Thanks for all the suggestions guys, some i know and love and some i am looking into. I have been listening to “Wicked” and loving it since it came out (which also led to me reading the wonderfull book). “Last 5 Years” may very well be my favorite show ever simply for the fact that it feels so RAW and REAL, there is no great universal tradgedy…nobody dies(yet it makes my bawl every time)…it just feel like a very real and loving relationship that has very real problem…set to music. That and the music is amazing.
I had briefly listened to CHESS and strangely don’t recall finding it particularly impressive, but seeing as how it’s getting so many reccomendations and a friend of mine has a recording i will definately give it a fair chance soon. Some of the shows you guys are listing that i’ve never heard of i’m looking into on amazon and i’m considering finally making some of my friends happy and giving Sweeny Todd a go.
My turn, if you havn’t already check out the London musical “Blood Brothers” for excellent music and drama. And for the comedic side look at the often insane bluegrass “Robber Bridegroom” (Barry Bostwick was the original lead). Both shows i have come to love by performing in them on a community level having no prior knowledge of them.
I would also recommend Chess, though only the original concept CD - not the American Original B’way Cast recording (that is a totally different show, in my book).
For more obscure Sondheim, I recommend Pacific Overtures. Not often produced, but very good.
I also recommend Nine. It’s a musical version of Fellini’s 8 ½, but don’t let the seeming impossibility of that idea turning out well fool you – it’s quite good.
I know I’m out of touch with the modern musical theatre scene, but I didn’t realize how much until this thread! ( for me, for the thread)
I listened to the sampler on Amazon, and have added this CD to my wish list. It’s weird, but the 30 seconds I heard of Moving Too Fast immediately reminded me of Rum Tum Tugger…in terms of both the music and the guy’s voice.
Just in case you’re not familiar with them, there’s a reason some of the popular ones are popular, namely, they’re really really good. In particular, I suggest West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar and Les Miserables
If you prefer more obscure, how about The Fantasticks and Jekyll and Hyde
And I heartily endorse Chess, Pippin and Guys and Dolls
The absolute definitely best recording of Chess is the Danish touring cast. The original CD had only one pressing, sold very quickly, and when it was announced that there were some copywright disputes with 5 songs and they would be deleted from future pressings, the remaining copies were snatched up. If you find the original (it does NOT have the “One Night in Bangkok” mixes), buy it.
The second & subsquent pressings are still a great CD of a great show. And yes, it’s in English.
There is also a DVD of the Swedish cast, if you want to see how the show looks. And yes, it’s in Swedish.
I think I have the first pressing–mine only has one version of “One Night In Bangkok”, but could you list the songs that are missing from the later pressing? (I’m assuming stuff like “Commie Newspapers”, in which case I do have the first). Now you’ve got me curious!
And I’d quibble. This is a much more complete version certainly, but I don’t think it’s as well sung. Without Paige and Head it can’t quite (IMO) complete with the original concept version. I’d say “Get both!”
“Commie Newspapers,” “Press Conference,” “Der Kleine Franz,” “Anatoly and the Press,” “One More Opponent,” and “Talking Chess” are the deleted songs (six, not five). Like I posted above, this is a very rare CD, so hold onto it.
I go along with your assessment to buy both CDS. One has Murray Head, but the other one has Zubin Varla!
Back to the OP; a couple of other musicals I’d recommend:
Bloomer Girl; by the team that would later go on to Finnian’s Rainbow. A couple of great songs (“The Eagle And Me”, “The Farmer’s Daughter”. “Sunday in Cicero Falls”) a bunch of good ones, plus Dooley (“As Time Goes By”) Wilson sings.
How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying–The original cast with Robert Morse…he’s the only actor in the entire history of the universe able to make J. Pierpont Finch a loveable character, since he’s the only actor in the world to be able to present a likeable smirk (whether vocal or visual). The Matthew Broderick version is just blah. By Frank Loesser (“Guys and Dolls”)
Blondel-Out of print and hard to find, this one’s as good as Chess,and much funnier. A minstrel has to go out and find King Richard (at the same time Robin Hood’s fighting Prince John). Hysterically funny stuff. It opens with a barbershop quartet of monks singing (in the style of the Beach Boy’s “Barbara Ann”) a benidictus ("Beh-Beh-Beh, Beh-Benidictus,[sup]Beh-Beh-Beh, Beh-Benidictus[/sup] etc) and gets better from there.
