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ohiblather- Debbie's Blatherings
- Debbie's Blatherings
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Comments
When I was in London, I saw Phantom of the Opera. It doesn't have nearly the bite of the Lon Chaney version, and settles for special effects instead of a convincing ending.
I've wanted to see Les Miserables live for the longest time. Unfortunately the German production is quite far from me - by German standards at least. A friend pointed me to this video on youtube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuffHRac
That's what I call a choir :-)
And John loves "Phantom of the Paradise" :). I'd never seen it until he introduced me to it. I thought it was fine :).
Yeah, I think you're showing bias to that bunny, too. Poor cute squirrels.
That's what I was thinking - bunnies are cute but squirrels aren't? :-)
However, since when are squirrels not as cute as bunnies?
I will not denegrate the cuteness of a bunny, two of my good friends have been Oryctolagi cumiculi, and that Sylvilagus floridanus in your garden is surely as cute as anything this side of the Manongahela, but consarn it, squirrels are just as cute, if only you could see through that haze of bigotry that clouds your vision. Sure, the Sciuridae are lowly rodents, while rabbits are oh-so-lofty lagomorphs, but weighed fairly--fluffy tail/long ears, long ears/fluffy tail--I can't see how the Sylvilagus gets a cute exemption and the sciurus doesn't.
BTW, we can probably thank Beatrix Potter for rehabilitating the image of squirrels.
I also *love* Les Mis and Rent.
It's a completely different thing, but I also adored Mamma Mia. ;)
A long time ago I saw Fiddler on the Roof. That is probably still my fav.
Bunnies are very cute until they get hungery. No, they wont dig up anything but they will mow it down when they get the munchies. Have fun :)
I'm not an 'opera' fan, which is one reason I disliked Phantom, I like to be able to understand the words (and traditional 'opera style' singing with masses of vibrato means that I'm not even certain what language they are singing in many cases!).
Jesus Christ Superstar and Guys & Dolls are my favouritest. I always shell out to see them when there's a production in town. (Plus we get together to watch the JCSS movie every easter - sacrelicious!) I really want to see Urinetown and Avenue Q one o' these days, though...
(this is my ANGRY HYRAX icon! Neither bunny nor squirrel, the conflicted hyrax is full of rage.)
I share your dislike for squirrels, BTW. They tear my garden apart, as well. IMO, A squirrel is just a rat in a cuter outfit!
And I SO agree that a squirrel is just a rat in a cuter outfit!! :-D
I've seen A Chorus Live, Phantom of the Opera, and Cats live.
BTW, great picture from Phantom of the Paradise. Lots of modular gear in the background. It would make a good icon. :)
My favorite all time musical is Les Mis.
I also love Rogers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (Leslie Ann Warren & Stuart Damon version *g*).
Other favorites include: The Secret Garden, Jekyll and Hyde, Aida, Scarlet Pimpernel and Miss Saigon.
I am not a huge ALW fan. The Phantom was just okay, but my godson absolutely loves it.
Phantom of the Opera (Webber) / London
Phantom of the Opera (not by Webber) / Berlin
Cats / London + Berlin
Aida / Berlin
Les Misérables / Berlin
Die drei Musketiere (Three Musketeers) / Berlin
The Far Pavilion / London
The King and I / London
Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) / Berlin
The Woman in White / London
The Rocky Horror Show / Berlin
My favorites: Die drei Musketiere, Phantom of the Opera (Webber),
liked: Cats, Far Pavilion, Aida, Les Misérables
disliked: Der Glöckner von Notre Dame & Phantom of the Opera (by ?)
Unfortunately missed Bombay Dreams :(
Looking forward to see Dance of the Vampires + Wicked (hopefully soon ;))
Film versions are less bad, but I am definitely in the camp of people who, when watching a Disney movie, dread the moment anyone starts, you know, singing.
That said, "Singing in the Rain" is ok, and I still have half the score of "Camelot" chirping away in my brain. Darn it for being so, well, memorable. "There is not a more congenial spot, for happy every aftering than Ca-me-lot!"
By the way, I REALLY REALLY love that salt-chocolate you sent me. Wow. That seems way too good to be sugar-free! Thanks again for sending it!
I've lost a bit of my appreciation for a lot of musicals in the last few years -- I still enjoy the elaborate sets, and can appreciate the talent, but I find it hard to really engage with the stories.
I saw an incredible production of JCSS, on essentially no budget, that I really enjoyed a few years ago. It was directed in an almost Godspell-esque style, and was very effective. I'm not sure I'd call JCSS itself a "favourite," though, because I've seen productions that didn't do anything for me at all.
Of course, I also enjoy Avenue Q.
And Allison, Jodi & I are going to see Avenue Q! I've wanted to see it ever since you told me about it.
Phantom of the Opera is NOT a musical. It's an Opera, pure and simple. they call it a musical so people will go to it. I put off seeing it for years, and finally when it was in Houston 2 summers ago, I went 1) to see it, and 2) to spend some time with a member of the cast that I was best friends with in grade school Jr. High. If I hadn't known the story behind it, i wouldn't have understood it either!! LOL btw...was the Guy playing M.Andre named D.C.Anderson?
I'm very much in the minority here, in that I consider Les Mis greatly overrated. The first act crams so many plot points in that I found it impossible to care about the characters, and while the music is beautiful, the English lyrics range, IMO, from OK to horribly banal. I do like Phantom, though it's not on my all time favorites list.
So what do I like? I'm a Sondheim geek. Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Company, and Follies are all classics. For older shows, Fiddler is definitely up there, though for somewhat personal reasons (Tevye is the best part I've ever played). The Music Man is a lot of fun, though I've done it too many times. A Chorus Line always chokes me up.
