Musicals staged as concerts
Musicals staged as concerts
ErinDillyFan
Broadway Star Joined: 7/14/06
#1Musicals staged as concerts
Posted: 2/27/17 at 3:41pm
Not concert versions of shows.
The last 3 musicals I saw just happen to be "Hedwig and the Angry Inch", "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill", and "Altar Boyz". This style is fairly rare and found it interesting to see them all in the same week. The previous week I saw "The Scottsboro Boys" which is similarly staged as a minstrel show that also broke the 4th wall. So, 3 in a row and 4 out of the last 6.
What other shows are staged in this style?
Isn't Liza at the Palace?
Would you consider "Will Roger's Follies" in this genre?
What about one man shows like Anthony Rapp's "Without You"?
EDIT: I think "Passing Strange" fits.
I think I would put "Forever Plaid" in this category.
#2Musicals staged as concerts
Posted: 2/27/17 at 3:45pm
Liza at the Palace is a revue/one-woman show, not a musical. Will Rogers Follies absolutely does not fit this definition.
Pump Boys and Dinettes and Oil City Symphony are both pretty close to what you are describing. I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It On The Road is staged as a rehearsal for a concert/nightclub performance.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
AEA AGMA SM
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/13/09
#3Musicals staged as concerts
Posted: 2/27/17 at 6:06pm
While it's not a concert, The Will Rogers Follies is structured entirely as a Ziegfeld Follies revue of Will's life. Everything is taking place in that follies show, with Will constantly breaking the fourth wall both to talk to the audience as well as to Mr. Ziegfeld himself, and at several points Ziegfeld intervenes to shape the course of the show to fit his vision of the follies (such as Will and Betty meeting on the moon to make it more romantic and theatrical than their real life meeting in a train station, or moving the time of their wedding from the middle of Act 1 to the Act 1 finale).
#4Musicals staged as concerts
Posted: 2/27/17 at 6:12pm
I think A Night With Janis Joplin fits the bill.
#5Musicals staged as concerts
Posted: 2/27/17 at 6:14pm
Wasn't lady day technically a play?
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ErinDillyFan
Broadway Star Joined: 7/14/06
#6Musicals staged as concerts
Posted: 2/28/17 at 1:06pm
"Will Roger's Follies" is not a concert, but was suggesting it fits into a similar performance style, probably more like "The Scottsboro Boys" than a concert. But, on a continum that is close in that it is a revue (Ziegfeld Follies) that conveys a story. It breaks the 4th wall.
Updated On: 2/28/17 at 01:06 PM
ErinDillyFan
Broadway Star Joined: 7/14/06
#7Musicals staged as concerts
Posted: 2/28/17 at 1:11pm
I guess you could call "Lady Day" a play with music. But, she explains how the songs fit in her life, so singing the songs move "the plot" along. But, if you are going to argue that point, you would have to say the same thing for Hedwig and Altar Boyz.
#8Musicals staged as concerts
Posted: 2/28/17 at 1:18pm
Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill is a play with music, and it's structured as Billie Holliday giving a performance at a jazz club. I would say that it fits with the OP's question.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
ggersten
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#9Musicals staged as concerts
Posted: 2/28/17 at 2:18pm
Ring of Fire
Million Dollar Quartet (ok, a recording session, not an actual concert)
End of the Rainbow (or is this play with music?)
Every Kiki and Herb show
Rain (does this count?)
asmith0307
Broadway Star Joined: 8/5/14
#10Musicals staged as concerts
Posted: 2/28/17 at 2:33pm
What about Pippin? Not a concert, but at least with the leading player, it is very aware that it is a show with an audience.
#11Musicals staged as concerts
Posted: 2/28/17 at 2:38pm
Pippin is more of a show-within-a-show concept, no?
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
LittleEdieFan
Understudy Joined: 12/21/13
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#14Musicals staged as concerts
Posted: 3/1/17 at 9:10am
Fela! The show is one of Fela Kuti's concerts telling the story of his life.
#15Musicals staged as concerts
Posted: 3/1/17 at 9:30am
The Last Session is a musical staged as a recording session....
jimmycurry01
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/05
#16Musicals staged as concerts
Posted: 3/1/17 at 11:27am
ErinDillyFan said: "I guess you could call "Lady Day" a play with music. But, she explains how the songs fit in her life, so singing the songs move "the plot" along. But, if you are going to argue that point, you would have to say the same thing for Hedwig and Altar Boyz.
"
unless you are the Tony Awards nominating committee. In which case, Lady Day is a play with music and Hedwig is a musical.
