Sondheim Recording Suggestions

I just got gift cards to Amazon and Barnes & Noble and I'm looking for some suggestions for some new recordings. I want to recordings of Sondheim shows I don't own any of (SUNDAY, PACIFIC OVERTURES, ASSASSINS, etc.) and I just wanted to know which show recordings you suggest or if I should get any of these at all. Some of these may not be in print (I have no idea) so I might have to find some used or something. But these are the Sondheim shows I do not have any recordings of:

SATURDAY NIGHT
ANYONE CAN WHISTLE
DO I HEAR A WALTZ?
PACIFIC OVERTURES
SUNDAY IN THE PARK...
ASSASSINS
PASSION
ROAD SHOW
THE FROGS
Sondheim Revues (SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM, PUTTING TOGETHER, et al.)

If a show has multiple recordings, which should I get? I, of course, would like to hear the original cast, and I like the sound quality of most recent productions/recordings, but IDK how any of these sound. I would eventually like to have at least one recording of each of Sondheim's major works, so hopefully after a while, it works out! Thanks!

Nothing at all, unfortunately, from any of these shows.

Of that list, my two faves are:

Pacific Overtures - Original Broadway
Passion - Broadway or London
Anyone Can Whistle - Concert

You can pretty much skip Saturday Night, Frogs and Road Show unless you have everything else and are a hardcore collector.

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There seems to be a constant debate between which recording of Assassins people prefer--I personally think (despite some very good performances in the Broadway), that the Off-Broadway blows it away in terms of overall atmosphere (I admit, I'm not a fan of the added Something Just Broke).

I guess you really should start with Sunday, and the original recording is near perfection (and I'm not even a Mandy fan), although I admit that's one show that I probably put on the DVD of at least as much as the CD (but, I'll assume you don't own the DVD either, so that may be a moot point).

The OBC of Whistle is just thrilling (even the quickness it was recorded in, with several flubs, kinda adds to the theatricality for me, much as it does with Merrily's OBCR). The concert is pretty expensive to buy now, anyway, but I'd choose the OBCR anyday.

Pacific Overtures and Passion may be my two fave scores of his (not necesarily shows, though I enjoy both a lot). Simply gorgeous. The revival recording of PO has a tiny sounding orchestra and lacks, for me, theatricality, and I'm not a fan of the English National Opera one (though the out of print two disc is complete, dialogue and all), but, even with cuts, the original cast sounds superb (frustratingly, maybe because it's oneof his least done shows, it's the only pre 1990 Sondheim original cast album yet to be remastered, though it's still in print--when they did the RCA Sondheim remasters they quietly just ignored it, but the CD sounds pretty good, regardless).

Passion needs to start with the OBCR as well (actually for Sondheim, nearly always, the first cxast album is the one to stick with).

I agree that Frogs, Road Show/Bounce and Saturday Night can go after those. That said, I think Saturday Night is an absolutely winning, and charming show--it's almost as if Sondheim was doing (and doing very well) a musical comedy in that 1950's style of Wonderful Town/Pajama Game, etc, and I suppose he was. In this case, do not get the first recording, from England (it may not even be in print)--the later Off Broadway recording from Kathleen Marshall's production is a huge charmer, with great performances, a fuller score, and proper Tunick orchestrations. A few years ago, I found it from Amazon Marketplace new for about 3 dollars--it had a "cut" in the jewel box of the CD meaning it was a remainder, so maybe they printed more editions than they came close to selling and more cheap remainder editions are out there. Anyway, I think the score is underated, and it would be next choice.

Road Show/Bounce is worth listening to after you have those, and a lot of it has grown on me, but it's hard to recommend before the others. Frogs, as well. Actually, I like the choral music done for the original 70s Frogs very much--I don't much care for the added bits, and there is a recording of the shorter, 1970s score combined with a good recording of the songs of Evening Primrose (if you don't already have that soundtrack, which while a limited edition Kritzerland still seems to have copies of), with Neil Patrick Harris that makes that edition the one to buy first, IMHO.

I believe all of those recordings are in print (if for some godawful reasonyou ignore Gaveston and myself, , and choose the revival of Assassins, that was out of print for a while but PS Classics just released more copies). And like I said, you can often find cheap, and still new copies of them from Amazon Marketplace which I know amazon gift cards will allow yout o purchase through.

I've said elsewhere that Neil Patrick Harris can do no wrong in my book.

But nobody's voice suits the Balladeer like Patrick Cassidy's. I don't know how much was written after Cassidy was cast, but IMO the off-Broadway recording sounds as if the Balladeer's songs were written just for the singer. And the contrast between Cassidy's high tenor and Victor Garber's baritone speaks to the heart of the show and its characters.

(I heard Cassidy do a concert version about 10 years ago for LA-REPRISE. He didn't quite have the top notes any more, but the voice still fit the part in a unique manner.)

I would advise skipping all the others.

:crickets chirping:

It's so hard to pick just one of each. They're all so much fun to listen to the revival recordings and compare and contrast to the originals. Most of the Sondheim revival recordings are also beautifully produced and packaged by Nonesuch and PSClassics.

For the Frogs I would go with the Broadway recording since it's the revised finished version of the show, and for Putting it Together I would suggest skipping the CD and just getting the DVD.

I don't know how people can dismiss SATURDAY NIGHT so lightly.
If you are studying Sondheim you have to start with this early piece, there's so much great stuff and 2 of my favorite Stevie Songs: WHAT MORE DO I NEED? and the jaw-dropping beauty of SO MANY PEOPLE.

In my opinion, "Merrily We Roll Along", "Company" "Into the Woods" and " Sunday in the Park With George" are must haves. Also the 2 songs, Anyone can Whistle and Everybody Says Don't.

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I had the strangest dream the other night. I dreamt that there was a Broadway World thread about the work of Stephen Sondheim and After Eight didn't post in it.

Updated On: 8/17/12 at 10:53 AM

Actually, Rodgers and Hammerstein's collaborations got less and less "happy" after ALLEGRO. They still turned out two more good shows after that, though.

I think ...WALTZ? has a pleasant and appealing score and is ripe for an Encores! mounting, but it doesn't compare to CAROUSEL or SOUTH PACIFIC. And no, After Death, that's not because of Sondheim and Laurents, the masters of gloom and doom. It's more like because Sondheim turned in a good set of lyrics and Rodgers' well was running dry. Of his post-Oscar shows, though, it is by far the best, both lyrically AND musically.

That's true, but according to his most famous pupil, Hammerstein often came home from working with Rodgers tense and fraught with angst and needed a strong drink and a few minutes alone to regain his composure. If Rodgers was cruel to Sondheim, he was just cold to Hammerstein.

"that's not because of Sondheim and Laurents, the masters of gloom and doom."

It's because of Sondheim and Laurents, the masters of gloom and doom.

"It's more like because Sondheim turned in a good set of lyrics and Rodgers' well was running dry"

Sondheim's lyrics stank, and Rodgers's well was full.

For the other side of the story--- in contrast to parti pris prattle--- I suggest reading the chapter on this show in Rodgers's auotobiography. He says he had never before worked on a show in which his collaborators were intent on sabotaging it. Nice, isn't it? Well, they couldn't stifle his genius, and good for him!

Updated On: 8/17/12 at 01:44 AM