Most Disappointing Cast Recordings- Page 2

[bryan]

Posted: 11/18/09 at 8:34pm

hi i hate when people do not like a cast cd of a show a least it go a cast cd. some shows are not so lucky.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 11/18/09 at 8:43pm

Eat **** bryan.

[dayao]

Posted: 11/18/09 at 8:49pm

I was very disappointed with the cast recording of the current SOUTH PACIFIC revival. It has none of the energy and exuberance that the same cast and orchestra displayed on stage. As much as I like Kelli O'Hara & Paulo Szot I find their recorded vocals dull and lifeless on the recording which was certainly not the case in live performance. In fact, with the exception of the beyond awful 2001 Glenn Close soundtrack, the 2008 Cast Album is the worst recording of SOUTH PACIFIC I have ever heard.

[binau]

Posted: 11/18/09 at 8:58pm

Bryan you're 'cute'.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 11/18/09 at 8:58pm

Really? I think it's a pretty adequate representation of the score and those performances.

It is. Post-movie fans know the OBC didn't like it, though, so therefore it sucks now. Thus sayeth the Lord. (And by Lord, I mean Adam Pascal.)


I was tremendously disappointed with the Company Revival Cast Recording. Raul sounds good, and Being Alive is excellent, but the way they included scenes (i.e. rushed and often poorly acted) didn't do justice to the show at all, it was just awkward and confusing.

Agree. I saw the show in Cincinatti and loved it, saw it 6 times on Broadway and with the exception of Being Alive, I honestly never listen to it. I can't stand the dialogue, and completely distracts from the great performances. I'll listen to the original if I want to hear Company.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 11/18/09 at 9:01pm

Oh I hate the recent South Pacific revival recording. It's so boring and threatened to put me to sleep (especially O'Hara and Szot).

[binau]

Posted: 11/18/09 at 9:01pm

What South Pacific recording would you recommend?

[dayao]

Posted: 11/18/09 at 9:14pm

The 1949 original with Mary Martin & Ezio Pinza can't be beat except for its dated sound. The 1958 soundtrack with Robert Russell Bennet's expanded orchestrations and superb vocals from Mitzi Gaynor, Giorgio Tozzi, Bill Lee & Muriel Smith is the one Richard Rogers put his imprimatur on as the best ever and it still sounds great.

[morosco]

Posted: 11/18/09 at 9:39pm

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 agree with you on all these criticisms but it's still rather remarkable that this recording even exists. Let's not forget that this performance took place less than 2 weeks after the horrors of 9/11. I can't imagine that they were able to have a reasonable amount of rehearsal time. I would also imagine that it was hard for anyone to fully focus on the material as the world around us was seemingly falling apart.

As for Heather Headley it's very disappointing that she wasn't allowed the opportunity to go back into the studio and redo some of her vocals. Billy Porter did.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 11/18/09 at 10:18pm

The 1967 Lincoln Center Cast with Florence Henderson is by far my favorite and most played. Henderson's Nellie is joyous and the best reading on disc (in my opinion).

http://www.amazon.com/South-Pacific-1967-Lincoln-Center/dp/B000GPIPU6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1258600545&sr=8-1

I'm also a fan of the last London revival with Lauren Kennedy and Phillip Quast,

Audra is the reason that recording exists (it's on her label), so I can't really complain too much that she's not ideal. She still sounds great and it was so nice to finally have a complete recording.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/18/09 at 10:46pm

I love the London South Pacific revival recording. I really like the idea of switching the first two scenes. I think it plays really well that way. The Broadway revival cast recording is pretty good too, but the tempos are too slow for me. I like that it has more of the reprises, but I hate that "Honey Bun" is cut short. That cut still makes no sense to me. It's not like they were low on disc space or anything and the song sucks without the chorus bit.

[defyingravity11]

Posted: 11/18/09 at 11:55pm

For the Dreamgirls concert, didn't Headley replace LaChanze, or am I mistaken?

[Elphaba3]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 12:09am

Hairspray, Gypsy (2003), Wicked.

[binau]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 12:42am

What was disappointing about GYPSY (03)?

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 1:22am

They're just trying to stir up ****. If they weren't they'd explain their choices.

The Wicked recording is fine and the only big thing missing is a song that spoils a major plot point.

The Hairspray recording is fine. Winouker sucked on stage and she sucks on the recording.

I can't see what someone would find wrong with the newest Gypsy unless they had a problem with the show itself and that's not what this thread is about.

