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Recommend on: Other 'musicals' like Dr. Horrible
hamdingers
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
To try to be concise: despite not liking other Whedon things (Buffy, Firefly, etc - not a troll they just didn't grab me) based on my like of NPH, Fillion and Day in other things I tried Dr Horrible and really liked it - particularly the music.
I don't have much musical experience, but I especially liked the interweaving patters (like NPH and Day do in My Eyes) and the clever lyrics.
Anyone have something similar to recommend?
I don't have much musical experience, but I especially liked the interweaving patters (like NPH and Day do in My Eyes) and the clever lyrics.
Anyone have something similar to recommend?
hamdingers on
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Edit: Oh yeah, Hedwig. Atombomb nailed it.
Rent.
Rocky Horror.
This one's basically it. But keep in mind it's only an episode and not that long.
Hedwig's a bit more of an actual movie, but it's really that humorous. Good watch, though. Rocky Horror is mandantory.
I am aware of this (and the similar Scrubs episode), but I don't know enough Buffy backstory to grok it I'm sure. Worth a Hulu though, so I will check it out.
North of Boston, so I'm sure there are a lot of options. Sadly, this couldn't be more out of the wife's taste-range. Singing as dialogue is a leap some folks can't make. Solo is not something I'm comfortable with.
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198006524737
just my opinion, but I'd look for a clip or two online first even before renting this one. I found the music to be terrible. They should have went with a musical format on that instead of opera where you have to sing every single line of dialogue. Trying to sing about modifying your genetics with an inverse tachyon pulse in a modified matrix with a plasma base sounds like the musical interpretation of the sensation of vomiting. That was really a painful movie to get through. I did enjoy the setting/visuals, plot, characters, etc.... but the music. If the music is bad in a musical you've already lost.
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Altar Boyz: The idea of the show is that it's a concert by a Christian boy band called the Altar Boyz, who sing songs like "Jesus Called Me on My Cell Phone" and "Girl, You Make Me Wanna Wait." Despite the premise sounding like it would come across as overwhelmingly crude and offensive, it's incredibly tasteful and well done. The music is great, the lyrics are unbelievably clever, and it's overall just a heck of a lot of fun. The CD works better than most show cast recordings because they basically treat it as if it's the studio album of the band itself.
Avenue Q: Think "Sesame Street for adults" - humans and puppets together onstage singing songs like "If You Were Gay" and "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist". Seven or eight years ago it took Broadway by storm when it won the Tony Award for Best Musical in a complete and utter upset over Wicked, the big huge mega-show that everybody expected to win. It's intelligent, it's heartwarming, and it's unabashedly inappropriate. Definitely check out the CD.
Little Shop of Horrors: Pretty much THE defacto "campy sci-fi musical" that isn't Rocky Horror. Check out the movie with Rick Moranis and Steve Martin if you haven't already, it's great stuff.
Rent: This is really the one musical written in the past twenty years that I'd consider a cultural milestone. It's La Boheme set in the East Village in the late 80s/early 90s. It's more serious than all of the other light and fluffy comedies I've been listing, but it's still a lot of fun. The author, who died the night of final previews off-Broadway, had a truly prolific musical voice - this show basically set the stage for the modern trend of rock musicals. The regular film version sucks, but there's a great DVD called "Rent: Filmed Live on Stage" that's a very well-made filmed version of the show made before it closed on Broadway.
Urinetown: This show is a bit more "theatery" and less pop-oriented than everything else I've listed, but I love it too much to not include. The basic premise is that it's set in the future where there's a big water shortage and people have to pay to use the bathroom. It's all controlled by a corrupt corporation, and it tells the story of a public urinal worker who stages an uprising to let everybody pee for free. It's got a great edgy feel to it, and it's wildly funny in a dark way that you don't see often in a musical.
Zombie Prom: Nobody's ever heard of this show, but it's brilliant. It's got zombies, it's got camp, and I'd say the music reminds me more of Dr. Horrible than anything else I've listed here. There's a half-hour long film version, but it sucks. Try to track down the CD.
Check out Reefer Madness. It is an excellent musical parody of an old Anti-Drug movie.
And yes, there is a signing Jesus in it.
Confrontation, from Les Miserables. Javert and Jean Valjean sing an argument. The lyrics aren't overly "clever", but the point/counterpoint between the two make for a powerful duet in which the two singers sing different lyrics (until the end).
Les Miserables - Confrontation
One Day More, from Les Miserables. Everyone gets to sing! Each principal part sings their major theme, and it all weaves together nicely. Probably the showstopper piece of the show, because then you realize that all of the songs were meant to be sung together.
Les Miserables - One Day More
Also Parodied in Star Wars the Musical, as "Use the Force" (I apologize for the quality of the sound in advance... it is, after all, a high school production. The Han Solo entrance is pretty classic.)
Use the Force!
Fugue for Tinhorns from Guys and Dolls has three different lyrics, but the same melodic line for each of them, sung a few bars offset so that they layer. It's interesting, to say the least:
Fugue for Tinhorns (movie version)
As far as clever lyrics, "Popular" from Wicked comes to mind. Yes, it's Steven Schwartz, but this particular song oozes with fun rhymes that aren't completely obvious. For example, this clever bump:
And with an assist from me
To be who you'll be
Instead of dreary who-you-were... erm, are.
