West Side Story (1993 UK Revival Cast - Highlights - Madacy Release) [Cast Recording]

Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, West Side Story (Related Recordings), Paul Manuel, Caroline O'Conner, John Owen Edwards, National Symphony Orchestra, Sally Burgess | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 16, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording
• Label: Madacy Records
• ASIN: B000000KA3
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #599,308 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Jet song

2. Something's coming

3. Maria

4. America

5. Cool

6. One hand, one heart

7. Quintet (Tonight)

8. I feel pretty

9. Gee, Officer Krupke

10. A boy like that

11. I have a love

12. Somewhere

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice try!, July 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: West Side Story (1993 UK Revival Cast - Highlights - Madacy Release) (Audio CD)

I bought this recording after I had just completed a run of West Side Story, and was desperately looking for voices that recreated the magic of the show I had just performed in. Caroline O'Connor is a great Anita, but once more, this production has changed a lot of the original material in hopes, I think, of spicing things up and to present them in a new light, when the original material is flawless as it is. It is a new fresh sound, but nothing compared to the Original Broadway cast. And also, it seems that London productions always have a harder time with true New-York accents, or anything else that isn't British or Cockney. I wouldn't particularly recommend this recording, but it definitely is one of the better ones that was made of this fabulous show.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A dead ringer for the real thing, January 8, 2007

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: West Side Story (1993 UK Revival Cast - Highlights - Madacy Release) (Audio CD)

One would expect a British revival of West Side Story to be all wrong--the slighest Britishness in the accents would be ruinous. This excellent revival overcomes that obstacles, with ZJets and Sharks doing the damnedest to sound like dead ringers for the original Broadway cast. Only Paul Manuel as Tony dips into a Cockney accent, yet he has a great voice, better in fact than anyone who's sung Tony since Larry Kert fifty years ago. Tinuke Olafimihan is a light lyric soprano, a bit tremulous and unesteady as Maria, but no more so than Carol Lawrence. She, too, excels any rival in the various competitors to the original cast album. Thrown in a great Anita and fine orchestral work, and the result is a dark horse in the West Side Story race.