Un-magical Camelot

This past weekend I saw the musical Camelot at the Civic Center in Des Moines and was sadly disappointed. The songs from Camelot have formed a bond between my mother and I, for she listened to the record while doing chores when she was young, and I also listened to the CD when I was little, to the point where I had all of the words memorized. The recording of the 1960 original Broadway cast that we shared featured the voices of Richard Burton as King Arthur, Julie Andrews as Guinevere, and Robert Goulet as Lancelot - an all-star musical cast. After hours of listening to the soundtrack, the innocent trills of Andrew's singing and the depth of Burton and Goulet's rich, masculine voices were second nature in my mind.

Since my mother and I had both not listened to the recording for years, we decided to put it on repeat in the car the day before the performance. However, ingraining these magnificent voices into our heads prepared us, instead, for a let-down.

This performance's King Arthur, played by Lou Diamond Phillips, could not carry out the majesty of the songs that Richard Burton accomplished. Since the majority of the songs in the musical are sung by the king, the music became a bore, with voice cracks, stiff acting, and weak vocal power. My mom and I agreed that we wished the actor playing Lancelot, Matt Bogart, would have taken the king's role, for his two songs were more powerful and moving then any of Phillip's numbers.

I've noticed a pattern of let-downs like this after listening to Broadway recordings obsessively. The same thing happened to me when I saw Phantom of the Opera, both the live and the movie version, after accustoming myself to Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford.

I guess the lesson learned is to skip pre-performance prepping and go into the experience fresh, without the expectations set by the Broadway recordings.

-Claire