Full disclosure: this recording is not my favorite. Don’t let my grumpyness disuade you from eating up what Cassie has to offer though.

Enough time has passed since seeing the original Ghost film that I don’t remember anything except for Demi Moore’s haircut, which was unforgivable. The broadway production somehow went unnoticed by me during the early 2010s “Movie-turned-musical but only lasting a few months on broadway” situation. And Ghost was never a movie I ever considered for a stage adaptation, as I believed it to be locked in the 1990s vault for all time. I didn’t know who Cassie Levy was, nor did I know that Glen Ballard (of Jagged Little Pill fame) and Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics fame) composed the show. After obsessing over Cassie’s Elphaba, Elsa, and Fantine performances in recent years, I finally decided to give the album a new listen. After all, Cassie’s hair is much prettier than Demi Moores, so maybe there’s hope.

Act 1 – The show starts with characters Molly and Sam singing some cheesy pop songs (including a non-favorite song of mine, Unchained Melody) and suddenly Sam gets by a random Mexicann mugger, and then there’s a seemingly out of place song-and-dance tap number “Ball of Wax” set in a hospital and by this point in the album, I’m not sure where to put my emotions. Following this confusing number, a gospel number comes out of nowhere asking Molly and the audience “Are you a believer?” Am I sad? Confused? Cringing? Am I a believer? I’m not sure yet.

Finally near the end of Act 1, Cassie blesses us with the ballad “With You.” This is beautifully belting fantastic Cassie Levy in all her glory singing a great pop song with a haunting minor lift in the chorus (With youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-oooooooooh). And finally the Act one finale comes and Molly “suspends her disbelief” with a 10 minute rock track with so much overlapping dialog and singing and another mexican bad guy? I’m not sure. Now I realize that I have no idea what the heck this musical is about. I’m hoping the second act is… less… confusing.

[Intermission]
(You know how in A L Webber’s Joseph/Dreamcoat, every scene is a new music genre? Country line dancing into French accordian cliche ballad into calypso jam into 1970s disco jam “go go go joseph” into a sad ballad, into 1980s megamix. By the end, your brain is like “what is happening what universe does this story take place in and I feel lost” Ghost is – not as intense – but I wouldn’t say the score “flows” well. And I’m not sure why so many genres are being represented or what the writers “want” me to feel.

Act 2 takes us through ballad after ballad after ongoing dialogs about psychics and ghosts and love. Okay. This is fine. I’ve now read the synopsis and kind of get the gist, but near the end of the album, the not-so rockin’ rock song “I’m outta here” bleeds into an incredibly long dialog track / unchained melody reprise. It’s not until this track is over that I realize we’ve reached the actual finale of the show. Sam stops following around Molly and says goodbye in what is a very quiet anti-climatic ending. And now she has closure? I’m not sure. Do I have closure?! Even less sure.

The album concludes, after the finale, with a pop duet version of “With You” which is enjoyable. It remains the only track I can remember the melody of – everything else is a confusing blur.

Now, with all that being said, I will be keeping my eye out for future productions to see how the show has evolved as it seems to be staying alive somewhat across the pond in the European market. I actually do recommend the recording, dispite what looks like a long list of complaints (Sorry Glen Ballard) simply for Cassie Levy’s vocal performance. She could sing happy birthday backwards, drunk and with a pillow case over her head and I would probably still enjoy listening to it.

Ghost the Musical in its 2011 form is definitely a clunky mess of a musical. Fairly empty with brief moments of quality. Kudos to Cassie and Richard Fleeshman for trying to hold this erratic score together. I think I’ll stick to Jagged Little Pill or Frozen if I need to scratch my Glenn Ballard or Cassie Levy itch.