Best Solo CD?

#1

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 3:25am

Hey all. I have a class in school this coming semester where one of our assignments is to listen to a solo album of a musical theatre performer. I'm tempted to get Malcolm Gets' single - I'm partial to Broadway Baritones, since that matches my vocal range. I was wondering if anyone has any opinions or suggestions on this matter? Thanks so much!

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"But alone is alone...not alive..."

#2

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 3:40am

As far as baritones go - Norm Lewis has a pretty good album out. My personal favorite solo cd is Kelli O'Hara's most recent album, Always :) It's great.

#3

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 3:44am

Does Bea Arthur's Just Between Friends CD count because I still listen to that pretty regularly. She's kind of a baritone.

#4

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 4:12am

How about Ethel Merman's Disco Album of some of her big hits, including "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and "Some People" from GYPSY. Just the album for those who were stranded in their apartments during the IRENE storm. It will shake your blues away.

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"Madam Rose...and her daughter...Gypsy!"

#5

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 5:42am

Try either of Judy Kaye's albums, but you'll probably want her salute to Broadway divas.

You should get extra credit for picking somebody less obviously than Merman.

#6

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 9:51am

My favorite solo album is probably Emily Skinner's. That cd is brilliant.

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"What a mystery this world. One day you love them and the next day you want to kill them a thousand times over." The Masked Bandit in THE FALL

#7

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 9:57am

Second Emily Skinner's self-titled solo album. A few more: Julia Murney's "I'm Not Waiting"; Christiane Noll's "A Broadway Love Story"; any of Barbara Cook's live CDs, but I particularly like "Barbara Cook's Broadway"; Audra's "Way Back to Paradise"; Brian Stokes Mitchell's self-titled album; and Lillias White's "From Brooklyn to Broadway," which is out-of-print but well worth seeking.

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"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

#8

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 11:04am

Julia Murney's album is absolutely fabulous.

I know several people who adore the Jeremy Schonfeld album 37 Notebooks. It's his own work and it's very well-done (I listen to it occasionally.)

I also love Norm Lewis' album.

#9

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 11:07am

So many but two of my faves are Sally Mayes: Our Private World, her Comden and Green cd and Judy Kuhn's beautiful Jule Styne cd, Just in Time

#10

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 11:20am

I am a big fan of Shoshana Bean's SUPERHERO, Sutton Foster's WISH, and Kerry Butler's FAITH, TRUST, AND PIXIE DUST solo albums...

#11

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 11:25am

I also really like Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust, but Patti LuPone's Matters of the Heart CD would be my pick.

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When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain. -Kad

#12

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 11:28am

No contest:

Barbara Cook at Carnegie Hall, 1975

#13

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 12:11pm

"Songs of Jason Robert Brown" or "Here & Now," both by Lauren Kennedy
"Broadway My Way" by Linda Eder (if it's supposed to be Broadway themed)
"Broadway Love Story" by Christiane Noll

#14

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 1:10pm

My favorite solo album of all time is The Story Goes On by Liz Callaway. Other favorites:

Brent Barrett - The Alan Jay Lerner Album
Norm Lewis - This is the Life
John Barrowman - Music Music Music
Daniel Boys - So Close
Debbie (Shapiro) Gravitte - Part of Your World
Judy Kuhn - Just in Time
Sally Mayes - All her CDs are fantastic
Randy Graff - Doing Something Right
Kristin Chenoweth - Let Yourself Go
Susan Egan - Coffee House

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"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

#15

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 2:06pm

Alison Fraser's self-titled album.

#16

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 2:21pm

I would also like to add my voice to the praise for Barbara Cook's live shows, particularly It's Better with a Band, Barbara Cook's Broadway, and Mostly Sondheim.
Also LOVE Audra McDonald's Build a Bridge.

Norm Lewis - This is My life
Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley - Duets
Rebecca Luker - Leaving Home
Elaine Stritch - Stritch
Bernadette Peters - Loves Rodgers and Hammerstein
Brian Stokes Mitchell - self titled

and I know this may be wildly unpopular but Mandy Patinkin- Oscar and Steve.

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Namaste

#17

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 2:29pm

Judy Live at Carnegie Hall. Hands down.

Tom Wopat's jazz solo albums are actually really great...I much prefer his voice on those over his singing in some of his Broadway shows.

Bernadette's Sondheim, Etc. is great too, and Elaine Stritch at Liberty is brilliantly hysterical. I much prefer live to studio.

#18

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 3:04pm

If you are looking for baritones, check out Matt Bogart's cd Simple Song. If you are looking for others, I second Liz Callaway The Story Goes On: Songs from On and Off Broadway, also, her Anywhere I Wander cd with the songs of Frank Loesser. Both are extremely well done.

Updated On: 8/29/11 at 03:04 PM

#19

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 4:25pm

Does "Judy Live at Carnegie Hall" count? 'Cause obviously that's the best, hands down.

#20

Best Solo CD?

Posted: 8/29/11 at 8:00pm

Look at Sutton Foster's "Wish" and Kerry Butler's "Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust" !

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Wicked~West Side Story~Cats~Mamma Mia~Beauty and the Beast~Wicked~Anything Goes~