The Baker’s Wife, by the guy who did Pippin and Wicked. There’s not much story which is why the musical keeps failing (An older baker and his young wife come to a town, she runs off with a younger hunk, he gets depressed, she comes back realizing that love is better than horniness. That’s it.) but the music is so damned good that people keep trying to put it on.
In Blondel I have to mention the subplot of King John hiring the A-double S-A-double S-i-n to kill Blondel. Oh, to bring Blondel to Broadway with Brian Stokes Mitchell as the Assassin, who has the two best songs.
Assassin:I’m an A-double-S-A-double-S…
Prince John: An athsmatic?
Assassin:A-double-S-A-double-S…
Prince John: An asparagus?
Assassin: An A… :: double take :: Yes. I’m an asparagus :rolleyes:. An A-double-S A-double-S-IN!
Prince John: OH! You’re an assassin!
The big problem with Blondel is that Fiona comes across as a completely unlikable bitch. There needs to be some way to soften her. Maybe it was the actress, but on the record, boy is she shrill.
Good use of the aspargus green smilies. I think Fiona could be softened; I see her as a person who has simply taken too much crap in her life.
The "guy who did Pippin and Wicked is Stephen Schwartz, who also did “Godspell” “The Magic Show” and “Grind” (if you want to talk obscure shows) and some Disney movies :rolleyes: before returning to Broadway with “Wicked.” All of his shows are worth a listen. He also was drafted by Leonard Bernstein to help compose Bernstein’s “Mass.” A damn good work, and one I highly recommend.
I really think that’s the problem. She didn’t come across as someone who’d been hurt, she seemed like a bitch. When she breaks into Blondel’s song at the beginning (I hate that part), she’s in full-force harpy mode–it seems like she’s intentionally disrupting his song rather than simply unintetionally interrupting. Plus whatshername has a buzz-saw voice that just grated. I’d love to hear someone with a gentler voice…Brightman in her younger days for example, play her.
The "guy who did Pippin and Wicked is Stephen Schwartz,
[/quote]
I knew that, but it was like, 6:00 and I couldn’t remember how to spell “Schwartz” (I didn’t remember the “c”)
Nope. “Grind” was by Larry Grossman (who also did “Snoopy!” and “Minnie’s Boys”. (You’re right though–it is an obscure show! ). Schwartz’s other two biggies are “Working” (which he only did part of) and “Children of Eden” (which, if you can get the original London version (one cd with a woman on the cover), I highly recommend it)
I love Songs for a New World, also by Jason Robert Brown. It has no plot (it’s not supposed to), but the songs are great and it manages to have emotional depth even without a plot.
Nope. “Grind” was by Larry Grossman (who also did “Snoopy!” and “Minnie’s Boys”. (You’re right though–it is an obscure show! ). Schwartz’s other two biggies are “Working” (which he only did part of) and “Children of Eden” (which, if you can get the original London version (one cd with a woman on the cover), I highly recommend it)[/QUOTE]
D’oh :smack: I always confuse “Grind” with being a Schwartz musical, being one of about 12 people who saw it on Broadway with Ben Vereen, who of course hit superstardom & a Tony with “Pippin.”
You forgot to mention Schwartz’s “Rags.” Another obscure one.
Fiona was played by Sharon Lee Hill, who also was in the OLC of “The Baker’s Wife.”
Oooh. You’re right. What’s interesting is listening to it back-to-back with the OBC of Fiddler—the last notes of “Anatevka” blend perfectly into the first notes of the Overture of Rags. And since Julia Miguiness(sp) was in both and (IIRC again) she was the one who married the snotty “intellectual” one, (who could very easily turn into her no-good husband in “Rags”), it’s very easy to see it as a sequel.
(The only daughter who got a worthwhile husband was the one who ended up with the tailor. The Cossack and the budding Commie were both losers, IMO. Excluding whichever daugher ended up with the tailor, the other two woulda been better off letting Yenta fix 'em up. )
Annie, you have me drooling for this Danish version now. Is begging fellow dopers for a burned copy against the rules? If so, I will just beg for info on where to find such a treat.
for me, 
for the thread)
It’s weird, but the 30 seconds I heard of Moving Too Fast immediately reminded me of Rum Tum Tugger…in terms of both the music and the guy’s voice.