More for Dung Beetle: pretty much anything Danny Kaye was in.
Having just watched Into the Woods again, I am reminded of how much I love it. It’s one of those muscials that has you alternately laughing and crying all the way through.
Into the Woods and Miss Saigon are the two shows that started my Broadway obsession. I saw Miss Saigon in London with a group band tour in high school - with the original cast, and I don’t think I’ve ever stared at a stage so long. With ITW, my first college did an AMAZING production of it my first semester (we had a brilliant musical theatre department - one of the few schools that offered musical theatre as a major), and I performed in the orchestra pit - (French horn). We even had the woman who understudied Bernadette Peters as the Witch - she was WONDERFUL. My uncle saw the production and thought he was seeing a professional show. That’s the only thing that I regret about transferring, but at least we did several productions of Mozart operas and Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti at my other school (Marshall University in WV).
I ended up traveling to NYC for the first two years after college, and seeing MANY shows on my trips. The first Broadway show I ever saw was the The Life, about NYC prostitutes in the early '80s. On subsequent trips, I saw RENT, Chicago, and several others that I can’t remember (but I have the playbills saved). It was my love of the theatre and my desire to become a writer that made me move to NYC.
In the four years I lived there, I probably saw over 100 shows, if not more. I’ve got a collection of playbills that takes up an entire packing box. I’ve seen Chicago probably eight times - each time with different actors (my roommate and I went specifically for Bebe Neuwirth’s return once, for Vicki Lewis,and I tended to take family to it when they visited - everyone wanted to see it). I’ve seen RENT about ten times, half of those in the first two rows from the lottery. But I made sure to see almost every show I could that caught my eye, and just about every single show caught my eye. (The two I truly regret never seeing because I was absolutely broke the few times I wanted to see them were Bells Are Ringing and Thoroughly Modern Millie). But I’ve seen almost every great show to be on Broadway in the past six years - except for The Producers, but I have no desire to see that (I have issues with the ‘blockbuster’ show that’s raised prices for every other show on Broadway). I saw EVERYTHING. And I was pleasantly surprised many times by different actors that I hadn’t cared for before - the best one I can think of is Neil Patrick Harris in Proof. I went for Anne Heche, whom I love, but Neil Patrick Harris was playing the role of the math graduate student, and he was absolutely amazing. I was shocked because it was like “Doogie’s this good?”. And then we saw him in Assassins, and he’s quickly become one of my favorite Broadway performers. I’m eager to see what else he does.
Now that I’ve moved away from the City, I’ve gone back to NYC four times to see other shows with my best friend - we usually pack in 4-5 shows from Friday night to Sunday night/Monday morning. The last time we were there, we saw Wicked and Assassins (and she saw Avenue Q and Caroline, or Change). My fiance wants to see Avenue Q now, so we’re planning a quick weekend trip to see it (now that there’s no damn touring version, but that’s already been discussed).
I plan on taking my playbills and creating several large collages out of them for the guest bedroom. I have enough that I could almost wallpaper the entire bedroom at this point. And all I listen to, for the most part, are Broadway CDs. Not because it’s an obsession, but it’s what I enjoy listening to - I had a collection of over $3000 worth of musical theatre CDs, but the collection was lost on a plane in January (the one thing I was desperately broken-hearted over…). I’m slowly trying to rebuild, but thank goodness for wonderful friends who let me make copies of theirs until I can afford to replenish my own collection (And I WILL buy them again - which is why I don’t feel bad about the copies - I’ve already bought these CDs once anyway). I do listen to the usual stuff every once in awhile (at work since my co-worker hates musical theatre), but even my SO is getting more into some of the shows and has certain ones that he requests. Most of the music at our wedding will be songs from Broadway shows that I’ve arranged for guitar and two flutes (our soloist will be singing “I Chose Right” from Baby…).
I’ve probably spent over $10,000 on theatre tickets, including shows from other cities like Chicago or Toronto. That would explain my crippling debt at the moment. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Being in Ohio, I’ve got the opportunity to see more regional theatre, and it’s been fun. We saw Miss Saigon at a dinner theatre (apparently, the largest dinner theatre in the country), and I’m heading to Pittsburgh with my best friend and theatre-buddy in August to see a new show with Sutton Foster. Chicago is an easy trip by plane from Cleveland, and we’ve seen A Light in the Piazza this year, which is coming to Broadway next year - I absolutely can not wait. It’s a beautiful, beautiful show and I’m hoping it’s a runaway hit.
I’m typically considered a Broadway purist, in that I hate the influx of movies-to-musicals, but I’ll give any show a chance (except the Producers - but that’s the only one I’ll refuse to see). With Wicked and Avenue Q, I’m hoping that Broadway will have a resurgence of original, good shows - and I do think it’s on its way.
