Add me to the chorus of American Psycho. The Broadway cast sang that score 20x better than what is preserved. Ben Walker crushed that score. It's still amazes me that he did not receive a Tony nod for his Bateman. He was fully committed on every level and firing on all cylinders. I saw the show four times including closing night. It was stunning.
I know this will be a controversial ask, but I would have loved The Roundabout production of Pal Joey to be preserved. I thought the cast was exceptional, including Risch, who so many maligned. I thought Stockard's song styling was emotional and effective. Martha Plimpton was a revelation. I saw that show 3 times.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
Agreed on American Psycho. One of my favorites, I hope it comes back one day. I’d tighten up some of that direction, but that score is brilliant. The Hamilton hype that year did not help
"Platinum" with Alexis Smith and Lisa Mordente. There was a live soundboard recording floating around that I was sent but as far as I know there was no studio recording. I saw it twice in Philadelphia before it went to New York. (It made a short stop there at the, then, Shubert Theater).
I hope the New York revival of Company gets a cast recording. I know the London cast did one,but I would to have one with the talented N.Y. cast. But I don't know if it'll happen if/when the show returns. I know Patti LuPone recorded the London one.
I took my kids to see one of the final performances of THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER which I don't think has a commercially available cast recording (though I believe the cast did make a recording).We loved that show.
I also wish that the Broadway revival of PETER PAN with Sandy Duncan was recorded. The new orchestrations and vocal arrangements (not to mention Duncan's fantastic performance) should have been preserved.
To be completly honest, I would love a professional "cast recording" of "An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin". I loved this simple, jewel-box of a show. It was so beautiful.
"Ok ok ok ok ok ok ok. Have you guys heard about fidget spinners!?" ~Patti LuPone
The most Jekyll & Hyde revival starring Constantine Maroulis and Deborah Cox had a studio album released, but no official cast recording. I loved the vocals and orchestrations in the production, so I am bummed there is no cast album.
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
JBroadway said: "A lot of people in this thread are naming revivals, and productions that transferred from the West End. It's not so unusual or surprising when there's no cast recording in those circumstances. I do agree that it's a shame when the score changes a lot, and doesn't get re-recorded - particularly with something like American Psycho. But for things like Miss Saigon, Les Mis, West Side Story, Mamma Mia, etc. I feel like it's kind of "whatever" when they don't get re-recorded."
True. I just mentioned Miss Saigon, because it came out at at a time when nearly every production of that kind of show was getting its own album. Plus it's a Cam Mac product and both Phantom and Les Mis had london and broadway cast recordings. I also think the 2019/2020 revival of West Side Story contains enough changes to warrant a new cast recording.
Off topic: I wish there were cast albums of Regent Parks productions of Jesus Christ Superstar and Into The Woods, particularly the public/delacorte cast.
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Yeah I hear you. It's definitely still the standard for revivals to get cast recordings these days. But I feel like, if we're naming examples of productions that didn't get CRs, the revivals are generally less noteworthy examples than the originals.
West Side Story is a strange one because most of the score changes are by subtraction. Will anyone buy a cast recording of West Side Story that's mostly the same as usual, except that it's missing "I Feel Pretty" and the "Somewhere" ballet? Because otherwise, the score is done pretty traditionally - surprisingly so, considering the production is so avante garde. Even the orchestrations in this revival sound pretty traditional.
I would've loved a cast recording of Into the Woods at the Delacorte. Not only because the cast was so great, but also because of the way they re-imagined the end of Last Midnight, from an arrangement standpoint, and I LOVE what they did with it!
I don't think Phantom had a Broadway Cast Album, though Les Miz did. Pretty sure the cast album released in the States (as with Aspects of Love) was the London cast.
La Strada, 1969! Thankfully a scratchy but listenable audience recording captures yet another one of Bernadette's amazing performances. I suspect if a high quality studio recording was available theatre fans would still be listening to the opening 'Seagull, Starfish, Pebble', 'Belonging', a fun 'You're Musical' number with Larry Kert and Larry Kert's 'Sooner or Later' today.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Singerunlimited: DRACULA: THE MUSICAL - instead, we got a studio recording with completely different orchestrations than the Broadway production.
