I bought it today. I have to say, of what I have heard, I find it neither awesome nor amazing.
And it's weird, because I LOVE the score. Have bought and rebought the original every time they repackage it with extras and bonii.
So why doesn't this recording click for me?
There are performers I love whose performances on this I don't. Lilias White's Aquarius, for example. Why does it plod? Did they slow it down or were people just stoned?
Dead End. Love the song. Adore Ana Gasteyer. Not crazy at all about her rendition of the song.
Then there are people I remember who got slammed the day after the concert. Lea Delaria, for instance. I think her version of Donna is terrific, and having a lesbian sing it really upends the sexism.
Then there is a more quizzical category. Shoshana Bean. What more can be said of her performance of "I Believe in Love" but that it proves the theory of quantum physics? Apparently, Ms. Bean went back in time to the 1960s and brought the horrible late-'90s/early-'00s melisma trend of adding notes within notes within notes to notes that were perfect the way they were.
Thanks, Soshana, for ripping a hole in the time/space continuum and poisoning a perfectly delightful period piece with THE most annoying bad habit of showboating singers today! I wonder if my A Chorus Line recording now has Sheila singing "Up the steep and narrow stay-yaha-hai-haiir-hair-yayayayaya-yairwayyyyyyuh" now that Shoshana has altered history?
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