Passion Cast Recording
Passion Cast Recording
#1Passion Cast Recording
Posted: 5/8/11 at 3:54pmI need help on deciding which cast recording of the show to get, the broadway cast or the london cast recording with maria friedmad ? which is more complete and better to listen to ?
#2Passion Cast Recording
Posted: 5/8/11 at 4:08pmBroadway, but the London version of "No One Has Ever Loved Me" is fantastic.
#3Passion Cast Recording
Posted: 5/8/11 at 4:15pmAgreed. I liked the Broadway better. The London has good things to like about it but I adore Donna Murphy.
#4Passion Cast Recording
Posted: 5/8/11 at 5:04pmI have both, as this is my favorite musical...I think I listened to the London Cast Recording once and then tossed it aside. It is atrocious, in my opinion - and not a good representation of the show. The only song worth getting the cd for is indeed Michael Ball's "No One Has Ever Loved Me", which doesn't appear in the other recording - and if I'm being fair, Ball really isn't that bad...but Maria Friedman's Fosca is just shrill, screechy and unpleasant. Broadway Cast Recording all the way, for me.
"Years from now, when you talk about this - And you will - Be kind. "
#5Passion Cast Recording
Posted: 5/8/11 at 5:05pmimo don't go anywhere near the London recording until you're familiar with the show..
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#6Passion Cast Recording
Posted: 5/8/11 at 5:11pmBroadway recording! (even if it's just for Donna Murphy. She's excellent)
#7Passion Cast Recording
Posted: 5/8/11 at 5:44pm
No question: Broadway.
I saw both productions. London was terrible. Each principal was just plan bad.
I remember sitting in the theatre and thinking "Pillsbury Doughboy Michael Ball ain't worth getting all passionate about, Maria Friedman is is going to get splinters in her gums from all the scenery she is chewing, and Clara is uglier than Fosca.
Bad. Bad. Bad.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. - Eleanor Roosevelt
#8Passion Cast Recording
Posted: 5/8/11 at 6:20pmThe London recording is more complete, but the Broadway recording has a superior cast.
#9Passion Cast Recording
Posted: 5/8/11 at 6:29pm
Definitely Broadway cast hands down. Maria Friedman's Fosca is so hammy that she turns in what I see as a pretty embarrassing performance, at least on the recording. She's just atrocious. She goes for big and in doing so misses all of the nuances and complexities that Murphy so brilliantly brought to the role.
Donna Murphy's performance in the recording is worth getting it alone, but Marin Mazzie (who's performance as Clara is as definitive as Murphy's Fosca), Gregg Edelman and Jere Shea are great in the Broadway recording too. Yes, the London recording is more complete, but when you have a Fosca that comes off as more laughable than tragic, the whole thing falls apart.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
SporkGoddess
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/27/05
#10Passion Cast Recording
Posted: 5/8/11 at 6:34pm
I agree with those who say the Broadway recording for the reasons that they state. I would also like to add that I dislike "I Love Fosca" because I feel it ruins the beautiful moment of revelation in "No One Has Ever Loved Me."
Jimmy, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9 PM!
Updated On: 5/8/11 at 06:34 PM
#11Passion Cast Recording
Posted: 5/8/11 at 8:41pmYou also really should get the DVD of the Broadway cast. Murphy is incredible on the cast recording and even more amazing on the DVD.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
#12Passion Cast Recording
Posted: 5/8/11 at 10:59pm
well, im obviously in the minority here. I much prefer the London Cast Recording. Michael Ball is on top form and i think he gives more depth to Giorgio - the new song definitely helps.
Helen Hobson makes Clara interesting. When i saw the show on Broadway, i kept wishing there would be a postal strike, so that damn woman wouldnt keep coming on, but in London Helen made her a prominent character, not some moaning woman who wants her cake and eat it!!
maria Friedman is very different to Donna Murphy, she is obviously much more sick andthis comes across in the vocal. Not better, not worse, but different.
Also i prefer the London ensemble. Simon Green's voice us thrilling to me.
Both recordings are worth getting IMO.
Broadway Star Joined: 12/31/69
#13Passion Cast Recording
Posted: 5/9/11 at 11:55pm
The first one is essential. Phil Ramone did a great job of capturing the essence of the show in a cast album, with a good mix of dialogue, etc--for a score that prob wasn't the easiest to whittle down to one CD. Of course I assume you know the DVD (which may be the best intro to this great show) so know the basic performances.
The London one is SLIGHTLY more complete--but very very slightly excepting for the full No One Has Ever Loved Me for Giorgio, which was added after the Broadway production and is great. But it doesn't hold up nearly as well (and is a live recording, which I admit in cast albums I don't like as much--though I prefer live recordings for DVDs, go figure. The recording was made from the concert done some time after the London cast closed with most but not all of that company). I thought it was out of print anyway?
*edit* I just checked and it does still seem to be in print--kinda surprised when so many cast albums seem to be out of print...
