You can't really get the feeling of the whole show without listening to the complete cast recording. I'm very glad they didn't go for a "highlights" or anything of that sort.
My only problem with this recording is that whoever set the time to cut from one track to the other needs to be fired, the cuts are absurd. One that always bothers me is that they cut to a new track before Anika finishes her last two "All alone" at the end of "I Hate the Bus." Same with "Salty Teardrops."
Otherwise it's pretty much a flawless cast recording, IMO. Performances are fine all throughout (even if Harrison Chad's voice gets a bit annoying at times), brilliant score, and I love the orchestrations and general feeling of the recording.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"