I start with a cast recording. If there are several available and there's no real price advantage to one, I'll ask here for a recommendation. I'll listen to it a couple of times, then put it away for a while. After a few weeks, I'll get one or two of the songs in my head and decide to get it out again. Then I'll listen obsessively and repeatedly. (Some shows I click with right away; most take a few weeks, some a few months, I still have yet to click with 'Into The Woods'.)
After listening to the cast recording enough times, I'll actually give the booklet a bit of a read. I might see what the Wikipedia has to say, and if there's an official site, I'll give that a read as well. If a libretto is available through normal bookshops and I still really like the cast recording by this stage, I'll order the lib through work. Around this point, I might consider buying a couple different cast recordings so I can get a fuller idea of how it could sound. Also if it's based on a novel, I might see if that's readily available at my bookshop too. Also I *might* look around for more dubious ways of observing the production as it was. *ahem*
And short of finding a production to go and see (or going crazy and ordering a ton of merchandise off eBay), that's pretty much everything I do when getting into a show. I just read my 'Grey Gardens' OOBCR booklet two nights ago, and I think I'm a month away from getting the OBCR. I think I've come about as far as I'm going to get with 'Assassins', short of actually being in the show itself (which I desperately want). It's fun. ^_^
Updated On: 6/19/07 at 01:18 PM
