Worst cast albums

Dreamgirls OBC. Truncated songs - fade outs - I kept hoping with advent of CDs that they had actually recorded full versions of the songs and those would be on a CD someday.

BrodyFosse123 said: "The Original Broadway Cast recording of ON YOUR FEET!

It’s a live recording and it is simply horrendous. Dialogue sections sound far away as if the audio was picked up from some floor mic. An iPhone bootleg would have captured the audio better. I mean, there are hundreds of live concert recordings dating back to the 1950s that have dialogue captured crystal clear yet the Estefans, who are part of the music recording industry couldn’t get top notch sound engineers to capture this show perfectly?

Even the cast members of the show were shocked how horrible their cast recording turned out.
"

I’m glad this was the first one roasted. It was crap. I enjoyed the song selection even though the show was ho-hum, but this just stomped all over it

Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder has the worst mixing I've heard on a recent cast album. I swear there are a couple parts where you can hear people talking in the background, like they forgot to mute a background track. I know it was done on a relative budget, but it's just bad.



Also, It Shoulda Been You had a pretty bad album. It sounded like they used the cheapest mics they could, and all the voices just sound slightly off. Again, I know it was done on a budget because it wasn't exactly pulling in tons of money, but they could have at least made sure the vocals were clear.

Surprised no one has mentioned the Tyne Daly Gypsy recording. I could only listen to it once.

Updated On: 11/27/17 at 09:09 PM

Dollypop said: "No recording is worse than the OBC of COCO..
Not only do you get to hear Hepburn croaking her way through a pretty decent score but the whole thing sounds like it was recorded in a tin can."

A matter of taste. I loved it and still play it regularly. I have to admit that I deleted 3 or 4 songs from the playlist, none off which is a Hepburn song. The three key reasons I really like it: (1) I think Lerner's lyrics are terrific, particularly in 'The Money Rolls in Like Freedom' (close enough) and 'Always Mademoiselle'; (2) I thought Hebpurn was terrific. She can't sing, but she stayed on key, and acted the hell out of the songs. (I would point out that Carol Channing could never really sing, but her HD recording is significantly better than Bette Midler's. Bette sings better, but -- despite what I have read about her perfectionism -- sounded like she was saving it up for her next live performance); and (3) it reminds me of the original production, which I enjoyed a lot more than the critics at the timer said I should.

IMO, and a cliche I admit, the original Follies recording really was terrible, although I played it constantly until better ones came along. The new Hello Dolly is lifeless, which is criminal. They did as much as they could to take the life out of it.

I also thought the GHD recording was terrible -- tried to listed to it 6 different times, and could never get to the finale; but I suspect that is more about my view of the score, not the cast recording quality.

While I love the new cast recording of The King and I, I HATE that they cut the reprise of "Hello, Young Lovers". I also hate the truncated finale on the recording. I wish they would have done a complete two disc recording like they did for South Pacific.

I also have to agree about the new Hello, Dolly! cast album. It lacks all the warmth, energy, and joy that is up on the stage at the Shubert.

The Flowers for Algernon cast album has horrible sound quality and either bad playing or bad orchestrations. It's a weird score/show to begin with and on the whole you can tell there's something attractive in there, but lord, it just sounds dated and the band sounds real tired.

also the Little Fish album is disappointing. The entire cast loses their pitches en masse in the opening number (2:00-2:33) and just sound exhausted. It's a very interesting score but you wouldn't know it by that recording.

Updated On: 11/28/17 at 03:53 PM

Mister Matt said: "Sunset Boulevardis one of my favorite musicals, and after owning the American Premiere Recording with Glenn Close for some time, I bought a used CD of theWorld Premiere Recording with Patti LuPone. Let's just say it was disappointing.

I'm the opposite. Judy Kuhn and the addition of Every Movie's a Circusarethe only reasons I'll listen to the American recording at all. Otherwise, I much prefer the voices and content of the London recording. I just wish the quality of the recording itself were better."

I just don't care for the way Ms. LuPone sings these songs. She's undeniably a vocal powerhouse, but her approach doesn't suit the material to my ears. Also, Kevin Anderson comes across as a lackluster Joe and his phrasing and cadence of the lyrics feels "off" to me. It doesn't help that the sound quality of the recording is not the best.

Mister Matt said: "I find Alan Campbell's weird open vowels and affectation of accenting every syllable grating"

Admittedly, Mr. Campbell has some odd emphasis, i.e., "We're not helping her, feeding her LIES, more LIES".