What is best cast cd from the last 5 years?

the Kimberly Akimbo recording always surprises me with the depth of it all.

It’s primarily the revivals for me. Beautiful new recordings of MERRILY, INTO THE WOODS, and PARADE.

My top 5 will be:

1. Into The Woods - very crisp and clear recording. That cast! -  Sara Bareilles, Gavin Creel, Joshua Henry, Bryan D’Arcy… magnificent!

2. Illinoise - the most haunting cast recording.  Beautiful orchestration and vocals. 

3. Merrily We Roll Along -  Groff, Radcliffe, Mendez! nuff said

4. Gypsy - Queen Audra … still give me chills.  Ofcourse if you are a purist you wont like her vocal interpretation.  But I am not and am still completely in awe.

5. Operation Mincemeat - the most intelligently written score of the last five years, and one of the most beautiful song for the past decade - Dear Bill.

runner up would be Girl from the North Country but there are elements and songs that I adore more in the London Cast recording.  

Here We Are is my favorite 

Camelot for me. The production itself and the new book wasn’t the best reviewed but the songs and orchestrations are largely untouched. Phillipa Soo, Jordan Donica and Taylor Trensch are perfectly cast.

Flying Over Sunset

A Strange Loop

Kimberly Akimbo

Illinoise

Maybe Happy Ending (Korean Cast)

Shucked

Here We Are

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Standing at the Sky's Edge

Updated On: 6/14/25 at 02:45 PM

Something no one has mentioned is the UK original cast recording of Standing at the Sky's Edge - not something likely to be produced on Broadway. I didn't see it, but it is an interesting listen.

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Oh gosh, so many great examples mentioned here. So not jus to repeat I'll give a little spiel and in no particular order (I also think we have had an unusually rich period artistically in the last 5 years) 

* Boop - I can't think of another score that captures the spirit and magic of a Jerry Herman show in a way that is novel and genuinely engaging. It's also extremely easy to listen to without much context. 

* Lempicka - The music is a masterwork - and I understand Eden couldn't really sing it live - but in a studio between Eden and Amber "I will Paint her", "The Most Beautiful Bracelet" "Woman Is", "Speed" and "In the Blasted California Sun" are in my opinion all Tony-worthy songs with Tony-worthy performances. Amber's "Don't Bet your heart" feels a little flat on the recording compared to live but not her fault. 

* Sunset Boulevard - when I first saw and heard Nicole's performance in 2023 I have been championing it as one of the best things I've ever heard and seen. I actually think she sounds better live and I wish she held the note in "Never Said Goodbye" as long as she does on stage, but I've never heard a live recording that sounds as rich and life-like. I actually think it's one of the only times I can think of where a live recording was a better idea than a studio recording, which might have risked sounding flat and too sanitised (see: Don't Bet Your Heart, above) 

* Parade - Ben Platt's strange and interesting vibrato is almost like Bernadette to me. "It's Hard to Speak My Heart" in particular is incredibly intimate and vulnerable and I was hoping it came through on disc, which it did

* Standing on the Sky's Edge - the opening and closing "As the Dawn Breaks" is absolutely beautiful. You could tell the audience was overwhelmed with the last choral version of it in particular, and it is just as moving on disc. Maimuna Memon's "Open Up Your Door" - I had no idea who she was but it's very rare to come across someone with this kind of deep and unusual vocal timbre that is well captured on disc (she just won an Olivier for Sonya Alone in The Great Comet)

* Operation Mincemeat - sometimes these kind of scrappy comedy shows work better live than on disc but I think the recording captures the spirit of the show well 

* Starlight Express - the recent London revival is extremely well sung and each of the actors have their own vocal personality. The title track and "I am the starlight" I find particularly moving. God, between Starlight, Sunset and now the new Evita I've gone from a pretentious ALW basher to his biggest fan

* Merrily cast recording - as soon as I saw Jonathan Groff in the role I was completely and utterly shocked how it changed everything and the excitement can be heard on disc

* Into the woods - among my least favourite Sondheim so I skipped the revival, but the quality of the vocals and vocal-acting on disc is the best I've ever heard, especially from Sara B, Brian Darcy James, Phillipa Soo, 

Other notable individual tracks and recordings for me:

Carmen Cusack's tracks "Flying Over Sunset" and "How?" in 'Flying Over Sunset'. Which I had the privilege of telling James Lapine I loved when he was doing a bit of market research asking how I ended in the audience. The person that basically discovered Bernadette for Broadway asking ME???? 

Adam Lambert and (yes shoot me) Billy Porter's "I Don't Care Much"

Audra's tracks in Gypsy (but her Coming Up Roses was more powerful live in an early preview than on disc). 

Anagram and Better from Kimberly Akimbo 

"Only You, Lonely You" from Cinderella still captures that classic romantic lush ALW style.

I think there are a few tracks in Redwood that are severely underrated: "Drive" with the strong beat and Idina's voice feels like a new kind of electronic-theatre-popular hybrid of a song that we haven't heard before. "In the leaves" is joyous and "Still" is incredibly moving with those crystal clear vocals from Zachary (and even more moving in context: Idina's son has died from a fentanyl overdose, and her character imagines him reassuring her that it was an accident and not a suicide, which she needs to hear to help her cope and then he sings "Still" to her briefly with her for the few duet bars). 

Recordings we desperately need:

* The current London revival of 'Evita' - I am 100% sure this will become the definitive recording of the show. I certainly was not expecting our 'Maria' to be able to belt like Betty Buckley in "A New Argentina". 

Updated On: 6/28/25 at 04:22 AM