A lot of songs that I considered to have a lot of meaning and emotion behind have been dulled down in this play, mainly due to being sped up. The voices are over all too loud on the entire album. It wasn't quite as disco in the original but I love it here. 2.Magic - One of my favorite songs. This song alone may give me a little of an opinion on the show. I cannot see any other actor topping his voice when the musical tours.

The ending from 3:20 on though is beautiful and brings a tear to my eye. Xanadu has the best songs ever produced for a musical film. Great to hear a couple other songs added to the soundtrack, that relate to the story. Even in the music, there's no free-form bass with slide or pop or interesting embellishments, so at times the music sounds a little robotic/karaoke. I'd like to see this in San Francisco and see what the new actors bring to it. Honestly. This, Evil Woman, and Strange Magic were clever additions.

And sometimes I want to smack my head at how much Kerry Butler exaggerates her voice. I'm surprised they were able to do such a good job. Whatever it's ok, this is an amazing version of the song. It's always been my favorite part of the song and it was the part I was most looking forward to in the song.

9.Don't walk away - Amazing version of a beautiful song. At the beginning when the guitar kicks in it sounded a little "Sesame Street does rock music" if that makes sense, but I understand the play is very campy. Certain instruments are not prominent enough and the voices are WAY too loud. 12.Suspended in time - Oh boy. Any version of Xanadu can get you dancing so I don't have much to complain about here. Interrupting the song to speak is also a little annoying but I understand it's for the story. The "better never stray" always emotionally gets me.

That is the voice of an angel. Seriously I've said it 2 million times and I'll say it again. I am still a little put off at how much of a comedy the play is. Very nice guitar and keyboard work. Hell, they're ALL classics.

8.All over the world - Cheyenne Jackson's voice freaking shines on this song. I give the mixing a 2 out of 10 . I'm glad they included. As great of a voice that Kerry has, when the play comes to San Francisco I'd like to hope the new actress/singer doesn't have such a nasally grating voice. - What's this I hear. Great production.

Not much to say about this one. One of my favorites from this soundtrack. 11.The Fall - I am very impressed with the attention to trying to recreate the original here. Mary Testa not overacting at the beginning. Actually I don't even know if that was her, but kudos to whoever it was. but I have to say again I'm thankful the play was produced at all and that it's become so successful. Another showing off of Cheyenne's talent. I love this Olivia song and I'm glad it was added.

I'm glad to hear that [somehow] the voices aren't quite as overdone here. It's just a big pile of glittery disco magic. Overall, I give this soundtrack a 7 out of 10. I am still very disappointed at how some of the synthesizer and keyboard detail is lost in the background because it's simply not loud enough. The vocal arrangements are great. 14.Xanadu - I've pretty much put enough energy into this review. Impressive recreation of the original on this track.

At 1:15 there is a drum skip which I think shows bad editing and possibly that the drums weren't even real in the recording. I'm a big Xanadu fan so it was super exciting to find out about. I LOVE the guitar solo. And the keyboard could have been vamped up like I saw it was during "Broadway in the park". I really like this version. I think I'd like this a lot more if Kira wasn't made so annoying in this play. Finally. I'm a musician so I really appreciate these kinds of things.

1.I'm Alive - Great tribute to the original. Very nice arrangement here. I feel the speeding up and kind of flippant karaoke production didn't suit the song very well. Even professional studio headphones [which I switched out for my crappy ones halfway through the song] didn't improve the quality. Obviously this is their own take on all the songs and it works well in that respect. 6.Dancin' - A classic Xanadu song. And the whispering thing [displayed in suddenly, magic, and this] makes me cringe.

It's a beautiful song. Sped up again. She was more ethereal and soft spoken and mysterious in the film. I think it would have come off funnier if the actors actually took their parts seriously and tried to be dramatic and not overly campy. I took the movie as an actual love story with some amazing music even though most people consider it cheesy. On to each song:.

Well, being a huge fan of the film and it's amazingly produced score, I was a little let down and shouldn't have expected a second coming. Some more disco "wah" guitar and a slightly slower version would have helped. 5.Whenever you're away from me - Nice arrangement at the beginning but as it drifts off into a weird scatting contest with flashy drum fills and an even jazzier tune it loses the feeling of the song. Even more so than the character calls for. 3.Evil Woman - Campy Broadway at its best I suppose. It's only because of the music though, I have no clue what goes on in the story. 13.Have you never been mellow.

