"Who's in a New York City recording studio on June 9? Exactly! JAY Records will preserve the revised score of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's musical Seussical for a cast album that will boast the players of the 2007 Theatreworks/USA production seen on tour and Off-Broadway.
Composer Flaherty told Playbill.com that JAY will take the troupers into a studio June 9. The single CD is expected to be released later this year.
The 75-minute disc will present the entire new version of the show, "with quite a bit of new continuity material, lyrics and some new scenes not heard on the original Broadway cast recording," the composer said.
The recording will be produced by John Yap and Ahrens and Flaherty. Yap has a history of committing the scores of lyricist Ahrens and Flaherty to disc — Dessa Rose, the London Once On This Island, Lincoln Center's A Man of No Importance and The Glorious Ones (coming this summer) are all in the JAY catalog, as is Flaherty and Frank Galati's Loving Repeating."
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Awesome...
I'm so excited for this! I know they reduced the story lines, but does anyone know if the Lorax is in this version?
Sweet! I love Seussical, and it'll be great to have the entire new version of the show recorded.
Super excited. Will the cat be played by a man or a woman?
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/29/04
It seems a little unnecessary, but I welcome it regardless. I'm producing this show next year, so anything Seussical is happily received!
"I'm so excited for this! I know they reduced the story lines, but does anyone know if the Lorax is in this version?"
No, they reduced, not added, story lines. The Lorax story didn't make it beyond the Boston tryout.
"Will the cat be played by a man or a woman?"
A female.
It's not that unnecessary. There are enough changes to merit a new CD. It's probably very difficult for regional theatre producers trying to decide weather or not to do the show and then they get a perusal script and try to follow along with the OBC and find so many inconsistencies. I wish JAY would rerecord some other shows that have the same problem with changes having been made after the original cast recording was produced.
Woohoo?
Mr. Will Blum better be on this recording. He was such a fabulous Horton with the Theatreworks tour!
Whoops. I didn't realize they were recording the actual one act TYA version. I would have preferred they record the revised two act version. That means there's going to be some songs and characters missing and the "Who's Christmas Pageant" will still go unrecorded. Shame.
Yeah, I was about to say...this is not the revised version they're licensing- it's the 75 minute version.
Well, the 75 minute version still includes the revised lyrics. It just also contains a lot of cuts.
Don't hold your breathe for this to be released soon. Jay records still hasn't released The Glorious Ones or The Gig, which have long been in the can.
YEAH!
It's one of my favorite scores. I have seen ALL incarnations of this: Backer's audition, Boston pre-Broadway tryout, Broadway with David Shiner, Broadway with Bryan Batt, Broadway with Rosie O'Donnell, Broadway with Cathy Rigby, 1st Nat'l Tour with Cathy Rigby, non-Equity Tour with Peter Roman, and countless community, college, and high & middle school productions.
I *hate* the 75-minute version, but I am glad it is preserved with the new alterations
i'm super excited
So that means no Generel GKS, right? That's how the junior version is shortened, anyway, his whole storyline is gone.
Chorus Member Joined: 6/1/03
To answer some questions raised in this thread:
1) No, "The Lorax" is not on this recording.
2) The Cat is played by Shorey Walker (female) who played the Cat in the version that was at the Lortel last summer. The cast on this CD is the same cast from that production.
That production was BRILLIANT, and anyone who says they do not like the shortened version probably never saw this one, b/c it was phenomenal
3) Despite what others may think or say, THE GLORIOUS ONES cd WILL be out this summer. It may take John Yap a long time to produce CDs, but he always does a quality job that makes it worth the wait.
Trust me that this new recording is going to be GREAT...
Ronni
I'm not familiar with the 75-minute revision, but the national tour revision was not an improvement on the Broadway production. It actually made less sense. I always felt the show should be more of a revue. Trying to tie together all those stories just doesn't work since very few of them are related in the first place.
Chorus Member Joined: 6/1/03
I've seen every incarnation of SEUSSICAL, and can honestly say that the version at the Lortel last summer was the one that made the most sense of any of them. The director, Marcia Milgrom Dodge, did a brilliant job of giving the story a context. It takes place in a schoolyard, and then all the kids "become" their Seussian counterparts. It was amazing. Of course, you don't actually see this on the CD, but still, it worked incredibly well. It was the first time that I felt like the show was seamless and not at all choppy. I didn't miss anything that had been cut, because it just flowed so smoothly.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/27/05
Testimony from the target demographic of 3 to 5 year-olds?
Timoune Saperstein
Above 125th Street, NYC
Updated On: 6/22/08 at 07:21 PM
You can hear previews for all the songs on iTunes now.
Gee, more that two years later? Simply amazing.
FWIW...I much prefer the "jr." version of the production, it got rid of all the extraneous bits that came out of left field.
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/13/09
It's actually available for purchase on iTunes, despite it saying a release date of September 14. The "Buy" links are all active.
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