Wonderful Town in Concert

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 12:11am

I'm not sure if this came out on DVD yet, but if it did how was it?

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 1:25am

when was it in concert...??? i wanna see that...i have a little performance of brooke when she did the macy's parade...she was awesome...of course...=) and so was the rest of the cast.

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 1:42am

If you thought THAT was great you should have seen Donna Murphy do it - simply AMAZING!

[Bwaydreams01]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 2:38am

I believe Laura Benanti was originally attached to Wonderful Town, playing opposite Donna Murphy... maybe?

[chenofan]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 2:43am

I also remember hearing that. I would love to see a concert version of it - who is in it? I hope it isn't Brooke, she was good but was NOT Donna!

[magruder]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 3:18am

It's the cast of the EMI studio recording of Wonderful Town ... Kim Criswell as Ruth, Audra McDonald as Eileen, Brent Barrett as Bob.

[chenofan]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 3:31am

Is it any good. I have to CD but I wonder how the concert is. Is it on amazon?

[magruder]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 3:48am

It's livelier than the recording, but there are also some weird aspects to it... like Barrett also playing the Tour Guide and Criswell also playing Violet in the opening number (as I believe they also do on the recording). There's also a general lack of context, with no set up for the numbers...I wonder what the audience watching it made of it all. Not much choreography or staging to speak of. Criswell seems a little too dependent on her script to get through "Conga!" but she's still pretty funny. It's conducted well, and the orchestra sounds lovely.

[zelda]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 11:55am

it is down right awful-audra is horrifying

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 12:04pm

Laura Benanti played Eileen at the Encores production in 2000. She opted out of the revival because she felt she was too old for the role.

[ljay889]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 12:12pm

I'm not a fan of this cast recording.

The tempos are HORRIBLE. The performances are very bland. The tempos, and performances just don't do the score jutice.

I'm very iffy about checking out the DVD.

[magruder]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 12:13pm

God, then whatever do you think of the joyless orchestra on the revival recording?

[ljay889]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 12:18pm

I personally enjoyed the orchestra on the revival cast recording, and in the Hirschfeld.

[magruder]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 12:23pm

And you say the tempi are bad on the EMI recording? They sound more right to me than on the revival recording (and in the theatre), where almost everything was either too fast, too slow, or too sullen. Near perfection, though, is the orchestra for the Roz Russell TV soundtrack. They are just on fire.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 12:26pm

i have seen brooke and donna in WT.

[ljay889]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 12:29pm

Well, I must go with you there. I love the tempos on the Roz TV Soundtrack, I love that recording in general. The quality of the remastered CD is fabulous, it sounds more current than the EMI recording.

[chenofan]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 4:33pm

Yeah. I agree about the recording. They seemed to ahve sucked all the life outta it! I bought it cause of McDonald but have listened to it only once.

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 8/11/05 at 6:30pm

Laura Benanti played Eileen at the Encores production in 2000. She opted out of the revival because she felt she was too old for the role" well at least one of the leads felt that way....

but anyway, as i recall brent barrett didn't play bob, he was wreck and the tour guide