Overall, I liked the sound of the Chicago soundtrack better than the cast recording; however I enjoyed some songs from the cast recording better such as "We Both Reached for the Gun."
"We like to snark around here. Sometimes we actually talk about theater...but we try not to let that get in our way." - dramamama611
I have both the revival and the film recordings of Chicago and I find myself reaching for the film version over the revival.
"All our dreams can come true -- if we have the courage to pursue them." -- Walt Disney
We must have different Gods. My God said "do to others what you would have them do to you". Your God seems to have said "My Way or the Highway".
Absolutely West Side Story and The Sound of Music.
Now, mother always said that whenever you hear a strange, frightening, and potentially life-threatening ghostly chant coming from the dark woods that there's one thing that you should do: Not wake the others and go investigate it alone...
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
With the dreadful OLC recording of Mamma Mia!, the films soundtrack is a breath of fresh air. "Does Your Mother Know" is now on par with what you see on stage.
If Lincoln were alive today, do you think he'd be pleased with his tunnel?
Same for me with WSS and Chicago. And honestly, I don't think I have ever heard the OBC of Sound of Music. I grew up my whole life listening to the soundtrack and I can't imagine hearing it any different!
Hairspray, Rent and Chicago I find are much stronger in the film versions.
As much as its understandable, it gets irritating when you go back to listening to the cast recordings and they appear to plod along at a snails pace in comparison to the film soundtrack.
Well I didn't want to get into it, but he's a Satanist.
Every full moon he sacrifices 4 puppies to the Dark Lord and smears their blood on his paino.
This should help you understand the score for Wicked a little bit more.
Tazber's: Reply to
Is Stephen Schwartz a Practicing Christian
Wow, I thought I was going to be alone and killed for mentioning Hairspray. The pros to the OBC: Kerry Butler and Laura Bell Bundy definitely were better than Amanda Bynes and Brittany Snow. However, I really feel that Nikki Blonsky sings better than Marissa Janet Winokur. I think I liked James Marsden better too. The music was also just a little more fun sounding in the movie.
"I don't want the pretty lights to come and get me."-Homecoming 2005
"You can't pray away the gay."-Callie Torres on Grey's Anatomy.
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I third the West Side Story Soundtrack. Not only is it better than the original cast but it is superior to all subsequent recordings of West Side Story, including Leonard Bernstein’s own. Also the 1962 soundtrack of Gypsy has the biggest orchestra and best orchestrations of any recording of this score. And the soundtrack of the film version of Oliver is played and sung with a level of brilliance that far outclasses any stage recording.
The Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma, The Sound of Music, Flower Drum Song, The King and I and especially Carousel are gigantically superior to the original cast versions. No Broadway album can compete with the 65 piece orchestras and expanded orchestrations and choral arrangements used in these films.
In a class by itself is the 1958 soundtrack to South Pacific. It is simply the greatest recording of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s score ever. Sure, most of the singing was by voice doubles, but on a recording who cares, especially when the singing is this magnificent. Also the singers were hand picked by Rodgers and Hammerstein themselves. Mitzi Gaynor, who did do her own singing, has the perfect voice for Nellie Forbush and Ken Darby’s choral arrangements and Robert Russell Bennett’s expanded orchestrations blow away all other recordings by a mile, including the new 2008 Broadway revival. The lush atmospheric orchestrations, played by the 100 piece 20th Century Fox Studio Orchestra, augmented by many exotic instruments conducted by 9 time Academy Award winner Alfred Newman, leave every other recording of South Pacific in the dust. Also Giorgio Tozzi, who sings Emile de Becque and Bill Lee, who sings LT. Cable on the soundtrack, are far better and more expressive singers than Paulo Szot and Matthew Morrison on the new 2008 revival recording. Lee’s performances of Younger than Springtime & Carefully Taught are the best vocals ever of these songs. Richard Rodgers himself said, at the time of the film’s release, that the 1958 soundtrack was the most perfect recording of South Pacific ever. I agree.
Other soundtracks that I think are better than the Broadway originals are: Finian's Rainbow, Call Me Madam. The Pajama Game, Bells are Ringing, L'il Abner and Fiddler On the Roof.
"I long-ago realized that this country is a nation of
morons, when it comes to knowledge of anything outside, or beyond, pop culture." Steve Slezak
WSS - God bless Marni Nixon. The Sound of Music - how could you EVER beat Julie Andrews? all Disney. ever. there are some aspects of the Hairspray soundtrack (Nikki Blonsky, James Marsden) that I like, but I'm partial to the OBC.