Far From Heaven recording

[purplehibiscus]

Posted: 7/3/15 at 10:58pm

Has the Far From Heaven cast recording been taken off of iTunes? I was trying to download it but couldn't find it anywhere...

[Auggie27]

Posted: 7/3/15 at 11:06pm

I don't know but I saw the show, own the CD, and much admire a lot of the score. It's an ambitious project -- the film's tone is so hard to capture/duplicate, since the meta aspect of capturing Sirk's gand 50's style is impossible to translate effortlessly into musical theater terms without cheapening what Todd Haynes accomplished -- that deserves another listen/look.  Pasquale and O'Hara were wonderful; I had problems with the rest of the casting.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/3/15 at 11:41pm

I didn't see it, but the score is probably my favorite of the new scores from the past several years. They use a sort of jazz inflection to suggest period, so the score sounds more like Bernstein's A QUIET PLACE (TROUBLE IN TAHITI) than any Broadway show I can name off the top of my head. And I don't even like jazz as a rule, but it works in FAR FROM HEAVEN (as it does in the Bernstein). No doubt Dave Brubeck was smiling during the run.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 7/4/15 at 8:42am

I'm not a jazz fan, and I, too, found the jazz inflections in HEAVEN evocative and fresh.  The show's best known song (if it has one) is a beauty, "The Only One," perfectly placed at the end of the first act.  And a key phrase in it is reprised by O'Hara's Kathy in her second act meltdown, "Tuesdays, Thursdays," which is a harrowing, character-specific catharsis (I thought of it recently listening to "Days and Days" from FUN HOME, with which it shares sentiments about being tethered to a demanding absent husband.  Worth noting: both are songs by wives of closeted gay men.)  But I also love "Sun and Shade" and the exquisite "Miro."

The PH production was undermined by a truly awful design plan, a kind of metal skeleton onto which pieces were clumsily added, against projections that maybe too easily evoked (and reminded us of the origins via:) the stunning cinematography in the film.  I'd love to see the show done not necessarily in a physically pared down way, but in a bigger, emptier space.  No one had any breathing room at PH, and despite wonderful costumes, the period didn't seem authenticated.  I wonder if Pasquale's "I Never Knew" ever makes it into cabaret spaces. It's a tough, start-stop song, filled with introspection (again, a little like Bruce's "Edges of the World" in FUN HOME, but without the final despair).  Pasquale's performance of it is a wonder, and the NY Times included it in its on-line performances.   

[SantanaLopez]

Posted: 7/4/15 at 8:57am

I do love my jazz, and Far From Heaven is one of my favorite cast recordings of the last 10 years.

[LarryD2]

Posted: 7/4/15 at 9:04am

Far From Heaven has a (mostly) great score, but great scores don't always make great musicals. It felt like a long evening in the theater, and not all of the music served the story. I listen to the cast recording fairly regularly, though, and some of the music ("Miro," "Sun and Shade") is really stunning.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 7/4/15 at 5:09pm

I always HATED the artwork. The score reminds me a bit of a LaChiusa style, kind of a different rhythm with other styles incorporated.

[mikey2573]

Posted: 7/4/15 at 5:57pm

The digital download is free if you have Amazon Prime.

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 7/4/15 at 7:56pm

I downloaded "The Only One" when the recording first went up on iTunes. I don't understand why they'd take it down, but I still see the CD in Barnes and Noble stores if you want to pick it up.

I only recently just saw the film. I thought it was brilliantly done and beautifully heartbreaking, and I do prefer Quaid to Pasquale, at least in the role of Frank Whitaker. Cathy is much more difficult for me to determine...Julianne Moore was perfect, but I feel like comparing Kelli O'Hara to her is like apples and oranges. They both "read" so differently...

[broadwayboy223]

Posted: 7/5/15 at 12:18am

I love the cast recording. Its such a good score and Kelli sounds fantastic. It's interesting Autumn in Connecticut reminds me somewhat of To Build a Home  

[Auggie27]

Posted: 7/5/15 at 8:08am

I was curious about the show's subsequent rights/productions. It's licensed by R&H Theatricals.  There's only one production scheduled, at Porchlight in Chicago, Feb-March 2016.  I'd thought it might prove more immediately popular, particularly in college musical theater programs.  It may be too early, as theaters plan a year ahead, and the rights likely have been adjusted, once subsequent (major venue) professional productions failed to materialize immediately after the PH production. It was not well received in general, the better reviews damning with faint praise.

If anyone wants to see the Pasquale NY Times performance of "I Never Knew," it's at the R&H page fore the show, which is a very nice marketing tool.