Cast Albums Blog

Month Archive:  March 2018

REVIEW: Working - Original London Cast


Recording Cover

Over the past few years, London’s Southwark Playhouse has built an enviable reputation as the home of an eclectic series of productions of American musicals. Productions from a 250-seat fringe theatre south of the river, though, do not usually yield cast recordings, so the new (and thoroughly enjoyable) cast album from last year’s European premiere production of Working is a very welcome surprise. Luke Sheppard’s production was a dazzling, more-or-less perfect gem in the theatre, but plenty of theatrical gems have gone unrecorded. This one, though, has a unique selling-point: two brand-new(ish) songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda augmenting the score’s (already) eclectic range of songs from a diverse set of composers and lyricists.

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REVIEW: Once on This Island - 2018 Broadway Cast


Recording Cover

Can a cast recording be "too perfect?" That's the question I kept asking myself as I listened to the new Broadway cast recording of the 1990 Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens musical Once on this Island, now receiving its first-ever Broadway revival. The answer is an unfortunate "yes." Before I explain how I get to this unusual pronouncement, some context is in order. This might be the third cast album of Once on this Island, but there was really a need for a new recording of this score. Both the original Broadway cast album and the London cast album, while full of musical vitality and energy, are marred by some pitchy performances (the London album in particular), so much so that at least for this reviewer, despite the wonderful breakout performance of La Chanze on the original cast album, I always found a number of tracks on both recordings to be uncomfortably unlistenable.

Which brings us to the new Broadway cast recording. Produced by Broadway Records (it’s their 100th release-congrats!) and featuring a first-rate cast, led by newcomer Hailey Kilgore, the new album is technically flawless. Not a single pitchy performance in sight and full of warmth and musicality. So why then my hesitation in wholeheartedly recommending this recording? What the album has in spades: smoothness, clarity, and polish, it sadly lacks in excitement and personality. It’s unclear as to whether the performers were asked to tamp down their performances or if the album is simply mixed in a way by Elliot Scheiner that put the vocals on the same level as every drum or xylophone, but the result is an album that is "pleasant" and "nice," when it should be electrifying and musically transcendent. Because in the theater, that’s exactly what these performances are: exhilarating and rafter-raising. On stage, Hailey Kilgore is a strong, passionate Ti Moune, but her performance here doesn’t hold a candle to that of La Chanze. But again, maybe that’s not her fault.

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