Your Favourite Musicals: Recordings

Post by **Zaia** » 2005-08-12 11:55am

Those of us who dig musicals have a list of our favourites, naturally. But which recordings of your favourite musicals are your favourite? Do you have any where you'll only listen to a certain recording of that musical, because otherwise it just songs wrong to you? If so, which musicals and which recordings are they?

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2005-08-12 01:13pm

The only recording of a musical I have is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was so long ago that I can't even remember if it was a school trip or a summer camp thing. Anyways, it was the Canadian cast version with Donny Osmond as Joseph and I remember the whole bus singing "Any Dream Will Do" all the way back to wherever it was we were going.

Post by **Zaia** » 2005-08-12 01:14pm

aerianna wrote:The only recording of a musical I have is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was so long ago that I can't even remember if it was a school trip or a summer camp thing. Anyways, it was the Canadian cast version with Donny Osmond as Joseph and I remember the whole bus singing "Any Dream Will Do" all the way back to wherever it was we were going.

Donny Osmond! That's the version they made into a movie! I have a friend who's mad-crazy in love with that version, and makes me watch the scene where he sings "Close Every Door" in the jailcell over and over again because Donny's chest is open for public viewing!

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2005-08-12 01:24pm

I sorta remember a huge buzz in Toronto back then when they announced that Donny Osmond would be playing the lead role. Me, being the culturally deprived and insulated person I was went "who's this Donny Osmond guy, and why is it a big deal?". Took me quite a few years to figure that one out. Finally it was like "Oh, that's who he is, ok now I get it..."

Pick · Post by **Pick** » 2005-08-12 02:40pm

Notre Dame de Paris. Hands-down favorite. I finally picked up the French highlights CD of it, and already had two of the songs in English (God You Made The World All Wrong and Belle.) They're gorgeous, and God You Made The World All Wrong is my favorite of all THOSE songs as well

.

God you made the world all wrong
Let her have her shining knight
Beauty to the rich belongs
Not to us outside the light

I am just a ugly stain
That the world just wants to hide
God you gave me so much pain
Were you ever on my side?

Anywho, they've got great use of instruments, and a grand swelling power to all of the songs. I don't much like Esmerelda's voice, but Fleur de Lys' is wonderful. Both the French and English versions are good, but I haven't heard the Spanish version.

Other musicals whose songs I enjoy: The Music Man, Brigadoon, Kiss Me Kate, Wicked, and Cats (screw you, I like it!

)

SCRawl · Post by **SCRawl** » 2005-08-12 02:47pm

I really don't like musicals as a rule. "Les Miserables", though, is (in my humble opinion) head and shoulders above the rest of them. I do have a copy of the 10th anniversary "Les Miserables in Concert" performance on CD.

(I also read the book, which would have been intolerably boring had it not been on the heels of reading "War and Peace". Egads, life is tough, I get it already....)

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-08-12 03:21pm

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, hands down. "The Eve of the War," "Thunder Child," and "Spirit of Man" are easily some of the best songs ever.

Also, I greatly dig the soundtrack of the film version of My Fair Lady, particularly the versions of "Wouldn't it be Loverly" and "Show Me" as performed by Audrey Hepburn rather than overdubbed by Marni Nixon, which are available on the most recent DVD.

Other than that and Little Shop of Horrors, I don't really like musicals.

El Moose Monstero · Post by **El Moose Monstero** » 2005-08-12 03:25pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, hands down. "The Eve of the War," "Thunder Child," and "Spirit of Man" are easily some of the best songs ever.

Also, I greatly dig the soundtrack of the film version of My Fair Lady, particularly the versions of "Wouldn't it be Loverly" and "Show Me" as performed by Audrey Hepburn rather than overdubbed by Marni Nixon, which are available on the most recent DVD.

Other than that and Little Shop of Horrors, I don't really like musicals.

As big a fan as I am of Jeff Waynes musical, I'm not sure it quite fits the opening premise, only ever having one issued recording, not counting the thousands of godawful (IMO) remixes. I believe the actual thread idea was more along the lines of having a CD version of a live musical as performed by a certain performance group. For example, Queen's We will rock you, as performed by whatever performers they get in at the time. When I went to see it with friends, it was passable, but they'd seen it before and much preferred the singers that they'd had in when they went to see it first time round.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-08-12 03:41pm

El Moose Monstero wrote:I believe the actual thread idea was more along the lines of having a CD version of a live musical as performed by a certain performance group.

