GREASE! (ant other favorite assorted musicals)

[Endlessly]

Dixon, quick! Drop all the names you can in thirty seconds! Bonus points if you include your pants in all the dropping!

*cough* Sorry.. Got a bit carried away there.

Ever hear the medley of "You've got to be carefully taught\ Children will listen" that Mandy Patinkin did on his Oscar and Steve album? Those songs go together so well.

Thing is, Sondheim's music is ROUGH. You leave a Hammerstein musical singing the songs you heard, you leave a Sondheim musical wishing you could.

My favorite quote of all time is a Sondheim one, though, from that very song:

"Wishes come true.. Not free."

 

[KillerMuffin]

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

Tim Curry dressed as a Transvestite, walking in thoose heels .... 'Nuff said

Unless you like transvestite tree ring circuses, you aren't missing much. I got the joy of seeing it once, in a theatre with my best friend dressed up as Magenta. They came at me yelling "VIRGIN VIRGIN VIRGIN" in a flurry of corsets, capes, and wigs. I shrieked like a girl (okay, so I am a girl) and bellowed at the top of my lungs "IF YOU TOUCH ME I'M GONNA WHOOP YOUR ASS AND YOU CAN GO TO THE ER AND EXPLAIN WHY YOU HAVE YOUR WIGS SHOVED UP YOUR ASSES!"

In summary, there are two ways of seeing it, quietly, on video which you can pretend you never rented later, or experiencing it and all it's groupies in the theatre. Be prepared if you hit the theatre. It's a subculture now.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Oh yeah, my fave musical....

Is the helicopter scene in Apocalypse Now considered a musical? "Gawd I love the smell of napalm in the morning...."

Actually, I rather loved 7 brides for 7 brothers. It was cute.

 

[BeautyBabe]

In no particular order...

The Wizard of Oz
Grease
Cats (Sorry DCL! )
The Rocky Horror Show
My Fair Lady
Oklahoma!
Anything Goes

and one that no-one's mentioned yet, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I'm going to see it in a few weeks. It's available on video over here, with Donny Osmond as Joseph. Is it just me, or is it inspired casting, having an Old Testament figure played by a well known Mormon? Appeals to my warped sense of humour, anyway!

Endlessly, if you get the role as Magenta, do we get to see pics?

 

[CreamyLady]

Gypsy.

 

[Weird Harold]

I am the model of a modern a major general

I can't believe nobody has mentioned Gilbert and Sullivan.

HMS Pinafore and the rest are timeless.

Of course, being a Disney fan, almost any Disney animated cartoon qualifies as one of my favorite musicals.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Re: I am the model of a modern a major general


Didn't Al Borland sing that particular tune when he was in a sound isolation booth (or so he thought) when Tim the Toolman Taylaor was playing a practical joke on his show Tool Time?

Looooooove Disney, I have a crab singing Kiss the Girl on my puter every once n a while

 

[Endlessly]

*L* Definitely, if I'm cast as anything, I'll post pics.

Somewhere, I have pictures of me as a Kit-Kat Girl in Cabaret. I was in it with my mother when I was thirteen.

Yep, I'm going straight to hell..

 

[Thumper]

Ummmmmm

"Hair".....well DUH!
"Rock n Roll High School".....hey it has singing and dancing! I ain't high brow...I'm a punk!

I did see Cabaret this past winter with Joely Fisher...enjoyed it immensely and also saw Jekyll and Hyde...enjoyed that too......
I'm not a total barbarian...just when it counts...now to rape and pillage!

 

[Gil]

MY FAIR LADY!

I still laugh my ass off everytime I hear that song..."but, let a woman in your life."

A simple man am I...

 

[RonG]

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.)

Sarah Brightman and John Gielgud perform "Gus: The Theatre Cat" on The Very Best of Andrew Lloyd Webber, The Broadway Collection which is a complilation. Originally it appeared on Surrender: The Unexpected Songs. Hence, I was not confused and,as I mentioned in the previous sentence, I find Webber easier to listen to than to watch. Nowhere in his obits this week did it list his ever having done this role so I believe the recording was one of those special musical evening things or a studio benefit shot. Regardless, he does give an air of believability to the dialogue that make it tremendous.

I believe they used John Mills for the film version but am not sure.

 

[Nicole]

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

Ummm ... 36 in September ... So sorry http://smilecwm.tripod.com/net/angel.gif



Killer Muffin I do agree that is is good in the Theartre, but it's just as good on Video ... My best friend makes me watch it just about everytime we get together, so all in all I have probably seen it up to 200 times. Yes I know all the words, and yes it still catches my imagination everytime I see it. I love Riff Raff (Richard O'Brien) the most, and you just have to love Meatloaf in the movie. But above all else I still say that seeing Tim Curry dressed as a Transvestite is Brilliant.

Rosebud I have it on Video if you ever want to borrow it ... Now we just need to get over the diffrences in the magnetics ... yes??? (LOL).



[Edited by Nicole on 08-12-2000 at 05:26 AM]

 

[Magic Merlin]

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

Let me stand beside you Rosie (or behind you). I have never seen Rock Horror Picture Show either.....



Some of my favorites:

Carousel
Fiddler on the Roof
Cats (as long as you only see it once)
Hair
Beach Blanket Babylon

 

[Naked Hunny]

ok all you VIRGINS!!

Now every year on Halloween at a theatre near my home town they show The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight you are all coming i cant stand VIRGINS!!! I went the first time when i was 13 yea ok i was crying but so what!!

