Listening to OLC Lord of the Rings quite a bit. A lot of Les Mis, though not any particular recording. Assassins revival, Ragtime OBC and Rock of Ages OBC are the other ones I'm playing quite a bit at the moment.
Other notable favorites: Evita OBC Spring Awakening OBC In the Heights OBC Ragtime Highlights Recording
"There's nothing good on. The media hates Christmas. The media loves vampires, though. Maybe they will show a Twilight Christmas." -Danmeg's 10 year old son.
For cast recordings lately I've been listening to Shrek a lot. But Thoroughly Modern Millie will always be my favorite cast recording.
And it's not really a cast recording, but I have also been listening to Sutton Foster's Wish A LOT. And yet it seems to get better and better with each listen! :)
My current obsession is Chess: In Concert, though my favorites will always be Sweeney Todd and The Light in the Piazza.
"You have two kinds of shows on Broadway – revivals and the same kind of musicals over and over again, all spectacles. You get your tickets for The Lion King a year in advance, and essentially a family... pass on to their children the idea that that's what the theater is – a spectacular musical you see once a year, a stage version of a movie. It has nothing to do with theater at all. It has to do with seeing what is familiar.... I don't think the theatre will die per se, but it's never going to be what it was.... It's a tourist attraction." Stephen Sondheim
"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