Has anyone heard any further updates on when the Wonderland Concept Recording will be released in the U.S.? The last I heard was summer 2009-- which is now. Just curious.

I believe it's still being prepared by MWB but with the Rudolf DVD on the works they may probably postpone the works on it and release world-wide in Fall instead of Summer=USA and Fall=rest of the World.

The fact that MWB hasn't put up a website is not very helpful :P Perhaps Peter can reach the responsibles for MWB?

Well the concept album for Count of Monte Cristo was ... almost secretly released on iTunes? I don't remember a big pre-ordering thing or anything over here, just announced last minute (Maybe I'm wrong).

If it's being prepared by MWB...don't yout hink the cast would have been announced?

I'm guessing it'll be the Wonderland big demos that appear on the website, if it's really going to be done last minute - or it'll be Lauren Kennedy, (since that demo seems to be .. split?) since she'll be in New York doing "Vanities" at 2nd Stage and she'll re-record the tracks Brandi did (I think Wildhorn/Jeremy record in the way (or atleast it seemed the DRACULA, the musical concept recording was some of the old demos merged with Barbour - like Life After Life) where they have the orchestral track, followed by Lead 1, Lead 2 and then merge them all together...), and record them at Global Vision and then they produce it, but give the release rights to MWB.

Or it's not going to happen ... or won't be recorded until the cast is in Tampa. With Wildhorn, you really never know ... always throwing for surprises and the unexpected last minute things! Haha

Monte Christo was announced quite some time before the release and all the major musical-shops in Europe had it for pre-sale for some months.
They recorded Brandi's vocals in the GlobalVision Studios in NYC and then the rest of the Cast recorded it in Vienna and the CD is produced in Austria.

The English Concept Album of Dracula was recorded by GlobalVision Recordings, not MWB. MWB (Music Without Borders) was founded after the release of the GRAZ Cast Recording of Dracula. The company is an European company created by Frank in cooperation with the chaps at HitSquad Records (who release all the Cast Recordings in Vienna.)

With Wonderland depending on the Concept Cast it may be recorded in NYC and then mixed etc in Vienna or recorded and mixed in Vienna.
The music on the pages is from demo recordings that Frank makes to get the music down for the sake of organization. The demos are never commercialy released. The canceled Dracula Concept was all recorded from the scratch and not merged nor anything and neither will be Wonderland ;)
Specially 'cause I think Frank may want to use the Budapestszínház Orchestra (who recorded Dracula and Monte Cristo) to record the orchestral tracks of Wonderland instead of synths.

And thank God for them. A lot of people don't appreciate how much of a difference it makes to have a REAL orchestra v.s. synthesized instruments. Broadway has gone completely downhill in that respect. Most pits these days consist of only a few REAL instruments and a keyboard/synthesizer. I've always appreciated composers like Wildhorn, Flaherty, Bernstein, and others who use lush orchestrations that really enhance the experience. However, arrangers don't get nearly enough recognition. Without them, you'd be left with simple melodies and piano chords. BORING. That's a big reason why you can't judge Wildhorn's works by demo recordings (or even concept ones).

It's also the reason why Wildhorn "moved" to Europe. He says that in Europe, unlike the USA, he has access to big orchestras (the St.Gallen one is a 31 piece orchestra!!) which doesn't happen in the USA.

I just wished we here in Portugal also used big orchestras but we've went "B'way" too with more synth and pre-recorded music... :rolleyes:
Curiously the only production that used a 20 piece live orchestra was The Producers...and while the music sounded great all the rest of the production was horrible... :lol:

Wow - find that hard the believe. Wasn't DRACULA, the musical on Broadway ... legitamately drums, a woodwind or two, and 4 keyboards/synthesizers???? He probably changed his mind after the reviews slandered him for doing that. The only song that I would say benefited from that was "The Longer I Live" ... it sounded so much "cooler/DRACULA-esque" as opposed to the more raw-instrument sound!


And do you think he'd really get a big orchestra for Wonderland - I know the score is supposd to be a big melting pot, but sounds like the majority of it is pop-y?


And let's just hope this one gets released!

Wait - I think the new West Side Styory uses a rumored 23-piece orchestra, and I think A Tale of Two Cities similarly had a 20-ish piece orchestra!

I think at times Frank jumps the gun and says its coming and give a really hurried date and then it gets pushed back and then pushed back and its usually a few months or years later.

I have kinda lost faith in it so we'll see it when we see it.

Yeah .. I don't think this one's going to happen until ATLEAST November - for sale at the theatre in Tampa.

I'm sure he had tons of last-minute, unexpected work to do with Bonnie & Clyde, time that he had expected to have free.


BTW: The Wonderland Blog was recently updated - they said Cast / creative team will be announced very shortly!

