Now, see, I LIKE musicals and feel that 90% of them since 1970 have sucked dead donkey balls. With the exception of “Joseph” (which is just a hoot), anything by Andrew Lloyd Weber sucks. He took musical COMEDY and made it the bloviated, pompous ridiculousness it is today (“Titanic”-boring music and plot, IMO–an example of Weber-creep.). Suddenly, musicals had to MATTER, they had to have significance (although some of this started with Rogers and Hammerstein, too). Sondheim is another one, IMO. Ugh.
There have been some good musicals since 1970 but they are few and far between. I haven’t seen “Wicked” (because the novel was just so bizarre–I’ve heard the musical isn’t like the book and that’s all to the good, but still) and I’m coming up empty for another contemporary musical that I liked." MammaMia" is said to be fun–I’ve seen the movie and liked it (even with its marshmallow puff plot). “Hairspray” is another one that is fun. Musicals don’t have to be fluff pieces to be good, but I’m not sure if boy meets girl with songs and dance numbers actually works anymore in our world. I hope so. I want it to be so, but…
There is a new musical based on the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder that opened in Minneapolis this month. I would also like a chance to see “Frog and Toad”, a musical that went nowhere because it opened right at 9/11 and the public just wasn’t in the mood for a sweet, humorous tale of 2 friends.
I admit, freely, I’m not unbiased, having been something of a Titanic buff as a child. I don’t know how the musical would work for someone who wasn’t already aware of half the characters.
ETA: Mind you, that wasn’t enough to make me enjoy the Leonard DiCaprio/Kate Wislet movie. Let alone that song that kept playing and playing and playing and playing… shuddering
I just wanted to mention that Bernstein, Comden & Green’s **On the Town ** is wonderful. Although it has some “showy” show tunes, the dance numbers with their sometimes cacaphonic jazz crunches are stunning. Several of the pieces were based on a short ballet Bernstein wrote called **Fancy Free ** (choreographed by Jerome Robbins).
“Some Other Time” always makes me get a lump in my throat, it’s so sad in a sweet way. Nice harmonies, too!
Most of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s shows are not musical comedy, (are any, in fact?) so I am not really sure what you are trying to say here. And that’s got to be the first time Sondheim & Webber have been mentioned as being too similar.
Are you saying there were no serious shows before the 1970s?
Sounds like all you want is mindless throwaway fluff, which is fine, but I prefer shows to have a bit of substance to them, especially when tickets are now over $100 apiece.
I see I’ve been misunderstood–I wasn’t at all clear.
I didn’t like Titanic, the movie sans music (I wouldn’t like it with music aka the show, either).
I was not likening Sondheim to Weber at all-- I dislike both of their approaches to musical comedy. That’s all. Weber is more about showmanship and wailing (aka spectacle) instead of singing and a plot, IMO. Sondheim just creeps me out. YMMV.
It’s not that I only like “fluff” (and the exampes I used are fluff–it is hard to find non-fluff that is not too extreme the other way. “Rent”, I suppose. Or “A Chorus Line”.) FTR, I like “Guys and Dolls”, “The Pajama Game”, “My Fair Lady”, “Cabaret”, “Mame”, “Sweet Charity” and “Chicago” [prefer the stage version, but like the film] and many others.
And I still like Gilbert and Sullivan–there’s quite a bit of social commentary and satire in amongst the little maids from school and melancholy poets.
Track down the bootlegs of “Carrie - The Musical” and then say you don’t like show tunes. “And Eve Was Weak” is possibly the most disturbing song in the history of musical theatre.
A reasonably funny if not terribly original idea completely ruined by hack songwriting and (with the exception of NPH himself) second-rate singers.
I love Joss. This was not his finest hour. I sincerely hope it fails miserably so that the wonderfully talented (in other ways) people involved can go on with something else.
Huh? How would a tape of LIVE theatre sound appreciably different than hearing the same LIVE performance in person? I mean, I guess I can understand how seeing a performance live can result in getting caught up in the energy of the live show… but that really does presuppose that one enjoys the music to begin with.
I’m fully with the OP on this one. But not because I’ve only heard tapes of live theatre. I’ve been to see live performances of musicals. I’ve been a performer in musicals. I’ve been part of the pit orchestra for musicals. And I eventually stopped doing all three of those things because I just don’t enjoy the music (although to be fair, part of the reason I stopped performing in musicals is also that I’m a pretty sucky actor).
I haven’t heard that cover, but you remind me of why I mostly avoid this stuff. The sugar coating on every arrangement, the actor who sounds like Freddy Mercury on his campiest day ever, the exaggerated, um, everything?
I remain unmoved by basically anything related to this I’ve heard, unless it’s been rearranged by someone not in the oeuvre. I don’t care for the Disney musicals, and while Sound of Music I recognize as having a lot of well written songs, doesn’t make me want to buy the CD. The overly upbeat/dramatic desperate button pushing makes me push back.
And I actually pretty much LIKE Journey. But man, anything can be taken too far.
[Rowan Atkinson]The audiences were clamoring for tickets to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest rearrangement of Puccini’s Greatest Hits [/Rowan Atkinson]
I’m sorry and you can all take me outside and beat me with programs and batons later, but I just realized that the OP said he hates show music outside of the context of the show. IOW, Liza doing her damned best to pretend she’s Judy, while singing “Send in the Clowns” and other crap.
I completely agree with the OP. I almost never put on a CD just to listen to “Steam Heat” or similar. I buy the CDs after I’ve seen the show and for awhile I listen–because it brings back the show in my mind. And then, I get tired of it and move on etc…
I think I hate show music, too! (covered or out of context). I never want to hear Harry Conick (sp?) Jr singing “Mame” or “People Will Think We’re In Love”.
It just hit me the difference between the two. Gah–I’m nauseated now.
eleanoribgy, that’s pretty much what I was going to say.
Broadway-style singers who do a song totally out of context, standing there in front of an orchestra, behind a microphone, are pretty much always boring and overly dramatic. I have never watched a PBS special where someone is ‘performing the songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber,’ or anything like that. God. Even if they’re nice songs, they rarely ever deserve to be sung by anyone in an evening gown who’s trying to impart the entire emotional meaning of the song and the character without the benefit of context.
There’s a group around here who perform show tunes in concerts, for parties, events, etc etc. They’re a reasonably talented group of musicians, and as a rule I will never listen to them if I can help it.
I think part of the problem is that generally, unless it’s a generic love song, a song written for a show needs the context of the show to be any good, or at least to make sense.
With my hatred of musicals, live theatre, and show tunes, I still think David Cook doing "Music of the Night is incredible. Part of it for me is that I love his voice, though (and thought he was, well, pretty damned hot performing on AI).
It’s funny. I thought he was awful. Once of the worst renditions of “Music of the Night” I’ve ever heard. It sounded like he was copying Gerard Butler from the film. It’s no wonder you like this if you don’t like showtunes: He made it a rock song, especially with that ugly final scream. I much prefer the beautiful tenor voices of the Broadway production.
Then you’d be missing some phenomenal talent. I’m sorry you guys don’t appreciate this style of music. I’d much rather go to the type of event you listed than some loud rock concert in a stadium full of screaming fans.
