I admit that I have never seen Sondheim’s “Assassins,” but the concept is a huge turn-off. I don’t want to see characters based on Squeaky Fromme and Lee Harvey Oswald bursting into song. Reminds me of “Springtime for Hitler.”
I remember seeing one song from Assassins and thinking “Right now, Squeaky Fromme is singing about ‘Charlie,’ and she’s duetting with David Hinckley singing about Jodie. Why am I the only one laughing?”
And it’s actually a very beautiful song (well, if you can ignore the lines about being undeserving of Manson’s love). I’ve seen the play and it’s dark but it works- it’s completely satirical and is about the glamorization & ultimate futility of violence. It has never been that successful in professional productions however, and parts of it were actually cannibalized into the far more successful Into the Woods.
Well I now have Reporduction stuck in my head. mixed in with Who’s that guy?
You’re close, Art; the perpetrator in question was actually Yes’ cape-wearin’ beer-swiggin’ Moog-abusin’ keyboardist Rick Wakeman. The album in question is the succinctly titled The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and it was indeed mounted live as an all-singing all-dancing ice skating extravaganza.
Truly there was much joy to be had in the seventies.
Thanks for the recommend! I will have to go see it now! (I acutally just found an online video review with a few scenes from the show and it looked fun. Not exactly Les Mis, but not Mumma Mia! either. I definately will go see now.
Now I’m wondering if a musical based on the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal would be any good.
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned that Kathy Lee Gifford has written and staged a musical. Of course, I can’t believe I can’t remember the title or anything, either, but maybe that’s becaues my brain has bleached that stuff away.
Starlight Express has a huge following! It ran for 13 years in Las Vegas, and 15 in Germany. While it might not have been the best musical of all time, I don’t agree it shouldn’t have been made at all.
It racked up 2 1/2 years on Broadway–that is considered a hit for anyone but ALW.
Anybody see “Irreconcilable DIfferences”? It SEEMS to have been based on Peter Bogdanovich and Cybill Shepherd!
That is, O’Neal plays a successful director who falls in love with a young blonde bimbo, for whom he leaves his wife.
The bimbo’s dream is to star in a big budget musical, so the director actually makes her the star of a musical adaptation of “Gone With the Wind.” The musical is a flop, of course, and pretty much ends O’Neal’s career.
Sounds to me like a fictionalized account of Bogdanovich’s descent into “At Long Last Love.”
Actually, I thought the War of the Worlds Musical was pretty good. It was a hell of a lot better then “Indepedence day” and unlike every movie version made yet, it actually took place in the 1890’s.
I remember being very interested in this one when I heard about it well before it opened, not because of Paul Simon but because Nobel Prize-winning poet/playwright Derek Walcott collaborated with Simon on the book and lyrics. Walcott has been one of my favorite poets for a couple of decades now. But the terrible reviews caused me to skip it, even though I happened to be in NY during its brief run (Jan-Mar 98).
Hijack: I misread that as Spamalot. :smack:
Umm…
I like four part harmony groups. I find myself thinking I’d like Forever Plaid.
I have mentioned I don’t really worry about having cultured taste, right? 
My bad—I was just posting my list of the oddest musicals I could remember hearing about.
So how does the original “Jeeves” differ from the recent revival “By Jeeves”? I’m no big fan of ALW’s work, but I really like the recording I have of “By Jeeves”.
As far as musicals that never should’ve been made, I second “Big”, one of the worst cast recordings I have ever heard and nominate “Doonesbury: the musical”.
A few years ago I read about a casting call for a stage version of Star Trek which would feature a singing Uhura. I don’t know if it ever made it to the stage or not.
Of course, Uhura did sing on the TV (Charlie X) and there was that episode with the singing space hippies. They should never have been made.
TV Time, one of my all-time favorite review quotes was one that described Burt Reynolds’ dancing in At Long Last Love as “like a drunk killing cockroaches.” I think there was an equally pithy description of his singing, but can’t remember it. Do you know that quote?