First taste of "Hairspray" (the musical)

So, being the slowpoke I am, I just got around to listening to the cast recording of Hairspray. I’d played two of the songs before for cabaret-type things (You Can’t Stop The Beat and Mama I’m a Big Girl Now), but hadn’t heard anything else.

I’ve heard a lot of wonderful reviews of the show from friends who love theatre, and friends who are in the business, but color me very underwhelmed by the recording.

The opening song (Good Morning Baltimore) was a great tune, but pretty poorly orchestrated/mixed/produced, IMHO. Which is something the whole CD suffered from. The band sounds like it’s miles away from the singers in most numbers.

I also can’t can’t can’t stand Harvey Harvey Fierstein’s singing voice; it seems more unbearable than I remember it being in the past, almost like he was playing up his own scratchy voice so much that I just aaarrgh!

I know that the quality of a cast recording is not always a good indicator of the quality of a show, but this one certainly didn’t inspire me to go buy tickets.

Go buy tickets anyway.