I'm just an honest Xanadu fan and I'm giving my feelings on this soundtrack. 4.Suddenly - Well, one of the most beautiful songs of all time. Dial it back a freaking notch on Kerry's grating voice though. I notice in Broadway everything is very pronounced and precise and campy. It's not a well known song from the film but I love that that much attention to detail was put into researching for this play.

Simply put. Funny that the last 40 seconds of this song are probably the most emotional to me throughout the play. Before I give comments on each song, I'd like to point out that although these are great, fun, and beautiful arrangements of each song, the mixing is TERRIBLE. What can you say about the title track.

The mixing isn't too bad here but of course, it could have been adjusted. I'm disappointed that Kerry couldn't pull off Olivia's high note here. I saw rehearsal videos before the play officially came out where the music sounded much better. 7.Strange Magic - What can I say. It's beautiful on its own, does it really need that.

Kerry Butler has a beautiful voice live but it sounds so nasally and grating here. This is one of the better mixed songs I can actually hear the keyboard and other instruments. I had to keep turning down my speaker to try and avoid her voice, and in the process the music kept getting quieter. I know other fans will probably think I'm crazy with my views on this play so far, but I haven't seen it live.

The only unfortunate thing again is the mixing. -Phew-. Cheyenne Jackson has an AMAZING voice. Subtlety obviously does not exist in the Xanadu universe that's been created for this play.

10.Fool - What an odd addition. I've only heard the soundtrack and I'm waiting for it to come to San Francisco. I never like when plays do this. Never been one of my favorite Xanadu songs but maybe I'll change my mind. They would totally stand alone as successful songs even if there was no movie.

I love the guitarist's parts here and everything is very tight. It really ruins the mood for me. This is an example where a crazy ending works. I love how much of a disco song this sounds like in this version. I love every single song so I can make an exception.

Broadway play: 4.5 Stars; Original cast recording: 3.5 Stars. The running time of this album is just 43 min. is the original Broadway cast recording featuring Kerry Butler and Cheyenne Jackson. This features the 10 songs of the original album, plus 4 added tracks, 2 ELO songs worked into the story line ("Evil Woman" and "Strange Magic") and 2 John Farrar songs, including the oldie but goodie Olivia hit "Have You Ever Been Mellow". I was in New York recently on a business trip, and jumped on the chance to see it. Fast forward to 2007 when the news came that Xanadu was being worked into a Broadway musical. But in all, this recording is a great memento to the fabulous experience that "Xanadu on Broadway" was. Somehow the play works great where the movie didn't and it was a guilty pleasure all over for me.

Well, I was skeptical, but no more. Let me state upfront that I absolutely loved the 1980 original movie soundtrack, featuring 5 ELO tracks on Side 1, and 4 John Farrar-penned Olivia Newton-John plus the ELO/Olivia title track on Side 2. The movie was horrible, but the music was great. and that gives you an idea how they had to stretch it out to make this into a Broadway musical (which is 90 min). "Xanadu on Broadway" (14 tracks; 43 min). In all, this is a terrific cast recording, with the best songs for me being "Suddenly", "Evil Woman" and, best of all, "Suspended in Time".

First rate. XANADU, the original Broadway cast album, captures the spirit in song of the best musical on Broadway. Funny, fabulous, loving, it will make you laugh and cry. Cheyenne Jackson is the greatest singing star on Broadway since Barbra Streisand and this album captures the beauty of his incredible voice. Jackie Hoffman and Mary Testa are a riot as the evil sisters and Kerry Butler will break your heart when she sings "Suspended in Time." The supporting cast are just incredible and I wish you could see their spectacular dancing as well as hear their beautiful voices.

Yah, I have no idea why you would review a musical's album without seeing the show.that's like rating a movie by it's radio commericial. It is truely an interactive experience. I hearted it. The reason why this show survived is b/c of the way it makes fun of the original movie, the 80s, and musical theater in such a clever, fun, playful, and warm way, like how you would tease your little sister or something. The musical was one of the most fun I have had on Broadway.

Butler are talented singers and great comedic timing. Anyway, I love this movie b/c it's is so cheese-tastic and the music is a true guilty pleasure. So if you keep that in mind, you will like this cast album. Cheyenne Jackson and Ms. This show is not trying to break musical theater ground her.it's just trying to be fun and it succeeds.

For some reason, I love the damn CD even though I haven't seen the show yet.I love almost every single song and when Kerry Butler speaks with her Australian accent, it freakin cracks me up. I guess seeing all those clips of the show on youtube made me like the songs more.Great CD.