NBC Universal: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished… Wicked
Puppy | Feb 18, 2010 | Comments 2
A lot of you know my love for Wicked The Musical. When this blog began I harped on about it a few times, letting everyone know of the amazing talents and story the show has to offer. Often backing them up with my own YouTube videos.
Videos that contained audio from the shows. Yes I do realise that NBC Universal owns the right to the music and what not and that recording shows is a bad bad bad bad bad bad bad thing but…
I believe that live performances change from day to day. Case in point, the final night of Kerry Elliswas an amazing performance that left the audience bringing the house down. The vocal heights that woman reached and the lines she changed to signify her last night on stage as Elphie all added to the magic.
Some people will never get to hear that. Imagine my disappointment when after a year of being online, I get the following notice about my Wicked Audio’s.
Kerry Ellis – As Long As Youre Mine (Final Performance 09/05/09) – (satanspuppet81)
Video ID: 4PO5UE_9fw8
Removed due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal on 17 February 2010Kerry Ellis – I’m Not That Girl (Wicked Final Performance 09/05/09) – (satanspuppet81)
Video ID: BKBiJpywbQ8
Removed due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal on 17 February 2010Kerry Ellis – Defying Gravity (Final Performance 09/05/09) – (satanspuppet81)
Video ID: INR80bYT4AY
Removed due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal on 17 February 2010Kerry Ellis – No Good Deed (Final Performance 09/05/09) – (satanspuppet81)
Video ID: Xb1egr_fJMI
Removed due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal on 17 February 2010Kerry Ellis – Wicked Witch Of The East (Final Performance 09/05/09) – (satanspuppet81)
Video ID: wx0MK58fJN0
Removed due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal on 17 February 2010Kerry Ellis – For Good (Final Performance 09/05/09) – (satanspuppet81)
Video ID: R-4qMWp6Ajg
Removed due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal on 17 February 2010Kerry Ellis – The Wizard & I (Final Performance 09/05/09) – (satanspuppet81)
Video ID: BcuGlMybSMQ
Removed due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal on 17 February 2010Wicked – The Wizard & I (Ashleigh Gray – 01/08/09) – (satanspuppet81)
Video ID: JjxVutgxqJU
Removed due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal on 17 February 2010Wicked – No Good Deed (Ashleigh Gray – 01/08/09) – (satanspuppet81)
Video ID: 7NF-_ag4lZ0
Removed due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal on 17 February 2010Wicked – Defying Gravity (Ashleigh Gray & Sarah Earnshaw 26/08/09) – (satanspuppet81)
Video ID: 4YjnQLu9gDE
Removed due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal on 17 February 2010Wicked | For Good | Ashleigh Gray & Sarah Earnshaw 26/08/09 – (satanspuppet81)
Video ID: Pt0_sTEC0-g
Removed due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal on 17 February 2010Wicked – Not That Girl (Ashleigh Gray – 01/08/09) – (satanspuppet81)
Video ID: rwMt8DT5DY4
Removed due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal on 17 February 2010Wicked – Defying Gravity (Ashleigh Gray, Dianne Pikington – 01/08/09) – (satanspuppet81)
Video ID: VqXV1EGtEBw
Removed due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal on 17 February 2010Wicked | No Good Deed | Ashleigh Gray & Sarah Earnshaw | 26/08/09 – (satanspuppet81)
Video ID: UNzA7ca-dns
Removed due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal on 17 February 2010
Now, as far as I can see there are still a lot of Wicked bootlegs available online and my recordings did not contain video as others do. The Wicked community is large and the show itself has boosted the careers of Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth, Kerry Ellis and Eden Espinosa to those of leading ladies of stage and screen.
Everyone has their favourite Glinda and Elphie and if NBC Universal or those producing the shows marked the arrival and departure of a leading lady/male in a show with a limited digital audio recording of the show, then fans would probably pay £30 – 40 a go just to own that recording. I know I would have paid £30 to hear Kerry Ellisriff her way through her final performance over and over. I’d definitely pay £30 to hear Ashleigh Grayon her final night at Elphie.
However leading ladies come and go and these remarkable performances are never heard by the fans at large. My wicked audios had over 7,000 listeners, some even reached the dizzy heights of 10,000 and now all those positive comments telling people to go and see the show are gone.
The promotion value alone of the audios was excellent. I can only hope that this clamp down on audios from the show means NBC Universal are finally working on the film version of the show.
Come on Musicals get your act together. Too many times do shows hit the stage and often leave without an official cast recording. Plug something into the soundboard and give the fans the chance to hear raw vocals along with a live orchestra.
Shows like Always, Sherlock Holmes & Someone Like You would have benefited from this approach, to record live and release for a limited time. Not on CD but digitally (to save on production costs). However Someone Like You was way back when digital was a pipe dream and Internet was restricted to analogue only.
Someone Like You starred Petula Clark & Dave Willets. There’s only ever been one recording featuring both in a duet from the show and that was for a musicals compilation CD. The entire show has been recorded but not with the original cast in the driving seat. Petula Clark never got to record the show she wrote as the producer at the time went bust, bringing the hit show to a close. (much to my mothers disgust) 
The West End needs to catch up with the rest of the world, there’s an underground market for Musical Bootlegs and now NBC Universal has forced me under the radar. I shall now be responding to the fifty or so requests I’ve had since my audios from Wicked went up.
They shall be shared for a price rather than for free. I was kinda miffed when the notice came through due to the fact that every show is unique and the recordings featuring Ashleigh Graywere great as they showed how she had improved from one month to the next in the role of Elphie, even though she was the Understudy at the time. Even the comments called for casting to put her in the lead role.
Ashleigh Gray leaves the show For Good this coming Friday 19th February 2010. Catch her at the Victoria Apollo by following the links below.
Go see her!!! I wish I could www.lastminute.com or www.ticketmaster.co.uk
Filed Under: Dog Ate My Wookie • NEWS
I totally agree with you about video recordings. They only wet the appetite for live theater and preserve moments from the stage which should be saved forever. Charge us for it, give the performers some $$$, but don’t send these wonderful clips to internet oblivion.
Here Here Here!! I went to Ashleigh’s final show…well I went to the Fake one, the one she announced as her final on Thurs 18th Feb. She riffed her way through it, treated it as her final one. I’ve searched high and low for the audios and I know full well that they exist but the person who recorded it is very reluctant to share…grrrr, makes me angry. Her Wizard and I was to die for. Bring on her true leading lady role…hopefully soon!