Frankenstein: A New Musical [Cast Recording]

Mark Baron (Composer), Stephen Purdy (Conductor), Aaron Serotsky (Performer), Becky Barta (Performer), Casey Erin Clark (Performer), Christiane Noll (Performer), Hunter Foster (Performer), Jim Stanek (Performer), Leslie Henstock (Performer), Mandy Bruno (Performer), Nick Cartell (Performer), Patrick Mullen (Performer), Richard White (Performer), Steve Blanchard (Performer), Struan Erlenborn (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Aaron Serotsky, Becky Barta, Casey Erin Clark, Christiane Noll, Hunter Foster, et al.
• Conductor: Stephen Purdy
• Composer: Mark Baron
• Audio CD (September 30, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording
• Label: Ghostlight
• ASIN: B001EOQV5O
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,038 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Act 1. Prelude

2. Act 1. A Golden Age

3. Act 1. Find Your Way Home / A Golden Age (Part 2)

4. Act 1. Amen

5. Act 1. Birth To My Creation

6. Act 1. 1:15 A.M.

7. Act 1. Dear Victor / Burn The Laboratory

8. Act 1. The Hands of Time

9. Act 1. Your Father's Eyes

10. Act 1. The Creature's Tale (Part 1)

11. Act 1. The Waking Nightmare

12. Act 1. The Creature's Tale (Part 2)

13. Act 1. The Music of Love

14. Act 1. The Creature's Tale (Part 3)

15. Act 1. Why?

16. Act 1. The Proposition

17. Act 2. A Happier Day

18. Act 2. The Modern Prometheus

19. Act 2. Another Like Him

20. Act 2. The Workings of The Heart

See all 26 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great performers with not so great material, September 4, 2008

By 

Jon Kowing (Kansas City, MO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Frankenstein - A New Musical (MP3 Download)

I saw this show last fall during the stagehands' strike on Broadway. I so wanted to like this show. It seemed like a poor Off-Broadway underdog playing at the same time the big Broadway show Mel Brook's Young Frankenstein premiered. I'd been attracted by the amazing credentials and voices of the performers involved. This show is in what I'd call the Les Miz-style. Mostly sung, with the story hurtling forward with hardly a chance for a breath. And everything is so very, very earnest. You're made to feel a little guilty for just wanting a good, suspenseful, eerie monster story. Maybe with a little tragic romance. Instead it takes itself so very serious with its important issues of God and man and creation and, well, I just couldn't care because ultimately I didn't really care about any of the characters moving around an extremely uninteresting set with it's PowerPoint projections that told us where we were in what year. And it often seemed that everything truly dramatic and suspenseful happened off stage or behind a scrim.

Oh. And the music. The music didn't make me care too much about the characters either. Every "song" seemed more or less like the one preceding it. Except they didn't really seem so much like songs -- you could never really feel the shape of any tunes to grab onto, or that allowed any of the performers to shape into something enjoyable. I was so thankful when Hunter Foster finally got to sing "The Coming of the Dawn" almost at the very end. It was really the first time I felt he was able to just sing something that felt like a song and not just directionless declamatory drama. Amazingly, it seemed to be a real song. A nice power ballad that had a melody that stuck with me. It was the only thing that made a favorable impression on me. Well, I did buy a nice t-shirt in the lobby. I liked it. Still have it. It fits me well.

Check Frankenstein out for yourself though. If you enjoyed Les Miserables and some of the other attempts a bringing these old or gothic tales to musical theater (Jane Eyre, Lestat, Jekyll & Hyde and Phantom of the Opera come to mind) then you might find something to like in this.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful work of musical theatre, September 2, 2008

By 

Christopher Kuczewski - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Frankenstein - A New Musical (MP3 Download)

I had the pleasure of seeing this show Off-Broadway at 37Arts. I knew some of the score from the Workshop production (the cast recording of which is hard to come by these days) prior to seeing the show, but didn't know what to expect with this production. Little did I know that I would fall head-over-heels for the cast, the music, and the design of this show.

Of course, this new recording (featuring the entire cast from 37Arts minus Eric Michael Gillett - who is replaced by the splendid Richard White) doesn't SHOW anyone the design or staging of the show...but it manages to capture 74 minutes of the 95 minute show perfectly!

The cast includes Hunter Foster (URINETOWN, THE PRODUCERS), Steve Blanchard (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST), and Christiane Noll (JEKYLL & HYDE). I won't go into detail about these wonderful performers, but I will say that each gives a truly unique and powerful performance. Foster's "Birth to My Creation" and "The Coming of the Dawn" are more than worth the price of the CD (or download). Blanchard's savage "The Waking Nightmare" and haunting "These Hands" show a tortured Creature worthy of pity. Noll's beautiful voice and presence deserve a standing ovation, especially on "Dear Victor" and "The Workings of the Heart." Also a standout is Jim Stanek (LESTAT), particularly in "The Modern Prometheus."

The orchestrations are not the "biggest," but that lends to the show's intimacy. The recording is perfectly engineered and produced.

If anyone were to make the perfect cast recording of a fantastic musical, this would be it!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great Ear Torture, September 16, 2011

By 

Cornelius G. Kelly "God Loves Gaze" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Frankenstein: A New Musical (Audio CD)

Being an enormous fan of the amazing concept CD of Frankenstein Frankenstein, The Musical I was so pleased and felt assured that this CD would only enhance the original concept. I was wrong. This musical got on a train and the conductor toots the whistle and he never lets go of it for a minute. It is one long ride to nowhere because we don't care about any of the characters.

Get the original concept CD and hear just how beautiful this musical really is.