RHYS BOWEN: I just came back from a few days in London. While we were there we wanted to go and see a show. We looked at the line up in the evening paper AND... we had seen every musical that was on. The Lion King, Mama Mia, Starlight Express, Wicked, The Book of Mormon... we had seen them all, and some time ago too. Which makes me wonder: where are the new musicals? Where is the next Andrew Lloyd Weber?
It seems to me that the only new musicals that have come out recently have been life stories of a famous singer, Tina Turner, Carole King etc and thus use their songs as the music. Where is the original music? Are people still writing it but nobody is willing to produce it?
When I think of the musicals i have liked the most: Les Mis, Phantom, The Sound of Music, West Side Story I think of their memorable numbers, the sort of music you go away humming to yourself. It seems to my elderly perception that there is not much hummable music around any more. When I was growing up the Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers all sang songs that stayed in your head in a pleasant way.
Audiences love to sing along, or at least to go out singing after the show. Think of that scene in Amadeus when the audience joins in an aria from Don Giovanni. They love to feel part of it. Maybe that's one of the reasons the Rocky Horror Picture Show is still around. And why the audience loves the sing along at the end of Mama Mia. We are not just observing, we are part of the story. It's great.
A few years ago daughter Jane and I went to see the musical of The Secret Garden. It was playing in San Francisco on a pre-Broadway run. The music was, how shall I put it, boring. Completely unmemorable. We came out singing songs from musicals we loved.
What is my favorite musical? I admired Hamilton, I admired Sondheim. Into the Woods is a tour de force. But they didn't touch my soul. Les Mis and West Side Story were both powerful and wonderful. Phantom was such an amazing spectacle. I loved Gigi, My Fair Lady, and Hello Dolly and I realize the I LIKE TO FEEL GOOD WHEN I GO TO A MUSICAL!
But if I had to choose one musical to take to a desert island with me I think it would be The Sound of Music. Such a sweet story, so many singable songs, and if it was the movie version then that Salzburg scenery that I actually know and love. When my daughter Jane did her junior year in Salzburg she and I visited all the Sound of Music sights. We walked along that gravel drive singing "I have confidence in sunshine..." I still smile when I think of it.
So what are you thoughts on musicals? What is your favorite? What do you wish they'd write?
I love musicals! It's hard to pick just one as a "favorite," but, along with the ones you've mentioned, Rhys, "Fiddler on the Roof" is one of those shows that I particularly enjoyed . . . .
ReplyDeleteSound of Music! Thanks for reminding me, I used to watch it every holiday season. Sometimes with my late MIL. And sometimes we'd have slice of delectable Sacher Torte from Vienna. Maybe I could learn how to make it myself, for this year's viewing...
ReplyDeleteI love musicals, also. When I was young I had a decent (and importantly for children's productions, LOUD) voice and generally landed leading roles. A few shows not mentioned above: Man of La Mancha, South Pacific, H.M.S. Pinafore, and Oliver! I can still sing most of the songs of all of these, in addition to The Sound of Music.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, when Hamilton came out I was astonished. Of course I, as a U.S. history teacher whose particular subject is the Revolution, loved it. But all the children in my middle school ADORED it. They knew it by heart. I will never forget going up to the cafeteria counter and having a sixth grader (I taught 7th and 8th grades, so he didn't know me yet except by sight), who was about to leave the counter, sing a line to me. Without skipping a beat, I sang the next line back to him, and we grinned at each other.
Similarly, imagine a group of 7th grade boys sitting raptly as I explained the meaning of the comma question in the Hamilton song Take A Break:
In a letter I received from you two weeks ago
I noticed a comma in the middle of a phrase
It changed the meaning, did you intend this?
One stroke and you've consumed my waking days
It says
"My dearest, Angelica"
With a comma after dearest
You've written
"My dearest, Angelica"
Perhaps never has a grammar lesson had such a devoted audience, though it must be said that when the puzzle was explained they looked a little squeamish to have been caught interested in romance. (Selden)
My grandkids knew all the lines from Hamilton. It was such a brilliant play and the fact that it introduced so many people to Hamilton and the period when our country was just forming.
DeleteI love musicals, especially the classics, Music Man, Annie Get Your Gun, Oklahoma, The King and I, My Fair Lady, West Side Story. But my favorite without a doubt is South Pacific. Some Enchanted Evening, swoon.
ReplyDeleteI go for the lighter side. ANYTHING GOES, SOMETHING'S AFOOT, and the like/
ReplyDeleteI grew up on singable musicals: Oklahoma, Annie Get Your Gun, The King and I, South Pacific, Music Man. But the only current one I've seen is Hamilton.
ReplyDeleteI can still remember the words to all the songs in Oklahoma!
