The Perfect Musical?
Dec 15
2013, 07:29:13 PM
Les Miserables has a major flaw in that it has very few tunes for the size of the show, and so they are often repeated as material which does not relate to the characters or emotions originally intended. So it is both confusing and repetitive. Lloyd Webber is guilty of the same offence, whereas Sondheim manages to make a few themes go a long way by using them imaginatively in Passion for instance.
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The Perfect Musical?
Dec 15
2013, 12:51:29 PM
The fact that we're talking about live theatre and every night is a different show means perfection is not really an option when there are so many variables including the mood of the audience. How well a show can withstand an amateur production is always a good guide to how well it is written/constructed. Sweeney, Guys and Dolls and She Loves Me stand up well, provide you have good enough singers. Strangely, one show that I've never seen a bad production of is Assassins. It always seems to work
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What do you guys think of COMPANY?
Nov 6
2013, 06:45:33 AM
Bobby isn't half as whiny and self indulgent as you are AfterEight. Seems like you fell into the abyss a long long long and very boring time ago.
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Fun Home performance canceled
Nov 4
2013, 06:56:29 AM
the New Yorker article is very interesting but the conclusions drawn about the autobiographical nature of the work are flawed. Fun Home the musical is an adaptation of Alison Bechdel's story, not the story of Tesori and Kron. Sondheim could have easily written a score for this piece if he chose to do so. Most of his shows are based on ideas brought to him by his collaborators, so it's no surprise that his shows are not autobiographical, although he himself has said there are aspects of his own c
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Am I the only one excited about Merrily?????
Oct 25
2013, 03:42:36 PM
The screening that I attended in the UK didn't have any of the backstage interviews or spoilers, but i did think the 15 minute interval was quite unnecessary in that setting.
On the whole I thoroughly enjoyed the performances and this version of the script, although nobody quite touched me in the way that the Donmar cast did a decade or so ago. Other versions have been clearer about Joe's bad investments after Gussie leaves him, but this production highlighted the way that Joe didn't recogni
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Sondheim Working On A Revised (Gay) Version Of COMPANY
Oct 16
2013, 07:05:10 PM
Some people here seem to have very fixed ideas on how the role of Bobby should be cast. Daniel Evans is a remarkably versatile performer who will bring something new to the role, just as he did in Sunday, Merrily We Roll Along, Candide and Grand Hotel. Very unwise to dismiss him unseen. Having said that, my favourite Bobby so far was Adrian Lester, who was so completely adorable and funny and vulnerable that his limited vocal skill just made you love him even more.
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Fun Home rush
Oct 12
2013, 04:41:37 PM
would it hurt do do a little bit of research about the show you're supposedly attending? The show is based on a a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel which tells the autobiographical story of her childhood growing up in a funeral home, dealing with her own emerging sexuality, and her closeted father's suicide. it took me less than a minute to find out that much information, and i knew nothing at all about the show.
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Sep 17
2013, 03:12:41 PM
Where I Want to Be and Pity the Child from CHESS
Everybody Says Don't from Anyone Can Whistle
Oh What a Circus from Evita
The Road you Didn't Take from Follies
Johanna (Judge Turpin's Solo) from Sweeney Todd
I Don't Care Much from Cabaret
Heaven on their Minds from JCS
If I have to Live Alone from The Baker's Wife
Don't take Much, My Way or the Highway, Someday is for Suckers from The Life
All of these numbers can be sung with varying degrees of anger or frust
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Favorite Kander and Ebb song
Sep 13
2013, 07:19:18 AM
I Miss The Music shouldn't really qualify since it has a lyric by John Kander, but since he dedicated it to Fred Ebb, it still feels like one of their best songs. Brent Barrett's version of Seeing Things is quite beautiful, also Streisand's original I Don't Care Much, and Agnetha Faltskog's My Colouring Book is a heart breaker, and Don't Tell Mama always makes me smile. But the bridge from Go Back Home is just exquisite. Who knew that singing Oh me, Oh my... could conjure up such pain and yearn
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Favorite CD by a broadway star/performer?
Aug 22
2013, 07:00:47 AM
Good to see how often Randy Graff's Doing Something Right and Judy Kuhn's Just in Time are being mentioned, as they are albums which I regularly play without skipping a single track. Other solo CD's which I would recommend as being similarly without fault would be:
Alison Fraser: A New York Romance
Norm Lewis: This is the Life
Andrea Burns: A Deeper Shade of Red
Judy Holliday: Trouble is a Man
Sally Mayes: The Story Hour
Alan Cumming: I Bought A Blue Car Today
Da
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New PASSION recording
Jul 3
2013, 10:46:16 PM
Clara's main reason for refusing to leave with Giorgio is that she would lose custody of her child if she left her husband for another man, so she has no choice but to remain in a loveless marriage. Giorgio is pretty immature to expect her to make that sacrifice.
Fosca tells us that she was happy as a child and was told by her parents that she was beautiful. Although she realizes herself that she is no beauty, it is only when her lying abusive husband tells her that she is ugly that she star
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Into the Woods Best Actress 1988 Tony Awards
Jun 29
2013, 06:04:17 AM
Sondheim himself never considered the Witch as a leading role and didn't think Bernadette would be interested when they were casting the role originally. Cinderella has a lot more to do than the witch, but the Baker's wife is the role that wins awards. Imelda Staunton and Julia McKenzie both got great notices for Into the Woods in London and both were nominated for the Olivier Award that year, but it was Staunton as the Baker's Wife who won.
As for the 1988 Tonys, the main competition was be
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Chess - London vs Broadway
Jun 12
2013, 09:35:00 PM
the concept album had huge holes in the plot which needed to be resolved dramatically for the show to play coherently in the theatre. This was not accomplished in either the London or Broadway productions for a variety of reasons, and the many revisions made over the years by various directors and writers has led to much confusion. Rice has made clear which version he now prefers, and surely that should be respected.
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Chess - London vs Broadway
Jun 12
2013, 08:55:28 PM
Michael Bennett left the production before rehearsals started so he did none of the choreography or staging. He was responsible for the design and casting decisions, neither of which suited Trevor Nunn who took over as director. If Nunn had been on board from the start the London production would have been very different, and the changes he insisted on for Broadway would not have been so drastic.
When searching for the best version of Chess it is also worth considering the Swedish language p
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