Edward Copeland's Tangents

I agree that the score for Grey Gardens is not particularly strong, in and of itself - it works much better within the context of the show. It's interesting that the song you liked the best was "Better Fall Out of Love", since it's actually one of the pieces that was cut and replaced (by another duet entitled "We're Going Places") for the Broadway production.

It's difficult for me to critique Ebersole's Edies based on the album alone, since by the time it was released I'd already seen the show and it was impossible for me to separate what I was hearing from what I had seen at Playwright's Horizons the previous spring. I think you really do have to see Ebersole to appreciate her achievement in these roles - although I do love her comic rendition of "The Revolutionary Costume for Today", which I think does retain some of its effect on the cast album (you should take another listen to that one). Admittedly, The Times' Ben Brantley might have gone a bit over the top by proclaiming her performance the best by an actress in a musical since Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd - but none has captivated me more since Natasha Richardson in Cabaret nearly a decade ago. People who have only heard Richardson on the cast album have told me they don't understand what the fuss was about that performance - again, I think it depends on having seen her live.

I appreciate the Spring Awakening score more and more with each additional listening. As I have said previously, I do feel that some of the songs are very obliquely worded, but obviously it didn't prevent you from understanding what was going on from scene to scene (although I wonder if you gathered that "My Junk" is performed to the spectacle of a teenage boy simulating masturbating, and that "I Believe" is the accompaniment for a graphic sex scene). Unlike something like Rent, which is almost entirely sung, Spring Awakening is essentially a book musical, with a lot of recitative, which I understand has been taken nearly intact from the original 1880 Wedekind text. The contrast between the period dialogue and the contemporary music is surprisingly effective, and really makes the show stand out from other rock musicals - but that aside, I think the OCR does give you a pretty good sense of the show itself.

It's such a busy season for musicals ahead - I am definitely slated for Audra McDonald's return to B'way in the Roundabout's 110 in the Shade, better known as the musical adaptation of The Rainmaker, and hopefully, my bank account will hold out long enough for me to take in Curtains, LoveMusik, and a few others.
 

I think the story of Spring Awakening comes through fairly clearly -- including what My Junk is about. The most recent OCR though that you can basically envision the entire show without seeing it is Avenue Q. It's a great album with so much dialogue included that it basically spells out the plot for you.
 

I wish you could see Avenue Q, because the Jeff Witty book is great on its own, and only a faction of it made it onto the CD (I particularly mourn the absence of the evil principal Miss Thistletwat, and Lucy T. Slut's ruminations about penis size). Did you know they the production has video parodies of Sesame Street cartoons on television monitors between scenes? The "One Night Stand" and "Cum...Mitment" were fairly priceless.