bwayobsessed said: "joevitus said: "Jeffrey Karasarides said: "BrodyFosse123 said: "I saw the original Broadway production with both Chita and Vanessa and will admit, though the musical is beautifully crafted, my only interest in the musical has always been, and remains, the Aurora sequences. I always zoned out during the rest of the show just waiting for the Aurora numbers. For this, I enjoyed the film adaptation. Didn’t have to slodge thru those endless non-Aurora numbers, which to this day, I can’t recall as even on the 2 separate cast recordings, I always skip."
I have noticed that there are people out there who are familiar with the stage version, but don't find the score to be top tier Kander & Ebb. Although some have found the movie to be an improvement in part because it doesn't use any of the songs set in the prison."
I fall somewhere in the middle. I think in various ways most of the dropped songs don't work in terms of bringing conviciton to the material(mainly an issue with lyricswhich have straight men articulating ideas in a way no straight man ever would;though it's actually the music that is mostly the problemwith The Day After That--too close to One More Day from Les Mis), I absolutely love this score as an audio experience. I never skip a number listening to either cast recording."
Having only listened to the OBC after seeing the movie I will say I miss a lot of the score that was cut. I think the prison sequences in both versions are just a bit more enticing to me than the Aurorasongs"
I mean I love listening to it, but in terms of appropriateness for their song spots, "Dressing Them Up" is too much of a light, traditional "charm song" for someone in Molina's position, as "I Draw the Line" is similarly musical comedy thinking out of place in that locale with those characters. Real straight men obviously dream about hot women, but they don't use terms like "big bosomed women." They use a different vernacular. The lyrics of "My First Woman," hold the odd contradiction of Valentin continually saying he remembers her, but then adds "What did she look like? Probably plain." What? He doesn't remember the thing he's supposed to remember so well (this doesn't feel like a Sondheim moment where a character slips up, revealing more about their pysche than they themselves realize). "The Day After That" sounds like a mash-up of "The Bells of St. Sebastian's" from Nine and "One Day More" from Les Mis. None of this makes for bad listening on a cast album. But all of it reads--to me--pretty false for the characters and the situation. I fully acknowledge this is just my own personal opinion.