Martin Guerre 96 cast recording

Does anyone know where to get this for under $40?(and not backordered) I have been looking for it everywhere! And why didn't Martin ever make it to bw? Did something happen there? I love this show dearly...I really wish it was on tour or something, I would kill to see it live.

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Yeah I agree. I bought it before I went to see it in 2000 in Los Angeles, and I didn't particularly like it. That was five years ago though, so I don't really know where to look for it. eBay? Haha

I have both the 1996 and 1998 cast recordings. I prefer the 1996 one. If it's hard to find in your local record stores, you can always order it online.

There were a lot of reasons why MARTIN GUERRE never made it to Broadway. In a nutshell, there just wasn't the momentum for the show: it flopped in the West End, and the American out-of-town tryout didn't receive very good reviews. By the time the show was supposed to reach Broadway, it still hadn't found an available theatre, so Cameron Mackintosh decided to just close the show when it reached its last stop in LA.

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i saw Martin Guerre at the Ahmanson... it was OK... not horrible... what i heard from the ushers were that the show was doing very poorly... in fact when i was at the show... lots of people walked out at intermission... and not many people clapped at the end... but moving onto the show...

i actually have both recordings and I liked both... i loved the music... but it's the original london recording that i love... and haven't seen the show... but i felt the music was so much better as well as the lyrics... and the newer version was not that good to me... the orchestra was more smaller and not as grand sounding in the new production... by all means it wasn't bad but it was OK...

as for the show....

I liked that we knew that he wasn't Martin Guerre and it became more about a story about the lies that we tell and how far we go to keep them and the ramifications it can have on our lives and the lives of people around us... it was also a good story about religion and how that affects people... i mean you have some really great stuff... but it's the book that suffered because they didn't quite know how to make this musical truly work... the first act was slow and dragged for what seemed like HOURS... i've always felt that act II was just solid and more focused as most of the time was spent on the trial of "martin guerre"... i hope they really rework this show and bring it to broadway... but they need to really rework it

Always impressed by people who can REMEMBER shows better than I can. Perhaps my having seen the movie spoiled this different interpretation for me. It was as if they decided to do The Crying Game: The Musical and started with a scene of Dil getting undressed. It might be a different way of looking at the story, but it would probably bum out anyone who'd seen the movie.

I have the 1996 OCR and I find the score is not a patch on the earlier scores by the team.

There is another musical of the same story that premiered in Toronto as a workshop production in 1992 and was given a full stage production by the Canstage company in 1997. THE HOUSE OF MARTIN GUERRE has a score by Leslie Arden and it is truly outstanding. Sadly no recording was made (although one song can be found on Charlotte Moore's CD of songs from Canadian musicals) but I saw the productiuon a couple of times and still vividly recall many of the songs. This musical was done in a few regional theatres in the U.S. but was never taken to Broadway. Has anyone else seen it?

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I have both recordings also. I remember first hearing the 96 recording directly after it was released in London - my uncle brought home the CD and I was quickly smitten by the story and the music. I heard about how poorly it was doing and that they were gonna tool with the show. 2 years later an apparently better show was in the making - but the reviews in the US led us all to believe otherwise. The newer MG garnered at least some positive reviews, but not nearly the push they were hoping for, thus giving Mr. Mackintosh no real reason to give the NY reviewers a field day.
I assume when you ask about the recordings, you wanna know about the songs themselves. I believe the songs are superior in the original: Louison, Someone, I Will Make You Proud, Bethlehem, etc. Many of the songs are the same musically but with different lyrics. In those cases, I usually prefer the lyrics the' first time. I do like Live With Somebody You Love as far as the 99 recording goes, but that's about it. Arnaud's voice in the '96 recording is also rather irritating, but I think his material is better.
If you can get a copy of the '96 one, I would say do it. If you like the '99 a lot, you will get your money's worth in the '96 - 40 bucks or not.

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If anything about the show, the song "Bethlehem" is the should've been Christmas Carol of the 90s.

There is also a CD available for Schoenberg's music for the ballet of Wuthering Heights. I recently read somewhere that Boublil and Schoenberg were indeed working on a new musical, but for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was.

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Thanks Eastwickian for advertising my Pirate Queen thread. :)

I also have both copies of MG. Love it. Not as good as Miz or Siagon but it is a hell of a lot better than a lot of other musicals that are more popular.

I really liked the original recording, then found I preferred the newer one. When I saw the show in L.A., and really realized exactly what kind of show they were doing (orchestrations, intimacy, etc.), I totally fell in love with it. It's a shame the American cast didn't get recorded. Stephen Buntrock and Hugh Panaro were fantastic.

The red & black cover is the 96 recording, the black cover is the 99 recording.

Ironically, the show (after its second or third West End rewrite, as Lee described) did win the Olivier Award for Best Musical that year.

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yeah you do have the original... and Bertrande is played by Rebecca Locke... the alternate Bertrande... they thought she had a better voice then the original... forgot her name