Complete Recordings

The new complete recording of Oklahoma! has got me on the hunt for other complete recordings of other musicals. I've found a few (The King and I, My Fair Lady, Sweet Charity), but I don't much care for them. In those two cases they're from a while ago and the sound is echo-y and lacking in crispness. In some cases I've cobbled together my own "complete" recordings taking tracks from different versions.

I know of the complete symphonic versions of Les Miz and Miss Saigon. Any other complete recordings that are particular favorites of y'all?

The 2000 JAY complete studio recording of The Most Happy Fella sounds great, and the included cut songs really flesh out the character of Tony's sister Marie, who only comes across as a bitter semi-villain in the final version of the show.

The original Broadway cast recording of the show is also essentially complete. It's a late mono recording but the sound is really quite good, and the cast is phenomenal. It's only missing a book scene in Act Two where Herman teaches Clio how to attach labels to jars. Full of gentle innuendo, that scene comes off as a little weird when there's no audience to laugh at it, so it's easy to see why it was cut.

The 1998 Papermill Playhouse Recording of Follies. Includes music that didn’t make it into the final production of the show. Conducted by orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, released as a double CD.

The John McGlinn SHOW BOAT on EMI, the Rob Berman ROBERTA on New World, the John Mauceri THE CRADLE WILL ROCK on Bridge, the John DeMain PORGY & BESS on RCA, the JAY ONE TOUCH OF VENUS.

BRIGADOON (1992) with Brent Barrett and Rebecca Luker

LADY IN THE DARK (1998)

THE GOLDEN APPLE (2015)

Jay Records has various additional ones as well (https://www.jayrecords.com/complete-recording-of-the-musical-score/).

If you're interested in cast recordings in other languages, there are several German-language complete cast recordings around. Most are for European musicals (REBECCA, ELISABETH, etc), although there are a handful for Broadway shows as well. I like the German-language complete JANE EYRE (2018).

The Keith Michell La Mancha has been available (you may need to scroll down or use Ctrl+F/Command+F) since 2010 from the little-known specialty label Klassic Haus Restorations. According to them, it's their top seller. You can have a 2-CD set for 22 bucks, or a 320kbps MP3 version for 10.