As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
[Musicals] The Good, The Bad, The Wicked [RIP Stephen Sondheim]
cj iwakura
The Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
The Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBCVaFqGJwgI honestly can't recall if we had a thread about this before, so with the late Sondheim's passing, I thought it was a good opportunity to show him and the genre some love.
I worked on a production of Sweeney Todd in high school, so it's near and dear to me. (We used red spotlights in lieu of GUSHING GEYSERS OF BLOOD, but that's high school for you.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMWEqWTgG3kThe film is also excellent.
Anyway, you're probably familiar with Sondheim's work in some way, whether you realize it or not, the man was a heavyweight of the American musical:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyofWTw0bqY(West Side Story)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T062wD825JQ(Company)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH1gH33z1Y4attend the tale
Fortunately the genre's having a bit of a resurgence lately, so here's some recent modern gems:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZAw8qxn0ZE(La La Land)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9dFKRZ8EbU(Chicago)
And some classics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma4r313DfkA(The Young Girls of Rochefort)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmdQYFuZrIc(Carmina Burana)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yS9-9ic9A4(The Magic Flute)
And of course, Springtime For H-... er...
https://youtu.be/Ri2TplWqY1o(The Producers)
Friendly reminder that Mel Brooks is a national treasure.
https://youtu.be/LnF1OtP2Svk(What a show.)
cj iwakura on
+6
Posts
Based somewhat loosely on the newsboy strike, is an ok movie. The Broadway version is better, and it's also on Disney+. It's one of the first musicals I remember really enjoying and stuck with me.
I've never even heard of it... looks great.
(And kind of Brooksian)
So I looked it up, and this is apparently a British musical about the *dead* wives of Henry VIII who form a Spice-Girls style girl band, and then each of them sings about how hard their life was and the one with the worst story gets to lead the band? It looks like someone said "Hamilton was a hit, let's do a pop musical about British history, but also take the plot from Cats"
As a child I rented the Newsies VHS from my local library so many times, and rewatched it so many times, it became worn.
On the musical theater front this past year I’ve managed to see both the traveling shows for Wicked (my gf’s favorite show - ended up liking it better than I thought I would despite the second half dragging a little too long) and Lion King, which I had always wanted to see and was amazing.
We tried to get Hamilton but it sold out way too fast and Newsies is on my list for the next time it’s traveling show comes through.
I don't like Passion plays to begin with, so just doing a straightforward Passion Play but also with bad rock music really grated at me.
A high-octane production of Sweeney Todd with Emma Thompson playing Mrs. Lovett.
You can watch the whole thing here thanks to PBS:
http://ga.video.cdn.pbs.org/videos/lincoln-center/00a2c0b8-7da2-4c77-8d48-5ab140e9cd34/150765/hd-mezzanine-16x9/1e9d5075_lvlc3905_mezz16x9-16x9-mp4-2500k.mp4
My favorite revival of Sweeney Todd is the 2005 John Doyle revival starting Michael Cerveris and THE QUEEN PATTI LUPONE. In this particular revival, the orchestration is pared down because all of the actors are ALSO the pit orchestra, so anyone who isn't immediately singing or acting in a scene is playing an instrument. It's a pretty amazing thing to see, if only because the sheer amount of talent involved.
(Company)
John Doyle also did my favorite revival of Company (2006), in a similar way. Raul Esparza plays the lead Bobby, and all of the actors are also the pit orchestra. This one was probably even better, because the actor/instrumentalists are prominently featured when they are playing their instruments, include a dude who hauls around a fucking cello while playing it. Like, holy shit. PBS recorded this one in one of their "Great Performances" series, so it's out there on the internet to view, if you want.
Of course, the new revival of Company stars a woman playing a female version of Bobby, and it still works perfectly. I love the "Not Getting Married Today" being swapped from neurotic bride Amy to a gay man named Jamie.
And, of course, there was this charity performance 1997 (96?) by David, Shaun, and Patrick Cassidy of "You Could Drive a Person Crazy":
(Follies)
I think the same charity performance in 1997 had this rendition "Losing My Mind" by Tim Curry, which is pretty amazing because he just draws you into his madness. It sounds like a person losing their mind as they are singing.
