Grey Gardens OBC CD--thoughts & a question

[karen24]

Posted: 6/7/07 at 11:50am

I just got this CD yesterday and I love it. I've seen the show once and now want to see it again (which may be difficult as I'm moving upstate in three weeks.) Listening to it has caused me to revise my opinion of Erin Davie. When I saw the show, I wasn't sure if she really seemed like a young version of the Edie we see in Act II--I think it's because I hadn't really paid attention during "The Girl Who Has Everything" at the beginning, so I didn't pick up on Little Edie's vocal mannerisms as much as I should have. Now that I've listened to Davie on the CD, I hear so much of what Ebersole was doing in Act II.

I noticed in the notes at the end of the CD booklet that it says "Additional background vocals by Sara Gettelfinger and Audrey Twitchell (who created the roles of Young "Little" Edie Beale and Lee Bouvier, respectively, in the Playwrights Horizons production of Grey Gardens) can be heard in "The Five-Fifteen," "Hominy Grits," "Entering Grey Gardens," "The House We Live In" and "Choose to be Happy.""
Does anyone have any thoughts as to why this was done? Do you think it was a way to include these two actresses, who put so much into the original Off-Broadway production, in the Broadway OCR? Or was it more of a practical decision, because they needed more sound for those numbers? Just curious.
Karen

[artscallion]

Posted: 6/7/07 at 12:26pm

In the songs listed as including Gettlefinger and Twitchell, they are part of the chorus track which is generally recorded, not as seperate voices, but together as one track (if that's still the correct term). Being such, their voices couldn't be seperated and plucked out and replaced by the new cast members.

The only way to replace them would have been to call in the whole cast to re-record the chorus track. This would have been expensive since otherwise there would have been no reason to pay McMartin, Potts and Stillman to come in.

So, they do not appear in addition to Their replacements (as "more sound")in those songs. They remain in the chorus instead of the replacements in those songs. Part of the consideration, aside from the money, may also have been, as you note, in respect to their contribution to the early process of creating the show.

Updated On: 6/7/07 at 12:26 PM

[karen24]

Posted: 6/7/07 at 1:04pm

That's interesting--I had assumed that the Broadway cast recording would have been a completely new one, but obviously I was wrong. So you're saying that because they already had the chorus tracks recorded from the off-Broadway production, they used those on the OBC recording as basically a cost-saving measure?
This leads me to ask--when you are watching the show in the theater, are parts of the vocals you're hearing--e.g., the chorus parts--actually prerecorded, so the sound is "boosted"? I would not have thought that, but otherwise, why add to the sound for the recording? Maybe I'm just too much of a purist, but I thought the purpose of the cast recording was to hear as close a version as possible to what you hear when you're in the theater.

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/7/07 at 1:15pm

^ Most re-recordings of a show do the same thing. The Weissler's did it for their reissues of GREASE and WONDERFUL TOWN with Brooke Shields. They just drop the lead vocals into the existing tracks. It's too much money re-record the whole track. And like Arts said, it's impossible to remove a certain voice from the chorus parts.

Anyway, there are several tracks on the Broadway recording that ARE newly recorded.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 6/7/07 at 2:18pm

Actually, I'm pretty sure Stillman still came in to re-record "Mother, Darling" (unless they used a different take from the first recording session) and McMartin had to come in anyways to record "Marry Well." But it would have been more expensive indeed to re-record the chorus tracks where it's not necessary.
Karen, as far as I know, the chorus in the show is live.
All the tracks that involve Erin Davie were newly recorded (including Matt Cavenaugh's reactions to her during "Daddy's Girl"), I believe "Hominy Grits" has new orchestrations, and "The Five-Fifteen Reprise" and "Around the World Reprise" are new as well.
Erin Davie truly shines in this recording in ways that Gettelfinger couldn't manage in the off-Broadway album. I wish they had recorded "Body Beautiful Girl" just to hear Davie's rendition of that great number.

[Buddy Kiss2]

Posted: 6/7/07 at 2:20pm

Please forgive if this has already been answered but, if one already has the off-Bway recording of GG, is it worth getting the whole OBC recording or should one pick and choose the new songs from iTunes?

[TechEverlasting]

Posted: 6/7/07 at 2:38pm

I think it's worth getting the entire Broadway recording, because everything was remixed and remasterd and sounds far better. There's more reverb (not used excessively) and a much richer sound in the low end.

With regards to the question of pre-recorded backing vocals being used in live shows, I don't think this is common on Broadway because Equity has to give permission for it and their position is always that live off-stage singers should be used instead of recorded tracks. Non-Equity tours are a different matter, and at times chorus vocal samples are triggered by keyboardists.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 6/7/07 at 2:39pm

I would probably just get the songs from iTunes, though the new recording does have a new booklet and whatnot. However, it's the one that will be readily available from now on, whereas the Off-Broadway recording will most likely become a collector's item in the future.