What cast recordings are you currently listening to?

"Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 OBC" is now available on Spotify... Or maybe it was available earlier, but I couldn't find it

This afternoon, the original Guys and Dolls (Robert Alda, Vivian Blaine, Stubby Kaye). For my money Guys and Dolls has as close to perfect a score as a musical is ever likely to get. This recording still sounds incredibly vivid, and there's a lot of joy in finding just how little modern interpretations have varied. Tremendous fun in "Sue Me" & "Marry the Man".

Big Fish and Side Show have been on lately for me

War Paint is beautifully recorded.

Also listening a lot to Evan Hansen, Come From Away, Great Comet and Hello Dolly

I've been all over both Kinky Boots recordings since I saw it last week. Although I don't normally love a live album I definatly (predicatably) prefer Killian's voice so mainly that one!

And, if anyone could help me, there's an old song that has "Bojangles" in the title, that isn't "Mr. Bojangles" and has some excellent dance - can't for the life of me remember how to find it.

On a bit of a Once kick right now. There's a couple of tracks the London cast recorded for Spotify that I really love.

There was a good NY Times article on local references in Hedwig the other day -

What’s Your City’s ‘Newly Annoying’ Neighborhood? Ask Hedwig.

“Hedwig and the Angry Inch” always uses topical and local references written just for the cities where it plays. So it’s natural that when the musical’s national tour finishes in Washington next month, Hedwig, played by Euan Morton, will save her wrath for the most topical local of them all: President Trump.

John Cameron Mitchell, who created the show with Stephen Trask, explains that Hedwig, an East German transgender glam-rocker who escapes Communism, “will be identifying with another Eastern European gold digger.”

The line? “I sit in my mobile home watching the Berlin Wall come down, recalling with envy Mother’s escape to sunny Yugoslavia with the help of her close friend Melania. We are all Melania now.”

Other typical targets include local celebrities, conservative politicians, hipster enclaves and the “rough street in town,” explained Mr. Morton, who along with Mr. Mitchell, wrote most of the material for this part of the tour. They get advice from Michael Rudd, the assistant company manager, who from city to city collects suggestions from residents on references that might click.

Here’s a look at how Hedwig describes her visit to a “newly annoying” neighborhood in several of those cities — a moment that regularly gets a big laugh.

Boston

LINE “It all went down in the newly annoying Seaport District. I had just been barred from entering the gender-neutral bathroom at Legal Harborside when a limo pulled up.”

WHY IT WORKS The Seaport District is not unlike the meatpacking district in New York, which, with its celebrity-hunting partygoers, was the “newly annoying” reference for the Broadway run. Legal Harborside, an upscale spinoff of a classic Boston seafood restaurant, is popular with singles and tourists.

Chicago

LINE “It all went down in the newly annoying Wicker Park. I had just been barred from entering the gender-neutral bathroom at Violet Hour (and it took me 45 minutes just to find the doorknob!) when a limo pulled up.”

WHY IT WORKS Wicker Park is a West Side neighborhood awash in bicycles and blunt-cut hairstyles. Violet Hour is a cocktail bar that serves “pre-Prohibition-style libations.” A rotation of artists design the bar’s speakeasy entrance, often making it difficult to locate the door.

Dallas

LINE “It all went down in the newly annoying Cedar Springs strip. I had just been barred from the Rose Room — Cassie Nova found me in her dressing room trying on her costumes.”

WHY IT WORKS Cedar Springs is a commercial strip in Oak Lawn, the city’s gentrified gayborhood. Rose Room is a high-tech drag-show lounge inside the nightclub Station 4. Cassie Nova is a popular longtime drag queen with a potty mouth and a Texas twang.

Durham and Charlotte, N.C.

LINE “I had just been barred from the gender-neutral bathroom at Pat McCrory’s house.”

WHY IT WORKS Last year Mr. McCrory, the former Republican governor of North Carolina, signed House Bill 2, which mandated that transgender people use the bathrooms matching the gender listed on their birth certificates.

San Francisco

LINE “It all went down in the newly annoying Mission District. I had just been barred from entering the gender-neutral bathroom on an idling Google bus when an Uber XL pulled up.”

WHY IT WORKS Silicon Valley millionaires have transformed the Mission, historically home to working-class Latinos, into “Williamsburg on steroids,” as one writer put it. Google offers employees private shuttle bus service to and from its campus in nearby Mountain View, Calif., a perk that’s been the object of scorn and protests.

I've spent today hashing together a presentation to teach some students a (brief) history of musical theatre on Friday. And in hunting youtube clips I've re-discovered some gems I haven't listened to in an age (Hair, West Side Story, Anything Goes) and some choice turkeys (Tarzan, Little Mermaid, Spiderman...) As well as reminding me of some personal favourites I WILL convince them are worthy of scholarship (or at least a listen) including Legally Blonde and Groundhog Day. All rounded off with a LOT of 'Company' as I'm using that as a set text for discussion.

Phew! Some of those will make it back into my playlists.

Pink is a highlight indeed. A very well crafted song expertly delivered. As you say, a shame the rest of the score isn't quite as good.

Just finished listening to War Paint for the first time and oh my gosh I LOVE IT!!! My 2nd favourite new OBCR next to Groundhog Day. It's just full so so much sass, brass, style, substance and it's just old school musical beltresses giving it some. Lush orchestrations too. Love the music, some lyrics are questionable. But on the whole, this kind of musical is so much more personally up my street rather than something like Dear Evan Hansen, which I still moderately enjoyed, but not as much as some. And Patti LuPone is so unintelligible it's like she's doing her own Forbidden Broadway impression and I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF IT. Her line reading of her first line on the recording just had me and I was gone. Pink is also a wonderful 5 mins of MT heaven!