There's nothing that can stop you
From becoming popu-
Ler... uh, lar?
Popular
A Little Priest, from Sweeney Todd. The only song that I know of that describes how people would taste in meat pies based on their profession. Full of awful puns on the backdrop of dark humor, and yet done in such a lighthearted style. This particular performance is probably one of the best:
A Little Priest (Angela Lansbury/George Hearn)
Sondheim (who wrote Sweeney Todd) has a lot of clever lyrics in general. I could highly recommend Company, especially the latest revival (which was done in an experimental style where all of the singers are also instrumentalists... the "Great Performances" recording is available as Play Now from Netflix).
Ones to ignore/run away from: 7th Heaven musical, Scrubs musical.
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I... really didn't like the Lansbury/Hearn production of Sweeney Todd. Given that NPH is IN the more recent version (and I generally find it to be superior in most other ways except set), I suggest that. The entire thing is on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrtgkaiSfCk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlBnwsz0hSY&feature=related
Skip to 4:00 for NPH.
I like it better than the recent movie as well, though there are things I like about that. I don't want to sound like a musical snob, but I think this production is still better.
I don't think there's a DVD of the show out, at least none that I saw on amazon.
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EDIT: Almost off topic (but not quite), NPH was in a recent revival of Assassins, another Sondheim musical. I own that soundtrack, and he was pretty good in that. It is a better recording overall than the original cast album, I think.
Assassins is indeed a fantastic show. I have mixed feelings as to the original cast recording vs. the revival. I think the original is much "prettier", but the revival does a much better job of representing the show as a show, if that makes sense; the original CD sounds like pretty voices singing pretty music instead of the very intense show exploring very serious themes that the show actually is.
Seconding this. It's a pretty fantastic musical that died due to extremely unfortunate circumstances.*
Cinemax made a film adaptation of it that's pretty good, and there is a soundtrack available from the original cast.
Here's a youtube of the Overture from the film adaptation. Featuring Alan Cumming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdrcKDtp4NE
*It opened off-broadway on September 15, 2001. Death sentence, basically.
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Not something I ever thought I'd hear.
edit: Reminds me of those Short N' Stouts that someone on here made in Spore. Flooded my game with razor-fanged teapots.
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Lansbury's Lovett has this sort of tottering madness, while Lupone's Lovette has more of a self-aware sadism. If nothing else it's interesting to see the different takes on the character.
Fanmade, by the looks of it.
I wanted to suggest REPO! The Genetic Opera but I went looking to see if anyone else had. It's fucking awesome on a lot of levels and the only complaint anyone can come up with for it is superficial and will either be that OhGr didn't have enough singing parts or that Paris Hilton was in it.
Paris Hilton is so good in it that you will instantly forget who she is. OhGr got screwed but who fucking cares.
It's brilliant and it's absolutely up the alley of anyone who enjoyed Dr. Horrible
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Other excellent musicals include Sweeney Todd (see the movie it's as excellent as it gets, really), Les Mis, a little-known musical titled Batboy which is just fuckin amazing
1776 is pretty badass imo
I'm a big fan of them, personally. I guess my disbelief is easily suspended.
* My Fair Lady (A kind of "gentle foothold" into the world of campy musicals, because it makes fun of itself a lot and has a lot of humor that we can appreciate even more in this generation I think, such as the main character's father... it's pretty funny stuff)
* Wicked (which, admittedly, is unusually campy for the modern age of musicals, but I love it anyways
* Les Miserables (Fantastic, for all the reasons mentioned in the excellent post someone made on page 1)
I also like the seasonal "movie musical" White Christmas, but its so campy that it'll make your head spin if you're not prepared. Most people that I show it to who are under the age of 40 usually can't sit through it.
EDIT:
Avenue Q came first. Take a look at it, I think you'll find the rest of the music to be just as hilarious as that tune.
Into the Woods: Yet another Sondheim musical, this one plays with traditional fairy tales, intertwining the stories and characters and finding out what happens after "happily ever after". It's delightfully clever.
Evil Dead, the Musical is a boatload of fun. It is best seen live, and can be appreciated even by people who haven't seen the movie (as long as you're passingly familiar with horror movie tropes, it's hilarious).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDOe7Npinl4
There is a point where something becomes absurd enough that you can accept whatever it throws at you.
A supervillian that keeps a blog? Absurd. That he (and others) burst out in song? Meh, why not he already has a blog.
A lawyer in a murder trial? Routine. The jury breaking out in a jaunty number - where the hell did that come from?
I wish I was awake enough to make up a good name for that "rule".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhXsJjVdj1E
I've seen that video before, but it was actually before I had heard of les miserables. It's definitely 100x better after knowing what song they're doing.
I know people have linked other Les Miserables songs, but I can't stress enough how fantastic the entire musical is. My favorite song, Empty chair at empty tables, follows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJnjcX8skXk