The opportunity has come up. I've never bothered to grab this CD and I love the OBC. Is it worth getting?

What you really get with this recording is:

1 & 2. "Storybook" and "I'll Forget You" sung by Rachel York. She's a great performer, and is the reason they put the latter song back into the show. She sings it with power and heart, and it sounds very different from Linda Eder's softer, more wistful rendering.

3 & 4. "Falcon" and "Where's the Girl?" sung by Rex Smith. I hate ranking people, but I do tend to like the other original Chauvelins better... yet saying that, Rex is quite good. Does Terrence Mann define this role for you, or do you want to hear another take?

5. The songs in the "right" order, for the revised script.

6 & 7. If you don't have these - "You Are My Home" from the concept album, with Linda Eder and Peabo Bryson, and "Only Love" from Linda Eder's It's Time.

It IS a lot of repeat material, if you already have the OBC. It comes down to how much you want to hear Rex and Rachel sing a couple of songs. Personally, I'm a completist... plus I really love Rachel... so it's an easy yes. Hope this helps.

I'm a completist wherever I can be (although I doubt I'll ever need "The Civil War: The Nashville Sessions".)

I don't think the role of Chauvelin is defined in my head. I can imagine a lot of people taking it on. I wouldn't have thought Rex was an obvious choice tho. Hmm.

It seems like there's enough new, or different material, that would justify me getting it as a completist (but not the sort of completist who would have "The Nashville Sessions" or the German cast recording of "Victor/Victoria" etc.)

Thanx.

Yeah, there's no need to get the Nashville Sessions if you have the Civil War Complete Work.

And I have the German Victor/Victoria. It's interesting... but the Mexican one is the better pick as an international recording, because of the brand new song Frank wrote.

I have The Encore CD and I love it. I actually enjoyed Rex Smith's take on his songs in this CD. I thought it brought much more life to the music then Terrance Manning. I do have to say that Terrance does have a wonderful voice, he just didn't show enough feeling to me in the other CD. :)

My Take:

While I do enjoy Encore, it fails to present a an accurate picture of the SP-2 production as it was intended.

Missing Tracks:
- "You Are My Home" (Wedding Duet)
- Finale: When I Look At You (Reprise)
- Re-recorded tracks featuring Rachel York and Rex Smith.

So, what you're left with is an incomplete recording that was sloppily made using mostly tracks from the OBC.

That being said, Rachel York is FANTASTIC. Rex is alright-- most people have a Chauvelin preference and mine is William Paul Michals.

Was there ever a possibility of recording the whole SP2 from scratch? From what I know, I still don't have the album LOL (I've held off for further opinion), the orchestra tracks are recycled (and remixed it a little?) with different vocals and rearranged tracklist. That sounds so tacky! But I guess they didn't have a budget to make one from scratch. But you'd think, in such an exceptional situation as "Scarlet Pimpernel", they'd record one. It opened and closed with totally different producers attached to an almost reimagined show.

I don't know how the process actually went, but I can imagine that the team for SP2 said "we'd really like a new recording, now that we have a new show...", then as things so often do, it came down to money. Remember that Broadway Cast Recordings don't usually generate profit... in a business sense, it's approached more as a marketing tool. And they already had one OBC. So, they probably decided that they couldn't re-record the entire show, and set up the Encore CD as we know it. At least we have four new tracks, with Rex and Rachel.