GREASE! (ant other favorite assorted musicals)

[Jade]

GREASE! (and other favorite assorted musicals)

Okay so I am a musical fanatic...
MY major in colllege as a freshman was musical theater (gasp!)


What is your favorite musical?

I have so many but right now Grease is on.. and I just realized that I know every word to every song and almost every line! (scary!) The only other one like that is Sound of Music!
Okay I told you mine, now tell me yours!

 

[Patryn]

Phantom of the Opera...the Andrew Lloyd Webber version.

 

[*Eve*]

Miss Saigon is my favorite musical. It is such a beautiful play and the original cast is breathtaking.
My second favorite is Rent. A definite must see.

 

[Xander]

Phantom of the Opera.
Starlight Express
Cats.

In no particular order. I just loved them when I saw them in London

 

[Bonnie Wee Lassie]

1st place......Rocky Horror Picture Show
and a close second Grease.

Bonnie

I am sure Canadian lady will agree on this one!!!!

 

[Sonora]

The Sound of Music

I can't even think anything else that would be close for me.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

No, Xander, you did NOT just list "Cats", did you? Now you must DIE...!

Oh my God, you also listed "Starlight Express". Are you insane? You're a MUSICIAN for god's sake and ...

No, you're not Xander. There's something different about you. You're one of the pod people aren't you? You've come to Earth to replace our musicans with tin-earred drones and lower our standards in the world of musical theatre appreciation, haven't you? Answer me! What have you done with Xander? Good, decent, musically talented Xander? You alien scum! Ahhhhhhh!

------------

Sorry, Xander, I couldn't resist. I grew up in the musical theatre. I was a chorus boy (oh yes I was -- you should see my scissor kicks)) for many years. Danced and sang in everything you could imagine. I suppose I'm a musical theatre snob. I like Lloyd Webber, but those two will go down in history as two of the biggest well known Broadway stinkeroos of all time. (Except for "Memory", which is lovely)

The greatest, most perfect, Broadway musicals are "Gypsy" and "My Fair Lady". "West Side Story" has amazing music. "Company" is brilliant. "Pippin" is flawed beyond belief, but fun as hell. "Showboat" is third up on the perfect list. "Porgy and Bess" has music that burns into your soul. "Music Man" is the most clever of all musicals. "Cabaret" is searing, and has my favorite source material ("The Berlin Stories"). "Bloomer Girl" and "Li'l Abner" suck. (So does, God forgive me, "The Sound of Music" which thankfully made a much better movie). "Oklahoma" is gret, unless you're in the chorus, in which case it's the dullest of all musicals. (the first scene is fourt-five minutes long, with only principals. Time to catch a nap in the catwalk.)

I could go on, but I'm sure you've all stopped reading by now.

Have you seen all the updated and revised revivals lately, starring Hollywood actors? Jack Nicholson's doing a remake of "Damn Yankees." It's called, "Fucking Yankees."

"Something familiar, something peculair, something for everyone, a comedy tonight...."



[Edited by Dixon Carter Lee on 08-11-2000 at 06:13 PM]

 

[Xander]

Beep Beep, I bring me to your leader, Earthlings!!!

http://smilecwm.tripod.com/ruinkai/greedo.gifhttp://smilecwm.tripod.com/ruinkai/GRIM.gifhttp://smilecwm.tripod.com/ruinkai/greedo.gif

 

[Naked Hunny]

Ok did we miss Les Miserables.

and what about Oscar and Hammerstein
yes they were musicals before movies.

You know Carousel, Oklahoma!
What about the King and I

Anything Goes!!

cmon people you are missing some of the best musicals!!

 

[Bushido71XS]

Jade, Pretty much anything with Gene Kelly, But I really liked Brigadoon.

 

[Skitten]

My favorite of all times is West Side Story and then Grease they are two of my ultimate favorites. I just loved them I think I wore out my video of the West Side Story. And I too think that I know all the words and songs to both. "SICK" ain't it lol.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

That's Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein, not Oscar and Hammerstein - LOL! Of course, they're great. They were innovators, and had soaring lyrics and wonderful orchestrations. And their stories were told with music, not just a play accompanied by a couple of songs. their source material was always great. Carousel came from the great play "Lillom" -- always one of my favorites.

I still hate Flower Drum Song.

And, you're right, I forgot "Les Miserables". I forgot to put it on the all time stinkeroo list. Not that I dont like it, because I do, I admit it. I hum the music and I knew people in the original cast -- it's a definite guilty pleasure. But it's still lousy. (Nothing screams "French History" like rock music at the barricades. It worked for "Superstar", but here it just sounds, well, dumb.)

Anything Goes is fabulous, but a showcase vehicle more than an actual musical. Still, if you've got Porter you've got me. I like it because well, gee, ahhh, at words poetic I am so pathetic that I always have found it best, instead of getting them off my chest, I let them rest, unexpresed. I hate parading my serenading, and I'll probably miss the bar, but if this ditty is not too pretty, at least it'll tell you how great you are -- you're the top....

[Edited by Dixon Carter Lee on 08-11-2000 at 06:36 PM]

 

[Naked Hunny]

shutup you try to think when you have a screaming 10 month old in your lap

and you are right Flower Drum Song has to be one of the worst musicals ever!! I think its up there with Once Upon a Mattress!!