DeleteI love musicals, and The Sound of Music and West Side Story were two of my favorites, too. But I also liked Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver, The King and I, and Mary Poppins. I grew up on earlier musicals: Showboat, for one. Like Rhys, I love hummable tunes and I know tunes from all of those. I do miss them.
ReplyDeleteEdith, I liked Oklahoma, too! And I forgot to mention My Fair Lady. That, too. Sigh. I've missed most of the new ones, although we did see the Phantom of the Opera a few years ago. Not the same kind of music, though.
DeleteAh yes ... My Fair Lady. That is one of my all time favorites too along with The Sound of Music. But, all the others mentioned too! The one play I saw but never really liked as much was Phantom of the Opera - the fact that a young woman was taken and forced by her captor to marry him. But the music was fantastic.
DeleteI love all the old musicals. The most recent one I have seen was School of Rock when we went to NYC. I don’t really remember the songs, but we were wowed by the kids playing all the instruments. It was a great show.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be long! Loved the movie version of SOUND OF MUSIC. I remember when they had an anniversary show about SOUND OF MUSIC, one of the fans the TV news ? interviewed was a lady who got cochlear implants so that she could hear the sounds from the musical SOUND OF MUSIC.
ReplyDeleteBefore the COVID pandemic, we used to go to SFonBroadway musicals all the time - every time they had sign language interpreters. We went to see MISS SAIGON. I remember we treated a young relative to her 10th birthday by taking ten of us to see WICKED with Kristin Chenworth (sp?) with sign language interpreters. The signers were slightly off stage or in a section where the deaf audience could see the sign language interpreters. There have been so many musicals over the years. I remember we saw TALLULAH with Kathleen Turner. Some of the theater were performances, not musicals, though, like the play about King Edward with the actor from Caroline in the City.
Musicals were my gateway to live performance and to the opera. And to the words of wisdom from my “opera mentor”…”the worst live performance is better than the best filmed/recorded performance.” Elisabeth
ReplyDeleteI was a huge Gene Kelly fan so I would watch AN AMERICAN IN PARIS or SINGING IN THE RAIN any time.
ReplyDeleteI liked both those musicals too. This post and the responses bring back so many lovely memories! Thank you, Rhys.
DeleteCamelot for me! Though I love many of the ones you’ve mentioned!
ReplyDeleteThese are all great reminders that I will add to my “winter watch list” as we head into the dark months here in Maine. The Sound of Music is at the top of my list and I’d say at least one of the songs is in my head every week! My Favorite Things, 16 Going on 17… so sweet and fun! I haven’t seen any contemporary musicals. I saw Phantom in NYC around 15 years ago though. Unforgettable!
ReplyDeleteOhhh, how to choose? So hard and so much depending on mood. My Fair Lady for sure, Sound of Music, Phantom of the Opera. I hadn't thought about it because I'm not near a live theater, but you're right - where are the new musicals?
ReplyDeleteI loved Les Mis. The music still gives me chills. I haven't yet seen Hamilton (I can hear the gasps), but want to. But for singability, I have to go back to my long-time favorite, Oklahoma. I've never seen it live but as a kid, I watched the Shirley Jones/Gordon MacRae version a gazillion times. I can still quote the dialogue and sing every song.
ReplyDeleteI love every one of the musicals mentioned. please consider adding Brigadoon to the list.
ReplyDeleteI've mentioned before that our neighbor is a former symphony bassist, and a fairly famous composer. He's written several modern operas that have only been performed once, sometimes twice. He is 83 now, and unlikely to write more; by contrast, there are few with his musical chops these days. As a teenager he played in Manhattan clubs, including sitting in with Frank Sinatra, and he numbered among his friends Doc Severinsen, Cleo Laine, and the actress Jessica Walters (they were classmates in Brooklyn). He was with the CSO for 30 years, and continued to play jazz in clubs until not that long ago.
ReplyDeleteFrank was given the musical freedom to create, and had the great fortune to have had mentors, including his very talented wife, who helped his projects see light. Some of the conductors of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra put on his operas and other pieces, and he still sells music worldwide--he just last night brought over a program from a Polish symphony that has his bio in it.
Today it is far, far more difficult to mount these shows, for a lot of reasons, but money is probably the biggest. There is a lot of competition for entertainment dollars, with sports and sport venues cutting a pretty big swath into musical endeavors.
It's too bad, too. I hate to think the only musicals we will ever have have all been created.
