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I do the theater. Never again.

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by The Big Ragu, May 27, 2010.

Page 5 of 6
  1. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member


    He's long loved challenging subject matter. Sweeney Todd? Passion?
    Hardly mainstream musical theatre grist.

    Snag the 2004 US CD. Thank me later.

    Major, later productions (2004 & 08) include an extra (late) song which in my
    mind diminishes the overall power of the production.
     
    Ben_Hecht, Jun 2, 2010
    #49
  2. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member


    Solid advice, for those with the required nerve.
     
    Ben_Hecht, Jun 2, 2010
    #50
  3. finishthehat

    finishthehat Active Member

    My kid is convinced Assassins is the greatest piece of theater ever. He also thinks my Sondheim fandom is an indication of bisexuality, at the very least.

    But at a young age he got somewhat obsessed with assassinations and so I took him to a production. He was blown away by the fact that used Guiteau's actual poem for his death song.

    Get the original cast album -- stronger performances, plus the entire scene at the Texas Schoolbook Depository with Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth.

    It doesn't have the added-later "Something Just Broke," which I like but realize a lot of people don't.
     
    finishthehat, Jun 2, 2010
    #51
  4. HC

    HC Well-Known Member

    finishthehat ... I'm guessing you're as big a fan of "Sunday in the Park with George" as I am! :D
     
    HC, Jun 2, 2010
    #52
  5. HC

    HC Well-Known Member

    I'm with JR. "West Side Story" is high on my regret list of shows I will never ever get to be in. Thank Jeebus I got to play percussion in the orchestra pit when my high school did it in the 1970s.
     
    HC, Jun 2, 2010
    #53
  6. VladTheImpaler

    VladTheImpaler New Member

    I guess since this is my first post, I'm fetching Newcastles as the newbie. :D

    Anyway, hello. Longtime lurker, and finally felt up to writing on one of these.

    After growing up in the shadows of NYC and being spoiled by going to Broadway at the drop of a hat, I finally got around to seeing a show out here in Chicago and caught Billy Elliott a couple of months back. The dancing/choreography was incredible, and while the music was good, it felt like there were some limitations in finding 14-year-olds who can both sing and dance as opposed to one or the other. Not a bad thing, just an observation.

    Loved Rock of Ages...2 hours of guilty pleasure. Rent is phenomenal, as is Wicked, which I was fortunate enough to see with most of its original cast. I can't get enough of Idina Menzel. I was thinking about seeing the Addams Family when I go to see my folks in July, though if anyone has better suggestions, I'm open.

    Hopefully, I'll be in London for my birthday in January to see Love Never Dies. I know it seems sacrilege to have a sequel to Phantom, but after listening to the soundtrack, there are points where it's obvious Andrew Lloyd Webber still has the fastball.
     
    VladTheImpaler, Jun 3, 2010
    #54
  7. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    As Alan Jey Lerner once said to Webber when Webber asked Lerner why
    people took such an instant dislike to him (Webber):

    "It saves time".

    Welcome.
     
    Ben_Hecht, Jun 3, 2010
    #55
  8. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I don't know much about Webber's musicals, but one of the coolest things I ever discovered was a record album when I was in HS of a solo project Webber did with his brother Julian, who played the cello. Webber basically took one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the violin, Paganini's 24th Caprice, and did a classical-rock fusion album around it with 23 different "variations," which featured Julian on the cello flanked by modern instruments -- drum set, electric guitar, electric bass, etc. It's pretty cool the way it melds string and orchestra instruments and a rock band. I've listened to that album (and later CD) about a zillion times and I still sometimes have the mp3 playing in the background while I work.

    A bit related, but even one step more removed from the theater focus of this thread. Sorry about that, but Paganini made me think of this. Several years ago there this kid who performed on the subway with a violin, who I only got to see a handful of times. He was a black kid with cornrows, dressed all hip hop. He looked a bit like Allen Iverson. He'd walk into a subway car, pull out the violin and suddenly start playing Paganani before walking around with a hat for money. That kid played some of the most difficult violin pieces there are, and tore that violin up, and it was so incongruous with who people assumed he was when they first saw him, that he could turn a crowded subway car silent. I miss that kid. I only saw him a few times, but they were some of my favorite moments about living in New York. I was so surprised by him the first time I saw him that I think I emptied my wallet into his hat. I wonder who he was (Julliard student?) and what he is doing now.
     
    The Big Ragu, Jun 3, 2010
    #56
  9. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member


    Rachmaninoff's piano variations on Paganini's theme remain in the front
    line of classical schmaltz -- and remain broadly-loved, for good reason.
     
    Ben_Hecht, Jun 3, 2010
    #57
  10. finishthehat

    finishthehat Active Member

    Oh yeah....Never have had an opportunity to see a production of it, though.
     
    finishthehat, Jun 3, 2010
    #58
  11. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Based on the same exact caprices, as you know. The Rachmaninoff rhapsody is amazing, because it just keeps going and going without any sort of a break and it's like Rachmaninoff tried to up the ante by taking something notoriously difficult and creating something even more difficult to play from it. It is exhausting, but one of the most satisfying live performances I have ever seen. I saw it at Lincoln Center last summer, as part of their Russian festival. It was on a program with Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture.
     
    The Big Ragu, Jun 3, 2010
    #59
  12. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    Given his huge (octave-and-a-half reach) hands, Rach loved to bust everyone
    else's balls with his brutal piano pieces. A shame he didn't survive the war.
    His last major piece (the Symphonic Dances) illustrated he hadn't lost an inch
    off his fast ball. Wound up in California . . . died in Beverly Hills.

    RIP
     
    Ben_Hecht, Jun 3, 2010
    #60
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