Broadway Today [From the Original Cast Recordings]

Product Review

This compilation gives a pretty good idea of what you'll hear if you buy a ticket for a Broadway show in 2003. Leaving revivals aside (there's no Man of La Mancha or Gypsy, for instance), the tracks tend to encompass contemporary songwriters on the Great White Way. Fittingly, the CD begins and concludes with numbers from Hairspray, arguably the most vibrant new pop musical to come down the pike in ages. Sandwiched between are songs by authors making a belated stage debut (Mel Brooks and The Producers, Billy Joel and Movin’ Out), arty newcomers (Janine Tesori and ) and seasoned pros (Alan Menken and Howard Ashman with Beauty and the Beast). Of course, the most seasoned pro of them all may well be Giacomo Puccini, making a belated Broadway debut thanks to Baz Lurhrmann's production of La Boheme. The addition of Chicago’s "All That Jazz" (from the movie, not the show!) reeks of opportunism, but overall it doesn't spoil a varied collection that should appeal to broad-minded pop lovers everywhere. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Title Tracks for Broadway Today [From the Original Cast Recordings]

1. Good Morning Baltimore (Hairspray)
2. The King of Broadway (The Producers)
3. Circle of Life (Lion King)
4. Movin' Out (Movin' Out)
5. Goodnight Saigon (Movin' Out)
6. Beauty and the Beast (Beauty and the Beast)
7. Mamma Mia (Mamma Mia)
8. O Soave Fanciulla (Baz Luhrman's La Boheme)
9. What Do I Need With Love? (Thoroughly Modern Millie)
10. I Wanna Be a Producer (The Producers)
11. Elaborate Lives (Aida)
12. You Can't Stop the Beat (Hairspray)
13. Overture/ All That Jazz (from the motion picture soundtrack Chicago)

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review

(1 customer review)

7 of 27 people found the following review helpful

What do I need with This?, July 5, 2003

musical_kid "musical_kid" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Broadway Today [From the Original Cast Recordings] (Audio CD)

If you are a broadway passer-by, someone who looks to getting to know just what's on broadway and not what's it like, someone who says he's seen all of the broadway shows after reading the "what's on listings" in the papers this is a CD for you. I don't own the CD but own all of the Cds from which songs were taken to make this CD. every musical has it's own style and kind of music, and this CD doesn't even take all the highlights. If you are into really experiencing something when listening to a cd, if you are a real broadway-lover and you are interested in modern musical-writing, every one of the original cast recordings (from which songs were taken to this CD-hairpsray, producers, millie, aida, b&b, boheme, moving out) will be a much bigger enjoyment for you than this one. and most preferabely- all of them! :)