Favorite Cast Recording(s) of the 16/17 Season? - Page 2

[danny10086]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 6:46am

I know ... how good is this season for cast recordings.  I've been loving the strong and enjoyable scores!
- Dear Evan Hansen (has been played more times than any)

- Anastasia (I love Ahrens & Flaherty so much, their scores are always so enjoyable)

- Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (this, surprisingly, has grown on me a lot - Charming is so much fun)

- War Paint (how awesome to have Patti & Christine in one show, with a score playing to their strengths)

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 7:02am

Bandstand for sure (I didn't care for the show, but the recording is fantastic). Closely followed by The Great Comet.

[theaterdude2]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 7:18am

I used to listen to Dear Evan Hansen a lot, and I love it - but right now I CANNOT STOP listening to BANDSTAND!!! Every time I listen I discover a new amazing song. The performances are incredible, both the cast and the band. If you haven't tried it, you should definitely check it out. I'm very impressed.

[ChildofEarth]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 8:14am

For me, The Great Comet's is the best on a whole. The vocal talent of that cast is insanity and I love the different mixture of voices.

Special shout outs to War Paint (PINK.) and Come From Away (Me and the Sky, Costume Party) who I also think did some great work.

I don't think there was really a "miss" for me in terms of albums, but I'm not exactly a fan of the exaggerated breathing on certain recordings (Anastasia, DEH) even though it definitely works for comedic effect for SJB, so what do I know.

[thirtythirtyninety]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 8:45am

I didn't think I needed a new recording of the Great Comet, but the OBCR proved me wrong.  I love it even more than the off Broadway album.  It's gorgeous.

 

Runner up is Falsettos.  So nice to finally have a full recording 

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 8:56am

FALSETTOS. It's so wonderful to have a full recording of the show.

WAR PAINT - beautifully produced.

DEAR EVAN HANSEN - best new score of the year.

The biggest disappointment was HELLO DOLLY. What a lifeless recording. Still waiting on the SUNDAY revival...

[mamaleh]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 8:58am

GREAT COMET, ANASTASIA & BANDSTAND.   

[ClumsyDude15]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 9:06am

Anastasia, Dear Evan Hansen, Bandstand, Groundhog Day, and Great Comet.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 9:23am

ANASTASIA is a nice score, but the recording is not great. It sounds like it was recorded in a closet.

[SkidRowUrchins]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 10:02am

Falsettos and Great Comet, for sure. I've listened to almost all of the cast recordings from this season and those are the only two I've had playing on repeat. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 10:49am

Maybe I'll enjoy DEH more after I see it? 

And I agree about Groundhog. Loved it in the theater, but not a show I'd seek out to listen to. But in the context of the show I really enjoyed it! 

[JustAnotherNewYorker]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 12:30pm

Groundhog. I love Tim Minchin

 

As for Great Comet, I like the OBC, but actually prefer the off Broadway album

Updated On: 6/29/17 at 12:30 PM

[a-mad]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 12:41pm

Interesting... the more I listen to Groundhog Day the more I love it.  I haven't seen the show, so perhaps the nuances of the story continue to come into focus with each repeated listening - clever songs like "Stuck", for example, which keeps getting funnier.

DEH has such a catchy score - I really never tire of listening to it, which is surprising.

...and I just began listening to Come From Away which I've enjoyed as well.  

Updated On: 6/29/17 at 12:41 PM

[Snee17]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 12:56pm

Mr. Nowack said: "FALSETTOS definitely. That's the one I've listened to most, and I have heard about all of them.

close second, WAR PAINT.

 

I gotta go with you on this one, Falsettos is amazing. I saw th production last Fall and I LOVED it. The cast recording is amazing.

 

 

"

 

[MyFavoriteBrunette]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 2:08pm

From the shows I've seen, I'd say Dear Evan Hansen is one I can completely listen through start to end.  Come From Away would be my second choice--I find I skip songs to get to the next, as with other cast recordings of this season. 

[Malka2]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 3:03pm

Bandstand - A really enjoyable soundtrack! I'm actually surprised by how many times I've listened to it already this week, but I keep coming back to it. The only song I skip is "Everything Happens" because the idea of nothing having purpose annoys me :) 

Dear Evan Hansen - I don't listen straight through but have a few favorites, most notably "Anyone Have a Map?" I can put that on repeat and never get tired of it! I guess I connect to that struggle (not in regards to parenting, but life) more than "Waving Through a Window" or even "You Will Be Found", which probably would have meant a lot more to me as a teenager.

Groundhog Day - such a fun and diverse soundtrack. "Day One" is just plain fun, "Hope" is incredible rock-n-roll vocals, "Nobody Cares" is hilarious country-style, "One Day" is uplifting and motivational, "Seeing You" is beautiful Americana-style... I've pretty much memorized the lyrics to the whole thing at this point :)

Anastasia - Besides for the obvious movie-classic songs and "In a Crowd of Thousands", I love the moving and beautiful "Stay, I Pray You"... and "Land of Yesterday" is fun, mindless romp.

And then there's the "Prologue" from The Great Comet, which has also made my top-hits list. I'm sure the rest of it is great too but I haven't gotten around to listening to the rest of it!

Lots of great new music this year!

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 3:09pm

To echo Gaveston with whom I nearly always agree, in general this has been lousy year for true rhymes on Broadway. GROUNDHOG DAY, COME FROM AWAY, GREAT COMET, and even DEAR EVAN HANSEN have all been guilty of monstrosities of miss-rhyming. So I'm just gonna have to grade the new scores on a curve.

