Musicals

[dandaman]

Thanks, Bill. Turning my very slight Canadian accent into a Latin lover's should make for an interesting task.

[Brandy524]

I'm performing in a Tony-style awards show for our community theatre this Saturday. I'm in the two group numbers (opening and closing songs): "Wilkommen" (Cabaret), and "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" (Spamalot). I'm also doing a female ensemble number, "Big Spender" (Sweet Charity), and I'm in a trio in "The Man I Used to Be" (State Fair). Should be a fun night!

[wumwip]

Grease

 

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

 

Mary Poppins

 

Mame

 

Cats

 

Annie

 

... and that's pretty much it...

[nay]

I just got cast in our campus' production of The Drowsy Chaperone. I AM ALDOLPHO!

 

Congrats! Drowsy Chaperone is such a fun show, and that role is my favorite!

[Nrthwnd]

^^^

 

Busy, busy, busy for you, tomorrow night!

 

Have fun, enjoy performing for the evening, and (of course) "Break Many Legs", lol!

 

^^^^

 

And - why can't there be a Canuck-Latin Lover, hmm????

Enjoy doing the show, Dan.

[Brandy524]

Our awards show went great! I didn't win anything but the performances all went smoothly. Everyone said it was the best awards they've seen in a long time. We were very proud! Here's a couple of pictures!

The ladies ensemble in Big Spender. I'm on the far left.

Me (left) and one of our directors, Jenn.

[Nrthwnd]

^ You look like The One-Who-Has-The-Best Posture in that number, hee hee.

 

And you look like you enjoyed your evening (in the second pic) with friends and co-artists.

 

And.... The TOGGLE Awards???

[christianscoasters]

Over the summer, I got to work for Music Theatre of Wichita, a professional, actors equity theatre. Their shows are phenomenal. I got to meet a handful of broadway actors and I had a wonderful summer. They do five shows each summer, and next year, one of them is The Little Mermaid!

 

Today, the cast list was announced for my school musical, Hairspray! I'm Link Larkin This is going to be the biggest show we've ever done. Every role has an understudy, which is neat. We've hired a professional set designer to work with us on the set. We're also adding additional performances (we usually do two) and are being judged by several different companies. Music Theatre of Wichita has the Jester Awards, and they judged our last musical, Little Shop of Horrors, and I received an "Outstanding Male Performer" nomination which was cool. We're bringing them back, but also the judges for the Kansas Thespian Conference. If our show is selected, we will perform the show again during the conference in January in front of over 2,000 people (also on the same stage that the national tour of Wicked was performed )

[Brandy524]

And.... The TOGGLE Awards???

 

The community theatre is the Theatre of Gadsden, abbreviated TOG. TOG got turned into Toggle.

[Brandy524]

Today, the cast list was announced for my school musical, Hairspray! I'm Link Larkin

 

Congratulations on getting Link!

 

I'm currently in a non-musical, M*A*S*H, and we open tonight!

[Nrthwnd]

^

 

So - like wooden and steelies - have you kept a 'count' on your plays and musicals that you've been a part of?

 

I know I did a lot more musicals than plays, no matter what part of my then "theatre life" I was in, hardly at school, some at city college, or mostly on my own, through amateur and professional production.

 

But I have never actually counted 'em up, heh heh.

 

(EDIT: And MERDE! How did the opening night go?)

[christianscoasters]

I've been in theatre since age 9 Here's my list of shows that I've performed in/been involved with.

Hairspray...........................Link Larkin

Annie...............................Electrics Apprentice

Crazy For You......................Properties Apprentice/Running Crew

Oklahoma...........................Will Parker

Gypsy............................... Set Construction/Scenery Apprentice/Running Crew

And Then There Were None......Anthony Marsten

Footloose (District Show).........Garvin/Ensemble

Fruitcake (Traveling Show).......Bob

Prom Perfection (One Act).......Korey

Little Shop of Horrors ............Seymour Krelborn

Check Please! (One Act)......... Guy

Time In/Time Out (One Act).....Toby

Footloose...........................Jeter/Ensemble

Aladdin.............................Prince/Baker/Guard

Wizard of Oz.......................Coroner/Polisher/Guard

On Time............................Performer

How to Eat Like A Child...........Performer

[Brandy524]

Opening night went great! Thanks for asking. We had one mishap though: A newbie (never been on stage before in his life) had a chair collapse with him in it! But he covered like a pro and went right on with his lines and they worked it into the scene and made a joke of it. We were very proud of him. What an initiation into theatre!

 

And yes, I've kept a running list of shows that I've done. I'm mostly a straight play person myself (as far as performing), but I do love a good musical and I do like to be in them from time to time.

[Brandy524]

Annie...............................Electrics Apprentice

Little Shop of Horrors ............Seymour Krelborn

Wizard of Oz.......................Coroner/Polisher/Guard

 

I've also done these three. I was Mrs. Greer (the head housekeeper) in Annie, it was my second show ever; Crystal (one the doo-wop girls) in Little Shop; and a dancer in Wizard of Oz.

[Patch]

Hi all!

 

First time poster...LONG time lurker. I someone just now stumbled upon this thread on musicals and I couldn't help but post.

 

I've been making my living on the stage since I was 18 years old. I'm not 35 and quite honestly I can't think of a better profession or hobby.

 

Just to get caught up here are some of my all-time favorite shows:

 

Showboat-My first professional gig in the chrous

Kiss Me Kate-First professional name character

The Foreigner-Played Charlie

Urinetown! The musical-First professional directing gig

The Fantasticks!-Played Matt

Forever Plaid-Played Sparky

Lucky Stuff-Played Henry Witherspoon

Big River-Played the Duke

Noises Off-Directed

You're a Good Man Charlie Brown-Played Charlie Brown as a kid and later directed

Chess-Will be playing Anatoly first part of next year

Evita-Played Magaldi

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee-Played Vice Principal Panch

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying-Played J Pierpont Finch

Moon Over Buffalo-Directed

 

It's so great to see folks here on TPR that enjoy the stage as much as I do! I'd love to further this conversation so I hope this thread just keeps going!

