Recently we've been watching “The Story of Musicals” on BBC TV (strictly speaking it's the history of British musicals from the mid 20th Century until now). To be honest it wouldn't be first on my list of things to watch (left to myself) but our girl loves a show and she has, true to form, loved this show about shows. To be really honest it has been a fascinating series... even taking into account the lovey nature of a lot of the interviews (I mean, Lloyd Webber, John Barrowman and Michael Ball all in one show – ye gods!). Having said that Barrowman did quite a good musical/send-himself-up spoof with comedy duo Watson and Oliver recently – that's here.
I learned lots from the series though. Like, did you know that Stephen Fry wrote the revised script for “Me and My Girl” in the 1980s (and made heaps of money from it so he told)? I didn't. Also the series reminded me how much I had enjoyed some songs from musicals growing up.... how my Mum played the “Evita” double LP (Julie Covington version) as she cooked Sunday lunch every week for quite some while (so I know the songs from the show better than I might care to admit...). If you remember I even ended up playing a song from a musical at Mum's funeral (even though she might have said classical and opera were her favourite musical genres). I wrote about that here. And now we have a daughter who LOVES musicals, who loves the programs for musicals (collection in a box upstairs), who has only stuck to one after-school activity throughout primary school (musical theatre classes – 2 shows a year). So even if I sometimes want to agree with comedian Stewart Lee (who I wrote about back here) when he says:
“Music theatre...combines the worst aspects of music with the worst aspects of theatre to create a mutant hybrid that is the worst form of live art that exists”,
I just can't... because some of my very favourite people have loved, and continue to love, this artform. Since our girl has been around, for example, I have seen stage versions (professional or amateur) of: The Addams Family, Annie (twice), Crazy for You, Footloose, Hairspray, High School Musical, Joseph, Les Miserables, Mary Poppins, Oliver, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Snoopy the Musical, Wicked, The Wiz (can't say I've loved them all but I've seen them... will be seeing another one in a couple of weeks too...). And then there's the whole load I've seen on DVD or video too (too many to list!). “Cabaret” I could watch every day if I had to (can't blame the daughter for that one – she's not seen it yet...). I have done everything I can, however, to avoid “Cats”.
So, thinking about all this, I was wondering which musicals you like... or which songs from musicals you like... or if you have any good stories connected to musicals? I know it's not very cool... and certainly not very poetry-world... but I find myself drifting further and further from all of that (I actually found myself relieved not to be at StAnza poetry festival this weekend just gone... I can't even quite describe why... I think I'd almost rather watch “Cats”...).
Anyway, here's a song from the show “Wicked” - a show we saw a couple of years ago because the girl loves anything to do with the “Wizard of Oz” (in fact I think she might actually be Dorothy sometimes). It's not particularly a favourite show of mine but I play this because the first Xmas after Mum died I was getting started on the cooking on Xmas Day and our girl was playing her CD of the “Wicked” soundtrack and suddenly this song had me weeping into the saucepans. Maybe you had to be there... see what it does for you:
The song was written by Stephen Schwartz, this version sung by Kristin Chenoweth in the Broadway production.
31 comments:
I love a good musical, me.
My favorite is Cabaret. I have the soundtrack album with Alan Cumming as EmCee and it's a treasure.
Here's a link to Ruthie Henshall being rather surprisingly definitive with 'Maybe this time'. (Listen it out, she really delivers)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh_OEPYIFbw
Oh, that is one of my favourite songs! I can't wait for h to be old enough to watch "Cabaret" (as it is she asks me enough questions about sex these days!). I wrote about it a little too back here
http://crowd-pleasers.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/xmas-special-2008-part-two-films.html
I don't really know Henshall much (know the name of course). Enjoyed this version.
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Ah, I'd forgotten we'd done that. I'm getting old. :) At least we are consistent, eh? x
If we remembered every blog post we'd commented on our heads would be full of some terrible nonsense! I'm sure I've posted the same response more than once...
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I'm more of a film-musical fan, although I have seen my share of stage productions. My favourite is "Camelot" (the version with Julie Andrews and Richard Burton). My mom and I used to play that LP to death, and I'm pretty sure I know all the lyrics to every song.
As for "CATS", I think you really need to be a cat-person to enjoy it.
I haven't seen very many stage productions - but I did volunteer at the Raleigh Little Theatre for a couple of years & saw The King & I and Big River, which I enjoyed.
A good memory associated with a musical is my mom coming to get me out of bed on night to watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - & then going out for late-night decadent chocolate cake at Shoney's. I watched that show again recently & was so very annoyed by the whole thing (I guess I wasn't into woment's lib as a kid - ha!). But it's still one of my favorite mom stories.
Yes, Kat, we really only go to stage musicals because h just LOVES them (much excitement, sitting on the edge of seat, clutching program etc.). It can be very expensive in places too! Still, it all keeps actors/dancers/musicians in work...
