Gil Hates Musicals
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Walmartopia (2005)
This is a 2005 NY Fringe show which managed a brief off-Broadway run. It sounds exactly like it, too; it’s got that “in the absence of anything intelligent, let’s be funny” vibe which characterises much Fringe material. (That’s not to say Fringe material is intrinsically bad; it just often happens to be not-very-good…) The plot Continue reading
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We Will Rock You (2002)
Today marks the end of my patience for jukebox musicals. It would be cheaper to buy the appropriate Queen Greatest Hits package than to go see this show. Also, you’ll hear a better and more committed and authentic vocalist, better guitars, and a bigger choir (of sorts). Also, you’ll be spared a stupid sub-pantomime story. Continue reading
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When Pigs Fly (1996)
This 1996 revue might be difficult to fully review for this reason: apparently it was very heavy on the costumes. Its conceiver and costume designer, Howard Crabtree, died shortly after the show was finished, which is rough luck (Jonathan Larsen would sympathise) and may explain why it doesn’t seem to have a large online presence; Continue reading
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Whistle Down The Wind (1996)
In which Andrew Lloyd Webber is afflicted with envy that he didn’t get to write “Footloose”. So he decides what would be awesome would be to take a 1948 novel / 1961 movie set in the North of England about kids believing that a runaway criminal is Jesus Christ, and move it to the Okie Continue reading
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Wicked (2003)
Stephen Schwartz has written a bunch of musicals including “Godspell” and “Children Of Eden”, and the music for Disney movies including “Hunchback”, but, I dunno, it may just be me, but he’s always come across as a little boring. Not as boring as Maury Yeston, and not as incompetent as Frank Wildhorn, but somewhat of Continue reading
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The Wild Party (2000)
“The Wild Party” is a long poem from 1928 by Joseph Moncure March, scandalous at the time. It was filmed in 1975 (badly, it seems) and then, slightly randomly, it was adapted as a musical twice in the same year (1999), once by Michael John Lachiusa and once, the version we have here, by Andrew Continue reading
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Good News (1927)
It’s a very special edition of Gil Hates Musicals today. At the request of Scott Ashton Swan of Applause! Musicals, I’m taking a look at this year’s Applause! season. So I should knock out a quick two-way introduction for GHM avids wondering whether I’ve taken the money, and for Applause! readers wondering why they should Continue reading
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The Wizard of Oz (1987)
No, not the movie, but the next best thing – the movie brought to life on stage! Because – you demanded it! This dates from 1987 and was apparently the bright idea of the Royal Shakespeare Company. It is, literally, the movie brought to life on stage, which means it still hasn’t got much to Continue reading
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The Woman In White (2004)
At last, then, “The Woman In White”: this is an Andrew Lloyd Webber show from 2004, based on a Wilkie Collins novel from 1859, a novel involving a plot to steal a woman’s fortune, hugely popular at the time and still feted as one of the first mystery stories (the story hints at strange and Continue reading
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Wonderful Town (1953)
Anyone with a long-ish memory for GHM writeups might be forgiven for asking a pertinent question here: surely you reviewed this already, Gil, or something very like it? This show has music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and it’s about New York. Did I like this show better when Continue reading
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Xanadu (2007)
The history of this show: it was a movie in 1980 (everyone hated it, therefore cult classic status) itself apparently a remake of a 1947 (and probably thus less disco-oriented) movie about a muse coming to Earth to fix up a play besmirching the good name of her sisters. Apparently everyone, even the writer, was Continue reading
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Lists and Recommendations
I originally listened to 260 musicals in 2009/2010. Here are some lists and recommendations: Twenty shows which I think are just great, although some are unlikely to be performed anytime soon, so you might as well listen to the score and use your imagination: 1776AmourBombay DreamsBright Lights, Big CityThe CapemanCurtainsDirty Rotten ScoundrelsIn The HeightsJane EyreKristinaLittle Continue reading
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Bonnie & Clyde (2009)
Gil Hates Musicals reviews “Bonnie & Clyde” (2009), music by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Don Black, book by Ivan Menchell. Everyone’s familiar with the famous quote “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a musical in possession of a good soundtrack must be by someone other than Frank Wildhorn”. But it’s easy to forget that Continue reading
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The Bridges of Madison County (2014)
You’d think this would be promising; it’s a straightforward love story, backed by a popular movie, and the occasionally problematic but essentially very talented Jason Robert Brown supplies music and lyrics. Unfortunately, and let me not beat about the bush on this one, it’s shit, and it’s his fault. There are 20 songs and the Continue reading
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Name the badly-described musical
1. A hardworking cop is psychologically manipulated into killing himself by a thief. 2. You are eight years old and your emotionally-absent father hires a woman off the street to sing to you about how fun it is to drink cough syrup. 3. A woman loses her sister in a horrific construction accident and is Continue reading
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