Oh, for the umpteenth time: LA CHIUSA, LA CHIUSA, LA CHIUSA!!!!!!
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
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La Chiusa, without a doubt. Lippa has tome nice tunes, but the music is more standard musical comedy that could easily be used in other shows. La Chiusa's score more effectively captures the mood of the text and period of the piece. It's much darker and complex mixing jazz, vaudeville and contemporary musical theatre to tell a much richer story and it more clearly defines the characters and the era. It really is one of my favorite scores of the past decade. The entire cast is exceptional with no weak links.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
Both of the incarnations of the show are pretty damn good. La Chiusa does a magnificant job of capturing the period and the mood of the story, and, as a previous poster mentioned, his score is more complex than Lippa's. Lippa's version, however, boasts a stellar cast. (Not that La Chiusa's cast isn't exceptional... but come ON. Brian d'Arcy James alone makes the Lippa cast recording worthwhile- let alone Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs, and Julia Murney thrown into the mix.) Also, the music is more in tune with contemporary Broadway. Lippa doesn't attempt to adapt his score to suit the atmosphere of the piece, as La Chiusa does.
Really, I think that both methods work. If you can afford both, get both. They are worth getting together if only for the fact that it is extremely interesting to compare two great composers' wildly different takes on the same subject matter.
"Goodness is rewarded. Hope is guaranteed. Laughter builds strong bones. Right will intercede. Things you've said I often find I need, indeed. I see the world through your eyes. What's black and white is colorized. The knowledge you most dearly prized I'm eager to employ. You said that life has infinite joys."
Toughy. I really like both of them. Especially Marc Kudisch in La Chiusa. I recently just got Lippa's and it is very well, but I adored La Chiusa's first, so I guess its a tie?
"Goodness is rewarded. Hope is guaranteed. Laughter builds strong bones. Right will intercede. Things you've said I often find I need, indeed. I see the world through your eyes. What's black and white is colorized. The knowledge you most dearly prized I'm eager to employ. You said that life has infinite joys."
i gotta say I am a Lippa fan...I know that makes me some sort of sell-out, but the vocal performances are brilliant. Although i LOVE "People Like Us from LaChuisa's version.
lachiusa... lippa's is just too pop and contemporary... the show is a period piece and lachiusa's score beautifully hits the music of the age... if you want to take the music out of context then i certainly enjoy some of lippa's melodies much better... however, as a show, lachiusa's is much more accurate and therefore fulfilling to me... still, i really think the only great song is people like us... but that one song beats the whole score of lippa's show hands down... it's the most amazing show ever... and toni colette... amen show2n!
I just bought the LaChiusa cast recording on Friday. I have listened to it about three times and it is definitely growing on me. I am sorry that I missed this one. It sounds like it was very well done...and it is a cast of millions! Who saw this bway version? Did you all enjoy it? Why didn't it last longer than 3 months? I will definitely be seeing this one at lincoln center very soon!
La Chiusa! After catching R shamon at the WTF, my husband and I just had to hear his version!
"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."
Conan O'Brien
its argued because they were at the same time. Pefect marketing plot- open two versions and fans felt the need to see both. :) anyhow, the lippa version is just damn sexy.... much better. :) Mandy Patikin is washed up anyhow.
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When someone blunders, we say that he makes a misstep. Is it then not clear that all the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill our history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill in dancing. - Moliere