But it was sort of announced whose designing the set/video projections - the guy who did the designs for THE WOMAN in WHITE and REBECCA in Austria!

WHOA!!!!!!

Is this William Dudley????

He did the designs for "Tanz Der Vampire" as well. This is getting more interesting by the minute!

Nop. That info is wrong, at least to what concerns Rebecca.

Rebecca's stage design was by Peter J. Davison (Whistle down the Wind-West End ; JCS - B'way, Tour and 2000 film).
Video design was done by Sven Ortel (3 Musketiers)

BUM!!!

I wish Dudley was working on "Wonderland" :(

If he did The Woman in White he may be. I was correcting the info that said the person who did tWiW was the same who did Rebecca. ;)

No no .. it is not William Dudley.

It the person who DESIGNS the images...Dudley did the set, and I suppose "described" the scenes and this guy created them? Or he worked inpart with Mr Dudley.

Here's the link:
http://www.mesmer.co.uk/projects/Wonderland/

If you click on his name (Sven Ortel), there are images from Woman in White, Rebecca and more.

So I guess he should be called "Video Designer" -- but sounds like he did tons of work with Dudley on WiW!

Yes Sven Ortel did the projections in Rebecca. They were cool. The projection of Manderley was a bit "computerized" but all the others where really amazing :D

I'm a bit wary about all this computer design and projections. I heard from a lot of people "The Woman In White" was actually pretty dizzying, I mean, it produced motion sickness. How was "Rebecca" in that regard? I hope they get this right. I'm All for new ideas for set design.

Rebecca was very different. First because in WiW the sets were all projected. In Rebecca the projections were not as many and normaly where there to help the transition (mainly the transitions between the scenes in Monte Carlo and the scenes in Manderley), 'cause they needed time to change the huge sets. Or then they were used as complements to the scene but never as scenary.

Projections can be really helpful, as long as they aren't used to much. Lets just hope they won't fall in the WiW mistake...

It should also be noted that when Woman in White did them in 2004, they were the FIRST production to use them as they did it (completely).

5 years later, I'm sure they have been working on making them less ... sickening. WiW's were only bad at SCENE changes, as in, from inside to show the outisde of the house, or when they'd walk away from the house...

Since Wonderland's budget is what $3 Mil? I'm guessing it'll be MAJORLY projections. All those different settings/etc. WiW I read somewhere was actually quite cheap for FUTURE productions, after cutting off the original costs, as they just sort of made a copy of the disc and presuming they could find enough venues with the proper equipment/specifications, it would tour nicely & very profitably. Unfortunately, WiW will probably never get a tour, nor ... are there probably enough venues for a tour. Who knows?!

That, and the fact Andrew doesn't seem to like "The Woman In White" these days :blink: I don't mind it. There are some really moving songs in there.

He doesn't like it??

Well it's the only show he's done (besides EVITA) that WASN'T his idea originally - didn't he do a contest?

I think easily Woman in White is one of his most moving scores .. not to mention how wonderful of a show it was. One of the best I'd seen - I just wish all the sickness/et al didn't mess with it's Broadway run. I think it would have eventually had a nice run!

It's not so much "like". He says that nowadays he can see the problem with the script. He says that, if you think well the story is just about a wrong birth certificate and the separation of 2 children. He says that you can't hold an audience for 2 hours in the Theater with a storyline like that...

I honestly still think the show could do well with just a couple of fixes, but sadly ALW is apparently not in the mood to even rework it and prefers to come up with a stupid sequel to PotO... :rolleyes:

Haha I guess he doesn't know what he's talking about! I love SUNSET BLVD. as well, but I was MORE interested in the story of Woman in White!

He changed the "secret" and the birth certificate thing anyway .. maybe he doesn't know that. Haha.

For the record, I haven't heard anything indicating that the Wonderland concept recording will be a MWB project. They are indeed working on the Rudolf DVD next, though. We'll have to file the concept recording under "wait and see" (or should I say, "Anything Can Happen"?)

P

I think it's more "Anything can happen" :P

(By the way, the MWB producing the CD was announced by Playbill when they also said the USA release would be this Summer and the world wide in the Autumn. They can have made it up or then someone at MWB rushed things a little bit when giving the info.)

There could be some confused information out there, it wouldn't be the first time. We'll just have to see how this actually comes together.

Any news on this recording???

I was in contact with someone NOT officially connected to the project in any way creatively (or that I know of), so take this for whatever you want, but he said they are officially working on it now - a statement came his way that said (among other things): "Thanks for your support of Wonderland and all of Frank's projects. You will be happy to know that a concept recording of Wonderland is in the works and will include some of the material and performers from the demo recordings."