Musical Monday: Ghost the Musical

(Originally posted on Minnesota Theater Love)

Ok, when you are done chuckling, or shaking your head in disbelief let's get to this. Yes, Ghost the Musical - based on the film from 1990. The film and the musical are both romantic fantasies about a woman in danger while her dead lover tries to save her through the help of a psychic. The book and lyrics are by Bruce Joel Rubin, with music and lyrics by David Stewart (of Eurthymics fame) and Glen Ballard. I never saw the show live, but I had seen the trailer for it numerous times and thought it looks fascinating. I think what intrigued me was the combination of live actors and all the tech magic that is taking place. It seems like a predecessor to how The Curious Incident.. is staged.

So what drew me to pick up the original cast recording? Pure curiosity. I knew the story (or thought I did enough) and I wanted to hear how it may translate to the stage. Musically it is a pop musical. This makes sense considering who wrote the music and lyrics. I also feel that it fits the story well. After all, "Unchained Melody" is used often in the film, and it is used a few times in the musical. I'm not sure how that would work in a standard non-pop musical soundscape.

What keeps me coming back to this recording? First off, there are two recordings put out. It doesn't specify Broadway or London - just Original Cast Recording. However there is a recording with a blue cover (domestic to the US), and a recording with a white cover (import to the US). The white cover would be the UK recording, while the blue cover is the updated, slightly revised US recording. The difference being that a couple songs were dropped or re-arranged. The white cover also has a bonus duet at the end. Along with those options, I-tunes has an EP of the song "With You" which includes a few different versions. I have only heard the domestic, US recording (though I will be downloading the UK version soon).

What I love most of this show are the pseudo-duets. For example "Suspend My Disbelief / I Had A Life" features Molly (female lead) singing one song, while her dead lover Sam (male lead) is singing another. Two different melodies, yet they fit perfectly over each other. "Rain/Hold On" is another of these fantastic duets. Then there is the character of the psychic who has some great gospel-style numbers, with back-up singers. The song I love most those is the first number "Here Right Now." It opens the work with a great upbeat number, yet also shows the love and connection between these two, Molly and Sam.

From what I have read, visually this show is quite stunning as well. There was a combination of live action, and tech work along with illusions. Illusions are essential with any ghost story and these can be tricky to do on stage, live in front of an audience every night. Yet this show seemed to have that going for them. All in all, it sounds like a fun night at the theatre...which you can take home and relive by listening to the cast recording. What's not to love about that?

ps: If you want to see and hear more, here is the casts performance at "Broadway in Bryant Park" from 2012. And the clip of their performance from the Tony Awards, 2012.