[BDrischBDemented]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 3:05am

Actually, the only "problem" I have with the Hairspray OBCR is that I wish it were more complete (it's anal retentive, but I'd have liked the minor dance music and "Velma's Revenge") and recorded slightly later on to reflect the show as it more or less currently is now.

[B3TA07]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 4:11am

I think the "Lord" of ReNt is really Anthony Rapp. What with his...chip...which happens to be on his...shoulder. And stuff.

[Elphaba3]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 4:16am

For Hairspray, they cut too much and also I can't stand MJW's Tracy.

For Gypsy, Bernadette sounded pretty hoarse.

For Wicked, the tempos were slowed down and everyone sounded dull and flat. It didn't capture the magic of the show and the cast.

Posted: 11/19/09 at 4:16am

"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'."

Well I agree that while it's nice to have the soundboard recordings, for Follies at least it'll never compare to a pro done cast album sound wise and no amount of digital "mastering" would ever ever change this.

I also agree that in its way, nearly as bad as the editing to Follies is the actual sound of the album SUCKS. Even on the remastered CD, but before that CD it honestly did sound (as one critic said) like it was recorded in a parking garage. Weird balance issues, weird treble and bass, some instruments POPPING from the speaker, some not. Some of these are issues with every cast album from Capitol that Dick Jones produced, but Follies especially has serious issues (Dick Jones to his credit did fight with Capitol to have the release be a 2 disc set).

But this is partly a problem with that particular cast album. Certainly the creme de la creme cast albums from say 1975 and before (to 1955 or so) were all from Columbia, and usually produced by Godard Lieberson or the man who learned from him, Thomas K Shepherd. Once they entered the stereo era in particular. For instance I think the 1957 West Side Story, sound wise still sounds close to exquisite, certainly better than any RCA or Capitol cast album from the 50s, or any pop recording from that era.

Columbia made the best quality cast albums till they stopped making them in the late 70s (though I know they made Nine and that was their last for a while). Again compare the Chorus Line album they did to the Chicago one sound wise (though Chicago seemed to purposefully have more reverb put on it).

It's one of those sad facts of theatre history that Hal Prince was very temporarily on the outs with Columbia when Follies premiered and so wouldn't allow them to do the album.

Speaking of reverb I HATE the extra reverb put on the original off Broadway Little Shop cast album and I wish that was a bit more complete.

[Craww]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 5:01am

I'm consistently disappointed with any cast recording for scores that contain any modern rock elements. Specifically...Sh-K-Boom did almost as poorly on the rock aspects of the Next to Normal recording as they did on the entirety of High Fidelity. There's just not a believable mix between the vocals and the music. It's like they're gliding on top of the music, completely disconnected. And then the music itself lacks legitimate rock and roll punch. (It's not really a problem of the score, either, because I found the rock aspects of Next to Normal convincing in the theater.)

The Rent cast recording has a scruffy charm that doesn't seem to exist in more modern production. The new technologies make it easier, and it's created this horrible limbo where something sounds overproduced and underproduced at the same time.

Posted: 11/19/09 at 5:08am

This is more maybe about the arrangement/orchestrations on stage though the album production plays a part but I get what you mean about rock elements. For me (and I know I'll get some laughs for this) it's when cast albums try to have disco elements--partly cuz I'm a hardcore fan of disco(the more underground the better--I'm not talking Village People and Gloria Gaynor). So we have fun disco pastiches like One Night Only in Dreamgirls, the recent Sister Act stuff that to my ears is let down by super lame production that doesn't sound like anything a serious clubber would dance to...

[binau]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 5:12am

"Even on the remastered CD, but before that CD it honestly did sound (as one critic said) like it was recorded in a parking garage."

I've only heard the unmastered Follies OBC (borrowed from Library), when I eventually purchase the remastered CD I hope it will be a revelation :).

Posted: 11/19/09 at 5:53am

HAHA don't expect too much... The remaster is from Angel Braodway around 1992 and they apparently worked hard at trying to fix the mix (it's ADD not AAD like most reissues, if that means anything to you) but there's only so much you can do. At least the CD includes One Last Kiss (but the CD you have might already) which was dropped from the LP but Sondheim practically forced them to record it (it wasn't a fave of album producer Dick Jones)

[mallardo]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 8:06am

Promises, Promises. The singing is so awful. I'm hoping for recording from the upcoming revival.

Posted: 11/19/09 at 8:14am

HAHA I love the singing, and how Orbach and Jill O'Hara's voices don't match which oddly endears it more to me.

Betty Buckley is wonderful on the London cast album but I find Tony Roberts way too smug for Chuck.