For me, it is the Roundabout CABARET revival cast recording.
This cast recording is just superb. The set may be struck, the show may be closed...but when I listen to this Cast Recording, I am back in my seat at the theatre watching this show. I don't just hear it, I see it all come back to life in front of me.
It's an extremely emotional and haunting recording. No other recording can transport me the way that this one can.
What's yours?
"I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about." - Oscar Wilde
The Secret Garden--just enough dialogue to give you the story as well as the superb score
Into the Woods (London Cast) - just wonderfully mixed. Very live sounding.
I have over-produced cast albums. Pretty much every roundabout show I can think of sounds this way. I like a recording that sounds live!! I thought the Sweeney revival cast album suffered especially.
This is my second post today where I've mentioned this show: The Secret Garden. As mentioned previously, it gives you just enough dialogue interspersed with the music to follow the plot.
"Word of advice: Be who you are, wear what you want---just learn how to run real fast." Marc, UGLY BETTY
Papermill Follies Hair Actor's Fund Pal Joey Encores Ragtime OBC Parade OBC A Little Night Music OBC Cabaret Complete Recording on Jay Records and Roundabout Revival Chicago OBC and London Revival Sunday in the Park with George London Revival A Chorus Line OBC Miss Saigon Complete Recording Sweeney Todd OBC Sweet Charity OBC Secret Garden Original London Cast City of Angels Original London Cast Annie Get Your Gun Merman Revival Company OBC And the World Goes Round Off Broadway Cast
Almost EVERY cast album produced by Goddard Lebersion from SOUTH PACIFIC thru A CHORUS LINE. Notably THE MOST HAPPY FELLA, issued on 3 LP records complete with all the dialogue.
Sheppard's SWEENEY TODD and SUNDAY IN THE PARK original Broadway cast albums were technical marvels in their day.
RCA Victor's late productions under Bill Rosenfield were excellent: RAGTIME, STEEL PIER, PARADE. I would include TITANIC except for the maddening low lovel across the disc.
All of these give you a real sense of the show.
Disney's LION KING is an example of a poorly produced cast album. You get the music all right but no sense of the show. And somehow RENT doesn't come through nearly as well on CD as it does in the theatre.
I have been most impressed with the new COMPANY.
Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks." Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com
Personally, I think the RENT OBC is the best cast recording I've heard. I don't know if it's the production, or just the way the show is structured. . but every time I listen to it, it always feels like I'm right there.
I'll also second the Roundabout's CABARET. . same deal.
"Caroline or Change" is one of the best I have heard. The sound quality is excellent and makes me feel as if I am sitting in the theatre. I thought the sound design in the theatre was wonderful. Only a few times have I heard an orchestra sound that good live.
Grease Revival w/Rosie O Roundabout's Cabaret Roundabout's Assassins Mary Poppins OLC A Class Act OBC Avenue Q OBC The Frogs OBC Do Re Mi Encores! Revival The Full Monty OBC Sweet Smell of Success OBC and Dirty Rotten Soundrels OBC
are just a few I can name off the top of my head.
"I'm tellin' you, the only times I really feel the presence of God are when I'm having sex and during a great Broadway musical." - Nathan Lane - Jeffrey
There are so many, but one that hasn't been posted yet: Grand Hotel. Especially now with the bonus track of Carroll singing "Love Can't Happen" at a cabaret. It's just a great recording that gives a great feel of what the show was and is meant to be.
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
I Think TITANIC sounds great on CD. In fact one of the critics who panned the show said something like "don't judge the show by the CD, because it sounds much better than it really is!"
By comparison to his other works, Shwartz's Wicked OBC is good.
The rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."