Peter Lockyer is my first Marius and will always be my favorite. But Tim is great too. He is different from Michael Ball, Peter, but he has his own character.
Kevin Kern is good too. But listening to his ECAET, I felt he got some difficulty in low notes.
"They probably wanted someone from Japana - to appease everyone. Kaho Shimada was probably the most popular."
Well, it wasn't just that. She had performed On My Own in Japanese for the Royal Variety Show (and learned the English lines for Eponine in One Day More) in 1987, along with Dudu Fisher, Simon Bowman, Rebecca Caine, and I think Don Gallagher.
Apparently she wowed the bigwigs so much they really wanted her for the CSR, which had just begun casting. I have it on tape and it is pretty good -- nice and engaging and not too syrupy or overdone. Given their choices at the time of the CSR (I think Natalie Toro was Eponine on Broadway; Sylvie Paladino in Sydney, Linzi Hateley in London, Jane Comerford in Vienna, Shulamith Aharon in Tel Aviv...), maybe she was their best option in their eyes.
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
Wow -- never noticed that on the Hebrew recording! I really need to hear that again.
And as far as Eponine's go for the CSR, it SHOULD have been Linzi Hately! Her rendition of On My Own on the Stage by Stage video is the best recorded version I've ever heard. AND she sings it with the CSR orchestral track, so they obviously had her record it. Such a bummer she's not on the recording.
I saw Tim Howar quite a few times and thought Steven Brian Patterson was much, much better. I thought Tim was cuter though. Has anybody heard the Hungarian cast recording? I can't find that one for the life of me.
One more question for those of you who mentioned Natalie Toro: I saw her in the recent JCS tour with the very, very yummy Eric Kunze and she has an amazing voice, although I didn't really appreciate her acting choices...how was her Eponine?
I love Melissa Errico! Saw her in High Society in San Francisco. Fun score of course, but not a terrific show. SHE, however, had "star" written all over her the minute the curtain came up. :)
Mother's Younger Brother, thank you for the footlight link. Should I hold you responsible for the US$560+ charge that just went through on my credit card? ($500 of which are for Les Miz CDs!)
I already had the two 90s double CDs (though not the Kaho Shimada single released a little while earlier) so I got the four new ones - orange, light blue, purple and green. Plus the 3CD live Prague recording, plus the Mark Kramer Trio Jazz recording (already had the other Jazz Les Miz by the... DiBussi quartet or someone like that), plus a few *blush* karaoke CDs which I didn't have, including the complete 4CD set which I got for completeness sake even though the reviews on it are pretty awful.
As far as I'm aware I'm now up to date as far as Les Miz recordings are concerned with the possible exception of a couple of unofficial studio recordings and/or other karaoke tracks. But as far as cast recordings are concerned, I think I have them all except the aforementioned Kaho Shimada "On My Own" single...
I also got some Sondheim and Finn just so whoever fills the order at footlight wouldn't think I'm a TOTAL geek.