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Saw the review on Sunday afternoon. Details later.
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Over the weekend I played some cast cds and lps:
Goblin Market LP (Polly Pen and Peggy Harmon) - 1987 off broadway cast recording
The Last Sweet Days of Isaac LP (Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford) -- 1970 off broadway cast recording
I also listened again my one of my all time favorite musicals and recordings, "The Golden Apple" CD - music by Jerome Moross; book/lyrics by Jean Latouche. It is such a beautiful score, through-sung -- gorgeous in textures and glowing with intelligence in words and music. Such a shame that the entire score was not recorded.
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Thomas: Yes, I enjoyed the double CD too, especially Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson, but I found the single CD Broadway recording interesting, and simply loved "Someone Else's Story" sung beautifully by Judy Kuhn.
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Previously some of us discussed Columbia's complete original cast recording of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" that we had on multiple LP but wished to have on CD. Just received the announcement from Masterworks Broadway:
Edward Albee’s "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" has been an essential part of American tradition for over half a century. Starring Arthur Hill, Uta Hagen, George Grizzard and Melinda Dillon, "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" was the recipient of five Tony Awards® including Best Play, Best Actor (Hill) and Best Actress (Hagen).
At last! Of course I bought the CDs (it's on 2 CD-Rs). Just $16.95 for CD or $14.99 for download -- I'm sure I paid over $30 for the LPs in 1963 dollars! I also ordered Patti LuPone's "Anything Goes" and the original "Do I Hear A Waltz," which I've never bought on CD before. Anyone familiar with Hagen and Hill probably, like me, think of Taylor and Burton as a cartoon version of that groundbreaking drama. Yes, I realize that many liked them in the movie, but doubt that they had anything with which to compare those performances!
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From the Express:
Elaine Paige says farewell to showbiz after half a century
The singer, 65, is going to undertake her final tour this October admitting that she is "tired" of the gruelling lifestyle that comes with gigging for such a length of time. But Elaine, who made her first professional performance on stage in 1964 aged 16, is ready to "reinvent" herself.
"I am currently preparing for my last tour, a farewell tour which begins on October 9," says Elaine, who won a Laurence Olivier award in 1978 for her performance in Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Evita."
"It's my 50th year in the music business and I'm saying goodbye. It is just so tiring, especially after 50 years. My tours go on for years at a time and it's exhausting. I'll have a holiday and then I'm going to reinvent myself."
She adds of the upcoming tour: "I've thought long and hard about this decision but I feel my 50th anniversary is a good time to bid adieu."
Along with planning her tour Elaine says she's doing "TV and radio at the moment too, which I enjoy."
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Based on the CD and DVD of her celebration of her years on the stage, she's still radiant and her talent remains undiminished. Hope she includes a stop in the U.S.! "Evita," "Cats," "Billy," "Chess," "Sunset Blvd," "Anything Goes," "Piaf," she's a treasure.
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Re: 
While RCA did a good job in their choice of songs to include in the "Sweeney Todd Highlights," the CD remains an imperfect best-of collection, and I didn't hesitate to buy the later-released 2-CD full version, back when a double CD was going for at least $40, which would be about $75 in 2014 dollars. But I never regretted buying it and while I've long kept the single CD on my shelf, have never had the slightest interest in playing it again.
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Posted: |
Feb 26, 2014 - 8:32 AM
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By: |
Gary S.
(Member)
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Re:
While RCA did a good job in their choice of songs to include in the "Sweeney Todd Highlights," the CD remains an imperfect best-of collection, and I didn't hesitate to buy the later-released 2-CD full version, back when a double CD was going for at least $40, which would be about $75 in 2014 dollars. But I never regretted buying it and while I've long kept the single CD on my shelf, have never had the slightest interest in playing it again.
I've had the 2 cd set since it was released many years ago. I tend to agree that there is too much missing from the single cd highlights disc. In my early cd collection days, the Broadway section on my shelf was Sweeney Todd 2 cd set, Phantom of the Opera Original Cast 2 cd set and Les Mis Original Cast 2 cd set, Sugar, and On The 20th Century (A disc that would be ideal for a Best of Broadway volume 2.)
