Last night, I got the cast album of Grey Gardens. Unfortunately, I didn't know the cover designs of each version and since Amoeba only had one I assumed it was the new B'way Cast Album. It wasn't, it was the older one. Now, I don't know how much the show has changed and I don't know if there's a bigger band on B'way, but the song performed on the Tony Awards show sounded a whole lot bigger than this recording sounds. As always with PS Classics, the orchestra sounds like they're in a tiny closet somewhere, and the singers sound like they're in a slightly larger closet. I suppose it's an art to make a band sound smaller than it is - not an art I favor or understand, however. The same producer did the same thing on Sondheim's Bounce - took a fifteen or seventeen-piece band and made it sound like ten.
As to the score, I was a bit taken aback that it's basically one Sondheimesque song after another, with the same rhyme schemes, orchestral riffs, and Bruce Coughlin's orchestrations are real Jonathan Tunick wannabees. There's one number where, at the end, they do the exact rhyme and rhythm scheme of Pretty Little Picture from Forum. Do these writers today have nothing better to do than emulate Mr. Sondheim ad nauseum? While I liked the number on the Tonys, this CD at least is a big bore. Maybe the new B'way version is better, although I suspect that it will still sound like the band is in a closet.