Broadway Musicals

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Re: Broadway Musicals

Post by EricJ » July 24th, 2014, 5:53 am

Lord Akiyama wrote:One of the funny stuff is how fine the Mormons are with the show (which Trey knew was going to be the case). To the point that they advertise in the Playbill: "You've seen the show, the book is awesome!"
Which is really the joke on them, since the South Park guys wouldn't have done the musical at all if Mormons weren't an Athie's fantasy wet-dream.
(They make up their bible, they get all bothered about sex, and then they (shudder!) knock on your door, with happy smiles and neat 50's ties!) :roll:

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Re: Broadway Musicals

Post by Dan » July 24th, 2014, 9:48 am

There's a great musical number in which one of the Elders tries to drawing strength of his belief in the faith, listing off the seemingly implausible things that he's absolutely sure are true. What makes it all the more fun in how the song is constructed.

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Re: Broadway Musicals

Post by James » July 24th, 2014, 10:18 am

GK Chesterton had a great comment that fits this discussion: "It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it."

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Re: Broadway Musicals

Post by Dan » August 12th, 2014, 12:18 am

My mom and I just saw a production of Into The Woods put on by the Fiasco Theater company at the Old Globe Theatre here in San Diego yesterday. I just found out now that they will be transferring off-Broadway at the Lara Pels Theatre at the end of the year, so it was quite interesting to see a try-out performance (which I'll be doing again in December for Hunchback).

It was a really fun performance as everyone in the group was virtually doing everything themselves, be at playing multiple characters and playing the musical instruments. This of course meant a number of changes when compared to the original production. An amusing one is that the actors playing the Princes also play Cinderella's step-sisters, making the line "were beautiful of face" hilarious.

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Re: Broadway Musicals

Post by james78 » September 2nd, 2014, 10:55 pm

I often feel that the film version cannot do justice to the musical. Some of the best 1990s Broadway musicals like “Chicago” is one such example. The movie just didn’t measure up in my opinion.

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Re: Broadway Musicals

Post by Ben » September 3rd, 2014, 5:53 am

See, for me, Chicago on stage was pretty poor. Loved the songs, loved the choreography, but the staging was so minimal as to be nothing. Just people on chairs around the stage getting up, singing a song, sitting down again, with nothing to break it up in terms of scenery other than lighting effects.

When I saw that, in the late 1990s revival, I said that if they took the action out of the club setting and brought in locations then the film (which had been announced) would be so much better and what Chicago should have been...and then they did it like that. Rob Marshall cleverly kept the club setting but allowed the action to bounce back and forth, a terrific masterstroke that retained the intention of the show while making a true "film" adaptation (as opposed to just filming the show, which the more recent The Producers essentially did and lost a lot of the life from it in the process).

That's the trick...like adapting a book, you wouldn't just film someone reading the pages out to you, or even just a limited cast read-through. With a stage production, and especially a big musical, you wouldn't just take a camera to the theater and film the stage, and audiences shouldn't just expect the same...the whole point of film is that it can take you to places that those other mediums can't (otherwise, what's the point of making a film version in the first place?).

Conversely, the magic of The Lion King on stage is because it *isn't* the film! Both have their own ways and means, but they shouldn't be the same thing.

BTW...after all that, here's hoping you're an authentic new member here - welcome to the boards! :)

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Re: Broadway Musicals

Post by Dan » September 3rd, 2014, 10:30 am

Funnily enough, when my folks and I got back from New York, we saw the film version of Jersey Boys straight away.

We thought in comparison it was merely okay, offering nothing really new to the story, and felt the pacing was really slow. I kind of felt that the music came off as a wee bit subdued, hardly as vibrant and energetic as they were on stage, which I thought was key to the whole experience. In the end, Clint Eastwood probably wasn't the right guy to direct such a film.

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Re: Broadway Musicals

Post by Ben » September 4th, 2014, 8:20 am

Golly! I think you may have hit the nail well an truly on the head there! ;)

His long-gestating remake of A Star Is Born (last seen as thinly-disguised Mariah Carey vehicle Glitter on the big screen), on the other hand...I think he'd be a sure hand at something like that.

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Re: Broadway Musicals

Post by Dan » September 4th, 2014, 10:59 pm

And Brett Ratner was an executive producer of the film version of Jersey Boys. Just imagine how it would have been if he had directed it :mrgreen:

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Re: Broadway Musicals

Post by Ben » September 5th, 2014, 8:10 pm

You know...I'm not particularly a fan of Ratner's, but Tower Heist is a really fun and exciting movie. I saw it for the first time last year, then bought the Blu-ray and showed it to a friend around three weeks ago, and then it just played on TV this week and I watched it again! It's not the world's best caper movie ever, but it's really well done and, I think, an underrated gem of a comedy.

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Re: Broadway Musicals

Post by Dan » September 8th, 2014, 1:30 am

I'm of the opinion that a version by Ratner probably would have been a lot more exciting. Eastwood may have been trying to focus on character development, but it greatly affected the pacing.

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In April, a couple days after my folks and I decided on the three shows we were going to see on the July 4th weekend, this little surprise happened following a performance of Beautiful.


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Re: Broadway Musicals

Post by david44 » September 18th, 2014, 6:31 am

The Four Seasons are one of the best selling musical groups but I haven’t watched the musical Jersey Boys. I watched Annie which was one of the best 1970s Broadway musicals and I’ve heard there will be a remake.

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Re: Broadway Musicals

Post by Dan » October 28th, 2014, 12:32 am

This past Saturday I saw a show at the Old Globe Theatre that is certainly Broadway bound given the talent involved. The show is called Bright Star and it's by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. Yes, that Steve Martin, Mr. "Wild and Crazy Guy".




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Re: Broadway Musicals

Post by Ben » October 28th, 2014, 7:48 am

Looks cool...I love Steve.

The "Dad" character certainly has traits of Paul Lynde in Bye Bye Birdie so the show probably has more humorous value in it than these clips suggest, but perhaps you can elaborate? :)

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Re: Broadway Musicals

Post by Dan » October 29th, 2014, 1:24 am

While there is a nice dose of humor, and Daddy Cane (who's one of three "daddy" characters I believe you're referring to) only provides a small amount in comparison, the show is much more on the dramatic side.

Bright Star is set in North Carolina, jumping between around the end of World War II and 22-years prior. Returning home from the war, young Billy Cane embarks on fulfilling his dream of being a writer by getting his work published in the acclaimed Asheville Southern Journal. At the same time, the magazine's cynical editor, Alice Murphy, reflects back to her carefree youth where her romance with a mayor's son leads to heartbreak.

The majority of the humor is provided by one of Murphy's assistants Daryl Ames, who acts as "gatekeeper" to determine which stories are worthy for Alice to review.

Notable cast members include Carmen Cusack (who played Elphaba in the 1st US National Tour of Wicked) as Alice and Wayne Duvall (Homer Stokes in O Brother, Where Art Thou?) as Mayor Josiah Dobbs.

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