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Thomas: Yes, there's little, musically, one could sacrifice in "ST," and there was a huge uproar over RCA's highlights CD," so they bowed to pressure and released it again in the 2-CD set so many of us consumers know. A similar thing happened when "Judy Garland At Carnegie Hall" was released -- it was a great single CD, but they skipped the wonderful overture as well as a couple of not-so-critical songs. But the shit really hit the fan over THAT release, so when they re-did it, they went out of their way to include EVERYTHING, including all the applause between songs (some of which went on and on and on) as well as some amusing asides we'd never heard on the 2-LP set that so many of us bought long before CD -- I love the long story she tells about a show she did in Paris and a wealthy friend setting her up with a haute couture hair stylist who created this lacquered monstrosity on the top of her head which, from her strenuous movents and sweat, soon began to dissolve all over her. She's hilarious as she tells that story!
Gary S: I would be curious to see the video you mentioned from the Ball/Staunton "Sweeney Todd." Remember Imelda as Gwyneth Paltrow's lady in waiting in "Shakespeare In Love"? Of course she quickly blossomed after that! And I'm a huge Michael Ball fan, with over 20 of his CDs.
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I received the 2-CD set of the complete original cast recording of Edward Albee's groundbreaking play "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" today from MASTERWORKS BROADWAY and it sounds sooooooooooo alive on the big audio system and is nearly 3 hours long. But I didn't try it with headphones, because the actors repeatedly move from one side to the other (RCA technicians were probably experimenting with stereo back in February of 1963), which means that there are many moments where the audio is more centered on one side than the other, which, with headphones, can be quite disorienting. The late great Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill are stunning in this withering drama and I was transfixed by it, although I only listened to the first act before turning it off to check the news, and will try to play the rest of it over the weekend. Such a delight to have this wonderful recording on 2 CDs, even if they are CD-Rs, and it's kind of odd seeing the same cover from the black boxed set of LPs in miniature on front of the new jewel case. It's hard to believe that it was recorded over 51 years ago! No wonder my LP box is so frayed!
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I received the 2-CD set of the complete original cast recording of Edward Albee's groundbreaking play "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" today from MASTERWORKS BROADWAY and it sounds sooooooooooo alive on the big audio system and is nearly 3 hours long. But I didn't try it with headphones, because the actors repeatedly move from one side to the other (RCA technicians were probably experimenting with stereo back in February of 1963), which means that there are many moments where the audio is more centered on one side than the other, which, with headphones, can be quite disorienting. The late great Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill are stunning in this withering drama and I was transfixed by it, although I only listened to the first act before turning it off to check the news, and will try to play the rest of it over the weekend. Such a delight to have this wonderful recording on 2 CDs, even if they are CD-Rs, and it's kind of odd seeing the same cover from the black boxed set of LPs in miniature on front of the new jewel case. It's hard to believe that it was recorded over 51 years ago! No wonder my LP box is so frayed!
RCA technicians may have been doing many things back in 1963 but they weren't doing it on the Columbia recording of Virginia Woolf, produced by the great Goddard Lieberson. And they were hardly experimenting with stereo and moving people around - if you've heard any of the cast albums of the 1950s and early 1960s, all of them were moving people around the sound field - it was hardly new.
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Re: RCA technicians may have been doing many things back in 1963 but they weren't doing it on the Columbia recording of Virginia Woolf, produced by the great Goddard Lieberson. And they were hardly experimenting with stereo and moving people around - if you've heard any of the cast albums of the 1950s and early 1960s, all of them were moving people around the sound field - it was hardly new.
Geeze -- I must have written that in my sleep! How many Goddard Lieberson cast albums did I buy on Columbia over the years? Too many to count! But in this case there was so much of the voices moving back and forth between the front speakers that I just thought that maybe someone in the studio had wanted to take special advantage of the 2 separate channels. Although I've still not played it all, there did seem to be a bit much of it on the new release. Been so long since I played those LPs that I had forgotten they had done that.
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There really needs to be a volume 2 featuring The Music Man, Kiss Me Kate, Kismet, and others 
