Which cast recordings could you only listen to once?- Page 3

[bryan2]

Posted: 5/30/12 at 5:18pm

I didnt like the OBC Marius when I saw him in NYC I couldnt hear him

[ObiHave]

Posted: 5/30/12 at 10:12pm

My Favorite Year...after a glorious opening number it dies more deaths than the cast of Titanic.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/30/12 at 11:28pm

I hate to pick on AHrens/Flaherty who I love so much, but I've never really gotten into My Favorite Year either--opening number aside.

Glad to see others list My Life with Albertine. I think I was expecting to discover someone I liked as much as LaChiusa--not to everyone's taste, but--and I find the material interesting. But I had a really rough time getting through the CD (except for the hysterical repition of the "tongue me" lyric).

Pirate Queen--not sure why I bothered, but I do find Shoenberg/Boubile's 80s juggernauts fun recordings even if something of guiilty pleasures, and some of Martin Guerre I like lot. But, no...

BK I'm not the original poster, but am curious, does that mean you don't think the original cast recording of Follies was badly recorded? Capitol's albums produced by Dick Jones cerainly never had the terrific sound of, say, Godard Lieberson at Columbia, or Thomas Z Shepherd had started having there as well around the time of Follies. I can't blame Jones for the cuts--Everything Was Possible says he wanted the record to be a double album and fought for it, but Follies was one of his worst sounding cast albums IMHO. Maybe due to it being rushed, or being recorded in a rented rehearsal room or whatever--the CD remaster slightly improves the sound from my vinyl copy, but I think Sondheim (or someone) said it best when he said it sounded acoustically like it was recorded in a concrete parking garage.

Now I'm curious if you think it's particularly well recorded? It definitely has such great performances that I play it more than the other Follies and can look past its myriad of problems, but...

[darreyl102]

Posted: 5/31/12 at 1:56am

Wonderland's recording was stupid to me becuase on 'Off with their Heads' Karen Mason does not hold the word OFF in the song anywhere near as long as she did Live. This song was the highlight of the musical for me and listening to this dissapointed me- i just listen to live recordings of the song now.
The Hairspray OBC- i have listen to various tracks many times but really hated the recording as 'Velma's Revenge' was not on it. That song was much better then Miss Baltimore Crabs in my openion.

[philly03]

Posted: 5/31/12 at 2:02am

"Wonderland's recording was stupid to me becuase on 'Off with their Heads' Karen Mason does not hold the word OFF in the song anywhere near as long as she did Live. This song was the highlight of the musical for me and listening to this dissapointed me- i just listen to live recordings of the song now."

Entirely agree - the WONDERLAND OBCR recording is a mess. I don't listen to it much, and its one of my favorite scores. Between that specific incident, Darren Ritchie's terrible auto-tuned job, and a lack of exciting songs (on the recording), its not worth it. Too bad they discontinued the great concept album.

Not to mention that on that album, only half appear as they did on stage for the "final," reviewed production!

[Dr. Kitchell]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 2:53pm

Maggie Flynn- not even Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy could save this piece of dreck.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 3:19pm

Entirely agree - the WONDERLAND OBCR recording is a mess. I don't listen to it much, and its one of my favorite scores. Between that specific incident, Darren Ritchie's terrible auto-tuned job, and a lack of exciting songs (on the recording), its not worth it. Too bad they discontinued the great concept album.

The cast recording butchered the orchestrations and vocals which sounded great in the live production. I have pretty much every audio that exists, and they sound a whole lot better than the cast recording.

[philly03]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 3:24pm

I wish the WONDERLAND recording was more rock-infused like the mini Tampa engagement before Broadway. But I agree - it wouldve been a great show to do a live recording.

[bk]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 3:26pm

Eric, I think Follies is horribly mixed - I'm sure it was done in a day. Sometimes it's very hard to tell if what people "think" is a bad recording is, in fact, a bad mix. Sugar, which as you know I remixed, always had that awful washy Mitch Miller reverb, and the vocals were subsumed by the band. I always thought, "well, they probably didn't have any control" - then I pulled the multi-tracks to find out it was beautifully recorded and all the problems were mix problems, all of which we adjusted.

The point is, I will soon know the answer to the Follies question as I'm about to hear the multi-tracks, which, I don't think, anyone has heard since the album was recorded :) No promises, nothing in stone, but if the story is positive then Everything Is Possible :)

[K8eeyore]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 3:27pm

LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA
THE PRODUCERS

I'm sure I've got others, but I can't think of them right now.

[DEClarke]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 4:54pm

Hairspray (OBC)
Love Never Dies (OLCR)
9 to 5 (OBC)
Wonderland - 2009 Concept Recording (Not impressed by this, so never tried the OBC)
Jekyll & Hyde (1990 Concept Album... not Colm Wilkinson's most impressive work)
Les Miserables (OBC) - The OLCR is all I need! It's my favorite recording of the show.
Jekyll & Hyde: RESURRECTION
Lucky Stiff (Concept Cast Recording)
The Frogs (2004 Cast Recording with Nathan Lane & Roger Bart)
The Addams Family (OBC)
FELA! (OBC)
Promises, Promises (2010 Cast Recording)


I'm sure there are more... but this taps me out for now...

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/5/12 at 3:38pm

Avenue Q

[nuckyblue]

Posted: 6/5/12 at 5:47pm

1995 revival of H2$, even though I love Megan Mullally and Lilian White ... feh.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/5/12 at 5:56pm

bk--that's fantastic! I am *really* curious to hear about what you find. You're right, the mix can often be the problem--I'm not smart enough about how recordings are made to always be able to tell the difference. I did think the Angel Broadway CD reissue (which I believe was in ADD and not AAD, if that makes a difference), sounded slightly improved, so I assumed they did all they could, but of course it's not like every cost was spared on thbose Broadway remasters...

[bk]

Posted: 6/5/12 at 7:47pm

They did what they could with the album masters. No one has ever gone back to the eight-track original session masters. They may not sound great, or they may have enough separation where we can go in and do a new mix, which is what I'm praying for. The original mix is very erratic and the vocals are too low occasionally and it's all very rough. Again, that may just be the nature of the beast, but I do know the album was mixed in one day, so it can definitely probably be helped. Digits crossed.

[JamesBroadwayWiner]

Posted: 6/5/12 at 8:04pm

Funny, I love Catch Me If You Can, Newsies, and My Fair Lady!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/5/12 at 8:07pm

Once.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/5/12 at 8:08pm

^lol. Yep.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/5/12 at 10:52pm

bk, thanks, that makes sense. You're right, some of the decisions in the mix on the Follies cast album are bizarre--when I listen on headphones I particularly notice things like how some voices should be up front and suddenly sound like they're coming the equivalent of far upstage left or something. Anyway, I hope a good discovery is made that it's possible to make sound better.