Except for David Gould, I would prefer the original version. Both Tim Tyler and David Gould are terrific sergeant. Tim Tyler preferred him to be a clown police, while David Gould acted cool but funny in the content, and their bass voice, ah... I love it.
Kyle Oxenham in answer to your question, the sound design team had the whole stage carefully mic'd with multi-directionals that were able to catch them from anywhere they stood, and that was when the band was simply playing at number-to-number volume. Mostly in the legs of the wings and the proscenium. Naturally for this remix, the band cranks it up to an extra volume notch, and those who have particularly demanding vocal parts or feel like their voice might not be as strong at the end requested handheld mics to be able to save their voices at the end. Remember they had to do this night after night virtually non-stop for nearly 3 years, and some of the original cast *wink* were getting a wee bit long in the tooth by that time. :o) I hope that helps.
