BWay Shows That Did Not Get a Cast Recording- Page 3

[joevitus]

Posted: 3/10/21 at 11:27pm

g.d.e.l.g.i. said: "JCS expert chiming in: per Ellis Nassour, who was at MCA when this all went down,wrotethebook on the early days of the show,Rock Opera, and attended recording sessions for the OBC, the full show was not recorded. The word came from on high that a second double-disc set would not sell, so they cut it down to the highlights. What you hear is what they recorded, unfortunately."

I always took "cut it down" to mean "cut down the tapes that were recorded." Thanks for the correction.

[bryan32]

Posted: 3/10/21 at 11:29pm

I am back. and the  show that should have been made into a cd was after midnight and shuffle along

 

[hak5]

Posted: 3/11/21 at 3:53pm

the revivals of

THREE PENNY OPERA

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

[joevitus]

Posted: 3/11/21 at 5:31pm

g.d.e.l.g.i. said: "JCS expert chiming in: per Ellis Nassour, who was at MCA when this all went down,wrotethebook on the early days of the show,Rock Opera, and attended recording sessions for the OBC, the full show was not recorded. The word came from on high that a second double-disc set would not sell, so they cut it down to the highlights. What you hear is what they recorded, unfortunately."

I know I capitualted to this earlier, but going back the the JCS Zone (a site we are both very familiar with):

"It shouldn’t be too shocking, then, that much like the production had turned out to be less than the authors expected, its cast recording turned out very similarly. The recording of the cast album was scheduled for the Sunday following the New York opening, as per tradition (since there are no Broadway performances of new shows on Sunday). Though they produced the recording themselves (aggravating Tom Morgan, MCA’s East Coast A&R director and coordinator for the project, in the process when he tried in vain to have personal planning meetings), Webber and Rice ran into stumbling blocks at every turn:

• Since the authors felt the MCA facilities were too small, proceedings had to move to Columbia Records’ studio on East Thirtieth Street.
• Webber’s plan to record music and vocals simultaneously — the traditional practice — was scuttled in favor of recording instrumental tracks first and adding vocals later when Decca informed them it had no intention of paying overtime to the entire cast (all union actors come under the jurisdiction of the radio artists’ union when doing an original cast album; each singer is paid one-week’s salary for a nine-hour work period that must include an hour break for lunch or dinner, so in theory, five minutes of overtime means another week’s pay, and clocking in at 40 actors and 73 musicians, overtime was a frightening prospect).
• Once the orchestra tracks had been recorded and the cast assembled for vocal sessions, it became clear that all the work could not be finished, so they attempted to finish choral work as quickly as possible in order to only call in the leads the next day and avoid paying overtime for everyone. Just as the session was winding up, however, a chorus singer called a halt for a bathroom break that unfortunately pushed them into overtime when it lasted 20 minutes. The cost: over $70,000 — more than the original album, which took six months to record compared to the two days eventually afforded the Broadway cast.

"Webber, Rice, and Alan O’Duffy, engineer of the concept album, spent the rest of the week mixing, remixing, and editing the tapes. MCA did not expect the new album to do well if the price was too high, since so many copies of the original had been sold, so it was decided to release a one-record, abridged version in a double jacketed package containing a large assortment of photographs from the show. Ben Vereen termed the record, which had initial sales of $150,000, 'sloppily done… nothing but trash.'"

To me, this sounds like a recording of the full score later cut down to highlights for release. I get it, Rock Musical says differently. Still, what is said here sounds like what I'd initially suggested.

[another sloe eyed vamp]

Posted: 3/12/21 at 11:40am

Count me as someone else who's still upset the Kristin Chenoweth revival of The Apple Tree not being recorded. Kristin Chenoweth, Marc Kudisch and Brian d'Arcy James. How is it possible that no one recorded that?

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 3/12/21 at 7:44pm

I wrote that content. I can assure you it refers only to highlights.

"MCA did not expect the new album to do well if the price was too high, since so many copies of the original had been sold, so it was decided to release a one-record, abridged version in a double jacketed package containing a large assortment of photographs from the show."

That does not say at all that the full thing was recorded, though admittedly I could have worded it better rather than directly quoting the book. Ellis later clarified as an observer that this was a decision made before the fact, not after recording.

[joevitus]

Posted: 3/13/21 at 3:52am

g.d.e.l.g.i. said: "I wrote that content. I can assure you it refers only to highlights.

"MCA did not expect the new album to do well if the price was too high, since so many copies of the original had been sold, so it was decided to release a one-record, abridged version in a double jacketed package containing a large assortment of photographs from the show."

That does not say at all that the full thing was recorded, though admittedly I could have worded it better rather than directly quoting the book. Ellis later clarified as an observer that this was a decision made before the fact, not after recording."

Well that settles that, lol. Clearly a misreading on my part. Thanks for explaining.