Drood OBC recording vs. Revival

[Deena Jones]

Does anyone know why there were so many changes to made to the confessions between the two versions of the show? Also why does Bazzards last note on Never the Luck and in his Confession differ from the OBC?

[broadwaybabe1234]

Bazzards last note confuses me too. i feel like it is because Peter Benson isn't a singer and has admitted it. but it does sound really weird and a little off pitch.

[Deena Jones]

I agree Babe. Anyone? There has to be someone who'd know!

[Michael Bennett]

In the script notes for the licensed version of the material, Holmes describes why he re-wrote several of the confessions. When the show was revised for the (very brief) original London production, Holmes sought to address what he thought were some musical flaws on Broadway -- mainly that the second act didn't include enough 'new' songs and that "Ceylon" didn't completely work for musicalizing the Landless twins.

Holmes replaced "Ceylon" for the London production with "A British Subject" (briefly heard in the original production at the Delacorte) and added a song called "A Private Investigation" to Act 2 (Holmes felt that "Settling Up the Score" was repetitive, given that its essentially the same melody as "Don't Quite While Your Ahead.")

Given these changes, Holmes decided that the confessions would be more specifically character driven if they reflected the new musical changes, rather than (almost) all of the confessions being rooted in the same piece of music ("No Good Can Come from Bad").

Thus, the Landless twins's confession was changed to be underscored by "A British Subject". They are really the only confessions that are markedly different from the Original Broadway production. The character of Durdles was not a candidate for murder in the Broadway production. He was added to the line up in that London revision.

For reasons I'm not sure of, Holmes (or perhaps Rivera and Scott Ellis) decided to revert back to "Settling Up the Score" rather than "A Private Investigation." But the most of the other changes to the score reflect that London revision. For this production (key changes, alternate notes) were simply made to accommodate this cast's vocal talents.

[Deena Jones]

WOW! Thank you Michael Bennett, that was most helpful! I really appreciate your time in answering that.

[HeyMrMusic]

I'm not sure about the sudden key change at the very end of "Never the Luck" either. My ears don't want to go there; it's a little jarring. I think an alternate note or shifting the whole song down would have been better. I think Benson is a capable enough singer to pull it off either way.

[newintown]

Didn't Holmes also rewrite the lyrics to most of the confessions, too? Originally, most of them said that the Murderer was really trying to kill Jasper, and confused Drood for Jasper since Drood was wearing Jasper's coat.

I think in the current version, they all sing that they tried to kill Drood, don't they?

[Kelly2]

Newintown, in the revival Puffer and Rosa still were trying to kill Jasper.