Best Demo/Promo/Unreleased/Unofficial Albums

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 9:41pm

I started this thread to talk about demos, promos, reference recordings and other unofficial albums. I find them fascinating- either to hear a score that was never "properly" recorded, or to see the different nuances such a recording can give.

Spring Awakening: Duncan Sheik's performances of the songs, mostly by himself with acoustic guitar and drum machine, are stark and intimate. I think that most of these songs work better in this context than in their chamber-pop show arrangements.

The Book Of Mormon: Nothing is too different here, but all the voices are by the South Park cast, making it seem like an extended musical episode. Plus, that twist ending (as discussed in a previous thread) is INSANELY dark, and pushes the show even farther into controversial territory.

It's A Wonderful Life: Man, this might be the weirdest show in my whole library. The mixture of conventional pastiche show tunes with pseudo-Sondheim dissonance and extended art song/opera passages. It's certainly radical, but who thought this was the best way to treat the source material? I found it telling that the license script from R&H fully allows you to cut things or make changes, since they know the show will often rub people the wrong way.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 10:03pm

Tears of Heaven.

[showchoirguy]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 10:07pm

Carrie OBC Closing Night

[gabrieljwickedone]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 10:16pm

I love the demo for The Little Mermaid.

Ursula's cut songs are cool. They even took the melody from one and it became "Mother Knows Best".

I also love Emily Skinner as Ursula and Kerry Butler as Ariel.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 10:31pm

I second Little Mermaid

Into The Woods demo

[broadway7117]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 10:31pm

Second Tears of Heaven

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 10:49pm

BARE, Arden, Green, Johnson etc. make this Promo a gem.

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 11:08pm

The Smile revision demo/reference recording is really fun- I've never heard a fully orchestrated version of the score. I frankly can't imagine it without layer after layer of Moog synth.

[willep]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 12:49pm

"The Book Of Mormon: Nothing is too different here..."

I would disagree. there is quite a bit of different, from songs that got cut (Family Home Evening), to songs that drastically changed (H-E-Double-Hockeysticks to Spooky Mormon Hell Dream, The Bible, Part 3 to All-American Prophet) and so on.

[Overkill]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 1:05pm

The Little Mermaid is really a great one. So much fun to hear Buddy Hackett since "Human Stuff".

The Catch Me If You Can demo that was released before the 5th Street Theatre premiere is pretty amazing. Mostly the entire original cast, with some cut songs that didn't make it out of town, "Good At What I Do" and "Bury Me Beside The One I Love" are two noteworthy ones. I wish they would have kept both.

Leap of Faith with Brian d'Arcy James is fun. If he's on any recording VS. another performer though, I'm always going to prefer it. lol

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 1:39pm

Part of "Good at What I Do" from the CATCH ME demo became a song in SMASH, I believe. (The patter song that Borle first did in rehearsal and then later Kudisch did).

[mschwager]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 1:40pm

Where do you find demo recordings?

[Overkill]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 2:08pm

SondheimFan - I know!! "Don't Say Yes Until I Finish Talking", I actually kinda freaked when I heard it the first time. I was like "...w-...wait...WAIT!" lol

[shrekster224]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 2:26pm

Can anyone elaborate or provide a link to the thread in which the alternate and "extremely dark and controversial ending" is talked about? Must of missed it, but would love to know more.

[devonian.t]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 2:34pm

Unreleased- the OBCR of The Capeman. A breath-taking score, regardless of the staging problems.

The writing team should be very proud of their work.

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 4:19pm

SPOILER ALERT FOR BOOK OF MORMON DEMO RECORDING:

THe final song, "Tomorrow Is A Latter Day" included a brief, one-verse reprise of "Hasa Diga Eebowai" that revealed that the "converted" Africans had completely misunderstood the message of Christ, and believed that God had sent them the Mormon missionaries so that they could kill and then eat them, like Christians eat the body of Jesus. The song ends just before this event apparently takes place.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 4:34pm

Don't know if this qualifies, but I have a pirate recording, in excellent sound, of the original case of Grand Hotel -- the entire show, recorded through the house equipment. It far surpasses the commercial recording and David Caroll is fantastic.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 5:32pm

The Capeman WAS eventually released. A few years ago. Maybe only digitally...?

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 5:32pm

The Capeman: http://www.amazon.com/The-Capeman-Explicit/dp/B000VH4OA4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1338240730&sr=8-2

[sephyr]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 8:00pm

What about Edges. I knew there were some tracks floating around. Was there ever an unofficial demo or such. I loved all the songs I heard from the show on youtube.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 8:11pm

If Parker and Stone had actually used that ending, I'd have forgiven them for the show which came before it. Just like most South Park episodes.

[Inigomontoya]

Posted: 5/29/12 at 3:14pm

I love The Chicago Demo,
hearing the different monologues in Cell block tango is always amusing.
I also really like The royal family of Broadway

[Zingingtobway]

Posted: 5/29/12 at 11:34pm

The Gospel Version of Jesus Christ Superstar that they did at the Alliance Theater was Amazing... I wish that came to Bway.. The singing was unreal. I heard the demo of it..

[sorano916]

Posted: 5/30/12 at 12:03am

I liked the demo version of "Bonnie & Clyde" better than the OBCR.

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/30/12 at 12:15am

Elton John's demo for Aida is an interesting case, because like Duncan Sheik's Spring Awakening demo, rather than preview the songs as they will sound onstage, he shows them off as Elton John songs, clearly recorded in his home studio. As such, songs like "The Gods Love Nubia," "Like Father, Like Son" and "My Strongest Suit" sound like Elton John songs of the period in which he wrote the show, not like songs from one of Elton John's musicals. They have his distinct arrangement and performance style, complete with the synth pad washes he was really into at that point.