Most Disappointing Cast Recordings- Page 4

[BroomstickBoy]

Posted: 11/21/09 at 3:48pm

Little Shop 2003 - Partly due to the horrible casting choices, and mostly due to the arrangements and sound.

Legally Blonde OBC - Sounds like it was recorded in a garage, the demo (3 tracks with Laura Bell) were of a MUCH Better sound quality.

Threepenny Opera 1954 Off-Broadway - I know they edited A LOT of this for the record, but I think the actual Blitzstein translation deserves a proper recording.

[QuiteSo]

Posted: 11/21/09 at 4:13pm

True about the revival recording, Kad. What's there is an excellent representation of a brilliant production, I just wish that there had been better planning in recording the album. And you're right, it's great that there are other more complete recordings out there.

[SweeneyPhanatic]

Posted: 11/21/09 at 5:03pm

I was very disappointed the first time I heard the OBCR of "Into the Woods." I love the cast in the video recording, but to me they all sound very bored on the album.

In regards to the OBCR of "Chess," I just wish they had recorded "Let's Work Together" instead of the "Hymn to Chess." We've got the hymn on every other recording, and it would be nice to have both of the "new" songs on record (regardless of how dumb "Let's Work Together" actually is, and "new" because "Someone Else's Story" was really the only new music in that production).

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/21/09 at 5:16pm

The Wiz
Dreamgirls
Follies
Nine (which thankfully was corrected)
42nd Street OBCR (sounds like it was recorded in a high school gym)
Edwin Drood (two releases, neither complete)
A Chorus Line OBCR - I really miss the full Hello, Twelve (in order), plus And... also the full opening sequence with all the various orchestrations of the opening combination.
Brigadoon--OBCR horribly incomplete and bad sound, even for 1948

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/21/09 at 5:33pm

The Patti LuPone Gypsy is disappointing for me, but only because of two tiny little exclusions. It was over hyped as being the most complete recording to date, and I suppose it is, but I was still hoping for Rose's monologue to be recorded before "Rose's Turn" so we could have that little piece of music finally preserved, and it would have also been nice to get the music that plays over the strobe light sequence recorded for the first time as well, but of course both of those sections went unrecorded yet again.

[Elphaba3]

Posted: 11/21/09 at 7:29pm

I have to add The Drowsy Chaperone. I love the show, but the recording is slow and dull.

[BroadwayGuy12]

Posted: 11/21/09 at 9:53pm

I agree 100% with luvtheEmcee re: the Spring Awakening cast recording. That album is such a let down after seeing the show live. Some of the show's strongest and most energetic moments come off horribly on the recording (the first that comes to mind is "Mama Who Bore Me (Reprise)").

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 11:28am

I'm going to have to go with Spring Awakening. It's a very incomplete recording. Half of the orchestrations are drastically different then the ones that are currently on stage, and I think lots of songs are missing the energy.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 3:02pm

Let me just pop in here and say that the most disappointing cast album in my collection is COCO. Not only does Katharine Hepburn massacre every song she sings, but the quality of the recording makes it unbearable to listen to. It sounds as though it was recorded in a tin can. It's horrible. Absolutely horrible.

Updated On: 11/23/09 at 03:02 PM

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 4:15am

It's unfair given the limited technology of the day but the OBCR of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN sounds flat and even Merman doesn't bring pizazz to "Sun in the Mornn'" on the older Decca set. Fortunately, the 1966 revival compensates for this.

CAROUSEL - Decca maybe should have made it 6 records instead of 5 and taken down the complete Waltz and more of the Bench scene. Someone mentioned the cut reprise of "If I Loved You" which also would have been nice, but taking an 80+ minute score and dividing over 10 78-rpm sides (at about 4 1/2 minutes per side) was criminal.


A lot of the RCA Victor cast albums from the 1950s have a flat boxed in sound: PAINT YOUR WAGON, DAMN YANKEES!, SEVENTEEN, HAZEL FLAGG, PETER PAN ..they are all redeemed by the performances but I do wish the sound was better.

RCA Victor's CD of TITANIC has very low levels. Why? This was done for CD, not Lp. (With SUNDAY IN THE PARK the original release had low levels because they were trying to squeeze 35 minutes of music onto each Lp side.)

The 2003 Bernadette Peters cast album of GYPSY has been repeatedly mentioned but can anyone zero in on what exactly is wrong with it? It isn't the performances but the music just doesn't jump out and grab you the way it ought to.

