All Things Disney Music Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Aaron Silverman]

No, I'm listening to it on Spotify.

 

[Jake Lipson]

A press release from Sh-K-Boom which was posted on Alan Menken's Facebook page this morning:

For Release (February 1, 2016): The highly anticipated Studio Cast Recording of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the only stage collaboration from two masters of the American musical, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, debuted in the top spot on Billboard’s Cast Albums chart. The album, available from Ghostlight Records, is also the 14th bestselling current album overall for the week and number 47 on the Billboard Top 200. Digitally, the recording soared to number 5 on the iTunes Top Albums chart in its first day and was number 9 on Billboard’s Current Digital Albums chart for its first week.

The album is available digitally via iTunes at http://iTunes.com/Hunchback. The CD, which comes packaged with a 32-page booklet with full lyrics, photos, and a note from composer Alan Menken, can be purchased in-stores or by visiting http://sh-k-boom.com/hunchback-of-notre-dame. The album is produced by Michael Kosarin, Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz, Chris Montan and Executive Producer, Kurt Deutsch.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is available for professional licensing exclusively through Music Theatre International (212-541-4684, www.MTIshows.com).

This first ever recording of the acclaimed American stage score based on the Academy Award-nominated 1996 film brought together a 25 piece orchestra, a choir of 28 and some of Broadway’s most formidable talent: Michael Arden (Big River) as Quasimodo, Patrick Page (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark) as Dom Claude Frollo, Ciara Renée (Pippin) as Esmeralda, Andrew Samonsky (Lincoln Center’s South Pacific) as Captain Phoebus de Martin and Erik Liberman (Lovemusik) as Clopin Trouillefou.

Featured in the ensemble are: Julian Decker, Mary Joe Duggan, Ian Patrick Gibb, Beth Kirkpatrick, Samantha Massell, Neal Mayer, Nora Menken, William Michals, Anise Ritchie, Vincent Rodriguez III, Richard Ruiz, Joseph J. Simeone, Jeremy Stolle and Dashaun Young. The principal and ensemble talent performed the show’s US Premiere productions at La Jolla Playhouse and Paper Mill Playhouse during their 2014-15 seasons.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a dramatic telling of the famous love story on a grand scale, with a lush, emotionally rich score featuring music by Alan Menken (Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast) and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin). With a book by Peter Parnell, The Hunchback of Notre Dame has orchestrations by Michael Starobin; Michael Kosarin is music supervisor, Brent-Alan Huffman is conductor/associate music supervisor and Rob Berman provides dance arrangements.

The show and score were hailed by critics on both coasts during the show’s regional theatre productions, directed by Scott Schwartz and choreographed by Chase Brock: “Poignant and intensely emotional…Sparked by stellar performances, Hunchback sets its audience cheering” (Variety); “Potent and enchanting, it brings fresh depths to a saga of love and vengeance…a resounding pleasure” (San Diego Union Tribune); “One of the signal pleasures is Menken’s melodic music and Schwartz’s nimble lyrics” (The New York Times).


ABOUT SH-K-BOOM & GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS
Sh-K-Boom with its imprint Ghostlight Records has become the leading independent force in Original Broadway Cast Recordings – building a library of over 150 records in the last 15 years, featuring some of the most successful Broadway musicals and solo albums by Broadway’s brightest stars. Founded by Grammy Award winner Kurt Deutsch, Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight has won three Grammy Awards (for The Book of Mormon, In the Heights and Beautiful – The Carole King Musical) and is a frequent nominee, most recently for the OBCR of the 2015 “Best Musical” Tony Award nominee Something Rotten! Other notable recent releases include the 2014 “Best Musical” Tony Award winner A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, the 2014 “Best Score” Tony Award winner The Bridges of Madison County, Disney’s Newsies, Pippin and Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, adding to a catalogue that includes OBCRs of Next to Normal, Hair, Legally Blonde, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Everyday Rapture, Passing Strange, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Drowsy Chaperone and many more Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. The label has also released solo albums from some of Broadway’s biggest names: Patti LuPone, Sherie Rene Scott, Adam Pascal, Sutton Foster, Kelli O’Hara, Alice Ripley, Christine Ebersole, Melissa Errico and Ben Vereen. The label continues to support the new generation of musical theatre composers with their extensive relationships with Michael John LaChiusa (Giant, See What I Wanna See, Little Fish) and Michael Friedman (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Fortress of Solitude), as well as Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Kitt, Pasek & Paul, Joe Iconis, Ryan Scott Oliver, Shaina Taub, Dave Malloy, Kerrigan & Lowdermilk and Adam Gwon. The label recently created a new joint publishing venture with Razor & Tie to represent songwriters that fuse theatrical and pop music. Sh-K-Boom Entertainment is a producer of the acclaimed film version of The Last Five Years, written and directed by Richard LaGravenese and starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan. www.sh-k-boom.com

# # #

 

[Mike Frezon]

THOSE are some pretty impressive stats in that first paragraph there, Jake!

Hopefully that generates some interest in this musical. If one of my regional companies were to put it one would be a cool thing!

 

[Mike Frezon]

And I forgot to report that I have listened to that Adam Jacobs CD of Alan Menken songs.

it's good. Not great. Many of the songs I don't know (which surprised me). And I thought the arrangements and orchestrations of most of the songs held back the CD. It sounded "small." He's a big talent and I don't think he is served well by this production.

I was especially disturbed by his take on If I Never Knew You. It's a ballad. What the hell is he trying to do with it here? A strange rhythm. A strange idea.

As much as I loved the Hunchback CD...I didn't love this CD. Some songs were okay and will put into a regular rotation. But most won't.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Good to know, Mike - thanks. I haven't pulled the trigger on that one yet, myself, and may try to listen to more of it online before deciding to make a purchase after hearing your comments.

