Williams, McGillin Spider Woman Recording

I was playing some of the original cast recording of Kiss of the Spider Woman for my students today. (We are reading parts of the novel) A student in my class knew that Vanessa Williams had played the part. How does the recording with her differ from the original? Is the track list the same? I know this recording is out of print but I think you can buy it on ebay. I saw the show early in its run and again with Brian Mitchell and Jeff Hyslop, it is still one of my favorites.

Track List:
1-Prologue
2-Scene: The Prison Cell
3-Her Name Is Aurora
4-Scene: The Prison Cell (2)
5-Over the Wall I
6-And he Moon Grows Dimmer
7-Bluebloods
8-Dressing them Up
9-I Draw the Line
10-Scene: The Prison Cell (3)
11-Dear One
12-Over the Wall II
13-Scene: The Prison Cell (4)
14-Where You Are
15-Marta
16-I Do Miracles
17-Gabriel's Letter/My First Woman
18-Morphine Tango
19-You Could Never Shame Me
20-A Visit
21-She's A Woman
22-Gimme Love
23-Russian Movie/Good Times
24-The Day After That
25-Mama, It's Me
26-Anything For Him
27-Kiss of the Spider Woman
28-Lucky Molina/Over the Wall
29-Scene: The Warden's Office
30-Only in the Movies

EDIT: I own this recording, found it at a used CDs store. As Ljay said, Chita cannot be topped, and I think no one can sing those songs like Brent Carver (as much as I love Howard McGillin). Overall, it's a nice recording for completionist. It's a fabulous score.

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Updated On: 3/2/07 at 09:20 PM

I think the Williams recording does a better job of giving the songs a sense of context. Chita's recording is the songs and nothing but the songs, which is fine, and they're performed well but I do enjoy the second recording for feeling more like it's part of a story.

Are the same backing tracks used for both recordings or did they record the 2nd version with a new orchestra?

Perhaps that's what I like about Williams. She sounds like the young, sexy, movie star that I, personally, envision Aurora to be.

But as the Spider Woman - an older, scarier, darker, deeper character, Chita shines - for me.

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I like Vanessa Williams more too because she is physically and vocally more how I envision a glamorous, sexy and mysterious movie star to be. Chita is Chita, but Vanessa is Aurora.

I very much disagree, Chita Rivera brings an element of camp to the role that works very well within the context of the show. Also, the beauty of Aurora is no mere physical beauty, her power lies on the sexuality, her seduction, and the attractive eeriness that she exudes. Williams is obviously a glamorous, beautiful woman, but Rivera makes Aurora so mysterious and sexy, so scary yet impossible to resist, she adds a never-dying sense of attraction to the role through her voice.
I also disagree about McGillin, from the recording I feel Carver is much more connected with the fragile vulnerable side of Molina, his "Dressing Them Up" shows that fragility but it eventually develops into a sort of survival anthem. McGillin feels less three-dimensional to me, as I said before, I usually love his work (his Mack Sennett is my favorite on recording) but on the recording he doesn't seem to grasp Molina like Brent Carver does.

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I believe Chita's is actually the 1993 London cast recording even though much of the same cast opened the show on Broadway, but it was recorded in London *I think*, and then Vanessa's is actually the replacment Broadway cast recording which was released in 1994. Chita opened the show on Broadway in May '93 and Vanessa debued in June '94.

Updated On: 3/3/07 at 12:58 AM