musicals

[LONDONER]

I'm a fan of almost anything written by Stephen Sondheim, not just his music but his very clever and intelligent lyrics. I saw this at a small theatre "in the round" in London and it was a truly wonderful production. This is the original 1976 Broadway production:




And of course how could I not include his "A Little Night Music". I'm not choosing the famous and justifiably popular "Send in the clowns" that has been so very badly interpreted by so many people, but here's "A Weekend in the Country".




And here's the wonderful "Liasons" "sung" by Hermione Gingold, perfect for the part:




Love the ".....I acquired a position plus a tiny Titian".

And for those of a more macabre nature, try this video from 3:46, the song called "A Little Priest"

[ShiftyNJ]

I'm a fan of almost anything written by Stephen Sondheim, not just his music but his very clever and intelligent lyrics.

I was very lucky to meet him some years ago, albeit briefly. Arthur Laurents (West Side Story, Gypsy, etc.) wrote some plays for the smaller stage towards the end of his life and was almost "in residence" at a small but important theater in NJ. My dad reviews most of the shows they do, and thus was in touch with Laurents often. It was at the premier of one of his shows that Sondheim was in the audience, and we were introduced afterwards.

[LONDONER]

Lucky you Shifty. Here's another Sondheim song from "Company" that I have always believed is relevant to some of the gay community. Just listen to the lyrics, they almost make me cry:




Here's an even better version with Dean Jones under the supervision of a young Stephen Sondheim:




Oh good grief, I've just found this verion performed by Adrian Lester, an British Shakesperian actor. He might not be the most vocally strong but boy, does he get in to the song:

[ShiftyNJ]

Aaah! I just went to look up a great show we saw at that same theater and found out it is coming to Broadway, with the same leads! Tyne Daly as the mom and Lisa Howard as the long-suffering "good daughter" were both great. So glad this is finally happening.

http://www.itshouldabeenyou.com

[LONDONER]

Continuing with Sondheim, the latest film of one of his works is "Into The Woods". Here's one of the key songs from it:




I've picked this one out because one has to read between the lines. Unfortunately this song was cut from the film so this version is from the original Broadway cast. I've taken the liberty of reproducing part of a review in Rotten Tomatoes that explains what is between the lines.

The most famous line of Into The Woods, 28 years after its stage debut, is "No-one is alone". President Obama quoted the line in 2011, on the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, speaking to the families of the dead. That's how far the message of this melancholy musical drama, with score and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, has seeped into the culture. Rob Marshall (Chicago, Nine) who directed this adaptation, has said that hearing that speech galvanised him to get the film done, after years of thinking about it.

The less famous fact about the show is that so many people die in the second act – something of a problem in the movie universe, especially as funded by Disney. There are few people left standing after Sondheim and James Lapine, who wrote the original book, get through with them. It's one of the most astonishing second acts of any Broadway hit, let alone a musical, but it's like that for a reason.

In 1986, when Into The Woods premiered in San Diego, a year before going onto Broadway, AIDS was devastating the theatre communities in which Lapine and Sondheim live and work. Although openly gay, Sondheim has always said it was about more than that, but the allegory was unmissable at the time. As Little Red Riding Hood sings after she has had a nasty encounter with the Wolf: "Do not put your faith in a cape and a hood, they will not protect you the way that they should."

More poignantly, it's also there in the second act in the song No More, after the Baker (played here by James Corden) has endured great tragedy. In the original show, the Baker sings: "No more questions, please; no more tests. Comes the day you say 'What for?' Please – no more."

Those lines meant something to HIV-positive men in the late 1980s and '90s, but you won't hear them in Rob Marshall's otherwise beautiful adaptation of the show. That song has been cut, a crucial omission. No More summarised the main themes – responsibility, recrimination, resignation, recovery – with spine-tingling drama. At 125 minutes, it can't have been that the film was too long. Would another four minutes have killed it?

[Bhp91126]

Very interesting, Londoner. I enjoyed the movie, but those deaths in the second half, I didn't like. Now they make some sense. However I also thought some very heavy handed Hollywood moralizing came into play

Spoiler

The married woman who strays with the prince has to die and the equally married Prince goes on romancing other females.


I like musicals for the dance numbers. All time favorite is America from West Side Story.

[LONDONER]

I like musicals for the dance numbers. All time favorite is America from West Side Story.

I saw Chita Rivera in that. Wonderful! Oh, don't forget the wonderfuld dance numbers in the Fred & Ginger movies.

[FeelsGoodman]

In order:

Spring Awakening
Disney's Beauty and the Beast
Billy Elliot
The Secret Garden
In The Heights
Disney's The Lion King
Once
Dreamgirls
Jersey Boys
Million Dollar Quartet