(Okay, someone’s out there going “Couldn’t we have locked her out of this thread??? She won’t shut up!”). If I get a chance, we’re cleaning our apartment today, so I’ll go through and type up all of the playbills that I have, if I can find them (I know they’re packed somewhere). I’ve loved reading this thread - it’s nice to know that others share my passion. And in the meantime, I’ll have to stick some of these movie musicals into my Netflix queue - I love “Meet Me In St. Louis”, but have never made it a point to watch the others (“Carousel”, but I’m unhappy with the movie version compared to the stage version). You guys have just given mr. avabeth another reason to roll his eyes and say “I’m going to watch TV in the bedroom”, like he did on Tony night when I was yelling and singing along and saying the whole night “I’ll be okay if Idina doesn’t win. I really will. I like all of the actresses.”. Then Idina won and I let out a yell to scare the whole building. I lied. I’d have been pissed if Idina had lost:).
Okay, I’ll leave the thread now. I just love the fact that there are others who love musical theatre as much as I do.
Ava
Why do so many musical got to hell in the second act?
Take everybody’s favorite The Sound of Music
First act
A few of my Favorite Things
Sixteen going Seventeen
Do a Deer
Second act
AHhhhh NAZIS run away run away!
Ok you may say, But Zebra that’s what happened.
What about
Fiddler on the Roof
First Act
Matchmaker Matchmaker
If I were a Rick Man
Second Act
AHHHHH Cossacks! Oh and the daughter I like moves to Siberia.
West Side Story
DEATH!
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is addmitted to the Union.
Come on! What with that?
Boy! You are so right. Take anything by Stephen Sondheim. First acts: boffo! Second acts: boring!
Not necessarily - A Little Night Music is still fairly strong in the second act, as is Into the Woods (two of my favorite songs, “No One Is Alone”, and “No More” are in the second act.). Bounce, on the other hand, starts off badly, and ends badly. It’s the only Sondheim show I’ve ever walked out of saying “Oh, my God, was that REALLY Sondheim? Tell me I’m dreaming.”.
However, I do know what Zebra’s getting at - so many musicals start off wonderfully strong and then go to hell in Act II, only to come back strong again at the end. Many times, it just seems like a natural progression of the story, which, in a book, would be fine, but in a show, slows things down way too much.
Ava
No they don’t come back.
Like The King and I. The king aint coming back. Camelot. Ohhh one boy will remember, Big whoop de friggen do! Hair - Bummer. Heck, even in Jesus Christ Superstar, Jesus doesn’t raise from the dead.
They go from ‘sunshine and Lollipops’ to ‘screw the kleenex, give me a straight razor’.
I guess this is as safe a place as any to admit that I’ve always thought DK was completely hot. 
As for Phantom of the Opera: far more opera than was required to move the plot along. I did not watch it with the kids.
Nothing in the new releases grabbed me at the video store yesterday, so I headed over to the musicals section, and got three:
That’s Dancing! – another of the MGM clip fests. (I’m still looking for That’s Entertainment III). The film was actually pretty dated for a clip collection – it was made in the '80s, so it ends with Flashdance (excruciatingly embarrassing today) and Michael Jackson doing Beat It. There was also a section on ballet, narrated by Baryshnikov. Now, I’m as hot for Baryshnikov as the next dance fan – but his accent is a little heavy for good voiceover work, and, let’s face it, ballet isn’t exactly what first (second or third) comes to mind when you think of dancing in the movies. Of course, I’ve never actually seen The Red Shoes – and, of course, I’ll admit that I’m not a ballet fan in general – it’s so 19th century.
That aside, though, there was some great stuff in it, including old favorites (like Fred and Ginger doing Night and Day, and the Moses Supposes number from Singin’ in the Rain). There was also some stuff I was not familiar with, like a couple of Eleanor Powell numbers. (How could someone who adores tap as much as I do not be on the Eleanor Powell bandwagon? Honestly, I don’t know.) There was also a clip from It’s Always Fair Weather that looked really cool, so I guess it’s back the video store today – I’m a reluctant fan of Gene Kelly’s, and haven’t seen his entire ouevre.
Speaking of not having seen an entire ouevre – I also got Broadway Melody of 1940, and am still trying to figure out how, after 40-some years of worshipping Fred Astaire, I’ve never seen this. It’s not one of the great ones – it is, I think, the first of his MGM musicals – but the Begin the Beguine number with Eleanor Powell is just fabulous. George Murphy plays the third leg (heh) of the love triangle.
The third movie was Footlight Serenade, with Betty Grable and Victor Mature – !! – a truly odd little bit of fluff. Victor plays the world heavyweight champ, whom Phil Silvers wants to turn into a Broadway star – Betty Grable plays a chorus girl he’s chasing, and John Payne is her fiancee, whom she secretly marries part way through the proceedings. It turns out that Betty Grable is a fairly adequate dancer.
