The Most Superbly Produced Cast Recordings — Page 2

Company OBC
Sweeney Todd OBC
Sunday in the Park OBC
Most Happy Fella OBC
Camelot OBC
Chicago OBC (although it is annoying that the out of town version of Me and My Baby is used and that the Hot Honey Rag is not included)

You mean that wasn't what was used for the Eddie Cantor style dance?

New COMPANY ORC recording. Well done, ps/Nonesuch!

Wickedfan - I wish I could agree about GRAND HOTEL. I love the score and it is one of my favourite cast albums, but... it was late being done and a rush job at that.

There are many wrong notes, a strange fade at the end of I Waltz Alone, and uneven levels, plus the many needless cuts in the score.

Even the booklet was shoddy by RCA Victor standards: No notes and just a reprint of the musical synopsis of scenes that was in the playbill.

This show needed a recording that stitched together dialogue and song to create a recording that telescopes the show down to one 75 minute CD instead of 60 minutes worth of musical excerpts.

Of course given teh situation at teh tiem we're lucky we got a recording at all, and I am grateful. Well sorry-grateful.

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for me, the sound quality and performances on See What I Wanna See, Ragtime and Children of Eden are wonderful. Also, having that beefed up string section on Little Women and Light In The Piazza sounds sensational!

Some have mentioned the Papermill Follies--I'm thankful we have it but as for the actual production it sounds too clinical and austere for me.

the OBCR of Company prob tops my list. Out of older ones I think the OBCRs of Sweet Charity and WSS are excellent for their time

How could I forget Ragtime?Piazza is also fabulous.

I find it odd that somebody listed Spring Awakening above. I think the recording is okay. It doesn't really capture much emotion but that's just me.

I've always thought that the Chicago London recording was much better than the Broadway Revival - the sounds seems cleaner somehow and the musical direction gives the orchestra a lot more 'life'...

What happened with GRAND HOTEL THE MUSICAL was that Tommy Tune brought in Maury Yeston to write new songs for the show and he also re-wrote some of the Wright & Forrest songs.

Wright and Forrest wanted their original versions used on the recording (and they published their songs in one portfolio, while ye Yeston songs were published separately.)

The show got good reviews but most critics failed to fully appreciate the score because it was so smoothly integrated into the action. Only one or two songs were apparent standouts.
The show was a nervous box office attraction until after the 1990 Tony Awards telecast which opened with Michael Jeeter and Brent Barrett doing "We'll Take a Glass Together." followed by Jeeter's Tony win. In all GRAND HOTEL won 5 Tonys, thought not the Best Musical, Best Book or Best Score prizes (which all went to CITY OF ANGELS - an equally deserving show.)

The business shot up into the 90% range right after than and the show turned into a hit. Still, none of the labels expressed any great interest in doing a cast album and for a while it looked as if the show would not get recorded until it went to London.


Producers of the revival of GUYS AND DOLLS wanted the Martin beck so it looked like GRAND HOTEL might close, but instead it moved to the Gershwin theatre for the final three months of its run (I always felt the Gershwin too large for it and it probably lost a lot in transfer. At the Martin beck the orchestra was on a suspended platform above the action. At the Gershwin it was in the orchestra pit.)

It was around the time of the transfer that RCA Victor was persuaded to make the cast album. David Carroll was dying of AIDS and they brought him into studio in advance of the recording date in a desperate attempt to get his songs tracked. but he collapsed and died before anything could be taped.

GRAND HOTEL THE MUSICAL closed at the end of April 1992. The CD was released to stores in June of that year. I premiered the CD on my radio program just after its release, and the song that attracted the most interest was "Who couldn't dance with you." (My favourite is "What You need" sung by the lesbian, and later danced by the tango couple.)

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But the main problem is Ute Lemper's over-acting. Maybe it wouldn't bother me so much if I SAW her acting and dancing the part, but based purely on the cd I don't like her, she's acting too much.

I do agree with you there - it's certainly a very . . . mannered performance I'm not as troubled by the changes to tempi though, and on the whole prefer the voices to those on the Broadway cast. Though from reading comments here I think I'm the only person who actually likes Henry Goodman...