wombat1138 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wombat1138) wrote2007-11-07 03:41 am
wombat1138) wrote2007-11-07 03:41 am
musical chairs
Having found out that Philip Quast has a lead role as Archibald Craven in the cast album of the London revival of The Secret Garden, I'm torn whether to order it from Amazon. It should be a no-brainer, considering that I love the original Broadway cast album of TSG and was very impressed by Quast's Inspector Javert in both the complete symphonic studio version and the 10th anniversary concert recording of Les Miserables... but I suppose I'm not quite sure how Quast would fit into the part, nor whether I'll like the revival's reputed change of focus.
I do already have a highlights recording (courtesy of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vian_l) of the Australian production of TSG, with Quast as Neville and Anthony Warlow as Archibald... and while I adore Warlow's voice, both on a purely aural level and in its ability to convey the nuances of a character, even then I wasn't sure how well he fit in there, compared to Mandy Patinkin as the original Archibald in the Broadway cast recording. Patinkin's tenor gave me a very clear sense of Archibald's emotional fragility-- his constant need to escape the unbearable portions of his life, whether by secluding himself inside his manor or fleeing abroad, and his paradoxical constant immersion in heartsick memories of the past--amd I just didn't get such a clear, immediate impression from Warlow in the role.
Somewhat similarly, while I thought Quast was good as Neville, I can't help comparing his performance to Robert Westenberg's in the Broadway TSG, and probably liked it better than Warlow's Archibald because it diverged less from the original. (Yeah, it's unfair of me not to be able to listen to the Australian album in its own right, but it's dang hard to un-imprint internal soundtracks. Westenberg's voice is another one that makes me melty, ever since the first time I heard him on the original Broadway Into the Woods cast album in the dual role of Wolf (to Red Riding Hood) and Prince (to Cinderella), and it's too bad that he doesn't have a lot of recordings-- the only other one I can think of is Sunday in the Park with George (original cast album), where he only had a few cursory lines; even Brent Spiner's small role was larger (and meanwhile, Patinkin had the lead role there as George).
To continue the haphazard daisy chain, the revival cast album of 1776 (with Brent Spiner leading as John Adams) is one of the few redundant versions I've kept in my collection (alongside the original cast album). At one point, I acquired the cast album for the 1990s Broadway revival of Candide, but compared to the slightly earlier concept album that Leonard Bernstein had conducted himself shortly before his death (iirc), it just didn't feel right and I traded it in somewhere. The main semi-exception I can think of is Evita, of which I used to (and possibly still may somewhere) have cassettes of the Broadway cast album with Patti LuPone and (again) Mandy Patinkin, but my CD collection has the movie soundtrack with Madonna and Antonio Banderas. (I thought Madonna sang the role surprisingly well, although she still couldn't act; it remains an eternal mystery to me how she has always looked perfectly poised and expressive in her music videos, but turn off the beatbox and give her spoken lines and she turns into wood.)
...but back to TSG, apparently the London revival changed the production to focus back on the children again, bringing it closer to the book from the darker, more psychological bent of the original production. Which is fine and dandy if you're into that sort of thing, rather like the typical school productions of Into the Woods which lop off the entire second half, but... urgh. Can't articulate at the mo. Contact lenses getting blurry and it's time to go back to bed anyway before it's already time to get back up again.
(Last random tangent-- over the past few years, we've gotten to see staged concert versions of both Candide and Sweeney Todd, both iirc starring George Hearn. Am fizzy with anticipatory glee at the upcoming movie version of Sweeney Todd-- Johnny Depp! and Alan Rickman! (and possibly a cameo of Anthony Stewart Head!) all singing!!!! (...and Helena Handbasket-Carter. Meh.))
I do already have a highlights recording (courtesy of
vian_l) of the Australian production of TSG, with Quast as Neville and Anthony Warlow as Archibald... and while I adore Warlow's voice, both on a purely aural level and in its ability to convey the nuances of a character, even then I wasn't sure how well he fit in there, compared to Mandy Patinkin as the original Archibald in the Broadway cast recording. Patinkin's tenor gave me a very clear sense of Archibald's emotional fragility-- his constant need to escape the unbearable portions of his life, whether by secluding himself inside his manor or fleeing abroad, and his paradoxical constant immersion in heartsick memories of the past--amd I just didn't get such a clear, immediate impression from Warlow in the role.Somewhat similarly, while I thought Quast was good as Neville, I can't help comparing his performance to Robert Westenberg's in the Broadway TSG, and probably liked it better than Warlow's Archibald because it diverged less from the original. (Yeah, it's unfair of me not to be able to listen to the Australian album in its own right, but it's dang hard to un-imprint internal soundtracks. Westenberg's voice is another one that makes me melty, ever since the first time I heard him on the original Broadway Into the Woods cast album in the dual role of Wolf (to Red Riding Hood) and Prince (to Cinderella), and it's too bad that he doesn't have a lot of recordings-- the only other one I can think of is Sunday in the Park with George (original cast album), where he only had a few cursory lines; even Brent Spiner's small role was larger (and meanwhile, Patinkin had the lead role there as George).
To continue the haphazard daisy chain, the revival cast album of 1776 (with Brent Spiner leading as John Adams) is one of the few redundant versions I've kept in my collection (alongside the original cast album). At one point, I acquired the cast album for the 1990s Broadway revival of Candide, but compared to the slightly earlier concept album that Leonard Bernstein had conducted himself shortly before his death (iirc), it just didn't feel right and I traded it in somewhere. The main semi-exception I can think of is Evita, of which I used to (and possibly still may somewhere) have cassettes of the Broadway cast album with Patti LuPone and (again) Mandy Patinkin, but my CD collection has the movie soundtrack with Madonna and Antonio Banderas. (I thought Madonna sang the role surprisingly well, although she still couldn't act; it remains an eternal mystery to me how she has always looked perfectly poised and expressive in her music videos, but turn off the beatbox and give her spoken lines and she turns into wood.)
...but back to TSG, apparently the London revival changed the production to focus back on the children again, bringing it closer to the book from the darker, more psychological bent of the original production. Which is fine and dandy if you're into that sort of thing, rather like the typical school productions of Into the Woods which lop off the entire second half, but... urgh. Can't articulate at the mo. Contact lenses getting blurry and it's time to go back to bed anyway before it's already time to get back up again.
(Last random tangent-- over the past few years, we've gotten to see staged concert versions of both Candide and Sweeney Todd, both iirc starring George Hearn. Am fizzy with anticipatory glee at the upcoming movie version of Sweeney Todd-- Johnny Depp! and Alan Rickman! (and possibly a cameo of Anthony Stewart Head!) all singing!!!! (...and Helena Handbasket-Carter. Meh.))