Broadway and Beyond

[fanatic]

For Christmas my parents got me the box DVD of the PBS "History of Broadway". It's so amazing. Hours and hours of footage and interviews. I was never a big Rogers and Hammerstein fan, but hell by the end of this I was. AH! The Gershwin's! Irving Berlin! Sondheim! Le sigh...

My roommates are getting really annoyed with my incredibly loud shower renditions of "You're doing fine Oklahoooooma, Oklahoma OK!" and tap dancing in the living room singing "Hear the beat, of dancing feeeeet! On the avenue I'm takin' ya to, Forty (Forty FORTY) Second streeeeeeeeeeeeeeet".

Have I ever told you I can't carry a tune?

[Deleted]

Oh! I watched that when it was on PBS. So good. In college I took a class called "History of American Musical Theatre" which gave me a really good appreciation of all things Rogers & Hammerstein (and Rogers & Hart too).

My roommates are getting really annoyed with my incredibly loud shower renditions of "You're doing fine Oklahoooooma, Oklahoma OK!" and tap dancing in the living room singing "Hear the beat, of dancing feeeeet! On the avenue I'm takin' ya to, Forty (Forty FORTY) Second streeeeeeeeeeeeeeet".

That's OK. I used to pick random weird quotes from musicals and sing them around my sister to annoy her.

Like from Sunset Boulevard I would always sing "Why don't you go back to Artie and marry the fool and you'll always be welcome to swim in my pool!" over and over again. Heh.

[iceblink]

I love Sunset Boulevard! I have a love/hate thing with Lloyd Webber (love: Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita; hate: Cats, Starlight Express) but Sunset is kind of overlooked and I think it's one of his better shows, really. And one of the more enjoyable film-to-stage adaptations I've seen (I can't wait for this trend to die).

[tamaradixon]

iceblink said:

I love Sunset Boulevard! I have a love/hate thing with Lloyd Webber (love: Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita; hate: Cats, Starlight Express) but Sunset is kind of overlooked and I think it's one of his better shows, really. And one of the more enjoyable film-to-stage adaptations I've seen (I can't wait for this trend to die).

I saw it in Toronto with Rex Smith (!!) and Dianne Carroll (!!). Despite the cast, it was an excellent show.

[Deleted]

I saw it in Austin with Petula Clark. It was odd. In the song "We gave the world new ways to dream." she said "world" weird. Like "Weeerld" with a really hard accent on the D. It was really distracting.

I liked Sunset but I would have to admit that I liked Aspects of Love better which is pretty much hated by critics but I don't care.

[iceblink]

I love Aspects of Love too. It's so trashy and convoluted and the score's very pretty. Saw it in London and loved it.

[Wol]

I think Aspects is ALW's prettiest score, but the book is total shite. I'm a yooooge Jesus Christ Superstar fan myself. Also big on Les Mis and pretty much everything Sondheim but particularly Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, and A Little Night Music. Going old school, I love Candide and Kiss Me Kate. Not a big fan of the "movie to musical" trend. Also not in love with either Wicked or Rent but it's nice to see the young kids actually interested in live theater. I'm of the politically incorrect view that Rent would not be the juggernaut it is had they not had Jonathan Larson's death to capitalize on. The show has its merits, but the narrative is ridiculous as are some of the lyrics. I think J. Larson had enormous talent but he idolized Sondheim and he was never going to be in that league.

[starskin]

I saw Sunset Blvd with Petula Clark as well. To be perfectly honest, I was sitting in the front row for the first time ever, and was so excited by this fact that I don't remember much about the show. Exept they did have a swimming pool! I have an ALW greatests hits CD that has Glenn Close doing a stellar job of "With One Look". Damn, I had no idea she could sing, but she does a great rendition of that song!

An unpopular opinion I have is that I just can't seem to get into Miss Saigon. I mean, I worship Lea Solanga's voice, and there are a few songs on there that are perfect, but on the whole it's never grabbed me the way I thought it should. Sigh...I know, I know, I'm a Philistine.

[proper stranger]

starskin said:

I have an ALW greatests hits CD that has Glenn Close doing a stellar job of "With One Look". Damn, I had no idea she could sing, but she does a great rendition of that song!

I saw Glenn play Norma Desmond and she was awesome. The way she delivered the line, "Now go." right after "With One Look" was perfect. I've met people that thought she sounded strange on the recording, but the performance worked so well on stage and the voice was great for the character.

At the time I saw Sunset Blvd., set design/mechanics had gotten fairly outrageous (falling chandeliers, helicopters, etc.), but I was still stunned to see the set of Norma's house levitate over the set of Artie's apartment during the New Year's Eve sequence. It was like split-screen done on stage. Later on I saw the touring production with Petula Clark and the scene worked just as well, though, with a simplified staging. (Kind of like how on the tour of Miss Saigon they used flashing lights and sound to suggest the helicopter, rather than landing an actual chopper on stage.)

starskin, I feel the same about Miss Saigon. With the exception of a few amazing songs ("The American Dream", "I Still Believe"), I respect it more than I love it. In further personal Boubil-Schoenberg weirdness, I find listening to the various cast recordings of Les Miserables more affecting than seeing the actual show itself. Maybe the productions I saw (think I've seen it twice) weren't that great.

[Deleted]

I love the PBS concert version of Les Mis.

With so many musicals, I fell in love with the soundtrack first and THEN I'd finally get to see it when the touring show came to St. Louis. So it would be weird because I'd have the soundtrack committed to memory and then I'd hear someone else sing the song and the slightest difference in inflection and tone felt off to me.

Like when I saw Wicked recently I was sort of disappointed in Defying Gravity because I have gotten so used to the soundtrack where she just BELTS IT and the girl who sang it in Chicago was good but she wasn't like Idina Menzel and I was so used to hearing Idina singing it that I'm not sure I would have appreciated anyone else 100%

So when I saw Aspects or Les Mis or even Miss Saigon, I remember just being sort of "Oh, you're not as good as Michael Ball or Lea Salonga, etc."