 

[MatthewA]

Intrada just brought The Rescuers Down Under back into print with some bonus tracks.

 

[TonyD]

Anyone pic this up yet?

 

[Jason_V]

Matthew: I didn't even know Rescuers Down Under was being released... I thank you, my wallet and the BF don't.

Tony: Nope. It looks spiffy though!

 

[Jake Lipson]

That Lion King package does look cool, but the Legacy Collection release of that on CD is all that I need.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Disney confirmed a couple weeks ago that Aladdin would start a national tour in Chicago in April 2017. This will be a replica of the existing Broadway production, which will continue to play New York.

But also apparently there is now going to be a tour of The Little Mermaid, which was announced to tour after its Broadway premiere, but never happened. This production is going to be new and will presumably not reflect the work of the original Broadway design team, since that has been closed for several years now. I am glad to say Little Mermaid is making it to my neck of the woods, but I'll have to wait on Aladdin.

Newsies is here in a couple of weeks, and I would love to see that a second time (I travelled to see it last year when it came near where I have family), but the ticket prices are outrageous, so that even on half price ticket night it would still come out to $60+, so I'll probably have to pass on that one. When I saw it last year I had a better seat for half the money.

 

[Jason_V]

Newsies is here in April/May. I want to go, but with so much going on, I don't know if I'll make it.

If Little Mermaid makes it, we are totally going to be there. It's one of our favorite Disney movies and Andrey is always singing Part of Your World. I think this would make his day (and mine) to go.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Go see Newsies, Jason!

We saw a National Touring Company at Proctor's Theater in Schenectady a couple years ago. Awesome!

 

[Jake Lipson]

This CD I just got is not exactly a new release, but I thought I would bump the thread to talk about it anyway. The new Jungle Book film is so far getting rave reviews, which surprises me a lot, as it seems from the outset wildly unnecessary to produce what is essentially a CG animated remake (Mowgli being the only physical real thing in the entire movie, it could probably still contend for an animated feature Oscar if Disney were so inclined, although that's not what they're calling it.) Anyway, I never thought this was something that needed to happen, but the reviews are great and the ads they're running on TV look awesome, and in spite of my reservations they've pretty much won me over, or at least guaranteed that I'll buy a ticket and go in expecting to enjoy myself.

So, this has kind of caused fever for the original Jungle Book to wash over me. I have basically all of the vocal songs from it on other collections and such, but somehow never actually bought the soundtrack on its own, and I noticed that Amazon has it on sale for $5.20 so picked it up. This is a good deal, but it makes me sad to realize that basically the Legacy Collection is early over; I realize that the next major anniversary for the original version is next year, but still, if they were going to do a Legacy re-release, now would be the best time to take advantage of the remake's hype, and they've chosen not to do that. Which is really too bad, as I would have loved to see that series continue.

That being said, I'm listening to the AutoRip for the existing version of the soundtrack while I wait for my copy to arrive in the mail from Amazon, and it appears that this already includes bonus tracks anyway, like which would be on a Legacy release, even though this one is not part of that collection and the MP3s are listed as having come out in 2006. There is a track listed as a 12-minute "interview with the Sherman brothers," and then some thrones which I presume are deleted songs. This besides the fact that everything, including the instrumental score, is sequenced in film order, rather than having the songs first and the score after. I'm not sure in this case what a Legacy release could have added other than the snazzy packaging, although if they are missing the opportunity to cash in, it's probably still over.

If like me you somehow avoided adding this CD to your collection in the past, it's well worth picking up, especially for five bucks.

 

[Jason_V]

Thanks Jake! I've had mine for a while...picked it up at Half Price Books, IIRC. I'm still in denial the Legacy Collection is over. I know it is, but I just won't accept it quite yet.

 

[Jake Lipson]

We know that Disney is a business-minded, financially-oriented company, and I just can't wrap my head around why they would NOT want to continue releasing complete versions of the remainder of their scores.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I take it back -- I just watched The Jungle Book film and the CD is actually missing the first reprise of The Bare Necessities when Mowgli says goodbye to Bahgera and goes off with Baloo, shortly before running away when he realizes that Baloo also wants to take him to the man village. There might also be some underscore that the CD doesn't have, although I'm not positive because a lot of the underscore is on the CD, but I'm not sure if it's ALL of it. So, there actually would be some new material for a Legacy version of this CD, if Disney chose to revive that collection (which they should.)

 

[JamesSmith]

We're there any comments on this thread about Nicholas Pike's The Prince and the Pauper? I was always disappointed that there was never a CDS release to its music?

James

 

[Jake Lipson]

Thought it would be worth bumping this thread to note that it is the 60th anniversary of Walt Disney Records:
https://ohmy.disney.com/music/2016/05/18/celebrating-60-years-of-walt-disney-records/

Hell of a time to STOP the finest series of releases they've ever had (yeah, I'm still sore about the premature end of the Legacy Collection.)

 

[Jason_V]

Thought it would be worth bumping this thread to note that it is the 60th anniversary of Walt Disney Records:
https://ohmy.disney.com/music/2016/05/18/celebrating-60-years-of-walt-disney-records/

Hell of a time to STOP the finest series of releases they've ever had (yeah, I'm still sore about the premature end of the Legacy Collection.)

They've been pimping iTunes sales for about a week now for the anniversary. And I agree with you, Jake. The decision didn't make a ton of sense, to me anyway.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I made a trek to WDW a few weeks ago. The only CD I came home with was a disc put out by the folks who sing as the Voices of Liberty at the American Pavilion in EPCOT.

One of the performers (both at EPCOT and on this disc) is a fellow who I got to know from a number of trips to WDW when he was appearing as a Dapper Dan. His name is Aaron Stratton and he is a very talented performer.