Customer Reviews

A Chorus Line - The New Broadway Cast Recording (2006 Broadway Revival Cast)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

It's nice to see such a great show back on Broadway, but this recording just can't escape the shadow of the orginal (and far superior) production. Most everything feels slowed down - too slowed down. I gave it a couple of listens, but it just didn't have the magic. Best tracks:

At The Ballet
The Music And The Mirror
What I Did For Love
One/Finale

Worth the ticket? - Absolutely!, but pick up the landmark 1975 recording instead of this merely "passable" version.

Having seen the original in 1975 shortly after it opened, and subseqeuntly, different casts over the years, I was hugely disappointed in this production. While it would be unfair to expect the current revival to have the same impact as the original (they were, after all, playing their own lives), this is oddly unmoving. Every performer seems to be "acting", whereas the original, they all came aross as natural and real.
Charlotte D'Amboise is talented but her performance is forced. Though she is constantly at work in NY, she lacks that something that would make her a megawatt Broadway star. Donna MacKechnie had that quality. In ACL she was heartbreaking, her dancing was pure passion and desperation, and you totally understood why she could not blend into the chorus, she was such a standout, so amazingly talented with such star quality it was sometimes difficult to stop watching her when the other cast members were performing. D'Amboise comes across as just another member of the ensemble, and in The Music and The Mirror, is really emoting, and dancing really, really hard. In her singing she punches every word and every lyric as if to say " I am an actress!!!" Her song is difficult to listen to.
While there is a little more music on this cast album, stick to the OBC to get what it was all about.
I thought to the novice who'd never seen ACL, that this production would seem wonderful, but I have a sister and her husband who recently saw this (and had never seen any production before) and they found it rather dull and ineffective. The original simply overwhelmed with it's brilliance...not here. BTW avoid the dismal mess of a movie at all costs.
Still, when a musical such as ACL chnges the face of musical theater, I say "Bravo" to any production available!!

There are several questions I have after listening to this CD.

Why are the tempos so crazy? The opening number plods along like a funeral march, while At The Ballet zips past as if the performers are on crank. Part of me suspects that cast is performing against a pre-recorded accompaniment track.

Why does everything sound so thin? These orchestrations were created to achieve maximum resonance in live acoustic settings. On this CD, it's like every single instrument is separately mic'ed and mixed to within an inch of its life, sometimes to the detriment of the overall sound. Sometimes, obviously live instruments sound like MIDI. Usually it's the sound engineer's job to make the opposite happen!

Why are the vocals so "hot"? In the OBC, there were occasions when the entire chorus would get overwhelmed by reverb and full-sounding orchestra. Now it's the vocals that tear at the balance.

Who cast this show? I'm not going to single any one cast member out because it would rude, but -- oh screw it. You deserve to know. This Cassie is some serious vocal ugly. I didn't once wonder along with Zach why she was stuck auditioning on the line, like I did with Ms. Donna McKechnie's fabulous triple threat.

Why not update some of the orchestrations? I have a deep and abiding respect for Jonathan Tunick (who is among my top three favorite Broadway creative types), but it's 2006. Wah wah pedals are out.

Overall, although this CD is good for completists, it's not going to knock the OBC recording out of it's slot as the definitive A CHORUS LINE recording. If you don't have a Chorus Line CD and are trying to decide which one to buy, track down the re-mastered version of the original broadway cast. It's vintage, but it has a raw warmth that is missing from the revival cast.

The movie was trash. And this revival isn't much better. I saw the original both in Workshop at the Public in NYC and 5 times at the Shubert. AND ... this new revival though I give them all credit for trying ... it just doesn't cut it. There isn't any magic in the mirror. Ed Kleban ... are you rolling over in your grave??? Someone wrote that the arrangements et al were pretty close to the original. Not! There is just something missing here in this production. Perhaps it's the fact that everyone is trying to mirror ... er ... create (re-create) the original. Perhaps it might have been better had they had felt less restricted (in creating a historic theater fable) and had more freedom to get up the energy, drive and passion A CHORUS LINE must have to tell all the stories.

