Cast Recordings That Have Transformed Your Opinion of a Score — Page 2

I don’t think it’s an unpopular opinion that Bernadette was the weakest of the leads, given that she was the only one without a Tony nom and had mixed word of mouth.

Personally, the Sallys I LOVE are Bernadette, Dorothy Collins and Victoria Clark. I love the timbre of their voices and I can clearly hear the acting in their singing.

While I think that Barbara Cook and Donna M probably have more pleasant sounding and healthy voices than Bernadette for most ears, I just can’t personally hear the depth of acting or character in their voices, personally.

I can’t stand the timbre of Julia Mckenzie’s voice.

I like the acting choices of Imelda Staunton (they didn’t vary TOO MUCH from Bernadette besides perhaps losing my mind imo), but those vocals are so so weak ESPECIALLY Too Many Mornings and also In Buddy’s Eyes. Losing my Mind in that lower register is much stronger though.

People used to criticise Bernadette for giving a one-note performance but actually in my opinion it managed to have many layers, yes there was always this under layer of craziness*, but there was a lot of nuances on how this was expressed.

For example, the show opened with Bernadette being overwhelmed with walking into this theatre after 30 years and teary eyed. In my opinion a lot more interesting than just walking straight out and of course reasonable to think given the nostalgia, excitement, anxiety and regret she is probably feeling.

Bernadette was SO excited to meet Ben and her “Don’t look at me” was joyful, not crazy. Her body zapped when Ben touched her.

Her acting was also not just during the songs, for example, her face when Ben was singing “the road you didn’t take”. And of course she looked like she felt so in love during “Too Many Mornings”.

But it was only from then that things really became dark, those “please Ben I’d like to go now” and devastating “he, he held me and the band was playing and I’m going to get married oh dear lord isn’t it a wonder.”

“Losing My Mind” could be a little shakey and I agree with criticism (eg variety if I recall?) that sometimes it was hard to tell if her voice was overwhelmed with emotion or maxxed (though I think Sondheim might have straightened it out in the recording studio as what is on record is a much stronger sung-through performance of the song than what she did on stage in my opinion).

But the most devastating part for me was actually those final lines, a ghost face, slumped shoulders and hopelessness that “there is no Ben for me”. Completely different nuance than earlier in the show - there is no anxiety or nostalgia or desperation just hopelessness.

* Question to Bernadette: Did you talk to Sondheim about the role?

You have Stephen Sondheim there—it's like having Shakespeare right there. It's like, "What did you mean when you wrote that?" He had some input, which was great. He said early on that [Sally] is off balance, to put it mildly. He thinks she's very neurotic, and she is very neurotic, so he said to me, "Congratulations. She's crazy."

Updated On: 11/24/22 at 09:52 AM

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bk said: "JanMaxwellsBag said: "I used to think Follies was boring outside of Broadway Baby and I’m Still Here, but the 2011 revival recording changed all of that. It was well documented that budget cuts and technical issues plagued the original 1971 recording, so it was more a matter of sound quality and plot clarity for me. Because, goddamn, I know the revival recording inside and out. All the performances are perfection imo (and really made me a fan out of the dearly departed Jan Maxwell, clearly) and the way it’s produced with the dialogue tracks really makes the story easier to understand without having to see the show.

I would dare to say it’s probably my favorite cast recording of any musical ever."


Just to be clear: There were no budget cuts for the original Follies albums - it was budgeted as a one LP recording from day one - no one was happy about it, but that's how it was. As to "technical issues" there were zero technical issues for the recording itself. What there was was a rushed one-day mix to meet a Friday release date. The mix was terrible and we all knew it. And the party line was always that the recording was poorly engineered. That was complete nonsense - it was the mix. When I reissued it ten years ago, I got the original eight-track tapes and remixed it from scratch, fixing all the original mix issues. Apparently, you don't know about that release - it sounds amazing and Mr. Sondheim and everyone else alive at the time called it "a miracle.". The engineer did a great job - the blame is with the original album producer who mixed it. But that's all fixed now.

I have the remix and it is a blessing from the gods.

