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The Secret Garden
Original Broadway Cast
Starring Mandy Patinkin, Rebecca Luker, Daisy Eagan, Robert Westenberg
Music by Lucy Simon
Lyrics by Marsha Norman
36 Tracks
Read an off-site Synopsis of the Broadway show on Musicals.Net.
The thing I like best about this CD is its completeness. All of the songs are there, as well as many small bits of dialogue, which serve to tie the songs together into a complete whole. It makes for a really great listen. The completeness is the biggest reason to get this CD; it has far more of this musical's gorgeous music on it than either the London or Australian cast albums, including some great songs like "Quartet" that don't appear on any others.
The CD also features a really good cast of performers. Mandy Patinkin, a performer I have always liked, is an excellent Archibald. I do prefer Philip Quast and Anthony Warlow in the role, but it's definitely a very close race. Rebecca Luker is hands-down THE best Lily you can hear on CD. Not that the others are bad, actually I think they're great, but… I mean, you just can't beat Luker. Her voice is BEAUTIFUL. Robert Westenberg (another great voice) is a fantastic Neville; he is also the Neville we get to hear the most of. I think John Cameron Mitchell is my favorite Dickon; he is better than Craig Purnell on the London CD.
Daisy Eagan as Mary has a great voice and you can really hear her acting, too. John Babcock as Colin has a really cute voice; he was not the original Colin, though. Joel E. Chaiken, who was allowed to record "Lift Me Up" on this CD, was the original, but he had to be replaced when his voice started to change. He does a good job with the song, but you can hear him straining for the high stuff. You can tell he probably sounded better originally, though, and it is nice that they let him do that one song. Alison Fraser is a good Martha, but Linzi Hateley on the London CD is just so amazing that it's hard to appreciate any other version of "Hold On." Still, Fraser has a nice voice and performs well; she's definitely not bad. The whole supporting cast is great.
The music of this show is so incredibly fantastic; I fell in love with it immediately the very first time I heard it. The first time I heard Mandy Patinkin sing "A Bit of Earth" I was amazed. All of Robert Westenberg's brief appearances are great, including his part of the "Quartet" and the awesome duet "Lily's Eyes." Anything that Rebecca Luker sings will blow you away.
To sum all this up, this CD is excellent, especially if you are a fan of The Secret Garden. It features the best Lily and the best Dickon of all of the CDs and great performers in the other roles too, and is also the most complete.
I definitely recommend that all fans of the show get a copy of this, even if it's just because it's so complete. If you are just looking for one CD of the show for the music & you don't care about completeness, you may want to check out the London Cast… but I think owning both is worth the money. (Of course, if you're like me, you pay 60 cents per CD because you are evilly cheating the music industry by making good use of your CD burner… buwahahaha!)
In all seriousness… this is a great CD!
Also see my reviews of The Secret Garden Original London Cast CD.