After the TV show h wanted to look at "Cats" and we found a video of it in a charity shop for 25p. She watched it but I couldn't make myself sit down to join her. Interesting things about it from the TV series though were that (a) "Memory" (the lyrics) was written something mad like the day before the first performance (cobbled together from Eliot writings by director Trevor Nunn if I remember rightly) and (b) it was the first British musical to feature dance in such a major way (American musicals had been doing that for a while... "West Side Story" etc.).
We watched "King & I" the movie at Xmas time, Bug. I probably hadn't watched it since childhood but some of it was very familiar. It's fairly dated now of course but still some bits are enjoyable. I loved how he just died at the end... not drawn out just BANG, off he goes.
We saw "7 Brides" a few years back when h's musical theatre group put on a production. Yes, the story is pretty amazing to modern minds... one of those where you really just have to suspend all sense and politics. You could say that of so many musicals though I suppose...
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p.s. Never seen "Camelot", Kat (at least I don't think so). Will have to look out for it...
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I've only seen Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and Fame. Really enjoyed them all but I love Les Miserables, the music from it and I love the book. I know what you mean about StAnza (or, I guess, poetry festivals in general), I never feel entirely comfortable there. You'd think after going for the fourth time I would but I guess that's the introvert part of me.
We watched an amateur production of Les Mis a while back. I was dreading it to be honest but did enjoy it in the end. Some of the local groups here work to a very high standard and for such a huge show they did a great job.
'Fame' I only know from the movie/TV show and 'Miss Saigon' I only know what they said about it in the series (the show was cancelled in the US when objections were made to Jonathan Pryce playing a Vietnamese character). It was written by the Les Mis team... I didn't know that either.
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I have to say Rachel that on the whole I am not a great musical fan, although I do love Gilbert and Sullivan, which I suppose counts for the same thing. I used to belong to a G and S society and sang Buttercup and the nurse in Pirates - all a long time ago but brings back fond memories.
Well, I certainly have heard a few G & S operas, Weaver, but I can't say they've ever done much for me. I did enjoy Mike Leigh's "Topsy Turvy" film about them though!
Forgot to respond on the StAnza thing, Marion... yes, I've always felt very much on the edge there... like I don't really belong there at all. At the beginning I hardly knew anyone and thought it might be that. Then after a few years I knew quite a few people but still felt largely the same... like these were not "my people" on the whole. And I watched other people just arrive one year and blend in straightaway like they'd always been there. At least that's how it seemed. I don't really know what it is... I suppose it isn't just one thing...and I don't really mind. It's just interesting, I suppose... how things work.
Did you watch the introvert talk on my last post, Marion? I really enjoyed it (though I think I am really what she terms "ambivert"). I should think some people might even think me an extrovert but I think I used to be more extrovert than I am now. Mostly I think we change over the course of our lives... and I like that... I like change.
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I've never heard of ambivert. My husband is an extrovert though nowhere near as extroverted as he used to be, quite possibly he could be an ambivert now though I think he's just learned to repress his extroverted nature for the sake of his job (school teacher). I always thought of you as an extrovert.
I guess it partly depends who I'm with! But I do feel myself getting more "in" (and less "ex") as time marches on. I just can't be bothered sometimes to turn it on, as it were. Certainly I do quite enjoy public speaking (when I do it which is not so often just now) and that is not very introverted but I also enjoy just being on my own a lot more than I used to... walking, reading and so on. Most of all, of course, I like being with my wee girl. She's really funny... and still thinks I'm great (most of the time). What better company is there?
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Yup, into musicals here too - I think Annie and Sound of Music were melded together in my 10 year old brain and for many years I thought they were the one story, and I'd sing the songs from them constantly
You know, you sound a lot like my husband! Lol :)
Niamh - obviously having the little red-headed one has made "Annie" a particular favourite in this house (a fave of hers anyway). She knows both filmed versions pretty much by heart, has seen two amateur productions and has the CD soundtrack and a book of the first film. She loves it.
I can still remember seeing "The Sound of Music" at the cinema as a child (in Leeds, like in the Fleur Adcock poem "Against Coupling"). I was so amazed by it... guess I was about 10. It still makes me cry and it has some great songs (I like "Something good"... though as a kid I liked the "16 going on 17 one"... shame he was a Nazi in the end...).
Marion - LOL indeed. He sounds like a great guy.
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I'm scared to start. Guys and Dolls! Hello Dolly! The King and I! Oliver! My Fair Lady! Kiss Me Kate! Gypsy! Anything Goes! Sweet Charity! Show Boat! Oklahoma! Fiddler on the Roof! Godspell! Best ever possibly Carousel (oh, the Shrimp Boats...), but that changes month on month. Actually, it could be On The Town.
Basically, I'm with the girl. But fifty years out.
