When I first listened to the album (off Broadway), I didn't care that much for the show. It didn't speak to me. I had high expectations and the songs didn't deliver. So I set my expectations really low when I finally watched it on Broadway because I wanted to see all the shows before the Tony awards (I missed Paris though). My god! Every song was so powerful and moving that I was crying almost the entire evening! The first time I saw the song "Telephone Wire" being sung with all honesty and pain by Beth Malone my eyes have all dried up. My heart was broken into a million pieces and I didn't have a single tear left for what Alison must have felt and her confusion..... Of how she couldn't accept that that was it.... A moment that she will never ever bring back again. After buying the album and listening to that song again by myself in my own little room I just sobbed. I was crying like a baby while singing along with Beth "Say something talk to me.... Say something ... Anything... At the light..... This can't be our last......"
one of the most moving piece of music in Broadway history. "Days and Days" and "Flying Away" are standouts as well. Such a beautiful cast album. One of my top Broadway cast album of all time (behind Rent and Into the Woods).
I agree with the post above about "Telephone Wire," one of the most layered numbers ever written. Anyone who knows the graphic novel can turn to the equivalent two-page scene. Yet Kron and Tesori take that car ride and deepen it, blending in subsequent final (panel) episodes between father and daughter and create one of the most emotionally harrowing parent/child moments in musical theater. Malone breaks my heart on her last "...at the light, at the light..." There's a clip on-line of that moment (in the "Journey" montage that uses the song) and every time I see her pain it grabs me. Her vulnerability is palpable. And how brilliant to build the sequence around the present Alison and her father. The whole show moves toward that number, and it's beautiful when Malone simply steps into the past to re-imagine an alternative outcome. It's brilliant because it's absolutely specific to these people yet entirely universal.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
I really do love the entire album, even the spoken bits. Especially the spoken bits, the album would not be what it is without them. If I had to pick, I'd pick the Finale. The "perfect balance", and "there you are daddy" bits destroys me everytime.
And Markie27 - reading your post, it feels like I could have written that. I went through the exact same experience.
Fly...up so high!
Caption: Every so often there was a rare moment of perfect balance when I soared above him.