Wildhorn News — Page 2

I am torn on which version of Pimpernel I find to be the best. I mean clearly I love them all *looks at own name* but there are certainly bits and pieces I enjoy more from each.

Having already been familar with the original, it has always been hard in the later versions to accept "You Are My Home" as the love song when it was (and still is on my OBCR) the brother and sister song. On the flip side though, "I'll Forget You" in act two is one of the best songs in the show and the changes made in the staging of the final trick is FAR superior. I don't know if when I saw it the first time it was really early in the run but man, did it just fail as an ending! I have always wondered if I just happen to catch a SUPER early version that first time or if it was always staged having the climax happen off stage with only sound effects. So much better having it happen on stage and have it only be Percy. You actually worry for a moment when you see it.

All that said..... I will believe it when I see it and as much as I love Pimpernel, I hope I don't see it. The last time we had a Wildhorn revival, well look what happened there. They love him over seas and as much as I love him, I feel like over seas is where his work belongs. And good for him that he has success somewhere in the world. I just hate having to watch the poor guy struggle and fail time after time on Broadway. It's at the point where I feel like he could put out a super a rare masterpiece and it would still get picked apart and panned because that's just what happens to Wildhorn shows and people just expect it the moment his name is attached to it.

CATSNYrevival said: "Because Sweeney Todd sounded like such a great idea at the time."

Sweeney Todd at least didn't involve ****ing a corpse.

Updated On: 10/13/15 at 08:52 PM

Re: Jekyll revival - Calhoun made some good cuts (and additions), but it is single handed-ly the trashiest staging of a Broadway musical anywhere I had ever seen. The thought of having to see "Dangerous Game" again in that version makes me cringe. And Jekyll & Hyde is my favorite musical!

I'm with Roxy, though -- why doesn't he put together a recording of the big numbers from his upcoming international musicals in English? He's got an enormous talent pool (many with big followings), and many of these are already high quality recorded for the foreign producers. I love "Playing His Game" from Death Note and "What Makes a King" from Artus.

It is a win win situation

For Wildhorn haters, he is never on Broadway again even though no one forced you to pay to see his work to begin with. Why would you do so if you are not a fan?

For his fans, they get to hear more of his work.

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Agree with Philly re the recent revival of J/ H.

Although we thoroughly enjoyed the original we hated the revival with a passion. Confrontation in the revival was abysmally staged and was downright laughable. Constantine was in over his head but Cox was the one bright spot in it.

The demo that was floating around from Carmen a while ago is actually pretty different from the stage show. A Prague Cast Recording exists, however, and in English on the 2011 "Frank Wildhorn & Friends - Live from Vienna" CD you can hear Pia Douwes sing "Viva," which is the big number from it. There's a DVD from the Prague cast a few years ago as well - the staging is insane.

I don't believe there has even been promos with the English demos/versions of the ARTUS music, which is unfortunate. There are some fantastic melodies in there.

"Camille Claudel" is now called "Gold" and there is a Japanese full recording, as well as a DVD version I believe. Linda's recorded a few of the songs for her album "Now" - "Woman in His Arms" and "What's Never Been Done Before."

So happy that Pimpernell is being revived! Honestly Wildhorn has written such great songs for men, like Into the Fire and This is the Moment.

It makes me sad that Wildhorn has such a bad rep. Jekyll and Hyde was one of the first musicals I saw live (I saw the 2012 tour). It reignited my passion for theatre. He writes beautiful and good scores that some of which didn't deserve the flack they got. Glad to know other people enjoy his music too :). In a way I feel Lucy Simon and him are similar (besides that Secret Garden was hugely successful). I get genuinely shocked when people say they don't like The Secret Garden. It's such a beautiful show. I also really love the Zhivago cast album. I might be by myself on that one though.