Wednesday is Drowsy Chaperone Day?
Feb. 21st, 2007 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuA co-worker saw The Drowsy Chaperone last weekend, and he bought the vinyl album. We lent one another our CDs today so each could hear what's on the other recording, and here's my report:
The recordings are basically identical. They've taken the music tracks and remixed them with some new dialog and without Man In Chair. I miss him.
The vinyl contains the 1928 dialog that introduces "Fancy Dress," "Show Off," "Aldolpho," and "Toledo Surprise." Of those, only "Toledo Surprise" really adds anything that I wish were on the regular recording. The vinyl treats "George's Triumph" and "I Do, I Do in the Sky" as a single track. And it's as disorienting to hear the end of "Toledo Surprise" straight through as it was to hear "I Do, I Do in the Sky" uninterrupted.
The 1928 dialog that I really wish they'd included was the Drowsy Chaperone's scratched line. "You have no idea how many times I've listened to that."
But here's the kicker: There are places in the music which are, of course, written to be played under MiC's commentary. Without his presence, those areas are, musically, deathly dull. His interpolations in "Monkey" are critical; without them, Janet's lines don't make sense. It would have been far better if they'd have recorded alternate arrangements of those sections with something else going on.
So, in sum, I'm glad I got a chance to compare the two, but I'm not going to spend $50 on the novelty souvenir when the regular CD includes my favorite character, the Man in Chair. What more do you need for an evening's entertainment?
The recordings are basically identical. They've taken the music tracks and remixed them with some new dialog and without Man In Chair. I miss him.
The vinyl contains the 1928 dialog that introduces "Fancy Dress," "Show Off," "Aldolpho," and "Toledo Surprise." Of those, only "Toledo Surprise" really adds anything that I wish were on the regular recording. The vinyl treats "George's Triumph" and "I Do, I Do in the Sky" as a single track. And it's as disorienting to hear the end of "Toledo Surprise" straight through as it was to hear "I Do, I Do in the Sky" uninterrupted.
The 1928 dialog that I really wish they'd included was the Drowsy Chaperone's scratched line. "You have no idea how many times I've listened to that."
But here's the kicker: There are places in the music which are, of course, written to be played under MiC's commentary. Without his presence, those areas are, musically, deathly dull. His interpolations in "Monkey" are critical; without them, Janet's lines don't make sense. It would have been far better if they'd have recorded alternate arrangements of those sections with something else going on.
So, in sum, I'm glad I got a chance to compare the two, but I'm not going to spend $50 on the novelty souvenir when the regular CD includes my favorite character, the Man in Chair. What more do you need for an evening's entertainment?
Drowsy Vinyl
Date: 2007-02-21 05:09 pm (UTC)Re: Drowsy Vinyl
Date: 2007-02-26 02:45 am (UTC)But as a drooling fanboy, I had hoped for more from the recording. As it stands, I think the vinyl is less entertaining than the regular CD, and that's a shame. It bursts the fantasy bubble and reminds us that this whole enterprise is artificial, much as that moment in "Show Off" does. (You must know the one I mean. I'm trying to keep this spoiler-free.)
By the way, who are you?