 

[KillerMuffin]

I am inspired to begin yet again another pointelss and insipid thread that has already been done before.

 

[Naked Hunny]

Go for it Muff im bored lets liven this place up!!!

 

[Sonora]

Re: ok all you VIRGINS!!

Now every year on Halloween at a theatre near my home town they show The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight you are all coming i cant stand VIRGINS!!! I went the first time when i was 13 yea ok i was crying but so what!!

Consider this my RSVP Hunny. I'm 39 and I've never seen it. What can I bring to the party??

 

[Naked Hunny]

toilet paper, rice, and lighters havent you people ever seen the movie??!!!

 

[Jade]

Wow, you people are awesome!


Admittedly I haven't seen the RHPS either but... someday I plan to rememdy that...

Tumper I LOVED hair but hated the ending (so sad...)

DCL: I am completely jealous that you met him ! Dammit!
I always wished that I could dance like the dancer in fame though most of all... *sigh*.. that was what blew my audition you know.. my lack of experience with dancing... *sigh again*...

Beatybabe: WIZ of OZ.. forgot about that...LOVE It.

WH: I wasn't even thinking remotely of animated flicks but now that you mention it.. I just EAT that crap up.. I totally love it!

My all time fav... (other than Fantasia of course ) HAS to be Sleeping Beauty... I can sing that any day!
(I cried when I was little b/c I didn't have blonde hair like Princess Aurora...)
My favorite recently is Mulan, which totally kicked ass, and "Little Mermaid," and "Beauty and the Beast" will always hold places in my heart.... *sigh*

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

What a piece of work is man,
How nobel in reason,
How infinite in faculty,
In form and moving how express and admirable,
In action how like and angel,
In aphrehension how like a god.

I credit "Hair" with making me want to learn about Shakespeare. Those words, set to music in the musical, made me want to check out the source material. So I read Hamlet as a teen.

I love finding the source material for musicals. I mentioned "Berlin Stories", which has a single chapter about an actual woman named Sally Bowles -- eventually this became "Cabaret". Did you know that "Little Shop of Horrors" is based on "Faust"? I love this stuff.

Anyone who's read "Teaching Patti" knows I like "Godspell", even the weird film version. It was the last musical I ever did. We did the original choregraphy, and it was exhausting -- you never leave the stage, even for intermission.

I do love "A Chorus Line". I saw it five times on Broadway over the years, and it wasn't until the last year that it started slowing down and getting sloppy. The movie is such a misstep. To have Cassie sing "What I did for Love" about Zach was the dumbest thing I ever saw.

"Pirates" is fab -- "With cat like tread..." I could sing it all day.

"Barnum", "Big River" and "The Magic Show" are definitely second (or even thrid) string, but good fun.

"Brigadoon" is gorgeous, and the stage version is MUCH better than the movie, which wasn't bad. On stage Tommy and Fiona don't dance, they sing -- gloriously. And there are two comedy songs not in the film that are hysterical. I did the show with a guy playing Charlie who had the sweetest, most mournful tenor voice. When he sang "Come to Me, Bend To Me" with the young Jean dancing in tableau I wanted to run out on stage, grab the girl, kiss her, and vanish into the Highland mist for another hundred years. And I remember being the only guy in the chorus who could do the sword dance without cutting his feet.

"Oh we're the boys in the chorus,
We hope you like our show,
We know you're rootin' for us,
But now we gotta' go....."

 

[Endlessly]

When wilt thou save the people, O god of mercy when..?

I think I told you this once, DCL, but it doesn't matter. Godspell is also the last musical I was in-- I forgot to put it on my list of faves.

He's not kidding when he talks about how rough it is! It's doing aerobics while singing at full voice. Even intermission, the cast is dancing around onstage serving wine to the audience.

Godspell was a trip for me. My brother the professional actor was playing Jesus-- he decided to do it just for the hell of it, and I know it's the only time in my life when I'll be on the same stage as him. It was wonderful. I sang 'Day By Day' about 9-million times.. But even so, it's probably one of the most beautiful and innocent musicals of all time.

Gah.. All right.. JUST for you BB people..
http://crazymaze.freeservers.com/godgals.jpg
I'm second from the right.. Wearing the big wreath of fake flowers in my hair.

Dixon, who'd ye play?

 

[Siren]

WHAT NO ONE MENTIONS A CHORUS LINE?

 

[Weird Harold]

Gah.. All right.. JUST for you BB people..
http://crazymaze.freeservers.com/godgals.jpg
I'm second from the right.. Wearing the big wreath of fake flowers in my hair.

OOps, it says "fordidden. You don't have access to this server"

I did go crazymaze.freeservers.com and find the picture. (along with a bunch of better pictures.) I can't wait for you to work up the courage to post more pics here.

Back on topic:

DCL quoted from a Bugs Bunny cartoon, and that reminded me that the fact almost all of the old cartoons were musical is what made me willing to sit through a musical in the first place as well as gave me a love of classical music.

Several others have mentioned Fidler on the Roof. That's a musical I love, although it's one with a story that "overcomes" the fact it's a musical in my memory. There are several musicals that are like that for me. Stories told with music so well integrated into the whole experience that you don't really think of them as musicals. Just very good stories that include music.

 

[Siren]

WEIRD HAROLD.........

 

[Magic Merlin]

A great play.

Magic Merlin and Rosebush...come here, I gotta take my lil virgins to see Rocky at midnite show...come on, let La Siren take your virginity sweet meats....

Now that sounds like an offer a man can not refuse! Losing my virginity to La Siren.

Oh, happy days are here again!.......