Cabaret CD

[ashbash6819]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 12:07pm

im looking to buy the CD and i went on amazon to buy it but there are 3 different versions-the original broadway recording, the new broadway recording, and the 1971(it think) film recording. which one do you all reccomend??

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 12:10pm

Revival (New Broadway Cast Recording).

[ashbash6819]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 12:13pm

thanks so much!

[riv]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 12:29pm

Buy the original 1966 Broadway cast recording before picking any other up. Hear the score the way it was written before it started getting changed beginning with the film version.

I'd recommend the original London one with Judi Dench as well but it's impossible to find.

Updated On: 3/12/05 at 12:29 PM

[Matt_G]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 12:44pm

I have all of them and I still prefer the New Broadway Cast Recording.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 2:49pm

New Broadway Cast Recording.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 3:03pm

Cumming on Cumming... I mean yeah, the new Broadway Cast Recording. There's just no competition. Updated On: 3/12/05 at 03:03 PM

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 3:04pm

ABSOLUTELY the new broadway recording, the original pales in comparison.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 3:10pm

If you become a fan you should aslo get the 1999 Studio cast so you can have "The Telephone Dance", "Why Should I Wake Up?", "The Fruit Shop Dance", "The Kick Line", "Don't Go", the two dialogue tracks, the bows and exit music and all that stuff...

[timote316]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 3:16pm

CATS, that one sounds interesting... who is on that disk?

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 3:20pm

Joan Collins, Treat Williams, Rosie O'Donnell, Jude Law, and Clint Eastwood.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 3:20pm

Jonathan Price (Emcee), Maria Friedman (Sally), Fred Ebb (Herr Shultz) and Judi Dench (Froulein Schneider). It's still not as good as the revival CD but it has a lot of extra material... the Jay Records CDs are always awesome due to all the bonus songs that are usually recorded. Updated On: 3/12/05 at 03:20 PM

[timote316]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 3:22pm

munk, that would definately be an interesting cast... Thanks CATS, I may have to check that out.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 3:23pm

Joan Collins does a fabulous Emcee. Jude Law is chilling as Sally.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 4:06pm

Both the 1966 original Broadway cast (Sony/Columbia Broadway masterworks) and the 1998 Broadway revival cast (RCA Victor) are well worth having. If you can only get one, start with the original which is about half the price of revival disc. The original features Joel Grey (MC), Lotte Lenya (Faulein Schneider) and Jack Gilford (Herr Schultz) who are all unbeatable in their roles. (Lenya was the widow of Kurt Weill, and with him they escaped Naz Germany to come to America.) The Sally (Jill Haworth) and Cliff (Bert Convy) are the weakest links on this disc. The score is the way it was heard on opening night in 1966: Includes "Why Should I Wake Up", "Meeksite" and the original Money song "Sitting Pretty." It also makes some changes for the purposes of recording. "The Telephone Song" is done at double the speed it was performed in the theatre to recreate for the ears alone the excitement of Ron Field's choreography. Also in the finale, album producer Goddard Lieberson took out the spoken dialogue and substituted short reprises of key songs instead..so Schneider sings a few bars of "So What" and Shultz sings a few bars of "Meeskite." (In the script they spoke lines they had spoken earlier in the show.) The 1998 revival cast gains in Natasha Richardson's Sally and John Benjamin Hickey's Cliff. Alan Cumming is sensational as the MC (or Emcee). It adds "Mein Herr" (good), "Maybe This Time" (a mistake! All wrong for Sally. Does she really think of herself as Lady Peaceful???), "I Don't Care Much" (great song but a needless addition at that point in the show), and uses the movie's "Money Money" (an improvement on the original.) There's also a bit more dialogue on the CD, and it captures the new production with dazzling theatricality. The movie soundtrack is useless as a reference for the stage show. The movie script uses the play I AM A CAMARA as its source and inserts the CABARET songs into that. The sub-plot with Schneider and Shultz is gone (Schneider makes only a fleeting apperance in the film); Sally is American and 'Brian' (as the Cliff character is known in the film) is British and does not sing - almost all the songs are done by Sally and/or the Emcee. The movie retains only 5 songs from the stage score (3 others are used as background music) addding "Mein Herr", "Maybe This Time" and "Mopney Money." It is a fantastic film, but it bears little resemblence to CABARET as seen on stage. The two London cast recordings are both disappointing. Judi Dench was Sally in the original London Production (on Sony West end - out-of-print) and Lila Kedrova (ZORBA) was Schneider but none of the cast compare with their Broadway counterparts. A 1986 London revival featuring Wayne Sleep (First Night) has reduced orchestrations and weak cast. Skip it. An elaborate 2 CD set (JAY/TER) has the complete original Broadway score plus an appendix of most of the other songs. Judi Dench is back, this time as Schneider. It documents the exact tempos used on stage (which robs the set of the vitality Columbia's 1966 OCR has) but it is a fine reference recording.

[Urban]

Posted: 3/13/05 at 2:24am

Start with original, then go to rivial.

Either way though the CD does not really do the show justice. It is just one of those shows that only works seeing live.

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 3/13/05 at 11:23am

I have them all and nothing comes close to the incredible vocal performances of Liza Minnelli on the film soundtrack.

HOWEVER, if you can only buy ONE, I would suggest you get the Broadway revival which included songs written for the film and is rather superior to the OCR.

[jim]

Posted: 3/13/05 at 7:58pm

I'd go with the OBC and the revival recording..
I also have both the studio recording with Dench as Schneider and Maria Friedman and the 1968 London cast recoridng with Dench playing Sally. That recording is now out of print.
I for one loved Jill Haworth in the original NY production. Saw it when I was in high school. Haworth was a pretty well known starlet from a few Otto Preminger films and I thought she was
a great and sexy Sally Bowles. I know the critics were divided
but for me her rendition of "Cabaret" is a favorite. Not too good, not too bad..just right for the character being portrayed.