[jcstar]

Thumbs up!! I love it!!

The orchestra is awesome and the talent of the cast beyond briliant! It is so much better than the original (and terrible) London recording. The OBC just has a lot of "umph" to it. Page and Buckly are two reasons why the record is so great.

I do have some reservations though.

1) The volume could have been turned up a few notches when they remastered the record for CD. A little more bass could have helped as well. The drums are mixed too low in some songs (like Bustopher and |Macavity), they can hardly be heard.

2) Considering this is a CD with 75 minutes per disc, you would think that they would include the missing song "Peekes and the Pollicles" as well as the cut dance sequences that were left off the original record. I do feel a little cheapened by the exclusions.

Other than that, brilliant record, cast, orchestra. I have yet to find a cast that can surpass the talent from the OBC.

Andy.

[{Evan}]

[AngMisto8182]

I like London a lot better, mostly because of Elaine Paige. I find Betty Buckley's voice to be rather annoying, and I much prefer Wayne Sleep to Tim Scott, as well as Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer actually singing their own song (although I don't like the London "Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer" tune as much) rather than Tim Scott singing it. I dunno, I could go on I suppose, but I think the OBC recording of Cats leaves much to be desired.

[Cassandra]

*shrugs shoulders* Ehhhhhhh.........

Definitely not one of my favorites. I actually can't remember the last time I listened to the OBC. I will agree that it's better than the OLC (I think I listened to that recording once after I opened it, and it's been on my CD rack ever since). However, the sound quality, song cuts, and lack of enthusiasm on the OBC bother me, and I just wish they would have put more effort into it (the cast and the other people behind the recording).

That said, have you bought any of the other cast albums? If you're only interested in English, I highly recommend the Australian cast. There are some cast members I could do without, but overall the quality, length, and enthusiasm surpasses the OBC.

If you're willing to try other languages, my favorites are the Austrian and French casts. Austria is only highlights, but the cast is excellent. And the French recording is almost complete. And for something very different, but very cool, try the Japanese cast, too.

[RainyCrystal]

The OBC is seriously my LEAST favorite cast of Cats. After having listened to more and more casts and recordings now, I honestly loathe this cast and this recording. The singing is just... horrific and abominable! Honestly, Betty Buckley's "Memory" made me shudder from head to foot the first time I heard it! To me, it's like... nothing compared to the OLC, because at least the OLC has good singers! The OLC recording is actually my favorite Cats recording (for some reason, yes...).

Pretty much the only likes that I really like from the OBC are Timothy Scott, Terrance Mann, Donna King, and Bonnie Simmons. The others I either can't stand or really can't care less about.

~Sissi

[JemiBoe1981]

I really cannot stand the OBC recording...I think it is all-around very poor... the cast sounds bad as an ensemble, many of the voices are not good at all, and the energy level is very close to being nonexistant. Betty Buckley's voice doesn't do it for me, and really all I do like on that CD is Reed Jones as Skimbleshanks. Australia's recording is phenominal, I voted with it, but London, too, easily best Broadway.

[MrsJemimaMistoffelees]

I personally love the OBC. It's my favorite recording of the show; along with the French recording.

Veel Liefs,
Jemima

[Roxanne]

I really enjoy the OBC recording, if not for the singers and their enthusiasm (or arguable lack thereof), for the music. I really enjoy zoning out the voices and listening to the music behind them, hearing how it would sound without the words. Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer in particular gives me a musical high, I love it.

There are quite a few recordings that are really good, a fair few that are bloody aweful, and some that are in between. This one just happens to be in between, since so many people have such different views, not just one or two differences.

[Idiosylph]

[JemiBoe1981]

Marina Prior??? Oh, I think she's one of the finest Jellylorums to date...she has such a lovely, delicate voice, and she makes Jellylorum actually sound young and very beautiful.

[Idiosylph]

That's probably part of it. My prefered version of Jellylorum isn't the young one, but the slightly more mature version. My all time favorite was Rebecca Locke, who really managed to bring that out.

[Mungostoffelees]

Also my least favourite! The voices are too squeaky and scratchy for me and the music isn't fab on it either in my opinion.

[Cassandra]

Thinking about it (and going against popular opinion), I really like Betty Buckley's interpretation of Grizabella. I have an easier time listening to and believing her than I ever did with Elaine Paige (ick, ick, and more ick ). I can't stand the way Elaine sings Memory, and she's way too dramatic for my taste. I love watching Betty's slow moves and subtlety on the Tony Awards clip.... she seems older and more like Griz should be.

That said, nobody will ever beat some of the Grizabellas I've seen live, and I would bet most of us would say the same. Jeri Sager is still one of my very favorites, as well as Heidi Stallings and Anne Brummel.

If I had to pick, Timothy Scott and Betty Buckley are my favorite performers from the OBC.

Here's something I'm curious about: if you look in the liner notes of the OBC, Sillabub's parts during Moments of Happiness and Memory are sung by Tantomile and Victoria, respectively. When and why did they change those to Sillabub? Did it provide more continuity and more depth to Sillabub's character? I know Jemima sang those parts on the OLC....

Seems like they did a lot of experimenting with the OBC when you consider that, the Aria, Mungo and Rumple as clowns, etc.

[JemiBoe1981]

I never knew why exactly Tantomile and Victoria sang those parts of Sillabub's... my first thought was that it was because Whitney Kershaw doesn't have a very good voice, but then again Cynthia Onrubia hasn't a good one at all, I'd rather Whitney...and Janet L. Hubert isn't stellar, either... so really this was no help to you... sorry!

[*asterix*]

Just adding my coins in favour of the OBC. It was my first and only version for probably 4 years, and remains among my favourites. I don't think of it as a particularly accurate recorded representation of the show in any of its current incarnations, both for the different things they were trying and all the cuts, but then a lot of the recorrdings have differences in arrangements and cut sequences. I do love a lot of the performances on it - as mentionned, betty Buckley, Timothy Scott and Reed Jones are notable stand out performances; I also adore Terrance mann, Donna King, Bonnie Simmons, Stephen Mo Hanan, Wendy Edmead and Harry Groener in their parts. There are a lot of voivces and interpretations on that version which I enjoy I really don't hear the lack of enthusiasm that many complain of...
To this day, on my list of 'songs that never cease to make me happy', the OBC Skimbleshanks with Reed Jones is at the top.
So, yeah, thumbs up on the OBC from me

[jcstar]

[JemiBoe1981]

I know it was on PBS's Broadway: The American Musical a bit ago... the video of it is available... I taped it... heehee...

[*asterix*]

[jcstar]

[Cassandra]

[jcstar]

Never thought of it that way.

Andy.