Re: last night's question about THE BRAIN cd and whether to include the lyrics or the pictures.
...This has me curious now what other cast recordings freaks would choose.
I think it depends on the show. If there are a lot of visuals, I want the pictures. If the lyrics are great, I want the lyrics. If there's a complex story, I want a synopsis.
And if all three are fantastic? I've got a problem.
Example: With
Wicked, I would have loved to have some kind of synopsis, particularly since the storyline is very complex, and having some kind of context for the songs would have been helpful. We had an arguement here at HHW about this, where a former DR insisted that
no synopsis should be included, as it would spoil the show for everyone seeing it for the first time... which of course assumed we could all make our way to NYC to see it, totally ignoring how many of us do not live in NYC or can make the trip that easily.
Example: The OLR recording of the London production of
Follies had little in the way of pictures, which were blurry, and much in the way of lyrics, many of which were new. But the font used to print the lyrics was so tiny that it seemed a waste of paper, they were so hard to read. Having seen the production, I can assure you, pictures would have made a better representation of the show for the booklet.
I'm going to say that, with
Brain, I'd like to have the lyrics, but I want them
readable. None of this tiny font balony. If that means finding them on-line, that's fine by me. I have no problem printing them out. Particularly in the case of Brain, I'd like to have them printed out so that, when riding in the car with the grandlads, we can hand the lyrics to Alex, so he can read along with the songs, and hand a lovely booklet with pictures to William, who is still in the first grade and won't be reading that quickly.