I think the first musical that I saw was Annie Get Your Gun, followed by Oklahoma. We murdered that song all summer! The local Rotary club would put on a musical presentation with mostly all local actors for a week each spring. We attended most of them - circa late 60’s. Then came university and their production of Fiddler on the Roof – technically the musical did all the things wrong and yet it was so right – ending on a sad note – just not done. There was Hair and Godspell, and nosebleed seats for Cats – fabulous! Took our kids to Les Mis and Technicolour Dreamcoat to introduce them to live theatre – one was professional, one was local – it didn’t matter, the production and the music held the day.
ReplyDeleteI could not like Hamilton – didn’t know the history and didn’t like the genre of music, but all music is not for everyone. Love ‘Send in the Clowns’, but have no interest in seeing the show.
Anyone who loves Anne of Green Gables needs to go see the production in Charlottetown every summer. It was written in 1965, when I saw the first season. There have been several more visits and several different actors, and even though the presentations change, you can always belt out “Ice Cream” on the way home. It conjures up real ice cream with real cream, eggs and a crank churner – nothing tastes as good.
To the best of my knowledge, I have never seen a stage musical. And honestly, I have no desire to do so either.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I grew up with a mom who loved old movies and that would include movie musicals. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, White Christmas and Singing in the Rain are the ones that come to mind immediately. The latter two are the ones I would say I liked the most.
Oddly enough, I think anything resembling original musical writing has come from TV in relatively recent years. You had that episode of the sitcom "Scrubs", most recently there was an episode of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" and you can't leave out the masterpiece episode of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" entitled "Once More...with Feeling". While the Star Trek songs weren't especially memorable in terms of walking around singing them, they fit the plotline perfectly. The same could be said for the "Scrubs" episode as well, though when I watch that episode I can actually sing along with the songs. As for the Buffy episode, I love those songs and wish I had a CD edition of them because I would play that all the time.
Do movie musicals do all that well at the box office? Because no matter how good the movie or memorable the songs, if they don't get big numbers, no one's going to make another one.
I don't know how the theater scene works so I can't say if straight up economics is why you don't see many, if any, new musicals.
I love musicals. I’ve lost track of everything I’ve seen. The first one I saw in person was The Music Man, when I was eleven years old. It will always have a special place in my heart. I still love the music!
ReplyDeleteThe next play I saw was The Sound of Music, and that’s another one that I can never forget. I was twelve then.
Once when I was flying home from a conference Maria vonTrapp
was sitting across the aisle from me. She had given a talk at that same conference. I didn’t attend that one because it was at the same time as another talk I wanted to hear. There was a lot of turbulence; we were flying through some storms. I tried to read, but couldn’t concentrate on my book because of the turbulence. Maria sat there, calmly reading throughout the entire flight. She smiled at everyone who passed by whenever she looked up.
The last time I went to a musical was just before the pandemic. We’ve been talking about getting out to see a new one soon.
If you'd been in New York, you could have seen "Six", "& Juliet", "Water for Elephants" or "The Outsiders" so I think there are lots of new (or new-ish) musicals out there, and maybe it's just that London is in a bit of a lull right now?
ReplyDeleteThere are also some great shows in local theaters. Last year we saw "Redwood" (Idina Menzel) and "The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical" at the La Jolla Playhouse. It's a long way from tryouts in San Diego to Broadway, but both were very good and might eventually make it.
If you want to feel uplifted and entertained thoroughly by a Broadway musical, I highly recommend Come From Away, the story of the 38 planes that were rerouted to the small town of Gander in Newfoundland on 9/11 when they couldn't land in New York. With very little scenery and costumes, this ensemble of performers manages to surprise and thrill the audience every time. My son and I just saw it for the second time--earlier in regional theater in the Bay Area and a week or so ago the Broadway tour in Folsom, CA. I've never talked to anyone who didn't find it wonderful. Is the music memorable--well, one of the numbers is still in my head, but it is more continual music (much of it rousing) than showstoppers, and that's fine with me.
ReplyDeleteI am also partial to Company by Sondheim. I'll see it whenever I have the opportunity, and I have the DVD of the 2011 (I think) filmed presentation starring Neil Patrick Harris. The music is fantastic. I love almost everything by Sondheim. His song "Sunday" from Sunday in the Park with George is so beautiful, especially as sung by a plethora of Broadway stars in the recent film, Tick Tick Boom.
I think Lin-Manuel Miranda is the Sondheim for this age. My husband and I were fortunate to be able to see him in In the Heights just after it transferred to Broadway, and I've loved him and his music ever since. I bought the original cast album of Hamilton when it was released and probably cried through the first five numbers or so when I finally saw it in San Francisco.
Man of La Mancha was my first live musical theater experience (an excellent college production), but my favorite was Evita. Also particular to Oklahoma! because youngest sang the part of Curly his senior year of high school. An outstanding production! And love many of those mentioned here--Fiddler on the Roof, The Sound of Music. (Flora)
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