In recent years, Ragtime is a masterpiece, and Avenue Q is incredibly clever and funny.
“Miss Saigon” – I had the advantage of seeing this under optimal circumstances, in London in 1991 on the last night of a summer-long European trip before returning home. I was so emotionally on edge before the performance even started, I was an easy mark for the heartstring-pulling of “Miss Saigon”. But, in fairness, this musical does it so well. :-) Yes, it’s basically an updating of “Madame Butterfly”, but it’s a good one — and there are worse stories to start from.
“Chess” – I fell in love with the concept album and so I loved finally seeing “Chess” performed live, at Marriott Lincolnshire Theater northwest of Chicago circa 1990. MLT is theater-in-the-round, which works perfectly for “Chess”! Now, it’s true that “Chess” as a musical has some obvious flaws, such as a lack of a spelled-out plot. :-) And the MLT repeated the mistake of the Broadway adaptation, moving the story to post-Cold War. But the MLT production got one major thing right: the major character is neither the Russian nor the American, it’s Florence. And I like singing along to the songs of “Chess” more than any other musical. "A Model of Decorum and Tranquility", "Embassy Lament", "One Night in Bangkok", they're all terrific.
“Into the Woods” – Pure fun. Also at the MLT, though here the theater-in-the-round made matters, uh, interesting. They couldn’t have large set pieces so they made do with various lighting and sound effects instead. I think that lack-of-literalism may have hurt the first act slightly but it really helped the second, by making it scarier.
Other musicals I recall seeing onstage:
“Les Miserables” – I enjoyed it, especially the second act, but I agree with Mark Bernstein’s critique: "Les Mis" is somewhat overrated and the first act crams too much plot in for the characters to emerge. [I saw it at Chicago’s Auditorium Theater in the late 1980s.]
“Phantom of the Opera” – I loved the flashback-in-time (by rewinding the falling of the chandelier), instrumentally Phantom is actually pretty strong, and it has some neat moments. But the plot doesn’t cohere, the ending is lacking, and I just didn’t care much about the characters. [Also at the Auditorium in the late 1980s.]
“Cats” – Has moments. Costumes a hit. Also does not cohere. But I like the pretty kitties. [Also at the Auditorium in the late 1980s, plus on video.]
“You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown” – I was a huge Peanuts fan as a kid, so I loved this one. My favorite song from it “The Book Report”, even though no one but me remembers it. :-) Once I sat on a plane next to a woman who was in the cast of the 1990s revival of YaGM,CB – she was fun to talk with. [I’ve seen this as a high school production and somewhere else, but I forget where and when.]
“Jesus Christ Superstar” – Rather fun. Judas rocks on toast. The ending is tremendously vague, presumably on purpose. [Saw the touring show revival in Birmingham, Alabama, sometime in the late 1990s.]
“Rocky Horror Show” – Surprisingly disappointing. I got too used to the movie callbacks, which were expressly (and understandably) not allowed when watching the stage production. The story is just too thin on its own. [Seen in Chicago at a small theater, I think in 1999.]
“Return to Forbidden Planet” – Fun. A wonderful example of “I don’t think what they were trying to do worked, but damn was it fun to watch them try!” Perhaps combining faux-Shakespeare, 1950s-era SciFi movies, 1950s-era music, and bad puns was all just too much to attempt. And every spaceship should blast off to the sound of the full band playing “Wipeout”. [London, 1991]
“Chicago” – Sometimes, evil makes for good music. [Seen as a college production circa 1990, also the movie of a few years back.]
“West Side Story” and “Fiddler on the Roof” – Well, yeah! [Both seen at a local semiprofessional stage.]
“Guys and Dolls” – Pure fun. [Not sure when I saw this other than in high school.]
“Inferno!” (a musical version of Dante’s Inferno) and “Rick Cosmos and the Green Things From Mars” – fun student-written musicals at the University of Chicago, circa 1990. “Rick Cosmos” was funnier (“Hush, son, that’s a song cue”) but “Inferno!” was much better musically and had some work of remarkable inspiration. I have the soundtrack of the latter, though the performance itself was of higher quality—some of the songs would work well in a filk setting except that I have no idea how to rearrange them.
Some musicals I’ve only seen on film:
“Singing in the Rain” – the best.
“1776” – also the best. :-)
“Rent” – I was disappointed. Somewhere I have an LJ entry written with the details. But basically, "Rent" doesn’t age well and it unintentionally gets into self-parody, which is not a good sign.
“The Music Man” – fun.
“Sweeney Todd” – evil makes for good music, as noted above.
I love “Avenue Q”, but I’ve only heard the soundtrack, never seen the show.
I have never seen “A Chorus Line”, somehow!
My favourite show is Phantom, by a long mile - but only when seen in the theatre that was rebuilt around it in London. I've seen it twice there, and the atmosphere that is generated in a very compact venue (four tiers, from memory, but all relatively small) and with the built in pipe organ beats anything else I have ever seen. It was a derelict before Webber put Phantom in there, and he built in a lot of the traps and cunningness that would have been a feature of the opera house that it is written about.
Andy saw Phantom in New York, and while not disappointed, it lost a lot.
To be fair, I'm guessing keeping any show fresh after 14 years (or whatever, I've lost track) is going to be difficult. I saw it in the first 18 months, and it took my breath away.
So My Favorites are:
Cats - Spamalot - Joseph and his Amazing Technicolered Dream coat
Ones I liked, but aren't in the top list:
Avanue Q - Fame - Starlight Express - Chicago
And thats not including the AmDram productions!
I still have yet to see either Les Mis or PotO, although I have been told I must!
My Least Faverotes are:
Bombay Dreams
And the ones I find compleatly forgetable are:
Anything Goes - Woman in White - Producers -