Updated On: 11/24/22 at 12:41 PM

broadwaybabywannabe2 said: "Even though Merrily We Roll Along was a major flop in its' original Broadway run, I always thought the OBC was one of Sondheim's best scores...so seeing all the newer presentations of the "revised" script..(i personally have seen 2 productions of this so-called new and improved version)...BUT..to me the OBC is the best score and most complete listening experience..."

I agree completely.

That show and that recording have a special place in my heart. I was a dresser on a local production in 1987, and at that time, as a high school senior, I wasn't at all a Sondheim fan. To be honest I hadn't heard much, and I'd only seen the abysmal movie version of A Little Night Music. I had remembered as a kid (like, 11 or 12) enjoying "The Ladies Who Lunch" on one of the Columbia Broadway Magic compilations. But over all I was down on him at that point.

So watching the show in the late stages of rehearsal, I was just knocked out by the score, the story, the whole thing. An actress friend in the cast came up to me after the run through as I sat there teary eyed and said "I knew you'd love Sondheim."

And that began my serious exploration of his catalogue. Although I only bought the cast recording of Merrily a year or so after that, exploring other shows I wasn't familiar with first, it has always reminded me of a time when Sondheim was almost entirely new to me and my enthusiasm was blossoming.

I looovvvve The Visit.

TotallyEffed said: "I agree that it is a stunning achievement, and I apologize if I was too harsh in my response. My main point was that the recording is incomplete which contributes a lot to the disappointing nature of it. I don’t thinkJanMaxwellsBag‘s comment warranted such a correction from bk as the original album was very botched and in more than one way. “Apparently, you don't know about that release - it sounds amazing and Mr. Sondheim and everyone else alive at the time called it "a miracle." sounded very sarcastic/condescending to me.Again, if I misread bk’s tone I apologize."

You did. :) I just tried to correct the misinformation and then point out that he most likely didn't know about the release, which he now says he didn't. It's all good. It's words on a message board and so it's difficult to ascertain tone sometimes.

joevitus said: "Gotta disagree with those praising Bernadette in Follies. She sounds like she's reprising Marie from Sunday. Her Sally seems closer to 80 than 50. This isn't a knock on her vocal skills but on her choices as an actress. I think she made all the wrong ones.

I'd put the Follies in Concert and Paper Mill Playhouse recordings above the 2011. Follies in Concert is better--more energetic, more intense, more of an epic sound to the orchestra somehow--but the Paper Mill Playhouse is more complete.

Kritzerland's work on the special release version of the OBC Follies is truly astounding--staggering might be the better word. It sounds glorious. But the material he had to work with is still an embarrassing fiasco of missing numbers and chopped up versions of the songs that actually got recorded. You get very little sense of the show from that recording just because so much that is crucial (like Loveland) is missing."

I also think the Follies Paper Mill Recording is the best Follies I have ever heard. Even though it is truncated, I also love the original recording. I do not like the 2011 record very much. I am not sure that I ever even listened to it to the end. I did not like Jan Maxwell, who I thought was the worst Phyllis I have seen other than Diana Rigg (my favorites are Donna Murphy, followed by Alexis Smith ans then Dee Hoty). I also felt that BP -- a performer I have generally loved since seeing her in On the Town almost 50 years ago -- was too overwrought from the very beginning), and I did not like Elaine Paige's I'm Still Here.

For me, there is no question: the original London recording of Chess was a revelation. I had seen Chess twice before purchasing the album, and I felt the show was a bit of a slog both times. The OCR was a revelation; long ago, I came to think of it as one of the great scores, certainly a great recording. I would also put Mack and Mabel on the list, if not with the same 'passion' as for Chess. It is a very fine recording, whereas the show was just awful (if ever a show was ruined by book problems, it is Mack and Mabel). Finally, Merrily. Forty years ago, I thought it was one of the worst shows I ever saw (and I have seen some real stinkers, e.g., Onward Victoria, Copperfield, Come Summer, The Yearling, Jimmy, Dr. Jazz, to name a few off the top of my head). The performance was so bad that I did not recognize how good the score was. I saw the Maria Freidman version in Boston 6 - 7 years ago, and was finally won over as to the shows merits, but I was won over on the score decades earlier.

I adore Merrily and each new album makes a good case for it. Even bk’s 94 recording, though I generally listen to the Encores cast more often now.