(no subject)

[heidi]

powersh20works posted, in a reply to the previous post in my LJ:

Come to think of it, I didn't fully like Sweeney until I saw a live production. There's quite a bit of stuff I haven't liked until I saw it on its feet. Conversely, though, there's been much that I liked upon hearing that I didn't like live. Any similar experiences?

In my "grown up" years, I've only listened to three cast albums that I hadn't already seen the show for:
Assassins
The Life (which I'm not sure ever made it to Broadway anyway)
March of the Falsettos (which I didn't see, technically, as I saw Falsettoland (with the amazing Mandy Patinkin))

And I loved Assassins on cd and on the stage (college performance, technically) and I adored all of Falsettoland, which was terrific as March is really only about half of it.

When I was younger, of course, I listened to my parents' soundtracks for A Chorus Line, Grease and Saturday Night Fever before I saw them on stage/in the movie theaters. Hearing A Chorus Line in context changed the way I thought about the songs - I'd heard it when I was 6, and didn't see it until I was 16. A totally different universe! Grease I saw only a few months after first hearing the songs, and since I'd listened to it on 8-trak, I initially heard them in such a different order than they were used in the film. But as the first time I saw Grease, I saw it from "Sandy (Stranded At The Drive-In)" onward, and then immediately saw it from the begining, I think my view on Grease will always be a little out of kilter. I mean, I knew they were back together in the end before I really saw how/why they broke up. And, again, I was six.

I didn't see Saturday Night Fever until I was 19 or 20, at college, while quite tipsy, and I've never really enjoyed it. Love the music. Not so much about the film, probably because it was such a slice of the times - and given that I was, you guessed it, SIX - I sort of missed the times.

Anyone else want to answer the question?