In a way I agree with Bryan: In this day and age when it really is a struggle to even get a cast album done, I am grateful to have the recordings that we do have.

[bk]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 12:34pm

Actually, I think the shows that don't get recorded are fewer than the ones that do, ever since the producers began popping for the cost of the recordings. The reasons many shows never got cast albums prior to seven years ago when the producers began paying, is that the record labels were paying and they were much more about the business end of it - would they break even and/or actually make some money on the album. Today mostly everything is recorded for the reasons stated above.

[ulkis]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 3:14pm

The Bare recording. The kid who plays Matt sounds unbearable, Jenna Leigh Green has a nice voice but has the weirdest line readings, and Peter always sounds like he's about to burst into tears.

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.)

Heh. I like the movie recording OK, but the orchestrations overwhelm everyone's voices. I actually think the best recording is the German one. The orchestrations are out of this world but the voices are clear.

I like the Les Mis recordings but all of them except the CSR leave too much out. And the CSR is the most lackluster one of all. Updated On: 11/23/09 at 03:14 PM

[Larcen26]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 4:13pm

The London Cast Recording of Once On This Island is terrible...It has all (or at least almost all) if the dialogue, but the performances really sound phoned in. All of the joy an energy in that show just seems gone in the London Recording

[leefowler]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 4:27pm

Another vote for Promises Promises, with its abysmal singing performances!

[ducdebrabant]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 9:11pm

Busker Alley is the nadir of recent ones. Saratoga is a heartbreaker, because it should have been perfect material for Arlen and Mercer, and the score is so terrible. Obviously Follies and Dreamgirls are two tragic cases. I would like to add One Touch of Venus for three reasons: the original with Mary Martin is incomplete; it's now unavailable; and the extremely well received Encores! production, which was reportedly recorded, has never been released. I never dreamed we'd get both a new recording of Street Scene and a complete recording of The Firebrand of Florence before we'd ever get a complete One Touch of Venus.

The Tap Dance Kid is a sad case, because the choreographer wouldn't let them record his tap patterns, or use anybody else's, without getting money they didn't have. It was recorded on a shoestring anyway. So where you're supposed to hear taps, you hear (courtesy of the lawyers) a "percussive electronic sound."

Barnum is far from the worse, but the way it was recorded makes it so piercing.
Updated On: 11/23/09 at 09:11 PM

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 11/24/09 at 12:04am

I'll agree with QuiteSo about the incompleteness of the Sweeney revival recording...I think what is there is fantastic but it's missing a lot.

The Spring Awakening recording also doesn't do the show or its music justice.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 11/24/09 at 1:35am

The Encores ONE TOUCH OF VENUS was not recorded, however John Yap did a 2 CD note-complete studio cast recording in London that has not been finished or mixed. The sessions were done about 10 years ago but lagging sales of some of his other recordings have forced him to concentrate on titles that will sell enough copies to pay off their production costs. It's an unfortunate reality that the number of people who want a recording done gets reduced by more than half when it comes time to buy the CD.

Decca's 5-record 78-rpm set covers only 10 highlights, and even that set did not sell very well. Decca did not bother transferring it to Lp until the mid-1960s where it stayed in print for only a few years. The CD, likewise, sold very poorly and was quickly deleted by MCA. The sad thing is very few people - even among show fans - know this score.

Posted: 11/24/09 at 1:45am

How many complete score CDs does Yap have sitting around gathering dust? the Barrowman/Friedman Anyone Can Whistle is another one (I don't buy that that one's not out yet cuz they have to concentrate on selling titles that will sell better--a major Sondheim release like that would sell better than some of the obscure pieces they've been releasing.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 11/24/09 at 2:06am

The Bare recording. The kid who plays Matt sounds unbearable, Jenna Leigh Green has a nice voice but has the weirdest line readings, and Peter always sounds like he's about to burst into tears.

The studio cast or the original demo recording? I thought the studio cast album was really disappointing, because I loved Michael Arden as Peter and Matt Doyle just didn't cut it in comparison. I would trade the whole double album for just a studio recording of Michael Arden and John Hill singing the title track.


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

I don't think so. Despite her husband's death, LaChanze was already 8 months pregnant at the time; Lorrell's "I'm a woman now" scene isn't supposed to get that many laughs.

Updated On: 11/24/09 at 02:06 AM