Customer Reviews

Marie Christine - Vocal Selections

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This book contains vocal selections from LaChiusa's fantastic, memorable musical Marie Christine. It's a great improvement on the poor job that was done on the Hello Again book and includes the great songs "Beautiful", "Way Back to Paradise", and "I Don't Hear the Ocean" in generally ideal piano/voice arrangements. It also includes some versions of songs which are different from the original cast recording of the show, which leads me to wonder what the extent of the music not included on the album was and whether or not some of the selections date back to before the final version of the show was made. The most notable of these songs is one called "The Adventure Never Ends" (a song which includes the music titled "The Storm" on the cast album along with an entire section of music I'd never heard before and is interesting although not particularly moving) which is lumped together with the songs "Nothing Beats Chicago", "Ocean is Different", and "Danced with a Girl" under the title "Dante" (a puzzling conglomeration, but perhaps an earlier version of the show had these songs together). Likewise puzzling is the segue from "The Scorpion" (a song the folio could have done well without, likewise the long-winded "Cincinatti") into a duet version of the lovely "I Will Love You". "No Turning Back" another selection that is fairly uninteresting, and the haunting, harrowing "Tell Me" round out the book. The latter is notable because so many of the notes are different than the ones Audra McDonald sings on the recording, making me wonder if the notes were changed later because they are so different that they seem more than just an artist's liberties. Also, although there are a good number of songs, it's a pity that some superior songs were not included such as "Miracles and Mysteries", "Paradise is Burning Down", and "Prison in a Prison." All in all this is definitely worth getting since the actual score is unavailable.