. One was added for the Pearl Bailey recording but was not actually used in the production. The 1st Channing revival used an overture, it was also used in her 2nd revival and that's what's featured on the '94 recording.

[Valentina3]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 10:48pm

I love how DAME is deferring to Dollypop, who is totally coming through on this trivia. I always imagine DAME singing "Call... on... Dollypop!" whenever it happens :)

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 10:51pm

Count me among those who are very pleased to find the iTunes download is much better than the NPR version. Is it the best DOLLY ever? No. Would I prefer that Midler had done the show 10 or even 15 years ago? Sure.

But the supporting cast is excellent and Midler is still magic!

[BwayMonkey]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 11:47pm

Count me in as someone who loves this album. Does it capture the energy of the full LIVE experience? No. But I'm not sure that it could. I love how clear the orchestrations and vocal arrangements are. That ensemble has some of the most incredible voices I have ever heard together.

 

my main quibble would be with Sunday Clothes. The ensemble comes in so quietly... but on multiple listenings, there is a hushed intensity that crescendos to the end that i find thrilling.

 

i'm confused by people complaining about the cut music/ run time? The original album was only 43 minutes long and the last revival was only 56. Is there really that much missing?

[Chicken_Flavor]

Posted: 5/12/17 at 11:49pm

Put on your Sunday Clothes is my JAM.

Gavin is great as Cornelius!!

[bk]

Posted: 5/13/17 at 1:23am

Okie doke - I have the CD now.  Yes, of course it's better than the low-rez mp3 crap that everyone's been listening to.  That said, how anyone can say this is a clear recording is beyond me, other than they know nothing about sound or are just in love with the dry, small sound of cast albums today.  Take ANY one of the tracks on this CD and play it back to back with either the OBC or my 94 recording and tell me about clarity.  It sounds like it was recorded in a closet because the producers and engineers have added a perfunctory amount of the wrong kind of reverb - the band, which is over twenty, sounds like ten.  The singers are kept back in the mix for reasons I cannot fathom and they sound like they have a blanket over them.  Cast albums should sound alive and have air and space, you know, just like when you see the show in the theater.  Obviously this is what people do these days, but I'll take a Goddard Lieberson cast album any day of the week, even though we have the technology to be even better now - but they don't use it correctly.  

I'm gonna also say this - the cast, including Ms. Midler is terrific.  The people who think she sounds dull and distant would not be saying that if this were mixed differently and had the presence and life it needs.  I could spend three hours with this and make it a whole different thing, but as long as there are people who think the band is "clear" and the vocal arrangements are "clear"  then nothing will change.  For those who love that sort of thing, I wish you many happy listens.  For me, once was more than enough.

[justoldbill]

Posted: 5/13/17 at 2:18am

It rather sounds like a film soundtrack recording, and I don't really mean that in a negative way.  It just misses the PRESENCE of having everyone in the same room at the same time doing the same take. And really, haven't we been spoiled?  Look at the recordings we have- Channing, Martin, Bailey, Merman (with some of the older ones of us having seen them on stage as well).  Miss Midler is a fine performer, but her teeth weren't cut in musical theatre (FIDDLER notwithstanding). It's a different animal.  And Gower Champion isn't around to keep it on track.

(private note to bk and having nothing to do with this thread: I'm ready for another Harvey Schmidt album.)

Updated On: 5/13/17 at 02:18 AM

[bk]

Posted: 5/13/17 at 3:44am

If he ever gets me the art, we're planning on doing those private albums he did of his favorite movie music - four volumes. :)

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/13/17 at 5:38am

Got a message from Amazon informing me my purchase had been declined by the bank. (They were using an outdated debit card for some reason). At that point I considered canceling my order. However, I straightened everything out and am awaiting the cd's arrival--if only for archival reasons.