Once More with Feeling - Buffy the Vampire Slayer- Original Cast Album
01/12/2002 . Source: Sue Davies 

Mutant Enemy/Twentieth Century Fox Corp. Rounder 1166190582. Price: £ 7.99 - £15.99 so shop around for the best deal.

OK, I will. Take one super-talented writer, producer and director with a hit show that's been running for five amazing seasons. A chance discovery that all of his cast have a certain singing ability and guess what?

He's always wanted to produce a musical! So why not a musical of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer'? A four-month 'holiday' and he comes up with a plot, songs and the music. Some fine-tuning and the addition of Emmy-winning Chris Beck for the twiddly bits and there you are.

Sounds easy, but you try it. The key premise is that the show must be an integral part of the season and must somehow incorporate the concerns of Buffy and the Scooby Gang without destroying the whole.

Bring on a Demon. Not just any Demon but one that sings and dances. He brings an excess of exuberance which causes singing, dancing and immolation. Bit of a problem with the side effects there.

Right the music.

The good news is it's pretty good. The songs are all catchy and feature the continuing problems of the characters. Therefore Xander and Anya sing about their upcoming marriage and all the downsides - 'I'm marrying a demon...we could really raise the roof on making marriage a hell!' Spike sings about his love and hate for Buffy.

And Buffy...well she's got the most enormous problems which will continue to dominate Season 6.

The quality of the voices vary enormously but they are all used to their best ability rather than making a mockery of the musical. The strongest are Anthony Head and Amber Benson who get quite a lot of airtime. Sarah Gellar is competent and given that much of the action rests on her she makes a good stab at it! The opening number of 'Going through the Motions' set during her vampire patrol is particularly amusing as she carries on singing while dusting -obviously not the same kind of dusting as Snow White.

Spike (James Masters) gets a rock number and just needs an air guitar to complete it. His words are rather poignant ' if my heart could beat it would break my chest'. The demon is a real singer and his numbers are more professional with the nice counterpoint of Dawn's (Michelle Trachtenberg) untrained voice.

The CD is nicely presented, with pictures of the cast, musical style. Inside are the lyrics for your Buffy sing-along pleasure and extensive notes by Joss Whedon of how it all came about. As a bonus several orchestral tracks from previous episodes are included and the 'Grr Arrgh' is perfect.

It will be interesting to see whether this introduces new fans to the series. It is good to see that innovation is not dead when so much dross is produced both sides of the Atlantic. Perhaps the browsers in record stores will be inspired and amazed as I was.
Will we see a musical of Doctor Who/Farscape one day? Don't ask the BBC to produce it they seem oblivious to the potential at the heart of their scheduling.

To another point, which some purists might raise, should he have done it? Does it spoil your enjoyment knowing he can manipulate this world any way he wants? Do you prefer the author to appear to be absent?

When the final three episodes of Angel (Season 2) took them out of Los Angeles and into Wonderland in order to deal with some issues and introduce a new character into the programme the fan base was split on whether this was a good idea.

Well, it's a fantasy and its realities can be whatever the director/writer wants as long as they fit into the context and in this musical and in Angel I believe they do. (Your comments on a postcard). And on that note just be grateful they couldn't ask David Boreanaz to sing if his rendition of 'Mandy' was his real voice!

There are no real spoilers in this disc but you will appreciate the content much more if you have already succumbed to temptation and bought the boxed set or maybe been 'lucky' enough to view it on Sky. Personally I prefer it sans adverts and it should be coming to a Widescreen near you on BBC2 pretty soon!

As a footnote, the best place to buy this seems to be on www.play.com at £7.99 - everywhere else seems to be treating it as an import and charging double.

It was number 8 in their best selling chart for the week commencing 27/10/02

Sue Davies