Given that, I'm a huge fan of both the DEH and GROUNDHOG DAY cd's, particularly after seeing the shows in the flesh a week ago. Witty, pithy, genuinely funny songs followed by heartbreakers fill both cd's-- both shows are on frequent repeat on my daily jogs.

GREAT COMET was a chore to listen to, and a much tougher chore to sit through. I won't be giving it another listen for years.

HELLO DOLLY is a sad, sad recording with Bette Midler at half-wattage. Thank God I got to see the brilliant Donna Murphy in perfect voice when we saw the show at the Shubert last week.

FALSETTOS I guess will never be my cup of tea. Didn't like the original production 25 years ago and still don't get the show on the new cd. Every song sounds like it was made up on the piano on the spot (not a compliment.)

COME FROM AWAY can still make me tear up, all thanks to the recorded book scenes. The songs themselves? Amateurish in the extreme.

THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM (was that this season?) is another fabulous score with a gorgeous new recording. I loved the original Bway production back in '76(??) and this new cd is way better than the original LP.

Still waiting to go buy my WARPAINT cd when it's in the stores out west here. tbd.

[10086Sundays]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 4:50pm

For those who don't like the imperfect rhymes, Groundhog Day specifically, does it ruin any possibility of an emotional connection to the show?  This a genuine question, since, while I don't mind the imperfect rhymes, some of the cruder lyrics, I could do without.  However, that hasn't prevented me from connecting to the show as a whole.  Is it a case of the rhymes just being one of many issues with the show or the rhymes being the sole reason for not enjoying it?

[LYLS3637]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 4:59pm

I haven't been able to listen to the whole cast recording of COME FROM AWAY. Some of those lyrics evoking 9/11 kind of make me cringe-- especially the one in ME AND THE SKY.

Do the lyrics come off as less cringe-worthy on stage and in context?

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 5:10pm

LYLS3637 said: "I haven't been able to listen to the whole cast recording of COME FROM AWAY. Some of those lyrics evoking 9/11 kind of make me cringe-- especially the one in ME AND THE SKY.

Do the lyrics come off as less cringe-worthy on stage and in context?

No.

 

[upinlights]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 5:38pm

I haven't listened to everything, but the Falsettos recording could resurrect me from the dead. It's my favorite cast recording ever, not just this season. I'm also loving Groundhog Day, but I pick and choose what I listen to from that. I haven't seen DEH yet, but the recording doesn't do much for me! Each song sounds so different which might work in context, but it bugs me to listen to as a cohesive thing.

[Babe_Williams]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 5:53pm

bryan32 said: "the only two I can say are dear evan hasen and come from away because I have to buy the others

 

 

"

Many of the recordings are probably uploaded to YouTube, FWIW

[froote]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 5:56pm

upinlights said: "I haven't listened to everything, but the Falsettos recording could resurrect me from the dead. It's my favorite cast recording ever, not just this season. I'm also loving Groundhog Day, but I pick and choose what I listen to from that. I haven't seen DEH yet, but the recording doesn't do much for me! Each song sounds so different which might work in context, but it bugs me to listen to as a cohesive thing."

Each song sounds so different? One of my complaints with the DEH score is how samey it all is with maybe 2 exceptions.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 8:27pm

"For those who don't like the imperfect rhymes, Groundhog Day specifically, does it ruin any possibility of an emotional connection to the show?"

I've hated imperfect rhymes in Bway scores for decades, and particularly hated them in MATILDA when proper symbols of the establishment like the Headmistress were still incapable of rhyming correctly.

But somehow GROUNDHOG DAY's lyrics won me over because of their wit and specificity. Great lines peppered stanza after stanza. I found myself really loving the emotion in the score despite the lousy rhyming. (Although down deep I found myself thinking: "Yeah, but how even more fantastic would this experience be had a perfectionist lyricist like Michael Korie gotten a chance to polish Minchin's original versions?"

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 6/29/17 at 10:47pm

10086Sundays said: "For those who don't like the imperfect rhymes, Groundhog Day specifically, does it ruin any possibility of an emotional connection to the show?  This a genuine question, since, while I don't mind the imperfect rhymes, some of the cruder lyrics, I could do without.  However, that hasn't prevented me from connecting to the show as a whole.  Is it a case of the rhymes just being one of many issues with the show or the rhymes being the sole reason for not enjoying it?

 

"

For me, that was just one factor. (Note: I have not seen the show.)

I noted the first 3 rhymed couplets given to the hero only as an example of what I find to be sloppy craft throughout. The thing is: "erection", "rears", and "cop" are NOT hard words to rhyme. It's not as if Minchin was wrestling with "orange".

As Someone points out above, there are plenty of near-rhymes in this season's shows; I'm resigned to that. (Though I wonder why, in COMET as in DADDY LONG LEGS a few years ago, lyrics sometimes rhyme (imperfectly or perfectly) and sometimes don't. I'm okay either way, but I expect to find a consistent pattern.) In GHD, however, the lyric craft strikes me as severely and unnecessarily lacking AND I find the music dull.

As for ROBBER BRIDEGROOM, it was off-Broadway and the previous season. (But I'm glad I downloaded it, because I would have worn out a CD by now. I saw the original and first tour, and this recording is MUCH better.)

I should add that this thread has convinced me to give GHD and BANDSTAND another try.

Updated On: 6/29/17 at 10:47 PM