So with the nominations for this year's Grammy Awards coming up on Friday, how about we discuss the potential nominees for what is our favorite category, Best Musical Theater Album?
The following is a list of the cast recordings that were released between October 1st, 2013-September 30th, 2014:
Aladdin Beautiful: The Carole King Musical Big Fish The Bridges of Madison County Bullets Over Broadway A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder Hedwig & the Angry Inch If/Then Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill A Night with Janis Joplin Rocky Violet
So which of the five (or three if it ends up being the same amount of nominees as last year) cast recordings do you think deserves a nomination?
Updated On: 11/30/14 at 04:02 PM
Don't discount the commercial nature of the Grammy's. Idena Menzel, was able to get IF/THEN the first top 20 debut of a cast album since the days of West Side Story, which also landed her the cover of Billboard Magazine. I homestly wouldn't be suprised if Ms. Menzel gets 3 nominations this ywar for, Best Theater Album (If/Then), Best Motion Picture Soundtrack (Frozen), and Song and/or Record of the Year for Let It Go. For the other 2 or 3 nominees I see, BEAUTIFUL (Carol King's appeal) HEDWIG (NPH) The last spot is a tossup of Aladdin/Bridges/Gentleman's Guide
Here's a breakdown on my predictions: *Aladdin-Almost all Disney shows have been nominated before, two of them won (The Lion King, Aida), so I wouldn't count this out. *Beautiful: The Carole King Musical-Shows with the appeal from the music industry have done pretty well in this category (Jersey Boys, American Idiot, Once, Kinky Boots). *The Bridges of Madison County-With the acclaim this Tony-Winning score received, I think it deserves some acknowledgement. *Hedwig & the Angry Inch-The Grammy's do have a soft spot for contemporary musicals (Spring Awakening, In the Heights) *If/Then-First Broadway cast recording to have done so good on the Billboard charts since Rent.
Why do they even still have this category? They don't know how to vote for it. The Grammys are such a farce...like most competitive artistic awards.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong about this, but I believe that Academy voters get to vote for all of the "major" categories - album, song, record of the year, best new artist, etc., but then only get to choose a small number of other more specialized categories - something like six awards? If that's still the case, that means people voting for musical theatre album are actively choosing to do so and likely have a strong interest or experience in musical theatre. Or maybe I'm totally misremembering how this all works.
Anyway. Usually, the only categories with much merit and actually interesting artists are Best New Artist and Best Alternative Album.
HorseTears, I think you might be confusing that process with the Academy Awards. IF musical theater experts actually have picked a few of the last winners for Best Show Album, I wouldn't consider them experts anymore. Some of the recent winners have been laughable.
HorseTears is correct. This is the Grammy voting process for both nominations and winners:
"Ballots are sent to voting members in good dues standing. To help ensure the quality of the voting, members are directed to vote only in their areas of expertise; they may vote in up to 20 categories in the genre fields plus the four categories of the General Field (Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best New Artist.)"
These nominations are always so strange, but I'd love to see some recognition for Lady Day. It's beautifully recorded and represents the entire show so beautifully. I love listening to it.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
Re: IF/THEN being the First Broadway cast recording to have done so good on the Billboard charts since Rent.
Jeffrey- this sentence is laughable if you don't specify that you're talking about chart debuts. Just off the top of my head, the WICKED and JERSEY BOYS cast albums easily have IF/THEN beat in terms of duration on the chart, and THE BOOK OF MORMON peaked at #3, which was the highest any musical has gone since the HAIR OBC.
If I were judging based solely on the merits of the recordings, not the strengths of the shows or their scores, which I like to think the Grammys should do but rarely do, I would nominate these five:
ALADDIN THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR & GRILL VIOLET
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.