Anyone Recommend "SWEET CHARITY"?

If y'all remember my earlier post about cast recording recommendations I wanted to add this one. I am on iTunes and wanted to see who would recommend either the Christina Applegate recording, the OBCR, or the soundtrack. I am reasding plot stuff on Wiki and IBDb.com

Honestly, I think the Applegate recording got the biggest budget, "spare no expense" recording. It is lush, the orchestrations are amazing and the performances are all superb. While Christine is not the strongest Charity vocally on record, her characterization is superb. Plus, the CD has some nice extra tracks. I'd say get Applegate first.

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If the Jacquelyn Dankworth JAY complete recording isn't availible, I'd also suggest the Applegate album over the OBC, OBRC or movie soundtrack.

"The Rhythm of Life" is a mess so buy Sammy Davis Jr.'s version from the movie soundtrack and Gwen's "I'm A Brass Band" from the OBC and you have the best of all possible worlds.

The Applegate recording is by far the best produced and gives one the best sense of the show, and Applegate is just as effervescently delightful on the recording as she is onstage. The OBC, while fabulous in its own way, may sound slightly creaky and old-fashioned whereas the Applegate version makes the score sound as if it were written... I was gonna say "yesterday", but let's say "yesterday if yesterday was 1967". :)

If you like SWEET CHARITY it will open doors to many more magnificent Cy Coleman scores (CITY OF ANGELS being one of the best broadway scores ever), of which this is his most well-known.

And do yourself a favor and see Fosse's fantastic film version!

A Good Nightmare Comes So Rarely,
P

Updated On: 6/5/09 at 09:48 PM

wickedrocks...i loved the revival and i loved applegate...

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I absolutely ADORED Applegate. If it wasn't for Victoria Clark's mesmerizing, gorgeous performance in PIAZZA, Applegate certainly would have won. I was hoping for a (obviously rare) tie between the two of them that year.

It should NOT have lost Best Revival to that awful revival of LA CAGE, that is for sure.

Applegate IS Charity and I feel priveledged to have seen her perform it, and the adorable signed window card I have of her always reminds me of how fiercely determined she was... despite the naysayers (onstage with her and in the audience) and huge casting problems and broken ankle... to be the best she could be. And she was!

Kyra DaCosta and Janine LaManna were FIERCE with a capital F. "Baby Dream Your Dream" is fanfreakingfantastic.

Love the new song (and last song he wrote) Coleman wrote for the revival which is included in its complete form on the revival CD.

I still have a pang of the "what-ifs" whenever I think back on that time and the producers woo-ing Britney Spears to replace Applegate, which she nearly did. I think she would have been a fabulous replacement for Applegate and Charity one of the only roles an audience would buy her in.

Mark my words, Britney will be a killer Sally Bowles some day.

A Good Nightmare Comes So Rarely,
P genre

I really don't think she will ever be capable of singing live.