The Broadway Mega-Musicals- Page 2

[musicaltheatreman2]

Posted: 8/20/14 at 11:05am

Rocky the musical

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/20/14 at 11:21am

I don't know what we're talking about any more.

[Timmer]

Posted: 8/20/14 at 3:55pm

And shows like Sweeney Todd and Phantom could easily and credibly be done in opera houses for opera audiences. I can think of several Met starts who could be GREAT as Mrs. Lovett, and as Sweeney.

Not to mention The Phantom, Raul, and Christine.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 8/20/14 at 7:27pm

"The Phantom of the Opera - has a falling chandelier. You go for the chandelier. "

On that score I'll try again-- HELLO DOLLY has a train car ride onto the stage.
42nd STREET has giant dimes to tap dance on, and the original had a giant gymnasium-playground set for 1 number.
TITANIC has an entire boat deck list and sink.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/20/14 at 7:51pm

vassey, a production that depends on a gimmick of spectacle like a chandelier, helicopter or in-line skates is just crappy writing. Let's don't dignify it with a special category.

I have trouble imagining an opera house doing PHANTOM, though with modern finances being what they are, no doubt some fiscally strapped group will try it.

But as for SWEENEY, it was done quite successfully at NYC OPERA in the mid-1980s, just a few years after the Broadway version closed.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 8/20/14 at 8:54pm

We should also point out that the original SWEEENEY TODD does have unsung dialogue provided by Hugh Wheeler, so is NOT in fact strictly sung-through.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 8/21/14 at 9:53pm

I don't think being sung-through should be a concrete identifier, as some of the major megamusicals have a good deal of dialogue.

And even though the definition given here can include shows like MY FAIR LADY or HELLO DOLLY, I think a megamusical is a very certain (and very different) type of show.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/22/14 at 5:28am

Surely someone above has explained there are lots of traditional operas that have (or had) dialogue instead of recitative. CARMEN is the most famous: the spoken dialogue was set to music by someone else after the composer, Bizet, died. PORGY AND BESS went the other way: it had little spoken dialogue until the Theatre Guild got nervous and much of the recitative was spoken instead of sung. (The Houston Grand Opera went back to the original schema in the 1970s, but it sounds like we're "talking" Porgy again nowadays.)

The German operatic form, singspiel (including THE MAGIC FLUTE) includes spoken dialogue as well as recitative, etc. The works of Gilbert & Sullivan are considered "comic operas" and they contain considerable spoken dialogue.

So the amount of time when actors speak rather than sing really is a non-starter in attempting to define a genre.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/22/14 at 8:04pm

This morning it occurs to me that I prefer Ethan Morden's term "operetta". (I don't know that he coined the term, but he uses it to describe the big British musicals that arrive with so much hype.)

Poperetta captures both the pretentiousness and silliness of such efforts.