Desert-Island Cast Albums

The NYT has had at least two pieces on "desert-island cast albums"--which bits of Broadway would you want with you in solitary confinement?--and I thought I'd add some overlooked choices.

*The Nathan Lane version of "Guys and Dolls." People suggest "Guys and Dolls" is among the closest-to-perfect works in Broadway history--a work so strong that even a bad high-school version can't fully dilute the charm--and the Nathan Lane version seems definitive. Lane is tremendous, obviously, and this version also has a canonical performance by Faith Prince, who went on to win the Tony. (The Times critic: "Prince is so expressive, she can make a one-act drama just from her bizarre pronunciation of a single random word, subsequently.")

*Lea Salonga, "Miss Saigon." This is not a perfect musical, but the Broadway Original Cast (not Revival Cast) recording has three--count them, three--Tony-winning performances. Lea Salonga and Jonathan Pryce were earth-shaking, and people will still talk about them in fifty years. But there's also three-time Tony winner Hinton Battle, shaking the rafters. ("They're CALLLLLED bui doi!!!! The duuuuuust of LIIIIIIIFE!")

*Mandy Patinkin, "Sunday in the Park with George." No one chose this, in the Times, which seems insane. My favorite moment is a bitchy throwaway subplot in Act Two. Blair Daniels, an art critic (?), approaches our hero. Our hero wants to make small talk, but Blair smacks him upside the head. "Your work is becoming MORE AND MORE about LESS AND LESS!!!!" I really like that actor's crazy tartness. Always will.

.....And your choices?

P.S. Hats off to "Little Shop of Horrors." NOT the film cast. NOT the Broadway cast. We're talking about the original cast, from the eighties Off-Broadway album. Outstanding Ellen Greene wackiness, and an important record of the correct, sensible ending, in which the aliens win. ("DON'T FEED THE PLANTS!!!! ....They may offer you fortune and fame.... BUT DON'T FEED THE PLAAAAAANTS!!!")

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