Just gave it a listen on Apple Music - overall I think it’s excellent! I miss these complete studio recordings and I’m thrilled that after all this time it’s finally released.
I think Friedman gives real heart to her numbers and the full orchestra treatment of a rare gem like this is always a real treat. Thank God we live in the digital age where we can add our own artwork though...
Tried to listen to it on Amazon. Maybe just too wed to the OCR. I didn't care for the concert CD, either (though I loved Bernadette Peters's Fay Apple).
This show is a mainstream broadway take on absurdism.
I don't think the themes will ever really land the way the writers intended them to, but there's something kinda charming and twee about it. And every once and a while there's commentary that's like "Ha I see what you're going for."
Sondheim said (I think in his annotated lyrics book) that they had "the courage but not the perspective", which really sums it up. It's daring and zany, but also shallow and repetitive, with a gratingly juvenile viewpoint that becomes borderline claustrophobic as the script drags on and on. It's like Brecht, but less funny.
Curious to hear this old new recording, though. It would be wonderful to see an overhauled version now that Laurents is firmly elsewhere.