Replacements That Deserved to Be Recorded

We all know that replacement casts rarely get recorded (has that ever even happened?), but if you could rewind time and have a certain replacement get in the recording studio and sing all of your favorite songs, who would it be?

I really wish that the Cabaret cast with Raul and Gina had been recorded. Raul sang the crap out of that part and Gina was shockingly good. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Alan and Natasha, but I wish I could (legally) listen to Raul and Gina sing that score.

I wish the RENT final cast had gotten in the studio (I know there's a DVD, but I would love to have a CD to go along with it) mainly because
A) They were awesome
B) There really isn't a RENT recording that 'works' for me. The OBCR sounds insanely cheap and Daphne Rubin-Vega's slower numbers came out to be extremely awkward. The Soundtrack sounds very well recorded, but it is incomplete...and Rosario's singing is nothing spectacular.

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Updated On: 8/8/09 at 10:05 PM

I'm vaguely curious about Leslie Uggams in Anything Goes. Patti got such good reviews and I love her on the recording, but I also know Leslie Uggams were really well received.

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I would have liked a professional recording of Jonathan Pryce in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Though I love John Lithgow, Pryce was incredible!

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I always thought it was a little strange that we got a replacement cast recording of Brooke Shields in Grease! and Brooke Shields in Wonderful Town, but we didn't get any Brooke Shields in Cabaret or Brooke Shields in Chicago. I guess it was just too late after the original cast had left to supplement her vocals on the other two? Although I understand it may have been a little sacrilege to replace Natasha Richardson's vocals with Brooke's.

Reba McEntire in ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. (She does have the promo tracks but that don't count, if anything prove they should have re-recorded :P).

I would have liked to hear Raul in CABARET (I can't stand bootleg audio recordings so while I know I could have 'heard' him I couldn't 'listen' to it more than once or twice)..though I think Alan Cumming was perfection so I'm not too hurt.

Some replacement card CDs have been recorded (Spider woman with Vanessa Williams).

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The Original London Cast of Hairspray (well technically they originated the roles in a new production, but still), cruelly overlooked.

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Dorothy Loudon's Lovette in Sweeney Todd
Pearl Bailey's Dolly Levi in Hello, DOlly! (tho this may exist??)
Carolee Carmello's Donna in Mamma Mia and her Pennywise in Urinetown.

I agree with the comment about Carolee Carmello in Mamma Mia...she was fantastic in the role. Also, Colm Wilkinson's performance as the Phantom in the Canadian debut was incredible and I would love to hear that on a recording. Also, Ashley Brown in Beauty and the Beast.

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Also, Colm Wilkinson's performance as the Phantom in the Canadian debut was incredible and I would love to hear that on a recording.

That is on a recording.
The Phantom of the Opera (Highlights from the 1989 Original Canadian Cast)

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I love the Canadian cast recording. All except Colm. I wish it was complete though. I hope they do record the entire show at some point.

I completely agree. I recently discovered the youtube clips of the Canadian production as they prepared for their debut and fell in love with Colm and Rebecca. I much prefer her sound to Sarah Brightman.

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The 1965 London Cast album of HELLO DOLLY, starring Mary Martin as Dolly was also recorded by RCA, mainly because Martin also was the star of the touring production of the show in the US which generated a demand for the alternate cast album. The Mary Martin is quite possibly the finest recording of "Hello Dolly" ever, certainly the best sung. It is also available on CD through Arkiv.

Larry Kert, who replaced Dean Jones as Bobby in the original 1970 run of Sondheim's Company less than a week after it opened and received rave reviews and a Tony nomination (a first for a lead actor who did not originate a role), also got to record his vocals for an alternate Cast Recording which was called the London Cast ( Kert and the rest of the original Broadway Cast transferred intact except for Susan Browning to the London production) but in actuality Kert recorded his vocals to the same pre-existing orchestral tracks that Dean Jones had sung to on the official Broadway Cast album, except for Barcelona, which was newly recorded for this album. Although Larry Kert is still considered by Sondheim to be the definitive Bobby, the London Cast with Kert has never been released complete in any format in the US but Kert's electrifying vocal of Being Alive is included on the currently available Broadway Cast CD as an extra track.

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Updated On: 8/9/09 at 01:17 AM

monestere,

is the bonus track of "Being Alive" representative of the entire Kert cast album? I have heard complaints about this (saying you can even hear Dean Jones' voice echoing lol, and that the quality is bad), but I don't hear it in the bonus track, and wonder if it has been 'touched up'.

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