CD Review: Xanadu

Original Broadway Cast Recording
Xanadu
PS Classics
By David Chiu

Having been weaned on the original 1980 soundtrack from a bad movie all these years, it took me a while to get used to the Broadway treatment of those songs recorded by Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra. And yet because the music is so dramatic and theatrical, that it seemed natural for Broadway. This cast recording reprises all of the Newton-John and ELO songs from the original movie, including a relatively rare one (“Fool”), and songs previously recorded and became hits before the movie was released (“Have You Ever Been Mellow” and “Evil Woman”). The cast, including Kerry Butler, Cheyenne Jackson and the veteran actor Tony Roberts, does justice to the original movie’s songs, from the upbeat “I’m Alive” and “All Over the World” to ballads such as “Suddenly” and “Don’t Walk Away.”

Video of “Suddenly” from “The View”:

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