"Best Musical Show Album" Grammy Nominations for 2009

Grammy nomination ballots were mailed out to voters earlier this month. The "Musical Show" field has but one category, "Best Musical Show Album." History shows us that this award goes to the Original Broadway Cast album of the most recent Tony Award recipient for "Best Musical" about half the time.

But it is years like this one, with no BILLY ELLIOT Broadway cast album available to be nominated, that make life interesting. Is the award totally up for grabs?

We can get to who should or will win later this fall, when the nominations are announced. But now, I'd like to know which recordings everyone thinks should be nominated. There will be five nominees.

The prominent recordings which are eligible (not a complete list) are these:

Broadway: NEXT TO NORMAL, 9 TO 5, ROCK OF AGES, SHREK, THE STORY OF MY LIFE and 13.

Broadway Revival: HAIR and WEST SIDE STORY

Off-Broadway: THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES, ROAD SHOW and THE TOXIC AVENGER MUSICAL

Other: the AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' tour recording with Ruben Studdard and Frenchie Davis, the ALLEGRO studio cast album and CHESS IN CONCERT.

It's not a bad crop of releases, actually.

Note that, in her wisdom, Grammy has declared LIZA'S AT THE PALACE to be not a "Musical Show Album" but a "Traditional Pop Vocal Album," eligible in the same category with releases by Malcolm Gets, Kristen Chenoweth, Sutton Foster, Tony Bennett, Lynda Carter and Amanda McBroom, among many others. This has happened, even though LENA HORNE: THE LADY AND HER MUSIC was not only considered a Musical Show Album, but in fact won the award outright. Hmmm.

I digress.

Which recordings should be nominated for the "Musical Show Album" Grammy this year??? Let the discussion begin!

9 to 5
Hair
Next to Normal
Rock of Ages
West Side Story

I also think Chess in Concert could sneak in there.

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Updated On: 9/26/09 at 02:04 PM

I don't think it's up for grabs. Rock of Ages will get it.

But, CATS, the ROA cast album is terrible, even worse than the show. It has a very poor flow and the arrangements of most of the songs would make most rock fans laugh them off the stage.

And I don't see Grammy giving "Broadway Does... Hair Metal!" an award, particularly considering Constantine and Amy occasionally out-sing their recording industry predecessors. It's a lose-lose.

Stranger things have happened...

Lest we forget the WSS OMPS is the longest-running #1 album in recorded music history, fifty years next year it began its run atop the charts. They may want to commemorate that in some way, so throwing the revival cast album a bone may be it. I prefer it to the OMPS and OBCR, actually, so what do I know?
P

I think Hair deserves it. It really captures the feeling of the show. I may sound biased though, because I'm addicted to it. But I guess that shows it did the job!

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I think these can be nominated.

9 to 5
Rock of Ages
13
Next to Normal
Hair
Shrek
West Side Story

I think Next to Normal will win.

"AINT MISBEHAVIN" 2009 CAST ALBUM STARRING RUBEN STUDDARD AND FRENCHIE DAVIS

The recording of WSS is thrilling. I like it A LOT, but I don't think it's nearly as good as HAIR's.

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not really a fan of the WSS cast recording so I'm in the anything-but-it bandwagon

I suspect based on its success Hair will win, but I really think the (decent) cast recording doesn't capture the real feel of the show. WSS is a good recording of a mediocre revival, but I think Next to Normal's recording is the best of the bunch.

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Rock Of Ages should absolutely be nominated. Not only is it an incredibly well-produced album (produced by the guy who did Guns & Roses "Appetite For Distruction") but Grammy voters (not musical theater fanatics) will appreciate the skill that went into creating medleys out of these songs. I would argue that this took more skill and creativity than simply rerecording Leonard Bernstein's score.

HAIR for the clarity of the orchestrations and the completeness of the album.

NEXT TO NORMAL because it won best score.

By my count so far, I have tallied votes for:

NEXT TO NORMAL - 11
HAIR - 9
WEST SIDE STORY - 7
9 TO 5 - 5
ROCK OF AGES - 5
13 - 2
ROAD SHOW - 2
SHREK - 1
AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' - 1

None yet for THE STORY OF MY LIFE, THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES, THE TOXIC AVENGER MUSICAL, ALLEGRO or CHESS IN CONCERT.