Collecting original cast albums?
Collecting original cast albums?
#0Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 2:07am
As one of the Broadway fans here, do you:
A) Collect EVERY cast album you can get your hands on?
B) Collect cast albums only of shows you have seen?
C) Collect certain stars, or performers?
D) Buy the ones you like and ignore the rest?
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I fall into group A, so my library includes some scores that I don't care for but have to have just in case! :)
Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com
#1re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 3:04amGenerally buy them all - no matter if I know anything about them or not. However, especially this season, if cast albums are recorded there will be a few I won't collect no matter what - BROOKLYN, GOOD VIBRATIONS, and the LA CAGE revival.
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#2re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 3:13amI collect the albums that sound interesting to me, or have been recommended by trusted friends. I always used to say that if I was given a life sentence in prison, I could pass the time by trying to sing through every score ever recorded from THE ACT to ZORBA, but now I'm a little more selective. If I know I'm never going to play an album more than once, I don't bother.
#3re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 3:33am
It's hard to justify buying an OCR when you know it will just sit on the shelf and never get played!
When I started collecting the world was still in Lps and some shows were almost impossible to find (FLAHOOLEY, BY THE BEAUTIFUL SEA) and when they did show up they wre $200-$500! So as the Cd's came out I made a point of getting ever one of them before they went out-of-print. Of the 2 mentioned above, I love FLAHOOLEY but find BEAUTIFUL SEA a really dull score. But I keep them both.
Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com
#4re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 7:40am
I buy pretty much every cast album I can--but, like Munk said, I couldn't bring myself to buy BROOKLYN.
Sant
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/12/04
#5re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 8:23amI don't buy every original cast album. Only the ones I find interesting - for one reason or another.
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
ikmbway
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/22/05
#7re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 9:06amD - I wont waste my money on things I will never listen to so I buy what I like.
riv
Leading Actor Joined: 3/6/05
#8re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 10:19am
I generally want to buying everything I possibly can, but of course I don't. Even if I know I won't be listening to something much, I prefer to have it around in case I need to hear it in the future. And I definately pick stuff up I suspect will be deleted rather quickly.
Obviously there are things I get immediately because of my interest in them, while others will have to wait. During slow periods in CD releases, I make it a habit to "fill in the holes" of my collection by getting CDs I put off purchasing initially.
I usually buy the CD issues of "old" shows right away, since I'm more interested in hearing material from the days when people knew far better what they were doing when writing scores. I'm particularly thrilled with the recent CD issues of 1940s and 50s studio recordings of operettas which have finally seen the light of day. This is a severly neglected category.
I don't hesitate to acquire multiple issues of scores. For instance, I must have about 9 or 10 versions of The King And I. I love hearing differing versions and interpretations of scores which have been done over the years.
I used to not really concern myself with purchasing soundtracks except in certain instances, but a good job is now being done with soundtracks from the classic movie musicals and I find myself keeping an eye on what's coming out. I want to commend Rhino Handmade in this regard. They've done outstanding work on the old MGM soundtracks and have given me great recordings of stuff I've desired for years.
Finally, not that anyone asked, but I keep my collection in order of opening date for show or movie. I prefer to put in the effort to keep each era together rather than have the CDs in alphabetical order (which I consider to be both lazy and lacking sense), or alphabetically by composer.
Over_the_Moon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/22/05
#9re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 10:31amI won't buy anything unless I've at least heard it first. As afore-mentioned, I won't waste my money on something I won't listen to.
"what have we learned? Don't smoke... don't do drugs and don't sing 'Defying Gravity'." -CATSNYRevival
#10re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 11:21amI use to buy everything regardless of whether I thought I'd like it or not just because it was theater related. If it said those two words...ORIGINAL CAST, I was a sucker for it. However, a couple of years ago I decided to stop buying obscure off Broadway shows, especially if they only had piano accompaniment. I just never seemed to listen to them and many were downright atrocious. I also would buy CD'S released by singers who had appeared on the Broadway stage but found my enjoyment of these CD'S also diminished after several hearings. The nicest thing about collecting shows through the years though is that with the introduction of CD burners, I've made a small fortune copying my shows and selling them on eBay. It sort of made my need to collect cast recordings seem less like an obsession and more of an investment which though delusional works for me...:). Off track thought here but "collecting" related. Does anyone else, while sitting through a turkey Broadway show, ever have the thought.."Gee, I could have bought so many good show CD'S with the hundred bucks I've spent on this ticket?...lol.
#11re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 11:24amI'm an A
awkward.
