Most Disappointing Cast Recordings- Page 3

[Dantes]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 12:29pm

I think the Rent cast recording is brilliant. It has such a raw energy to it and its capture of pretty mucg the full show is fantastic.

The Xanadu cast recording is terrible, its flat and has no energy at all

[Marianne2]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 12:49pm

The interesting thing about Hairspray for me is that I think the preview cd I got at the Broadway Flea Market sounds a lot better than some of the vocals on the OBCR. It especially has to do with Marissa Janet Winokur. Her voice is just so unpleasant. Did she do the vocals on the preview cd, because I can't figure that one out now if she did.

[TheBoyDownstairs]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 1:09pm

Clearly Follies is the obvious choice for my most disappointing cast recording ever.

I also agree with Xanadu, the recording wasnt able to come close to capturing the energy of the stage show. They only used about 40 minutes of the disc and yet couldn't have given us more of the dialogue that would have really helped paint the picture of what the show was.

[Eastwickian]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 2:57pm

See, I've always thought that the one thing that the Rent recording is missing is 'rawness' - the band just sound a bit . . . lifeless.

[Pianist3912]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 3:03pm

Marianne2, the CD at the flea market was actually a few tracks from one of the demos, where Annie Golden sings Tracy most of the tracks...Marissa Jaret Winokur is Tracy in the uber-fast You Can't Stop the Beat, though.

[ggersten]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 3:06pm

Dreamgirls OBC by a mile. Restructured, rewritten, only half of some songs. I know the "intentions" per the liner notes were good, but, I was so excited when the CD came out hoping against hope that it would have fuller renditions - some secret recording that wasn't on the LP. Nope. It's not a bad CD, and for so long, it's all there was, but as a CR, boy is it disappointing for all that wasn't recorded. And that's one of the reasons I love the Concert - because it has, for me, the life and flow of my memories. (And for the moment when Lillias says "Deena? She can't sing like I can" and Audra tries to meekly say "She's right. I can't") And the audience reaction is wondrous.

I didn't see Xanadu on stage, but all the video clips and board discussions and articles built up an image in my mind, and the OBC CD is just dull and lifeless. So, it was very disappointing.

[Scott Briefer]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 3:44pm

I agree with the comments made about Grand Hotel. I long for more David Carroll.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 3:53pm

I agree about Xanadu. Terrible recording of a delightful show. I'd also like to add the OBC of Chess. Though not my favorite version of the show, the score and the cast deserved two CDs, but even the one CD that was produced, sounds like a Disney animated version of the score.

Posted: 11/19/09 at 7:34pm

At least Dreamgirls is exquisitely recorded--I know that's not much of an excuse, but... I dunno about Geffen in the early days and their cast albums--I guess Cats is everything any Cats fan could want, but like I said I hate all the added reverb given to Little Shop (I assume to make it sound like an older 60s pop recording? Wall of sound etc? Still it's a bit much) and Dreamgirls--couldn't they have released the poppier one disc edition and then a two disc for fans? It was obviously a big enough hit. (Geffen has a lot to explain to me--he also hired my fave disco diva, Donna Summer, for a then retro amount to his brand new label and then insisted she not do ANYMore dance music which basically started her career on its downhill slide--I think hsi musical instincts when his label started were a mess--by the mid 80s he found success with hard rock acts).

Matt I'm not quite sure what you mean about the Chess OBC sounding like Disney--I don't midn the recording (certainly it sounds like it's the best aspect of the OBC production). Also, because the show was redone with so much dialogue, is there a lot of missing music to it? I do wish we'd gotten a proper london cast album though i suppose I get why they felt there was no point--still people seem to forget nowadays that the London score as played was actually fairly different than the concept recording.

Agreed on Xanadu too--there's so little point to the cast album because they basically recorded it as pop songs and really the original Xanadu soundtrack is the best part of that awful movie--so if you jsut wanna hear the songs sung as pop songs it's better to listen to the soundtrack. If that makes sense.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 7:38pm

Spring Awakening. So much energy in the theater, none on the album.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 7:48pm

That, and the robotic line reading. I'll never understand why anyone thought that was a good idea.

[angelxschunard]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 8:38pm

orangeskittles, are you saying that just because I don't like the OBCR that I must be a post-movie fan? Because I'm not. I grew up with the OBCR. I didn't even see the movie until three years after it came out. I enjoy the energy the soundtrack has compared to the cast album. I've always felt the OBCR was a little bland and lifeless. I much prefer the actual rock sound of the sountrack.

[QuiteSo]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 10:23pm

The Sweeney Todd revival recording stands out in recent memory. Two discs (divided weirdly) and they didn't even bother putting on "The Wigmaker Sequence/The Letter," "Parlour Songs," or "City on Fire," the latter of which was absolutely intense in the theater. Incredibly disappointing.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 10:36pm

The Sweeney Todd revival was a total missed opportunity. They should have released a highlights CD and used the money they saved on the release of the second disc to record the rest of the songs and release them as bonus tracks on itunes. They should do that with the current Ragtime revival if it gets recorded.