(Waitress)
Jeremy Jordan (the headliner from the musical version of "Newsies" mentioned above) is an amazing singer, and here he sings probably the best version of "She Used To Be Mine" I've ever heard. This is from Waitress, the musical written by Sara Bareilles (all original music, unlike those shitty jukebox musicals out there). It's excellent both from a vocal standpoint and an unusually understated and emotive performance.
(The Last Five Years)
Jeremy Jordan is also fucking excellent in the movie version of "The Last Five Years" by Jason Robert Brown. He plays opposite fucking Anna Kendrick, and they both knock it out of the park.
(Tick Tick Boom!)
It's on Netflix. Run, don't walk, and watch it right away if you love musicals. At the very least, you can enjoy exactly how energized and awesome Andrew Garfield is in this.
I love the music from Six. It's my current top show I want to see live, with Hades Town in a close second.
Tick Tick Boom! was also fantastic. I haven't checked out West Side Story or Schmigadoon yet, but will have to do so soon.
Apparently this got revived after a near cancellation or something and it looks so much fun every time I see clips of it
The other musical I've heard a lot of theater kids pulling songs from for auditions lately is "Be More Chill". "A Guy That I'd Kinda Be Into" for the gals and "Michael in the Bathroom" for the guys.
I really like "A Guy That I'd Kinda Be Into". It's such a fun bop.
Hades Town was great, and the traveling company switched the roles of Hermes and Hades from the cast recording, so Hermes is younger and Hades was older and it really changed up the energy so much I feel like the Broadway recording's Hermes is too slow. I really enjoyed it.
The Diner setpiece alone (which is homage to Sunday in the Park with George) makes it worth it (the Skylar Sisters, Andre De Shields who just won a Tony for Hadestown, frickin' Brian Stokes Mitchell, Joel Grey - Cabaret, Bebe Neuwirth, Chita AND Bernadette!), but also the writer's workshop scene had a LOT of recognizable faces if you follow Broadway at all (Steven Schwartz - Wicked, Godspell, Alex Lacamoire - Hamilton, In The Heights, Dear Evan Hansen, Jason Robert Brown - Parade, Bridges of Madison County, The Last Five Years, Marc Shaiman - Hairspray, the Rogers! Musical from Hawkeye, etc.). Bradley Whitford's impression of Sondheim is spot-on, too, right down to the tilted sitting pose and hand on face that he's done all of his life.
I didn't recognize the name offhand, so that's on me. :P
Yeah, I'll reiterate the video from the OP as a prime example:
He's great at being constructively critical.
I saw Be More Chill with my sister and BIL, and the audience was full of of out of town high school students on field trips. The show didn't resonate with me at all, but "Michael in the Bathroom" was absolutely fantastic and should survive as a standard long after the show is forgotten (it's off Broadway at this point, I believe).
Wonder if it'll ever come down here, I've never even heard of it before now.
HBO is doing a documentary about Spring Awakening and apparently the 2006 cast is getting back together for a one-night show for the 15 year anniversary or something. I hope they film the whole show and have it available somewhere.
The show had a successful and awesome Deaf West revival in 2015, which spawned a lot of Deaf musical content the following years:
From Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist:
Into the Woods is funny and insightful and clever with its music, but the music isn't super hummable or memorable to me, with the exception of No One Is Alone
No More and Finale/Children Will Listen always gets me a little misty as well
Not sure if I'm excited or worried.
(I like the musical way more.)
Supposedly this has been in the works for a decade, I bet the story of how many variations this has had could be a book all its own.
Not to mention the second act IMO isn’t great and already feels too dragged out. It’s just kind of there to finish the story with the first half being the interesting part.
There's a show on Disney+ hosted by Kristen Bell called "Encore!" where they get a bunch of people to come back together and do the musicals that they did back when they were in high school, and this has a lot of THAT energy in the beginning. Just a lot of happy people who love seeing each other again and reliving in the glory of the past one more time. It's a warm and fuzzy feeling.
https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/schmigadoon-set-to-return-for-new-series_56697.html
They are adding Titus Burgess and Patrick Page to the roster. I'm sure we'll see a bunch of cameos from Broadway royalty or SNL/30-Rock alums, too.