Most Disappointing Cast Recordings

Aside from FOLLIES, I think DREAMGIRLS would be right up there.

Dreamgirls is disappointing but glad they put a couple things back on it for reissue.

The original Broadway recording of TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA doesn't do justice to the joy of the material when experienced live. And the quality of the voices is problematic and doesn't serve the score as a recording well.

It has the reverse problem of the OBC of FOLLIES in that there actually wasn't quite enough music to fill 2 records and so tempos were slowed down, etc., making it feel a lot less festive and vibrant than it should have been.

for me it's probably Mamma Mia... it's nothing like the show itself! And Mary Poppins especially! I saw the show first in London with the OLC 3 times and LOVED it and when the CD came out... got it, listened to it, thought the whole magic and 'WOW'ness just disappeared...not sure why ~

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In retrospect, The Follies OBC is lacking, but I loved it for years without knowing so much was missing. As was once said of Katherine Hepburn "Not much meat on her, but what's there is 'cherce'."

And the Dreamgirls live recording is awesome. I can't imagine which of those amazing performances someone would find lacking.

I don't understand why the Follies OBC Soundboard would be so 'good'?

I mean the Follies OBC recording isn't just 'disappointing' because it is truncated, but because the quality of it is relatively bad IMO (it sounds pretty 'tinny'? I mean compare it to the Company OBC, or even earlier recordings - Maybe I'm bias because I make allowances for the age of the recording but even the Gypsy OBC sounds better to me (1959!)).

I can't see how a Soundboard recording from the 70s could improve on this 'issue'.

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And the Dreamgirls live recording is awesome. I can't imagine which of those amazing performances someone would find lacking.

To me, Audra sounds a bit too polished, though I like her. Lillias is pretty fierce and I don't hate Billy Porter as much as I do on the Grease recording. But Heather Headley is pretty painful. I thought her singing was her strength in Aida , but she gets pretty off-pitch in Dreamgirls and she just didn't have the stamina or the range for It's My Party, which kills my throat just listening to it. I was really excited about this CD when it was released, but ultimately disappointed when I heard it. It's starts off pretty tight in the beginning and then gets rather sloppy by the end and because it was a concert, it really sounds like three solo artists being forced to sing together without much rehearsal time to form that tight "girl-group" sound.

I never saw Song and Dance, so I can't compare the Peters recording to the show itself, but listening to it, I sort of wish they had recorded it with Betty Buckley. But Pgenre, if that is the worst produced cast album you own, then it seems you have never heard the Korean cast recording of Evita. Song and Dance is Grammy-worthy by comparison (though is that really saying much?).

As for the West End, I'm saddened by the popularity of live recordings in lieu of studio recordings. Zorro is ok, but the recent revival of Oliver makes me wince every time. When whatserface screams her lines during the title song, it is excruciating and when it comes to listening to a cast recording, I don't care to hear the actors sounding so winded by the choreography. In person, you can turn a deaf ear to it because you are getting the visual, but cast recordings are supposed to be about savoring the music. It's very distracting and awkward when you only have the audio, which may or may not have been recorded at the end of the week for some of the leads. I loved Jodie Prenger the night I saw it, which sounded much better than the night they recorded the performance for the CD. But I was really looking forward to a studio recording of her songs. Such a shame it didn't happen.

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What do you think of the RENT soundtrack?

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Updated On: 11/18/09 at 05:57 PM

A full recording of "Side Show" would be nice!

The Wiz OBC because it's so incomplete. And then pretty much every song on any cast recording that fades out at the end instead of having the end of the song recorded. You know it didn't just fade out on stage. It's so aggravating.

I love the Rent OBCR. The rawness really works for the show, but without sounding sloppy and horrible like live recordings can. (No, I'm not saying it was a live recording, but live recordings can have sloppiness while studio recordings are generally polished; this was not so polished, but did not have the sloppiness one might expect from lack of polish.)

I'm still bitter about Curtains not coming with a proper lyric booklet. Especially since they say "complete lyrics available at these websites", and neither of them exist anymore, and one of them is spelled incorrectly. Augh! The audio aspect of the CD ain't bad, but the physical presentation disappoints to this day.

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Updated On: 11/18/09 at 07:08 PM

Lion King. It just doesn't capture the magic of the show-- the sound is quite dull in places. I love Lion King, but I just can't listen all the way through the recording.

Also... this isn't Broadway, but the cast recording of A Very Potter Musical. Half the cast wasn't there, and the quality just isn't good.

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