"I think it was the Korean tour or something. They were all frickin' asian!" -Zoran912
#12re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 11:29ami like to get the shows i've seen [if i liked the show] but i do have a few that i wanted to see but never got achance to. so i guess it's a combo of b & d
#13re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 11:34amThe only time I buy a cast album is when I've seen a version of a show (broadway or national tour) or if there is good word on that show and it interests me at the same time. I sometimes buy a CD if it has a performer I really like, but that would fall into the category of if it interests me.
"Chicago is it's own incredible theater town right there smack down in the middle of the heartland. What a great city! I can see why Oprah likes to live there!" - Dee Hoty :-D
bryan
Broadway Star Joined: 5/12/03
#14re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 11:45ami am an A i have over 1000 cd's of muiscal and i can not wait for good vibrations cd to come out because i collcet all shows.
wickedrentq
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/6/04
#15re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 11:51amI fall into both B and D. I find I can't appreciate the CDs as much if I haven't either seen the show live or seen a video of it or performance or have some sense of the story, it's difficult to appreciate it the same way. But also, I don't buy every cast album of shows I've seen just what I like so I fall into both.
"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
#16re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 6:46pmI'm one of those people who are supremely careful about how I spend my money for some reason so I usually only buy the recordings that I'm interested in previously. I tend to look online for all the new recordings and then read the reviews, listen to samples etc to decide which ones would be money best spent.
I wanted to get something that an "ex"-junkie like him would really appreciate and cherish....it's a brick of heroin shaped like a heart.
-Scrubs
#17re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 7:31pm
a, b, &c
:)
And the other thing about the Phantom Lady was, Bert, she realized, in the city that never sleeps...
What did she realize, Kitten?
That all the songs she'd listened to, all the love songs, that they were only songs.
What's wrong with that?
Nothing, if you don't believe in them. But she did, you see. She believed in enchanted evenings, and she believed that a small cloud passed overhead and cried down on a flower bed, and she even believed there was breakfast to be had...
Where?
On Pluto. The mysterious, icy wastes of Pluto.
Updated On: 4/16/05 at 07:31 PM
kjklo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/29/03
#18re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 7:52pmA combination of c and d. I'm not rich enough for anything else.
#19re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 7:59pmC and D
1. Ted Allen: Everyone has an interesting life if you ask the right questions.
2. Great buckets of Spoffnor, they're going to sing!
3. "I love shrubs that are historical." -Johnny and The Sprites
4. "We're not singing it to you, we're singing it for us." -Rosario Dawson, about La Vie Boheme
5. "The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours." -The History Boys
6. "Pass the parcel. That's sometimes all you can do. Take it, feel it and pass it on. Not for me, not for you, but for someone, somewhere, one day. Pass it on, boys. That's the game I want you to learn. Pass it on." -The History Boys
2. Great buckets of Spoffnor, they're going to sing!
3. "I love shrubs that are historical." -Johnny and The Sprites
4. "We're not singing it to you, we're singing it for us." -Rosario Dawson, about La Vie Boheme
5. "The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours." -The History Boys
6. "Pass the parcel. That's sometimes all you can do. Take it, feel it and pass it on. Not for me, not for you, but for someone, somewhere, one day. Pass it on, boys. That's the game I want you to learn. Pass it on." -The History Boys
EVIE
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/12/04
#20re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 8:41pmI buy the ones that I like or have certain performers that I know I like or will like. And when there is a show that I really really like, I buy the cast album in every language recorded.
#21re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 9:42pmI get ones that seem interesting and from shows I have seen and I am getting some of the "classics"
"All the while making faces like a baby platypus who forget to take some Beano before eating a chimichanga." FindingNamo in reference to Jessica Simpson's singing.
#22re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 11:07pmYeah if its a show I really REALLY like then I'll end up buying every version of it if they have them. For example, I had a live recording of the tour for LSoH then went out and bought the revival cast and am contemplating buying the original cast recording. For some reason I just like to hear each cast's different versions of the songs and their individual takes on teh characters etc.
I wanted to get something that an "ex"-junkie like him would really appreciate and cherish....it's a brick of heroin shaped like a heart.
-Scrubs
broadwaybelter
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/26/04
#23re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 11:12pmi live in California....so i buy the cast recordings of new shows that i hear just opened on broadway...or the logo really appeals to me...or a performer that i am familiar with is involved with it...yes i do have brooklyn...and i love it...heY! it's my opinion....
#24re: Collecting original cast albums?
Posted: 4/16/05 at 11:23pm
i have so many old LPs and CDs that i only have room to get new ones that i really like, or that i'm really interested in hearing and then if i don't like it i sell it ... otherwise there'd be no place to lie down and sleep 
RIP glebby <3
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