Bwah, that's double worse: I barely get musicals as they are and stage performances kinda freak me out.

Okay, um...my favourite recordings just happen to be of musicals where there's only one version.

Saurencaerthai · Post by **Saurencaerthai** » 2005-08-12 06:18pm

I'm still debating which version of "The Scarlet Pimpernell" I like better. The music makes it so hard to choose.

Fleet Admiral JD · Post by **Fleet Admiral JD** » 2005-08-12 09:22pm

I have Andrew Lloyd Weber: Gold, with all of the greatest, including my 4 favorites:

Phantom of the Opera (Possibly the best score ever written. Ever.)
Any Dream Will Do
Jesus Christ: Superstar
No Matter What

After doing spotlight for our school's "Kiss Me Kate" this year, I'd also like the soundtrack for that....

The Aliens · Post by **The Aliens** » 2005-08-13 05:48pm

The Last Five Years, by Jason Robert Brown. It's about a couple that meet and then divorce- however, the woman begins singing and the end of the story, and runs backwards through it, so her first song has them after their divorce, and her last song has them meeting, while the man starts at the beginning (meeting) and ends at the end (divorce). Makes me cry, a lot. Original has Norbert Leo Butz, briliant singer.

Nunsense, No Fucking Clue who by. 56 nuns die in a convent from a pot of terrible vicisois soup, and only 52 can be buried with the available money. The entire musical is the 'benefit concert' to inter the four who are taking space in the freezer, ebfore the Jersey Board of Health shuts them down. Original Cast recording is the best, but I saw a terrific version locally a year ago.

Les Mis, 10th Anniversary Cast. "One Day Mor," enough said.

DocHorror · Post by **DocHorror** » 2005-08-13 07:21pm

Rocky Horror! I'm suprised im the first to mention it.

TimothyC · Post by **TimothyC** » 2005-08-13 07:53pm

The Aliens wrote: Les Mis, 10th Anniversary Cast. "One Day Mor," enough said.

That's the one main version of Les Mis that I don't have.

Of what I have...

The Complete Symphonic Recording of Les Mis tops the Broadway version any day.

Post by **Zaia** » 2005-08-14 01:46am

MariusRoi wrote:The Complete Symphonic Recording of Les Mis tops the Broadway version any day.

FUCK. YES.

Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I LOVE that recording.

Tinkerbell · Post by **Tinkerbell** » 2005-08-14 10:47pm

The Aliens wrote: Nunsense, No Fucking Clue who by. 56 nuns die in a convent from a pot of terrible vicisois soup, and only 52 can be buried with the available money. The entire musical is the 'benefit concert' to inter the four who are taking space in the freezer, ebfore the Jersey Board of Health shuts them down. Original Cast recording is the best, but I saw a terrific version locally a year ago.

Oh! But you need to tell the rest of the story! The soup was made by the cook.. Sister Julia :crosses self: Child of God. The 4 they couldn't bury are in the freezer, and the inspector is coming in I think it's two days? Anyway, they couldn't bury those nuns because they bought a big screen-TV as well..... (2 hours later....) Oh you just need to see the show...

Anyway...

Jekyll and Hyde - I will only listen to the version with Linda Eder playing Lucy. Nothing else sounds right.

Phantom of the Opera - Michael Crawford/Sarah Brightman. (OST)

Chorus Line - OST

For most of my favorites, I've listened to the OST so many times that anything else sounds strange to me. Especially if I've performed the song and learned it by listening to that recording.

spongyblue · Post by **spongyblue** » 2005-08-15 08:42pm

Jesus Christ Superstar is the only musical that I ever really liked. My family were big musical heads, and this is the only one I enjoyed, and I enjoyed the movie soundtrack a lot better than the original recording, but then again it could be because I heard that one first.

Post by **weemadando** » 2005-08-15 09:15pm

Gilbert & Sullivans: Pirates of Penzance, the cast with Jon English as the Pirate King. One of the best Australian cast musicals ever.