And this afternoon, of course, I get to settle in with Victor/Victoria (in preparation for this week’s discussion in the Debating Society) and my needlepoint. Bliss!
Some other filmed musicals not yet mentioned, yet close to my heart:
Damn Yankees–oh, the dancing, too!
Mary Poppins–really just for Julie Andrews’ voice
Funny Girl–surely Barbra’s best
Rocky Horror Picture Show–what can I say, I like it
Peter Pan–the Mary Martin version that was on TV every year as an Event
Don’t worry. Curious Canuck and I are on our way, and shows like Urinetown and Avenue Q have paved the way for our nutty romp.
This weekend I saw The Court Jester, starring Danny Kaye and Angela Lansbury. I really liked it and so did my twelve year old.
The vessel with the pestle holds the brew that is true…
A classic!
Or was it the flagon with the dragon?
Yep, DK was an amazingly talented, funny, good-looking guy. This movie also had pretty costumes and nicely timed slapstick/dancing/swordfighting. Highly recommended!
Barrowman. He went to my high school, though not at the same time as me.
As mentioned above, I saw a clip from It’s Always Fair Weather that piqued my curiosity – when I was in the video store Sunday, I picked it up. Interesting film. As this review suggests, it’s not quite as edgy as it may have seemed at one time, but it’s an interesting time capsule of what passed for cynicism on the MGM lot in the mid-'50s. The number at the beginning when Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, and Michael Kidd are drunkenly carousing around the streets of New York is really quite phenomenal. Worth a look.
Also got The Company, the Robert Altman film with Neve Campbell, and was astonished to like it a whole lot. Although I love watching dancing, I assume I don’t like ballet – too…19th century. Turns out I just don’t like classical ballet – the stuff they were doing was just mindblowing. Typical Altman film – oblique, more about mood than plot, wonderfully shot. Malcolm McDowell, who I’ve had a major crush on since Time After Time, plays an Italian-American with an English accent. That was a bit odd. Anyway, here is David Edelstein’s review; here is Ebert’s. I think I’m gonna end up buying this – if only because I know someone in it (John Gluckman, who plays – um, is – one of the male dancers, took ballet at the school where I take tap). Strongly recommended if you enjoy watching dance.
Went to the library last week to borrow Kiss Me kate – which they didn’t have. They did have some other stuff, though, so I borrowed the following:
Thoroughly Modern Millie. Saw it in the theater when it first came out (yes, even as a wee twickster, I loved musicals), and again about five years ago. It hasn’t aged all that well – the ethnic stereotypes were pretty broad and unselfconscious. (Pat Morita and Jack Soo play Bea Lillie’s Chinese henchmen.) Apparently it’s going (has gone?) to B’way – spent some time wondering about how they’d stage some of the scetes. Watched this one evening after the third of three long, long, long days at work, and brain-dead is definitely the way to approach it.
Fame. Saw it in the theater when it first came out 
but not since – though I did have the soundtrack, which I listed to a lot for a couple of years there. (Hey, I was young, I was in grad school – I was on my own hopeful way to fame.) It holds up extremely well – it’s much darker than the TV show that followed (though I’ll admit I loved the latter as well) – the scene where Coco goes to be photographed by that skeevy “Frenchman” and, with tears pouring down her face, removes her blouse was just wrenching. It is, of course, a little surreal seeing Paul McCrane, later of “ER,” with hair – though I was impressed, upon reading the credits, to find that he wrote the very lovely song that he performs, “Is It Okay If I Call You Mine?” If you’ve never seen it, or haven’t seen it recently, check it out.
Pal Joey. Never seen it – didn’t even know what it was about, and was clueless as to who was in it. Time to be educated! Ya know, a lot of musicals from the '50s just don’t work for me – this was one of them. Rita Hayworth was 39 when this was made, Sinatra was 42, Kim Novak was 24. Hmm, I was reading that whole scenario as Rita being older than Frank, but I guess that’s not necessary for it to work – the point is equal experience but more money, eh? Anyway, it’s never a good sign when two of the three leads have their voices dubbed – and since I do not, never have, never will, “get” Sinatra, I had a hard time buying the premise of all these women falling all over him. (Huh. Hayworth was dubbed in Gilda also. Who knew?) I can check it off my life list (as birders call them), but will never need to watch it again. Phew!
I don’t know if this is a musical by your definition, Twicks , But I saw Connie and Carla last night. It’s about two women who while performing in a seedy bar witness a murder. They take off to LA and decide to hide out by performing in a drag bar. It’s a sort of *Victor/Victoria * pretense complete with show tunes! There were songs from South Pacific, Jesus Christ, Superstar, Mame, Funny Girl To name the ones I recognized easily. It was a riot!