Anyone starting to prefer bootlegs over cast recordings?

I’m finding that I almost don’t care as much if cast recordings are made because I find bootlegs especially in modern times to be so high quality, reflect the actual performance and cast I’ve likely seen, capture the wide open space of a theatre as opposed to a canned studio. Audience reactions. Dialogue.

I still appreciate capturing certain vocals in the highest quality - but even then it just doesn’t sound like the theatre in many instances.

It might be that in an effort to explore other sounds because my cast recordings have been played to death I’ve stooped so low. But does anyone else feel this?

I feel similarly about both Duncan Sheik musicals: Spring Awakening & American Psycho. Spring Awakening has deliberately different orchestrations for an 'album experience.' Meanwhile, I love the broadway soundboard recording as the orchestrations and vocal arrangements feel punchier. The American Psycho album was made prior to broadway and once again wasn't a pulse-pounding experience like it was in the theater.

Absolutely! The music for these shows is written to be blended by acoustic dynamics of the theatre, which contemporary cast recordings totally ignore. They're mixed so dry and tight that every single element gets sectioned off into its own vacuum-packed compartment, and not only does it make the music feel smaller, but it robs the music itself of one of its fundamental qualities.

The ur-example is the Hello Dolly revival, which sounds like a sickly child on the cast recording, but it's hard for me to think of a recent case where I preferred the cast album over a good bootleg. I want that bigness.

Matt Rogers said: "Who’s making all these illegal recordings?"

Literally anybody with a cellphone? It's incredibly easy.

TheatreFan4 said: "Matt Rogers said: "Who’s making all these illegal recordings?"

Literally anybody with a cellphone? It's incredibly easy."

Fantastic. So I should assume that when they make the announcement to turn off your phones, people all over the theatre actually turn them on and start recording the show. That’s……..something.

“The ur-example is the Hello Dolly revival, which sounds like a sickly child on the cast recording, but it's hard for me to think of a recent case where I preferred the cast album over a good bootleg. I want that bigness.”

I agree with your entire post, Charley. Cast recordings have sucked for about 20 years IMO, but that Hello Dolly REALLY sucked. It was all a bit “here are all the pieces, now assemble them in your head!”.

The last really well done ones for me are probably Grey Gardens, In The Heights, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Perhaps there’s been a few decent ones since then but they’re not coming to mind. I suppose I’d put the Spanish Company that Antonio Banderas starred in, in there as well done.

Charley Kringas Inc said: "The ur-example is the Hello Dolly revival, which sounds like a sickly child on the cast recording, but it's hard for me to think of a recent case where I preferred the cast album over a good bootleg. I want that bigness."

Dolly was my immediate thought when I first saw the post. That cast recording was so muted and sad compared to the joy in the live version. I don’t know what they were thinking. I will only listen to Bootlegs of that production.

What I do prefer would be a live cast recording over some of the sanitized, over processed and autotuned recordings that suck all the life out of a score. I think Chess would be amazing if it were recorded live.

Merkin2 said: "I disagree, Patti’s Gypsy rant has ruined the song for me. Every time I watch Gypsy or listen to it, when we get to “you either have iiiiit” I can’t stop myself from thinking about STOP TAKING PICTURES RIGHT NOW! This woman has ruined so much that I love."

Sounds like an irrational response to the event, bruh.

I would prefer a studio recording, but since that's an impossibility, I could be pacified by a bootleg of Katrina Lenk in "Company".

I hardly listen to cast recording at all anymore.

The only cast recording I've listened to in the past month has been the Dead Outlaw cast recording, most other shows I love I listen to an audio bootleg.

Most of the time it's the instrumentals for me, sounding quiet and boring most of the time. Sometimes it's the vocals, most being mixed to sound dead, and trapped almost.

I've listened to audio bootlegs and watched bootlegs ever since I got into the theatre community, finding small minute details amusing, and hearing how the score is supposed to be heard, albeit digitally, one of the best things that could be offered in a recording.

It's also a great way to preserve what wouldn't be preserved, ex. a replacement cast, an understudy, and so on. I think bootlegs have importance in the theatre community, and shouldn't be shunned like the devil himself.

One of my prized recordings is a bootleg of Quidam, the Cirque du Soleil show. It has one of the greatest scores I've ever heard, but the official album absolutely butchers it and cuts most of it out, in favor of making more of a "new age" pop album.

I like bootlegs as a supplement to cast recordings, especially studio recordings. If I'm just listening casually because I like the songs then I would go for the cast recording, and I actually like it when they "clean up" some parts of the songs, like when they put a button on a song that would've been interrupted in the show and things like that. I think it makes for a more enjoyable listening experience when I just want to listen to some music I like. (Speaking of Chess, I hope they cut out the Arbiter's remarks at the end of Endgame for the cast album.)

But I think bootlegs are incredible as a historical record, and it can be different hearing the actors in character and doing the things they'd actually be doing on stage (I think Katrina Lenk mentioned it was tough for her to do Omar Sharif in the studio at first because she was so used to sitting down while singing it). And sometimes that also means more raw emotion in the voice even if the tone/pitch/etc may not be as clean as you'd get in a studio. I also find it fascinating to hear the audience response to things that we're used to now, like the gasps of surprise in early audiences for Phantom of the Opera when the chandelier rises.

I still prefer the energy of the Hadestown live album over the Broadway album (whatever happened to the missing tracks??), but sometimes things like coughs or too much rustling can also take me out. Those can be edited out or suppressed on a live album, but usually disrupt at least a bit of the experience in a bootleg, especially since those sounds would be closer to the mic and may drown out what's happening on stage.