Mum and Dad took us to see Cats (original cast: Bonnie Langford, Paul Nicholas, Brian Blessed and yes, Elaine Paige). They both thought it was utter rubbish. I quite enjoyed it but wondered why it didn't have a story.
Now, you've mentioned Barbra... I have always been a fan and do remember watching 'Hello Dolly' and loving it. I've just ordered the book about being a musicals fan "What would Barbra do?" by Emma Brockes.
The group h goes to are doing "Oklahoma" this summer!
There was quite a lot about "Cats" in the series we just watched. I didn't know that Judi Dench was due to do the Paige part but got injured learning to dance! It was another one (like "Les Mis") where lots of people said they were mad to do it but it was a huge hit... and who doesn't love those stories? I still don't like it though - what I've seen of it so far...
Also in the series there was quite a lot about Lionel Bart (in part one). He didn't read music apparently... I love those stories too!
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Re Dame Judi. Astonished. All Elaine Paige did was limp on in a dishevelled fashion and sing 'the' song. I think she may have sat on a dustbin at some point.
The Bart life story is fascinating and tragic. I think Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be was a real breakthrough success and a little scandalous at the time. And didn't he write a Bond theme too?
I think you would enjoy the series we just watched, T. Lots of detail about Bart in the first part. Lots of funny details all round really. Most bizarre of all - a photo of ALWebber in the early 70s when he almost looked handsome. I was shocked!
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Rachel, I am going to have to steal your child away from you, she sounds perfect! I ADORE musicals. I am a little ashamed, but I just can't help myself. I also grew up in a household where Evita was played of a weekend. I knew the words to Don't Cry For Me Argentina from a very young age.
My fave is tough one to call, but is probably, at least for nostagia reasons, the little known Lloyd Webber show 'Song and Dance.' My father saw it when away on a business trip when I was probably about ten or so, and brought back a tape of the soundtrack. I adored it. Still do :) Of muscials people have heard off - Les Mis is probably my fave - who can not cry when CT Wilkinson sings 'Bring Him home' Oh, so wonderful!
As for Cats...well, despite loving Andrew Lloyd Webber (I know, i know...)I avoided Cats - mainly because a) I thought they looked v stupid in those stupid costumes. and b) Cause I hated TS Elliots cat poems in school.
But, on a visit to London we went to see it as there were tickets to nothing else. LOVED IT. All of it. Every last little nonsencey bit.
And then they closed it and it hasn't been revived yet. Typical.
hmmmm. I suspect I like musicals a little bit... gush much D'Oub???
Another one out of the closet...
I don't know "Song and Dance" at all... and they didn't mention it in the series, I don't think.
As for 'Cats'.. yes, I have avoided it for similar reasons but I can see why you might change your mind after seeing a live show. There is something about seeing a musical well done (though seeing one badly done can be humour of the highest calibre...) - you can't help but respect the performers and everyone involved and the amount of work it takes to pull it all off. Even high-horse comedian Stewart Lee (in the section on musical theatre in "How I Escaped My Certain Fate") says "music theatre performers, whether they love the show or hate it, remain the super-efficient, highly trained warrior-ninjas of the stage." Kind of puts poets in the shade... lazy buggers.
As for the child... maybe I should send her to you for a holiday. She'd enjoy being one of a crowd for a change!
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I looked up "Song and Dance" - it's basically the musical "Tell me on a Sunday" (My Mum had that LP too... not much story, couple of songs she liked) followed by a ballet to "Variations". Ah ha!
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Yes, Song and Dance is an odd little Frankenstein of a show, but how can you not love a musical that includes a song with the rhymn of 'please' and 'chimpanzees'. Magic :)
The line I remember most from childhood was that bit in "Evita" about "screw the middle classes/I will never accept them/And they will never deny me anything again..." etc. I used to love that bit (strange child). Maybe it was just the rudeness of it... maybe the class warfare...
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You may not come back to read this, but "Camelot" with Andrews and Burton was only a stage production, and the film has a quite dishy Richard Harris alongside Vanessa Redgrave. The singing is not quite as good, but the costumes are lavish.
Funnily enough the film's on TV tomorrow. I was going to tape it.
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Every now and again I have to play bass in a musical. I love doing it. Most recently, it was Bugsy Malone. Then there was Anything Goes, Oliver, not to mention the G&Ss. I usually find myself really impressed by aspects of the writing.
I would modify Stewart Lee's statement to say "Music theatre CAN VERY EASILY END UP COMBINING the worst aspects of music with the worst aspects of theatre to create a mutant hybrid that is the worst form of live art that exists". It is very easy to write a bad musical. I should know: I once tried to write one. Fortunately I saw the light in time. Facility and talent in these matters are not the same thing.
Lee did admit he had seen very few musicals... and he was writing after having watched "We Will Rock You" (this is not one on my 'to see' list... though I'm sure many people have enjoyed it).
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