Re: IF/THEN being the
First Broadway cast recording to have done so good on the Billboard charts since Rent. Jeffrey- this sentence is laughable if you don't specify that you're talking about chart debuts. Just off the top of my head, the WICKED and JERSEY BOYS cast albums easily have IF/THEN beat in terms of duration on the chart, and THE BOOK OF MORMON peaked at #3, which was the highest any musical has gone since the HAIR OBC.
If I were judging based solely on the merits of the recordings, not the strengths of the shows or their scores, which I like to think the Grammys should do but rarely do, I would nominate these five:
ALADDIN
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER
LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR & GRILL
VIOLET
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.