Shows that Seem Better on the Cast Recording than Seeing it Live — Page 2

MACK AND MABEL and NICK AND NORA by all accounts (I saw neither...but both have wonderful albums)

Women on the Verge: (amazing cast, dreadful to sit through) but the music is another story

Addams Family: (you really felt sorry for the performers on stage) but the cast recording sounds fun unlike sitting in the audience.

Rent: Loved the music but through the direction and staging was awful. would have left at intermission if I hadn't paid full price.

I love Matilda, but the book could use some trimming. They tried to make up for it by plowing through with incessant high energy, which, along with the awful sound design, made me feel at the end of the second act like I felt like I'd been clobbered by a gang of dancing megaphones. I'd love to see a revival, or a different production, that's not so gratingly high-tech.

MACK AND MABEL for sure!

THE LAST FIVE YEARS is atrocious to watch but not to listen to

MY FAVORITE YEAR (or insert any Flaherty/Aherns Musical)

and a side reply...MATILDA Broadway was one of the 5 best thearical experiences ever

I loved the Broadway production of Big. It really wasn't massive or overblown and one of its charms was that it didn't feel like the movie with some songs dropped in. To me, it was more appealing than the film, which was cute, but mostly about watching Tom Hanks act like a child. The musical brought sharper focus to the boy's struggle with being an adult. And the original score was terrific. Reviews were wildly mixed, but when I saw it, the theatre was PACKED and the audience went nuts for it. Unfortunately, it opened within the same few weeks as King & I, Forum, Rent and Noise/Funk. Devoid of star power or a veritable autobahn of advance buzz, there was no way it was going to be able to hang on.

The touring production was an entirely different show that cut or replaced about half the score as well as remove pretty much everything of interest, warmth, whimsy and charm. The one thing it added was a hideously ugly and cheap day-glo set design. The tour was one of the worst shows I've ever seen. It made Footloose look like Sunday in the Park With George.

"Fun" was in the original Broadway production, which also kept the piano scene. Granted, if any part of the show might have seemed "overblown" it was the set for this number, which was impressive and entirely appropriate, but the show was FAR from being some sort of spectacle or anything. The cast recording edited the song down to include just a bit of the "chopsticks" portion of the piano, but if I remember correctly, the actual scene on stage was much longer. I don't remember the piano being in the touring production. Just a couple of unimpressive playground slides (and a rewritten version of "Fun" that only accomplished in producing some irony from the song title. Ugh.

Huss417 said: "First two that came to mind are Rags and Steel Pier."

huh the only song i can recall from Rags is the title song (which i love) and from Steel Pier, Two Little Words and Everybody’s Girl (the rest of the score being the rare Kander & Ebb score to actively bore me)


my answer: Candide. i just don’t think it works dramatically (basically because the original novela is static dramatically, the same lesson being taught repeatedly). but damn if that score (be it the original or the many versions since that frequently have way too much material and is bloated) isn’t one of the most beautiful of the last century.

i didn’t see it live but heard bad things, but i agree with one said here: Women on the Verge. i didn’t love it back when it came out but around the time Band’s Visit was opening i was revisiting most of Yazbek’s former works and fell in love with Women. I also think Crazy Heart is a gorgeous opening and better than Madrid is My Mama.

Updated On: 9/6/18 at 11:34 PM

i didn’t see it live but heard bad things, but i agree with one said here: Women on the Verge. i didn’t love it back when it came out but around the time Band’s Visit was opening i was revisiting most of Yazbek’s former works and fell in love with Women. I also think Crazy Heart is a gorgeous opening and better than Madrid is My Mama.

I saw both Broadway and London productions and loved them both. One of my favorite things about the Broadway production was how the visual aspect of it so closely resembled Almodovar's style. And my God, Benanti's performance of Model Behavior is one of the great joys of life. The London production was more simply staged and worked beautifully. Probably the most notable improvement in London was moving My Crazy Heart to the opening of Act 2 as a solo for the taxi driver. Ricardo Alfonso accompanied himself on an acoustic guitar and it was one of the most thrilling solos I've ever seen (his entire performance was award-worthy). The audience went BERSERK for it. And I much prefer Madrid as the opening. It just makes more sense as it introduces the setting for the story. In London, they also staged it to be something of a visual exposition. I think this show is just ridiculously underrated.

I loved GREY GARDENS, especially the Frankel/Korie score, so I was disappointed when I saw WAR PAINT that nothing seemed distinctive about the music and lyrics, and ultimately the show just felt like vignettes for each legendary woman through the decades (origins, competitive attack, war years, age of television, old age, dying lonely)...

Yet as I've listened to the recording, it's really grown on me - and to my ear works very well as a narrative of the two women's lives, intersecting through rivalry and poaching men from each other, and ultimately understanding each other to some degree. And let's face it, the singing by both LuPone and Ebersole is magnificent, and I'm thankful I can enjoy this score for years to come because of this recording.

Carnival! The leads keep repeating the same three conversations and the role of Lili just doesn't work when Leslie Caron isn't playing her. The sexy child woman loves puppets controlled by abusive puppeteer storyline reads more creepy than whimsical. The song "Her Face" is pretty on the cast recording... because they cut the lyric about him wanting to "smash that face."

ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "This show never released a cast recording, but I heard the best thing aboutBreakfast at Tiffany'swas the score and it was the rest of it that was bad."

Forgive me if you already know this, but while there is no OBC recording, there is something called the "World Premiere Recording"--available on iTunes--that has the score (complete, I hope, because it's as long as a 2-disc recording), featuring name Broadway performers from Faith Prince to Hal Linden to Sally Kellerman.

On your say-so, I am listening to the overture now and it is at least tuneful.

(Edited to add: okay, I'm halfway through listening to the recording again and it is what it is: typical Bob Merrill material. I always think of Merrill as the guy who wrote mediocre lyrics to brilliant Jule Styne tunes, but I know some people like Merrill very much. I don't think fans will be disappointed in BAT. As for me, it's tolerable but the lyrics are very much on the "too literal" side. Faith Prince is great as Holly, given how little she has to work with.

Also, it IS a 2-disc recording, which may be why it seems like one. My apologies to Mr. Merrill.)

Updated On: 9/8/18 at 01:38 AM

THE SONG OF NORWAY.