Broadway Les Miz or London Les Mis OCR — Page 2

I like the London recording better. even though it does have less numbers from the show, I at least get to hear Colm Wilkinson and Michael Ball together.

"I think some people have too many Lesmiz soundtracks."

CAST RECORDING CAST RECORDING CAST RECORDING CAST RECORDING CAST RECORDING

And stop assuming all our CD money is being poured into one show...

Broadway Matt - Is Kunio Murai on the Red cast or the Blue cast? There are two Japanese recordings that were released the same year.

rockfernis2005 - I assume when you talk about the French cast, you mean the concept recording and not the Paris recording from 1991. I'm wondering what you mean by the English version being "too story". Is there less story in the French version? What parts did they leave out? I have the recording, but I don't speak French.

---

I'd say OLC over OBC. You've got Colm, of course, and Frances Ruffelle on either of them. But then you've also got Michael Ball and Patti LuPone.

Then again, I'd probably prefer the 10th Anniversary cast album if I didn't strongly dislike Lea Salonga as Eponine.

yes Murai is on the Red CD, I haven't picked up Blue yet. if anyone has both, how do they compare? is it worth getting both?


bronxbound: as far as having "too many" Les Mis recordings, I assure you that my cast album collection and musical theatre interests are very well-rounded. in either case, "collection" is the key word. As we are all collectors, we each have our own definitions of how many is too many. To me 23 can't be excessive because it's Les Mis and I enjoy all of them. Starlight Express is something else altogether. I only have 4 albums from SE, but it's still 3 too many.


jai: you're probably making a smart move getting the CSR or TAC. the board seems pretty split between London and Broadway, but the other two are so well-cast and well-performed you can't really go wrong. and the best part is you'll avoid that whole unpleasant Frances Ruffelle situation!

---

International Symphonic Cast Recording.... just cause I'm partial to someone on it lol

---

Musetta, we have very similar experiences with the international Les Mis CD's. a big reason why I collect foreign language versions of my favorite shows is because they are less distracting and are perfect background music. when I would listen to my showtunes in English during high school, I can think of plenty of times I'd start out cramming for a final or writing a term paper, then find myself 3 hours later with nothing accomplished except having sung the entire score of Scarlet Pimpernel. now when I have work to do or anything that requires my focus, I'll set the iPod to an international cast recording and it's all gravy baby!

And as a fellow speaker of Spanish, I agree the Madrid cast is painfully translated, though beautifully sung.

---

Concert version is THE BEST out of all of them. Dream Cast indeed

---

Broadway Matt, I have to disagree with you on the Madrid performers. Well, partially. Really, the only people I like on that one are Gema Castaño and Enrique R. del Portal. The rest of the folks are either miscast or just not pleasing to the ear, and I wish I could hear it using their own orchestral tracks instead of Denmark's. Well, maybe they'll record another Spanish language one somewhere down the line, like one of the South American productions.

I actually have not bought a Les Miz cast recording in about 5 or 6 years. But I probably have as many as you do!

I prefer the Broadway recording. The London OCR sounds too much like a demo recording of Les Miz; the instrumentation and songs changed significantly after the show crossed the Atlantic. Plus, I don't really like LuPone's Fantine.

The Broadway recording is better produced and doesn't lumber along like the London one. However, the downside is that it doesn't feature Michael Ball.

The symphonic recording is good because it's the most complete (although, after the 10th anniversary changes to the show, it's not longer that complete), but Colm Wilkinson is still the definitive Valjean for me, and to not have him on the recording really taints it.

But the best English recording of Les Miz is still the 10th anniversary concert album. A true dream cast (everyone from Colm and Lea Salonga to Michael Ball and Maguire), a phenomenally large orchestra, a "fuller" performance than on the Broadway OCR, and finally the energy of a live audience.

---

I'd go with the 10th Anniversary recording before both the Broadway and London BUT because I am a big fan of both Michael Ball and Patti Lupone, I like the London better.

---