[christianscoasters]

Even though I was on crew for Gypsy in early June, I still think about the show. It honestly isn't my favorite production, but it really is a high-quality show.

 

Could "Rose's Turn" quite possibly be the best song ever created? Full of energy, power, and meaning. Amazing song.

[Patch]

"Roses Turn" is a great number that has been made even greater by some of the phenomenal performers who have sung it.

 

Ethel Merman

Tyne Daly

Patti Lupone

Bernadet Peters

 

I mean that above is a iconic list of performers!

[mwm1444]

After over a year (since May last year) of my self-enforced Wicked hiatus - 20 times was enough by that point - I finally saw the bloody thing again, for the 21st time, last night. And it was probably the best London company performance I've seen since Idina left. So there we go.

 

Bill, on the Universal Osaka day on Japan next year, you're my Wicked Condensed buddy - unless you saw it last time you were there, and it was too rubbish, in which case I'll probably see it anyway.

[Nrthwnd]

^

 

Mike, it's a 40+ minutes condensed version (if that) of "Wicked", and although it was well done, it definitely should not be put up against the full-out production of the musical.

 

And - I think for what it was worth, two hours' of park time was invested in seeing it. At least. That's lining up to get in and find seating, and waiting for it to start, and then leaving the theatre after it ends, etc.

 

I enjoyed what I saw and heard, having never seen anything of it actually on a stage before. The two female leads were great, they mixed the japanese and english translations onstage and on (a)screen fairly well, from what you could follow of it. Numbers done were "The Wizard and I", "Popular," "One Short Day," "For Good," from what I remember, which is actually a good number of them, considering it was under an hour, heh heh.

 

I enjoyed it for what it was. And hit the nearby OZ gift shop for a souvenir programme of the actual show, and t-shirts, LOL.

 

But I was able to see it, AND take in and ride everything else that the park had, and eat and shop, and take in the nighttime show on the "central waterway" that the park surrounds.

 

But once was enough for me, seeing the show. I am planning to skip it on the tour's visit next summer. But I still might pick up another shirt.

[Patch]

I've never been able to force myself to enjoy Wicked.

 

Like most of Schwartz's shows it has two...maybe three above average songs and the rest is filler. Sure the show has a lot of eye candy and is visually stunning. However I've always been much more a 'substance over spectacle' guy.

 

Not to mention the show really butchers the plot and themes of the novel.

[mwm1444]

^^ If I find that there's time, I'll probably try and make the effort, just out of interest.

 

^ I highly enjoyed both the novel and the show, and see them as two seperate entities - Wicked, by Gregory Maguire, is the prequel to the Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, whereas Wicked, the musical, is the prequel to MGM's film - at least, in my opinion. The more I see the show, the more I notice the problems, and there are many things I'd change about Wicked - but I still get a rush from What Is This Feeling? and Defying Gravity, so it's worth it for me in the end.

 

As for substance over style and all that, I have to admit to being a fan of traditionally-structured (if not necessarily written) musical comedies. I think the 'darkest' show I'm a fan of is probably Rent, Evita or Billy Elliot, and I've honestly never enjoyed anything Sondheim (I know you didn't mention him specifically, but he's the darling of the 'serious' MT crowd) beyond the headliner songs: Send in the Clowns, Being Alive, etc. Neither do I have any real desire to see Next to Normal or Parade; to each their own, and my own is enjoying my night in the theatre.

 

Of course, my favourite shows are split between Cats, Hairspray and Billy Elliot, so you can't really take much I say seriously.

[Patch]

Hey...you like what you like and nobody can take that away from you.

 

I'll admit I really missed the political allegory that Wicked the novel presents and felt the stage show really over simplified the themes of the book. But that's just me being a purist.

 

I'm a fan of the traditional musical as well. Rogers and Hammerstien/Hart along with Porter and Gerswin have written some of my all time favorite shows. However at the same time I am big on darker "meatier" shows as well. Sondheim is near the top of my list and Sweeney Todd for me may be the most perfect show ever constructed and I'm proud to have been a part of a fantastic production of it as well. Next to Normal did nothing for me but I did love American Idiot.

 

As for Hairspray...I'm excited because I may be directing the professional regional debut of that show next summer!

[mwm1444]

^ About directing Hairspray - awesome! I always feel Wicked was important to me, at least when I was 15/16, in terms of letting me know that going out on my own, in the face of peer pressure, wasn't a bad thing - then, when Hairspray was 'my' show, when I was 16/17, that show helped me see that it was good to have a social conscience - so I guess a lot of it is emotional attachment. I'm also a HUGE fan of watching enjoyable choreography, which is where Cats, Hairspray and Billy Elliot come in, and probably a good reason why I'm not a great fan of the 'meatier' shows - there's just not that much dancing in 'em.

[Patch]

This is true. Don't look to Sondheim if you're wanting a 'dance '. lol

 

If I may suggest some shows to you though, I would say get your hands on a recording of these shows:

 

The Fantasticks

Urinetown

The Drowsey Chaperone

 

I think you'd find all three to your liking and all three are very different shows.

[mwm1444]

Fantasticks was just in the West End, and I'm now kicking myself that I didn't go. I've also heard great things about Drowsy (which was also in London a few years ago, and again - missed it) and Urinetown, and will definitely check them out at some point.

 

Thanks for the recommendations!