While the popular shows from “Oklahoma!” to “RENT” are wonderfull and all, i find my favorites tend to be lesser known and even obscure shows. So give me a soundtrack i can oder online (preferably amazon) that could fill my needs…i don’t care if it was ever on broadway, off broadway, what country it’s from, or if it was only perfromed in someone’s basement, as long as there is a cast recording in english let me know about it.
As far as tastes, i’m happy as long as it has some sort of emotional depth and compelling characters.
Oh my God I could go on for hours about musicals, but based on your description I’d suggest The Last 5 Years, by Jason Robert Brown. It’s a two-person show about a doomed marriage, and the guy moves forward in time, while the girl moves backwards. And the only time they ever sing together is that one moment when their timelines cross.
It’s the kind of musical that makes you wish you’d written it.
I’ve recently fallen in love with Merrily We Roll Along, and someone recently recommended Tick, Tick, Boom to me. It’s by the same guy who wrote RENT. I haven’t heard it yet. I also like Avenue Q and Songs for a New World. Let us know which of these suggestions you end up liking, so that we can try to find things that are similar.
I’ve linked to the original cast recording. There’s a cast recording of the revival, which isn’t nearly as good a performance, and a London cast recording, which is a good performance, but a poor recording.
There are three versions of Sweeny Todd available. I’ve linked to the original cast recording, which is quite good. The DVD of the play is a 1982 performance, in which Len Cariou was replaced by George Hearn, who is much better in the role. Unfortunately, there is no cast recording available of this version. The most recent version is of Sweeny Todd in concert, with Patti Lupone in the part played by Angela Landsbury on Broadway. Lupone equals Landsbury in every way, and you still have Hearn. Strangely, there is no cd available of this version, which is a concert and not a fully staged play. It’s only available on DVD.
I have the DVD’s for both, and I’ve watched them each a dozen times. They have yet to disappoint.
I have the original of Into the Woods, and the only reason I wish I’d gotten the revival recording is that they added a new song called “Our Little World,” which is a pretty good song. But Number Six seems to be the resident ITW soundtrack expert around here anyway.
Everyone’s mentioning relatively recent musicals, but here’s a (largely) unsung classic old-school production: The Pajama Game, by Adler & Ross, the duo behind Damn Yankees! Both the Original Cast soundtrack and the movie-version DVD are worth getting (both for the music, but the latter so you can also follow the terrific story)–It’s one of the few films Broadway superstar John Raitt made, and he is phenomenal in both.
There’s tons of new musicals out there. Titanic (Best Musical of 1997, no relation to the movie) is operatic, romantic, tragic, and has one of the best love songs of the 90’s (‘Still’.) The brand-new recording of Sondheim’s Assassins just came out a week ago and it’s fantastic.
More new ones I’ve liked:
Amour, Hedwig, Randy Newman’s Faust, Bat Boy, Ragtime, Zanna, Don’t!
Tons more out there. I’d check out Footlight Records in New York–ships as well as Amazon and specializes in cast recordings.
Another vote for The Pajama Game Adler and Ross are often overlooked, and are better remembered for Damn Yankees, though Pajama Game is a marginally better score, and rarely revived, due to inflation.*
A Class Act, a biography of Edward Kleban, lyricist of A Chorus Line. Kleban was a first-class songwriter, too.
The 1960s revival of Anything Goes, starring Hal Linden – they interpolated additional Cole Porter songs, all to the good.
