Ever seen a movie or play or TV show and thought, “Gee, what is happening right now makes no sense whatsoever?” Well, I certainly have. Maybe the characters react to plot developments in ways that seem completely unrealistic. Maybe the concept is a clever but slight idea pushed beyond its limits. You get the idea. I’m sure if I racked my brains I could find plenty of examples in all forms of media, but here’s a few examples from musicals:
Instrument-selling traveling con men are really great guys on the inside (The Music Man)
Many musicals have been written about con men of various sorts—High Button Shoes, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, 110 in the Shade, The Producers, and so on. One of the best known is The Music Man, about a traveling con man named Harold Hill who, passing himself off as a music teacher and conductor, sells musical instruments to boys in small Midwestern towns. He conveniently ducks out of town before the instruments arrive. Unfortunately, when he comes to River City, Iowa, he falls for Marian the librarian/piano teacher. She tries to expose him as a fraud, but the joyous mass hysteria that strikes the town when the Wells Fargo Wagon arrives with the instruments distracts the mayor and the rest of the inhabitants.* And she seems to change her opinions about Harold when she sees the positive influence he’s had on her shy kid brother Winthrop. And because it’s a musical, the two fall in love, sing a few songs about it, and she keeps her mouth shut about the fact that he’s a no-good con man. Unfortunately, a spell of late-show trouble comes in the form of a traveling salesman who does tell everyone that Harold is a fraud. But just as the citizens hunt Harold down, the band comes out and plays, and even though they’re dreadful the proud parents are so thrilled at the sight of their children in their new uniforms with their shiny musical instruments, and all is forgiven.
I don’t really have a problem with the love plot of the show—women can be irrational, Harold should be a charming, good-looking guy, and crazier romantic matches have happened (we’ll get to a few more later). But I just can’t buy the ending of this show. The citizens are supposed to be a stereotype of the reserved, stoic, somewhat cold midwesterner, but they are completely enthralled by the show’s climax. Can these people not hear? Continue reading ‘things in musicals that make no sense’
Many of y’all watched the Tonys last night. We were treated to a parade of Hollywood stars, some with deep roots in the theatre world, others with only a tenuous connection at best. Actually, some of them had no connection whatsoever: Paula Abdul? Mark Sanchez? (At least he lives in New York. And he provided an easy chance for me to make a Sharks and Jets joke.) But most have made appearances on Broadway, as producers trade on their big names in order to sell more tickets. Among the luminaries were the awkwardly-dressed Katie Holmes (who towered over Daniel Radcliffe), Lucy Liu, Michael Douglas, Will Smith, Racquel Welch, Antonio Banderas, etc.
Now, to be fair we saw our fair share of legit Broadway stars: Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, Glee‘s Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele*, and a handful of others. And some stars are true legends of both stage and screen (I’m talking about you, Angela Lansbury).
Now, some of y’all may be saying “CBS needs ratings. Movie stars bring ratings.” And presumably this is true, just as movie stars can sell tickets on Broadway regardless of their acting ability. And I understand this. So I really don’t mind if the presenters are movie stars. But when they start walking off with all the trophies, it gets a little ridiculous. Continue reading ‘the tonys’ obessession with hollywood celebrities’
I see a lot of theatre. Not as much as some people, I fully admit, but I probably average seeing 35-40 shows a year, maybe fewer when I’m busy doing my own shows. This number includes trips to New York (I usually go there roughly once a year), and it will include the Broadway tours New Orleans has just now gotten back after Katrina, but the vast majority of these are locally produced, whether by professional or semi-professional companies, schools, community theatres, churches, etc. I tend to see more musicals than straight plays, but it’s definitely a little of both. Unfortunately, I get treated to a lot of the same damn shows over and over again.
Most of the shows that are produced frequently are well-written shows. But does everybody have to do Little Shop? There have been at least three productions of it this year, and I think there are even more on the way. At least that’s a funny, smart, well-written show. But then people will do crap like Annie eight billion times. That show is so bad that my mother (who sees every single show I’m in at least twice) has said that she wouldn’t come to see it again if I were in it. Or they do Bye Bye Birdie. Now the book actually has some pretty good jokes in it, but the score is atrocious, featuring several horrendous attempts at rock songs by people who had no clue how to write them. I think I’ve seen about eighty-seven productions of Birdie, all of them dreadful. Including the Broadway revival. Continue reading ‘overproduced musicals’
When I drag myself to an audition for a musical, chances are I’m singing something that’s fifty or more years old. And the director or someone else on the casting panel will be surprised that someone my age would pick something that old. It’s because I DON’T HAVE A CHOICE! There have hardly been any good roles or songs for baritones and basses in the past thirty years. In the golden age of the musical, back in the days of Rodgers & Hammerstein and Bernstein and Jule Styne and Frank Loesser and so forth, shows usually had a good mix of roles. You’d have a leading man role for a baritone—a John Raitt or Alfred Drake or someone like that—a juvenile second lead for a young tenor. And there’d usually be a mix for women as well, maybe a nice soprano role for the romantic lead and some good character roles for altos, or maybe a nice belty Ethel Merman role. Sometimes the altos complain, but even then, they’ve got a whole nice song for it. And these days, I think it’s the sopranos who have more to complain about than the altos as far as female parts are concerned. But everything for men now is tenor, tenor, tenor, with maybe a few character parts for basses and baritones. Continue reading ‘the lack of baritone roles these days’
I was originally planning on doing this as a video, but after a few hilarious/awkward outtakes I decided to stick with the written word, a medium in which I am much more comfortable. (I still may attempt a remake of this blog as a Seth Rudetsky-style deconstruction video—or maybe a podcast—at some point.) Also, due to technical difficulties, cheapness, and laziness, for the time being I’m not putting up any audio clips from the cast recording. So you may want to refer to your own CD or mp3 copy (I’ll give track listings and timings), or just take my word for it from the descriptions. Continue reading ‘alice ripley's vowel sounds in next to normal’
In case you’ve made your way to this blog without knowing me, I’m a big musical theatre fan. Very big. I probably see 30 or 40 plays a year, most of them musicals, I listen to cast recordings, I take frequent trips to New York to see Broadway shows. But there are some shows I simply cannot stand. Two and a half of the most miserable hours of my entire life came a few summers ago when I was forced to sit through a youth theatre production of Cats. Now, it wasn’t the production itself that was the problem. The performers (well, the leads, at least) were all very talented, the set and lights were well done, the choreography was well executed. But how the hell this show ran for eighty million years on Broadway, I have no earthly idea. Continue reading ‘cats (the musical)’