Over the weekend I am planning to buy a LSoH CR? Which CD would you recomend, the Revival Recording, The Original Cast Recording, or the Movie Soundtrack? Thanks for your help!
My suggestion would be the movie soundtrack. It still has Ellen Greene who is amazing, Rick Moranis is surprisingly very vocally adequate as Seymour, and in my opinion, it's worth the price to have Steve Martin's rendition of "Dentist."
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
i own the revival, simply because i am not big on any of the other singers on the original except ellen greene. I was thinking of getting the movie recording but i wanted the complete show as opposed to the fewer songs/changed ending of the movie. So alas i am hoping to find a music editor of some kind that i can splice ellen over kerry and have the best of both worlds.... speaking of which please PM me if theres any such computer program thats a free download
"Grease," the fourth revival of the season, is the worst show in the history of theater and represents an unparalleled assault on Western civilization and its values. - Michael Reidel
"I've always secretly longed for an actress to get to the top of the cherry picker and projectile vomit all over the guards below."- Wonderwaiter in the "Defy Gravity?" thread.
~~~~~~~~My dream? Sutton Foster as Cassie in A Chorus Line
The movie does have the cut songs, but the changed ending is not reflected in the CD, the songs from the original ending are there, which include the full version of "The Meek Shall Inherit" and "Don't Feed the Plants."
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
I love everything about hte Revival EXCEPT Kerry. Ideally, I would have the Revival cast with Ms Ellen Greene, instead of Kerry. I have both :-P
Rosencrantz: "Be happy - if you're not even HAPPY what's so good about surviving? We'll be all right. I suppose we just go on."
- from Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Definitely the revival. Hunter Foster is awesome, and Kerry Butler is THE BEST. At the risk of being stoned to death, i'm gonna go ahead and say that it's nice to hear Audrey actually sing, rather than moan. I think Ellen Greene was great in the role (if not a little grating on the nerves), but Kerry Butler seemed to just hit home for me. Anyway, definitely go for the revival.
Original, without a doubt. Hunter is wonderful to listen to, but the original has Ellen Greene. Plus, agreeing with insomniak, Franc Luz's "Dentist!" is by far my favorite. I have both the OCR and the revival and listen to both for different things. I don't have the movie's soundtrack, but I'd imagine it must be great as well, since I love the movie. I don't think Hunter Foster's voice shines in the LSoH revival as much as in Urinetown; I got the latter before the former, and was EXTREMELY surprised at how wonderful his voice could be. However, I think the urchins are allowed to shine the most on the revival recording, because they have parts that just aren't in the original (as in "Feed Me") or their parts are more prominent. My best advice is the OCR, though.
Get them all! They really are all fantastic, but if you can get only one I would reccomend the 2003 revival recording. It has all of the songs, and Kerry and Hunter are awesome.