Well, this is A Chorus Line. I don't hear much difference from the original. Sound quality is a little better, the voices are a little bit better, and there are a few added notes here and there, but overall I don't feel this is a must have if you already own the original. Now if you have to choose between which one to get, I would say get this one. As I've said the sound quality and some voices ARE better on this one, but not so drastically that you need this one. I like A Chorus Line and I am happy I got this CD, but it definitely doesn't wipe the original off the map. I suggest this for collectors, and younger new listeners. Favorite song: "What I Did For Love"

If you've seen the revival on Broadway, you know that the entire cast dances beautifully. Unfortunately, you can't see them dancing on the recording and while everyone always thinks of this as a "dancer's show" anyone who has seen the score knows how challenging the music is.

While there are a few cast members with exceptional voices, a few of them (including one in particular - you'll know who when you listen to the recording) fall a bit short of today's standards in the vocal department.

They should have added a song in this version called "Dance 10, Voice 2"...and not for Val!

I was disappointed when I saw the revival on Broadway (again, a few standouts like the actors who play Bebe, Don, Al, Val), but figured that they'd "correct" the vocal mistakes I heard while seeing it live on the recording (where they could do multiple takes). Alas, it's not any better on the recording.

The new orchestrations are nice and it's great that more of the amazing score was included, but this recording falls short. I'm sticking to the original.

It was, and remains, one singular sensation. A Chorus Line changed the face of American musical theater, with an urbane book by Nick Dante and James Kirkwood and sophisticated yet obvious lyrics and music by Ed Kleban and Marvin Hamlisch. The Pulitzer prize-winning musical has been resurrected in Broadway and on CD . . . And we can't wonder why. Those familiar with the original cast recording will cringe at the flatness of the "new" recording, a recording that's simultaneously intrusive on the memory and superfluous in any collection. Is this what Baayork Lee did for love?

Is the new cast album superior to the original cast album? Can't say. Was the original cast album of 'A Chorus Line" superior to the new cast album? Can't say. With the exception of "What I Did For Love" the finale version of "One" and say "I Can Do That" the bulk of the music from "Chorus Line" demands viewing the staged performance of the show to fully appreciate the staccato and quirky rhythms of this exhilerating score.

The singing is on a par with the original but then its the dancing that counts in this show. But Priscilla Lopez from the original as Diana Morales and her thrilling rendition as the lead on "What I Did For Love" is much better than the present Morales, Natalie Cortez while good lacks the heart-breakingly hopeful determination of Ms Lopez.

And although I haven't seen the show as yet I am convinced no one can match the dancing of Donna Mckechnie on "The Music and the Mirror" This was the moment in the original 1975 production when the audience as a whole sucked in their breaths in amazement and awe at the sight of Ms Mckechnie alone on stage in front of the mirrors in one of the most dazzling displays of choreography ever witnessed on a Broadway stage.

This Cd is also ten minutes longer and contains a bit of dialogue and bits of music edited out of the original recording and virtually restores the entire twenty minute sequence of "Hello,Twelve, Hello Thirteen,Hello Love"

When all is said and done this is a grand recording of "A Chorus Line" and it can hold its' head up high next to the revered original and all I can say to the new "Line" is... WELCOME.

I am only in my 20's but I did grow up listening to the original album of A Chorus Line (my mom used to play it while we were cleaning) and I gotta say that this remake is awful. The original cast had great passion in their voices and the new cast is very blah. I don't recomend this at all. If you really love and appreciate the music find a copy of the orginal and I know that you will enjoy it much better.

Look - you can compare "original cast recordings" with "revival recordings" all you like but will you really find the true defining work.
I have seen this show a number of times including an early Broadway cast and I have to say that in my humble opinion this recording holds up very well indeed. It is great to have a more complete recording than the original. This one sparkles in its own way - but then so it should - after all recording techniques have changed over the years, and CD's allow more content than vinyl.
So which is better? I won't say - because each has its own appeal. So go like me and have both the OBC AND this revival!!!
You'll love both I am sure!