"I would have loved a full cast recording of "Smile" with the full orchestrations."
It really is a pity that the most widely circulated recording is the synth demo since the original orchestrations were amazing. Sid Ramin of GYPSY and WSS plus Bill Byers who did A CHORUS LINE and CITY OF ANGELS.
Michael John Lachiusa's First Lady Suite -- either the original Public Theater cast or the 2004 Transport Group revival. Unfortunately, the only legitimate recording of the score (from an LA production) isn't very good.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Every Encores show that didn't get a cast recording, although specifically I'd say Where's Charley and Fanny.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
Oh, yes, definitely the wonderful Encores Fanny -- and also Juno.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
I would pay a small fortune for a cast recording of 13P’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s chamber music version of “Melancholy Play” (with music by Todd Almond) that played a couple of summers ago. It is still one of the best theatre experiences I have ever had. The cast was fantastic and I adore that score.
Another that comes to mind is the Off-Center Encores! cast of “tick, tick…boom!” from last summer.
I'd love to have a copy of Michael John Lachiusa's The Highest Yellow with the original Signature Theatre (VA) cast of Jason Danieley, Judy Kuhn, and Marc Kudisch.
Encores! A New Brain (especially since the original is now out of print apparently)
First Lady Suite
James Joyce's the Dead (a friend of mine recommended it to me but I found out that there was no recording)
Falsettos (original Broadway cast or with Mandy Patinkin)
The Apple Tree revival
Into the Woods central park
Les Miserables current revival (I still feel that there isn't a definitive recording of that show and I love Ramin's performance)
He Loves Me Roundabout reading (there's a bootleg of it and I know that there's the possibility of a recording with that new revival, but Keli O'Hara is a gem)
"Body Beautiful, Bock and Harnick; and Shinbone Alley....Both had good scores and it is very sad that cast albums were never recorded."
There was an animated version of SHINBONE ALLEY released on DVD w/voices of Carol Channing and Eddie Bracken. It's out of print, but new and used copies can be found on Amazon.
"Who was in the San Francisco cast? For me, it's Toronto cast or no deal- the founders of SCTV and SNL together with Paul Shaffer"
I would have loved to see Toronto. Had to have been hysterical. In SF, Stacker Thompson played Jesus - lot of controversy with a black Jesus - a real pioneer of color-blind casting. Several of the members worked the transfer to Broadway in '76. I remember Patti Mariano had a solid Broadway career before Godspell in the city. While I didn't see Toronto, I did get to see SF, Off-Broadway, and London, and SF was far superior to the other two.