New Sunday CD

Just got the new CD for the London revival of Sunday in the Park with George. It's not supposed to come out until the 30th, but for some reason Footlight had it as of last week.

On the whole, I'm somewhat nonplussed about the CD. It's always great to have another recording of a cherished show, but there's always the danger that it will never live up to the original, even if the quality is in fact equal to or greater than.

The orchestrations seem scaled down considerably. The performances are serviceable but undistinguished. One jarring difference in this recording is the use of English accents in act one. Yeah, I know: that's no different from using American accents on the original. The show is set in France, after all. But French accents would be pretentious and distracting. (As the Italian accents were in the revival of Nine.) And I must concede that the use of various English dialects to show class distinctions is an interesting touch. George sounds somewhat posh to convey his education level, while Dot has more of a working-class, East End, almost Cockney feel to her. The Boatman speaks with a Scottish brogue. Perhaps as I listen to the recording more, this will grow on me.

In the second act, everyone speaks with an American accent, and the results are uneven. Daniel Evans as George does a creditable job, but Jenna Russell as Marie has an unconvincing southern drawl. (Dot and Louie moved to Charleston, after all.) And much of the rest of the cast are so exaggerated, they seem like parodies. Accents may seem like a minor point to focus on, but they're inescapable on the recording, and very distracting.

The recording is significantly longer than the OCR, but most of what's added is dialog, which I am not a big fan of on cast recordings. The Damn Yankees revival recording is practically ruined by excess verbiage. One welcome addition is a bonus track of the extended version of "The One on the Left," which involves the soldier(s) and both Celestes. It's quite fun, and it must have been cut for time alone, because it certainly fits nicely within the show. I'm going to program it in it's rightful place on my iPod.