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Now, see, I love "Mattress". the music is by Mary Rodgers (daughter of Richard) and very lovely. The lyrics are clever and charming and written by a man (his name escapes me) I met last year. He was trying to revive an old musical of his, and I swear he'd gone completely over the bend. He was thin, dirty, had a rope belt, no socks, unkept hair, grizzled face - and we caught him once on the roof of the theatre naked and rubbing leaves on himself. I couldn't believe this was the same man who wrote the lovely "In a Little While". He died a few months later. Strange.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

LOL @ Xander

 

[Naked Hunny]

Sorry but that Musical does absolutely nothing for me i literally walked out!! Kinda shocking because im a musical freak i drag my mother to musicals every year!!

 

[RonG]

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a great movie musical and the barn raising sequence amazes me every time I see it.

I have a great recording of Paul Robeson singing "Ol' Man River" from Show Boat. Hard to believe that Flo Ziegfield wanted the song cut from the show. I saw a revival of Show Boat a few years back and I really pitied the guy trying to sing this song since you could tell he was trying to emulate Robeson and knew he was up against it.

Actually, I am a big Jerome Kern fan in general. Two classics from Swing Time, "The Way You Look Tonight" and "A Fine Romance", are two great ones.

I really don't like Webber's musicals much to see but listening to Sarah Brightman sing the best tunes (yes, Memory is tremendous)is great. And John Gielgud as Gus the Theatre Cat is poignant as heck. We really lost a grand one this week in Sir John . . .

 

[Skibum]

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Oklahoma.

 

[Nicole]

I agree Bonnie ...

Rocky Horror Picture show for me too.

Gotta love Tim Curry dressed as a Transvestite, walking in thoose heels .... I love that Movie.

 

[Rosebud]

okay no one faint....I have never seen Rocky Horror Picture Show...and i am 35

 

[Jade]

Wowza!

I am impressed at all the literotica "Musical Connoisseurs!"

For all who said West Side Story... I just had to express my love for you! ( I auditioned as Maria while trying out for something else.. *sigh*... and I know the words to that too... I was obsessed with that play all through high school!)

Anyway, I was surprised that no one listed some classics like "Funny Girl," "Fame," and "Funny Face," and ... some newer ones like "Evita."

Guess we just don't have any fellow Hepburn fans....

Seriously NO one else liked fame? Didn't anyone try to sing "I sing the body electric"... or "Out here on my own?"

Oh! And also.. what about "Jesus Christ Superstar?"
I know that some of you are just old enough to remember when that came out... I heard that all the girls were singing "I don't know how to love him" in the hallways! Come on, admit it!

Oh, and as a side note... I never truly realized just how extensive DCL's knowledge was of this stuff...
As I have never seen "Cats"... after what he said I am not sure that I should! Perhaps I should just stick with knowing "Memory," and move on?

You are all just so classy! I LOOOOVE IT!

 

[kittykat]

Grease is my favorite. I just got done watching it tonight. Puts me in a good mood everytime i watch it.

 

[Endlessly]

WOW! Okay, my mother was a professional actress for 25-30 years before I was born, my brother's a professional actor working on Broadway right now, and I grew up in theatre. Let me take a moment to say this much:

Sondheim is a God.

That said, my favorite musicals, in no particular order:

Passion (the song 'loving you' brings tears to my eyes)
Into the Woods
Cabaret
Forum
Fiddler on the Roof (trite-but-true)
Rent (La Boheme is one of my favorite operas)

Rocky was good.. And I'm working my ass off in tap class to play Magenta since my college is doing it in the fall.. But there are so many that are better.

As far as elephant musicals go:

Les Miserables (I'm in love with the character Eponine and with the voice of Colm Wilkinson)
Secret Garden (Anything with Mandy Patinkin originating a role.. That includes Evita)
Ragtime

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

When you started the thread I assumed we were thinking only of theatre musicals. "Funny Girl" wasn't that great on stage. Good flick, though. "An American in Paris" and "Singing in the Rain" are fabulous of course.

I like "On the Town" too, though the stage version had better songs. (Anyone remember Betty Garrett in that? She played opposite Frank Sinatra. She's a friends of mine. Great lady. Apparently she pissed Sinatra off because she kidded him about the false ass checks they made him wear under his sailor suit -- he had no butt.)

I loved "Fame", in fact it was the first videotape I ever bought. I still have it. Years later I met Paul McCrane ("Montgomery") in NY. We played softball together with a group of comics, and lived a block from each other in Hell's Kitchen. I see him every now in then here in LA (he's on "er" now). Paul wrote one of the songs for Fame -- the one he plays on Guitar.

And WHEN did Sir John Gielgud ever play Gus the Theatre Cat? Not for a run, surely? Was this a special performance or something? I can't imagine Geilgud doing that. (You're not thinking of the recent filmed version, are you? Because that's not him.)

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Sondheim is a God.

Met him -- briefly. (God, if we keep this thread up I'm going to bore you all to tears with name dropping). He came to see a freind of mine star in a Kander and Ebb re-do of "Flora the Red Menace". Recently she starred in "Company" for him. Yes -- he's a God.

"Children will listen..."