I work as a music director for educational and non-profit theater and as a freelance writer. My main webhub is my entertainment media blog Cue the Media.
I liked the one where he thought handing out screens to put over cellphones would make people want to see Godspell. Has there been a "Tweet Seat" night since on Broadway?
The Apple Tree technically goes from the Adam and Eve creation myth to modern times. The caveat is that it's three short musicals connected by theme rather than a singular narrative.
Songs for a New World goes from 1492 to present, but it's a song cycle.
Drowsy Chaperone is another interesting wrinkle on the idea. It takes place in one night, but it's flashing back in real time to a Broadway show from almost a century before.
Everyday Rapture had a pretty short turn around from announcement to opening, but there were huge extenuating circumstances there. Roundabout's Lips Together, Teeth Apart revival got cancelled and Everyday Rapture was small and successful off-Broadway the previous season. They needed a limited run that wouldn't lose them a ton of money and Everyday Rapture fit the bill. It started previews April 19, 2010 and opened April 29. They somehow got Michael Mayer back to direct the Broad
Okay, again. There is NO psychology at play in this play except for a modicum of nature vs nurture! Monica is a bit of a kook in her pop psychology. But if you listen to Christine's father the indication is an almost sci-fi exposition, that Rhoda's real grandmother's evil was passed down to her genetically.
Decades of critical readings of the novel, the play, and the film disagree with your assertions. The concept of a child just be
I'm a huge fan of the play, but it's best treated as a historical text at this point. As has been mentioned by others, the psychology the play is based on is outdated and, in 2018, bordering on the offensive.
I think the approach to the evil child story is very good, especially the original ending. What's more terrifying than the realization that a bright, dynamic child with all the potential in the world will only grow up to breed chaos and harm others just because? The re
I prefer to hear the music beforehand if possible. I have some hearing loss from growing up performing in large symphonic orchestras that make it so I just don't easily understand certain frequencies of sound. It's not bad enough to require an assisted listening device and sometimes I can be fine going in without hearing it first. I can get by tilting my head this way or that or trying to put together context clues from what I do understand. You never know how the show is going t
darquegk said: "I wouldn't hold the play's closeness to the film against it: the film is one of the latest of the great farces, and always felt more stagey and theatrical than cinematic."
Agreed. The film is wonderful. The play has potential if the resources are available to stage it. There are a lot more scenes than your average modern play and quite a few settings for something meant to be performed with no intermission. But that's a challenge for the p
I was just working on a production of that other Clue musical. I'm familiar with what the show was originally. They have revised it significantly. The awful recitative segments for Mr. Body are spoken monologues now and it makes a big difference. The music isn't great, but the show is much quicker to get through without so much unnecessarily sung material.
The newer version adapted from the movie is what you'd expect. Broadway Licensing actually has free online p
I've had to surrender my phone to security for many events in the past--standardized testing, press events, special previews--and it's not great. I've gone to events run by major entertainment companies where everyone has their phone and smart devices put into a brown paper lunch bag with a number printed on it and god forbid you don't keep the matching ticket to reclaim it at the end of the night. I've had check in people slap a
I'm excited to see R.R.R.E.D. back onstage in NYC. I remember liking it quite a bit when it played NYMF. It'll be interesting to see how it's changed in the past nine years.
With this shows loyal stans, the first preview was bound to be rowdy. I imagine opening night's going to be a pretty rough, too. But I don't think people should avoid the show because of that. Give the cast recording a listen and see if the show might interest you. I'm not seeing it because I only really enjoy "Michael in the Bathroom," but I work in educational theater and know plenty of people (adults even) who genuinely enjoy the score and concept. The audiences can&#
Is it actually called Madagascar: Live On Stage? MTI has been licensing a version called Madagascar: A Musical Adventure for about a year now that comes in Jr and TYA editions. It's a mostly original score with "I Like to Move It" included because you kind of half to at this point.
Either way, your community theater is likely doing a licensed version of the show.
At Park Avenue Armory's The Harry Ape last year, the audience had to walk over the track all the set pieces came in on to get to the seats. It was two steps up to the track/moving platform and two steps back down. The show used set pieces that looked like modified shipping trailers/containers, so that track was not narrow by any stretch of the imagination. The track also wrapped all the way around the seating with load-in for set pieces in the back, so I really have questions ab
The most common reason is a major production. Sometimes the shows are restricted because changes are being made to the material for easier licensing or to adjust the available materials (different orchestrations, cuts or added scenes approved by the creators, newly recovered material for older shows, etc.). Sometimes shows are acquired for licensing but remain restricted for a certain period of time because of contracts (meaning they will be allowed to license the show, but only after a
I'm usually pretty good at picking out my students' new obsession musical before they start asking to perform the show or songs from the show at every possible opportunity, but Be More Chill's popularity in that Middle/High School age group threw me for a loop. I knew Joe Iconis from playing enough auditions/cabarets to see Head Shot, Flesh and Bone, and some of those Smash songs come into rotation. It just felt like out of nowhere in the past few weeks every male studen
While I haven't seen Margaritaville myself, a good friend I work with got dragged along with some friends to see the show. She is not a Buffet fan (but her friends are) and she wound up really enjoying herself. She said the audience had a wide mix--children to seniors--who laughed their way through the show and had a good time. I did bring up the flying sequence and she rolled her eyes. Not all the jokes landed for her but enough hit that she enjoyed herself.
Are there shows with really outdated gender stereotypes? Yes. Obviously. Theater is centuries old. Society changes. What was acceptable at one point quickly (or not so quickly) falls out of the realm of the appropriate. Does that mean we erase history? No. The smart approach is to contextualize it. Bring it up with the producers, the creative team, and the cast as a jumping off point for artistic expression and interpretation. Discuss your approach in the director's notes. Don't
I think the argument for Fun Home here is that it went from a traditional proscenium staging to in the round for Broadway. The content didn't change so much as the staging, out of necessity.
Aida's changes were wild, and it's pretty impressive how willing Walt Disney Theatrical were willing to allow for those changes (compared to shows like Mermaid where they kept those bizarre plexiglass sets even after they made no sense in the out of town try out). It has to be because i
Yeah, if you can only say major or minor, it's a major role. Minors roles in Sound of Music would be the three sisters at the convent, Franz, Frau Schmidt, and the nazi officials who begin to enter at the end of Act I.
Max is interwoven throughout most of the show and has those two big trios with the Captain and Elsa. He sets the children's performance at the concert in motion and then is the major character in the concert scene who stalls for and collaborates with the von Trap
I'm sure there have been productions where the carousel isn't shown, but I've always viewed some physical representation as essential to that opening sequence. The audience is meant to be taken back by a carousel appearing on stage the same way Julie falls head over heels for Billie. It's not a coincidence both are supposed to climax at the same time.
Can it be worked around? I'm sure with the right vision. Anything is possible. Should it? That's a question for