Christine Pedi played Kelli O’Hara singing The Mist from Dracula: The Musical on Sirius the other day so I went to look for it because I missed that show. It was strange to find a studio recording but no original cast recording. Anyway, some nice chap who worked the board at the show uploaded the original cast on YouTube. Dracula: The Musical
Such a shame that the original Broadway cast of Carrie the Musical did not get to record their performance. The first revival of Sweeney Todd was not recorded either In 1989. The off—Broadway Revival of Sweeney did not get a recording too. This one has been said several times already but I'm amazed and somehow bemused that the original Broadway production of Phantom with Judy Kaye no less was never recorded too.
i will never not complain about Shuffle Along specifically because of how obsessed i was with Adrienne Warren’s performance of I’m Craving for That Kind of Love
i would have also loved a recording of the recent revival of Cabaret though would have preferred Emma Stone
also still upset the Kristin Chenoweth revival of The Apple Tree wasn’t recorded. one of my favorite voices singing one of my favorite scores and it didn’t happen
Something More! was one of the few musicals starring Barbara Cook that wasn’t recorded
Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, The Times They Are a-Changin, Good Vibrations, Rain, Holler If Ya Hear Me, After Midnight, The Look of Love, Urban Cowboy, Never Gonna Dance, One Mo Time are some non-revivals from this century that weren’t recorded (pretty sure most are jukeboxes though).
"Contentment, it seems, simply happens. It appears accompanied by no bravos and no tears."
THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS technically doesn't have a Broadway cast recording. The Off-Broadway and London productions were recorded.
THE CIVIL WAR -- There is a concept album but no complete OBCR.
FALSETTOS -- There's no complete recording of the original Broadway cast. MARCH OF THE FALSETTOS and FALSETTOLAND were recorded separately during their Off-Broadway runs, then packaged together when the show opened on Broadway.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
JBroadway said: "theatreguy12 said: " I remember when the show opened it got largely mixed, at best, reviews. And I know “at best” is being generous. I also remember though those on the board here largely liking it. Myself included. I’m glad we at least have the London recording,even though itwas a little different. I found it an extremely provocative musical. And having the window card displayed along with numerous other Broadway show cards here in my home, it is always the one that pulls the focus and becomes the topic of discussionwith friends wanting to know what it was like. A definite conversation piece."
IMHO, American Psycho was just a few years ahead of its time."
I would agree with you on this.
Speaking of, I actually bought a teeshirt for the musical when I saw it in NY but can't find the damn thing. Went on eBay, just out of some curiosity, and lo and behold someone in PA was selling one, and it was in my size.
There were like 3 or 4 people "watching" it though, of all things, and I ended up not winning it.
Interesting that such a small show that had such a short shelf life on Broadway, would still be turning up souvenirs, and would have enough of a demand to turn such a simple sale of an item like that into a showdown. Bummed.
Elfuhbuh said: "I would’ve liked to have a cast recording for the recent Broadway revival of Jesus Christ Superstar. I enjoyed that cast a lot."
I'd like to have a full cast recording for the original Broadway production. Apparently they did record the whole thing, but Decca/MCA decided with the concept album such a hot seller, there was no need to have two complete versions (sure changed their minds when it came to the movie). I think the tapes have subsequently been lost.
JCS expert chiming in: per Ellis Nassour, who was at MCA when this all went down, wrote the book on the early days of the show, Rock Opera, and attended recording sessions for the OBC, the full show was not recorded. The word came from on high that a second double-disc set would not sell, so they cut it down to the highlights. What you hear is what they recorded, unfortunately.
"The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public" was recorded and released.
"Shelter" was recorded by Columbia/CBS but not released.
More of a crime than the single-disc Broadway "Superstar": The single-disc world-premiere original 1978 London cast recording of "Evita." As was the case with the NY "Superstar," there had already been a strong-selling double-LP studio album. What did get preserved on that '78 London "Evita" cast recording (made prior to longer-length CDs) is thrilling, so it's a crime that Elaine Paige's complete performance was not recorded and numerous exciting passages are missing. (The Broadway '79 "Evita" did of course get two discs.)
As fate would have it, Elena Roger got to record her Eva twice, a single disc in London then a double-disc set for Broadway.