[bk]

Posted: 11/20/09 at 1:20am

"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)"

Actually, all CDs of Follies were mastered from the album masters - none were remixed, so all they can do is play with the EQ. How they play with the EQ can help, but it takes really good ears, and I'm afraid really good ears weren't around for any of the Follies remasterings. What one doesn't know is if Capitol even has the original session tapes - if they did someone could conceivably go back in and remix and try to help the balance problems (a lot of that, however, depends on how it was miked). For example, for anyone who happened to buy our Illya Darling CD - the two tracks I found that hadn't been on the LP were from the original three-track session tapes - that's three tracks total - luckily it was well-miked and those tracks sound really excellent, as opposed to the rest of the tracks, which were from the album master and were loaded with Mitch Miller's beloved insane reverb. Reverb is our friend as long as it's used correctly and well, but Mitch ladled it on by the pound. But it was not possible to remix the entire album because there were no editing notes about which partial takes went with which pickups and it would have been madness to try and do it. I also don't particularly like messing with the original producer's mix, but in the case of Follies I must admit it sure would be fun to try. But if it was recorded, say, on three or four tracks, there's really not much you could do other than try to smooth it out a little.

[binau]

Posted: 11/20/09 at 5:06am

RE: Sweeney Revival, is the only complaint the structure/materials chosen to record? What do you think of what was actually there?

[Jard]

Posted: 11/20/09 at 7:11am

Although I really like both the recordings of CAROUSEL that John raitt did, it annyoys me that they didnt put in the reprise of "if i loved you" on either of them, because i always cry in the reprise and feel better when they do "Youll never walk alone" in either the movie or stage.

[My Oh My]

Posted: 11/20/09 at 8:09am

I think they did a fine job on the Rent cast recording and I'm one of the most nit-picky people when it comes to the sound and performance quality.

WORST:

- Evita: American Premiere Recording

Patti gives a very subdued vocal performance unlike her live ones. I read in an old TheaterWeek article that she was sick around the time the album was recorded and had missed numerous performances. It would've been neat to have her singing full out like she does on that Tony Awards performance.

Apart from that, the recording is very poorly mixed. You can't hear the strings half the time and the brass is horribly loud and shrill in places. It has a thin, narrow overall sound that is hard on the ears. Though not as powerful as she was onstage, Patti saves this album from completely sucking.

[madbrian]

Posted: 11/20/09 at 8:20am

I was disappointed with the cast recording of The Color Purple. The passion and energy that was in the theater was lost in the recording.

[Act4ever]

Posted: 11/20/09 at 9:24am

Random fact re: Grand Hotel David Caroll...

David died while in the recording studio for the show... could you imagine if he died only a few hours later?

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/13/obituaries/david-carroll-is-dead-a-broadway-actor-41.html

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/20/09 at 12:29pm

Matt I'm not quite sure what you mean about the Chess OBC sounding like Disney

I don't know if it's the mixing or the arrangements or what, but to me, the OBC sounds like Diet Chess. A sort of chemically-sweetened, zero-calorie, reduced fat highlights recording. The sort of recording you'd expect to see as a bargain bin studio recording by the "Broadway Lights Singers and Chorus" for $4.99. Though much music was cut and more dialogue added, it still only represents about two-thirds of the score. I am grateful for Kuhn, Carrol and Someone Else's Story, though.

[dchesnutny]

Posted: 11/20/09 at 2:58pm

least favorite OBCs (compared to live performance):

Sunset Boulevard London Cast - LuPone vocals onstage were terrific, on the disk they were horrific. As were the line readings: dull and flat. Live recording is so much better.

[Kad]

Posted: 11/20/09 at 3:11pm

"The Sweeney Todd revival recording stands out in recent memory. Two discs (divided weirdly) and they didn't even bother putting on "The Wigmaker Sequence/The Letter," "Parlour Songs," or "City on Fire," the latter of which was absolutely intense in the theater. Incredibly disappointing."

Although I am disappointed in the recording's incompleteness (and you're right, the lack of the very intense "City on Fire" is a major loss), I find that what is ON the recording to be excellent. And from what I understand, the recording was initially intended to be a highlights CD, but for some reason was expanded but not all the way.

The loss of some numbers from the revival recording is evened out by the fact that SWEENEY has two other major, and very complete recordings (the OBC and the concert), in my opinion. It's not like some other shows, that are incompletely or inadequately represented by only one recording.

Posted: 11/21/09 at 11:53am

"WORST:

- Evita: American Premiere Recording

Patti gives a very subdued vocal performance unlike her live ones. I read in an old TheaterWeek article that she was sick around the time the album was recorded and had missed numerous performances. It would've been neat to have her singing full out like she does on that Tony Awards performance.

Apart from that, the recording is very poorly mixed. You can't hear the strings half the time and the brass is horribly loud and shrill in places. It has a thin, narrow overall sound that is hard on the ears. Though not as powerful as she was onstage, Patti saves this album from completely sucking. "

The recording is badly in need of a remaster--it's too bad RUG or whoever doesn't own it so it won't be remastered the way so much of their catalog has been. But I think it's a decent recording--the sound quality is better IMHO than the London highlights recording and as much as I liek Elaine P normally I find the london recording oddly lifeless and hard to get through in comparison.

Posted: 11/21/09 at 11:58am

That London Sunset Blvd is a bit lifeless in general IMHO. Patti isn't as good as I wanted her to be (and apparantly she was live) the other leads come off oddly on CD I think. I don't liek Close's vocals on the American cast album but the CD is in every other way (including score revisions and recording levels) that it's hands down the choice as much as I prefer Patti's Norma,

Actually my fave is the now out of print Canadian cast album with Rex Smith and Diahann Carroll and not just becuase they were in the cast I saw in Van. It's beautifully produced and sung (Diahann is a good mix between the two other ladies), for some reason the orchestra is more than doubled for the recording (i know this is common to cast albums but it wasn't for the previous SB recordings) which doesn't always work but really does here--it's a massive gorgeous sound, and while it's only one disc I think they did a very smart job of leaving in everything you'd really wanna hear when listening to SB most of the time). But I know this isn't a thread for underated cast albums.