Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film- Page 30

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/16/25 at 8:53pm

joevitus said: "
Famed record producer Goddard Lieberson never liked dialogue on his cast albums. I mostly agree, but I think it's rather nifty how Shepard gave us an encapsulation of the play on his Spider Woman. And, of course, I think the difference between the days when people owned albums with a synopsis included, vs. today when people mostly download music with nothing else to go by than the numbers makes a difference in how the material should bepresented (to be clear, he recorded Spidar Woman in the CD era,before downloads existed much of anywhere besides Napster)."

Have you read Shepard's book?  (I know way back in this thread I already quoted much of what he said about making the replacement cast Spider Woman recording.)  It's interesting that Lieberson was his mentor in how to make cast albums, but he discusses their different views about dialogue--Shepard suggests had Lieberson made the Company original cast album he probably would have left out all the dialogue between verses in The Little Things You Do Together (which IMHO would have been a great loss, although Shepard did have them slightly re-write the dialogue.)  Of course then in the 80s, having the luxury of CDs with more time than a single vinyl disc would give you helped with this too.  (I do have a friend who played the Spider Woman original cast album some months back for the first time, and she said she got no sense of the story.  Of course she easily could have followed along with Wiki, but...)

 

[bwayobsessed]

Posted: 10/16/25 at 10:13pm

Probably as I wasn’t just sitting and listening, I found Crivello’s Valentin hard to track. Stokes obviously stands out so wonderfully and his arc is a lot clearer.

[joevitus]

Posted: 10/16/25 at 10:35pm

Mine is similar to Jeffery. It's mostly the Chita recording, but I added Lucky Molina from Vanessa (though, of course, neither she nor any of the leads sings on it). I'm actually going to go back and swap out Chita's "Gimme Love" for Vanessa's. Love the bird/exotic sounds as the scene is being set. 

Updated On: 10/16/25 at 10:35 PM

[joevitus]

Posted: 10/17/25 at 12:31am

EricMontreal22 said: "joevitus said: "
Famed record producer Goddard Lieberson never liked dialogue on his cast albums. I mostly agree, but I think it's rather nifty how Shepard gave us an encapsulation of the play on his Spider Woman. And, of course, I think the difference between the days when people owned albums with a synopsis included, vs. today when people mostly download music with nothing else to go by than the numbers makes a difference in how the material should bepresented (to be clear, he recorded Spidar Woman in the CD era,before downloads existed much of anywhere besides Napster)."

Have you read Shepard's book? (I know way back in this thread I already quoted much of what he said about making the replacement cast Spider Woman recording.) It's interesting that Lieberson was his mentor in how to make cast albums, but he discusses their different views about dialogue--Shepard suggests had Lieberson made the Company original cast album he probably would have left out all the dialogue between verses in The Little Things You Do Together (which IMHO would have been a great loss, although Shepard did have them slightly re-write the dialogue.) Of course then in the 80s, having the luxury of CDs with more time than a single vinyl disc would give you helped with this too. (I do have a friend who played the Spider Woman original cast album some months back for the first time, and she said she got no sense of the story. Of course she easily could have followed along with Wiki, but...)

"

Not only did Shepard leave it in, but he moved it around so that it interrupts more of the song than it did in the actual production. It works very effectively. One thing I disagree with is Shepard's claim about making Aurora a more evocative presence than the London recording did. I really don't agree with that at all. I think both recordings achieve the same effect. 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/17/25 at 5:36pm

I agree on that point, though at least some of that is I think Chita just had that part so perfectly realized (not just physically, but vocally.)

[bwayobsessed]

Posted: 10/17/25 at 7:14pm

EricMontreal22 said: "I agree on that point, though at least some of that is I think Chita just had that part so perfectly realized (not just physically, but vocally.)"

After listening to both albums a few times over the past few days I made a playlist. It’s formatted around the Vanessa recording but basically putting Chita and Brent’s big songs into it. We will see if I like it.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/18/25 at 1:55am

Well the movie finally opened here in Canada and I saw it tonight,. I have thoughts (which I'm sure I'll get into later if people aren't already tired of discussion of this movie) but overall I... liked it.  Even knowing a lot about the changes it often felt oddly like the musical and not at all like the musical.

Me and my friend (who loved it--he has no history with the musical though knows the 1985 movie) were the only two people in the showing, and the other two showings today (a matinee and a late one) look to be completely un-sold.  No small feat, this has only happened to me once before when I've gone to a movie.  I still think it's due not so much to bad word of mouth, or even audience indifference, but that people don't seem to even know it exists.  Talking to a number of movie loving friends of mine about seeing it, their reaction was "What's that?"