No Day But Today II

Two fabulous Broadway albums are available today. The first, Carols for a Cure vol.9. It's part of Broadway tradition that current running shows on Broadway lend their voices to charity for the holiday season. The songs are a mix of old Christmas standards some with new arrangement and some new inventive carols. The cd includes the casts of Curtains, Xanadu, Wicked, Spring Awakening, Legally Blonde and Little Mermaid to name a few and benefits Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids. I got it today....I've only listened to it once and so far my favs are:

• Ave Q's North Pole Global Warmin' Surfin' Party
• Les Mis' The 12 Days of Christ-Miz (no Lea Salonga though)
• Julia Murney and Max Von Essen's O Holy Night (funny that THEY are the only individual singers in the album because every other song were from the casts of Broadway shows. I've always loved their rendition of O Holy Night so BRAVA to whoever decided to include them in this recording! It's brilliant!)

UPDATE (10.26): Oh after listening again to Carols for a Cure....I also love the following:

• Little Mermaid's Joy to the World (very "Kiss The Girl" vibe)
• Curtain's The Monotone Angel (with David Hyde Pierce as the monotone angel)
• Robbin' Hood's Deck the Halls (In the Jessica Cranshaw's off-tune style - loved that they did that!)
• Wicked's Jingle Bells (in different styles: traditional, techno, reggae etc. --very inventive and funny)
• Xanadu's Away in a Manger (common, it's Kerry Butler's voice and just a guitar!)

The second one is Jonathan Sings Larson. It's a compilation of songs sung by the composer himself from shows such as RENT and Tick, Tick Boom. Though it is widely known that he died prematurely before Rent opened in 1996......they have preserved and mastered his demos which PS Classics is bringing to us now. It also contains a dvd of 4 songs which were filmed when the composer performed them in 1991. Now, while I have yet to order my copy......how can you resist though....It's Jonathan singing his SONGS!!!!! It's truly a Broadway collector's collectible! Jonathan Larson cd pic from PS Classics

Carols for a Cure pic from BC/EFA.org