The Best Of Rent- Highlights From The Original Cast Album -199

Wicked (2003 Original Broadway Cast) One of the most common complaints about musicals is that the books are flimsy pretexts from which to hang numbers. Wicked runs into the opposite problem: it has a great plot, but too often the songs just get in the way. Based on Gregory Maguire's novel of the same name, Wicked te...	Rent (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) Rent, the show that in 1996 gave voice to a Broadway generation, has finally become an energetic, passionate, and touching movie musical. Based loosely on Puccini's La Bohème, it focuses on the year in the life of a group of friends in New York's East Village--"bohemians" who li...	Jersey Boys (2005 Original Broadway Cast Recording) Although it squarely falls in the "jukebox musical" category, Jersey Boys doesn¹t try to integrate its songs in an artificial plotline. The show tells the story of the early-1960s group the Four Seasons, and the musical numbers tend to be introduced in context, as when songwri...	Avenue Q (2003 Original Broadway Cast) Avenue Q will only fuel the frustration of those who think that Broadway has given up on sophisticated entertainment geared to adults. "Whatever happened to Cole Porter's witty rhymes and mature subject matter?" they'll say. Well, it's hard to deny that Avenue Q's main frame of r...	Mamma Mia! The Musical Based on the Songs of ABBA: A Decca Broadway Original Cast Recording (1999 London Cast) Put together by Abba's own Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, Mamma Mia! manages to cram over 20 of the Swedish supergroup's songs into a threadbare plot. It goes a little like this: Young Sophie is getting married and she's trying to identify which of three men is her father. T...
Chicago - The Musical (1996 Broadway Revival Cast) "Chicago's plot was cynical and satirical in 1975, but today feels like a documentary." So says Walter Bobbie, the director responsible for this revival of the Kander, Ebb, and Fosse "musical vaudeville," which began as a minimalist concert staging for New York City Center's Enco...	Highlights From The Phantom Of The Opera: The Original London Cast Recording (1986 London Cast) Highlight versions of cast recordings are by definition a compromise, and this reduction of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera is no exception. Weighing in at 59 minutes, it's over 40 minutes shorter than the two-disc version, excising many musical scenes that convey the ...	Les Miserables (Highlights from the 1987 Original Broadway Cast) While not overly generous at 55 minutes, the highlights album of the 1987 original Broadway cast recording of Les Miserables is intelligently selected and likely to prove satisfying to most fans. It includes the best-loved numbers of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg's s...	The Lion King (1997 Original Broadway Cast) An Oscar win might suggest a score that would need a miracle to be bettered--but this colorful stage adaptation of Disney's The Lion King does so with flair. Composers Mark Mancina and Lebo M worked closely together to fuse the movie's many disparate elements. Where there was a v...	Hairspray (2002 Original Broadway Cast) The cast recording for the Broadway musical of John Waters's 1988 paean to dance, music, big beautiful women, and integration is a sheer delight. It's wonderfully upbeat all the way through, with a classic feel that's in keeping with the story's setting in the early 1960s. The ch...

This is not quite the quality I thought it would be.
I have to admit, I'm not a huge RENT fan, but still some of the singing isn't the professional standard that I expected it to be. Perhaps the performers are as bored of this musical as I have become- and I feel that really transmits through the recording. Let me just say that RENT is a show to be seen not heard on a recording. Having said all that, it is worth the investment, and does have most, if not all of my favourite songs. RENT perhaps has become a little overdone to me but I guess many of you out there may still appreciate this recording.

Some important pieces missing
The first thing that struck me is that Benny's big number (You'll See) is missing, leaving Taye Diggs represented by only a few spoken lines. "Tango: Maureen" (though it was not one of my favorites to begin with) is also shorter than I remember from the movie. But the most glaring omissions to me are "Over the Moon" and "Your Eyes"--after all, for Maureen and for Roger respectively, those compositions are the culminations of their artistic lives! And don't get me wrong, I love Stevie Wonder, but his remix of "Seasons of Love" added nothing for me to the beauty and grandeur of that pivotal song. I am glad to have this, because I loved the movie and wanted the comparison--but maybe I should have waited til I had the money for the 2 CD set of the original Broadway cast...

The best kind of music
Sing along with it in the car, while cleaning house, or better yet while paying bills. Enjoyable, motivating music!

Rent Highlights-Perfect for Choral Medley
This CD is the perfect thing to buy if you are a conductor wanting to familiarize yourself with the music used in the choral medley.

The best musical cd I own!
Rent is my favorite musical with its rock n roll edge. This cd makes me want to sing with every song. It is recommended to Broadway buffs and music enthusiasts alike.