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Spring Awakening (2006)
Hmmmm. (And avid readers will know what “Hmmmm” encodes 😉 This is based on an 1891 German play which was banned for a century because it was basically about teenagers coming of age and doing a whole bunch of cumming in the process. What could make it interesting, and presumably made it very popular –… Continue reading
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Starlight Express (1984)
I honestly didn’t expect this to be a show featuring plainly gay trains. My sister often remarks, “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, said the trucks.” I’m not sure she’s ever seen this, but it could easily be a (short) review. The strangest thing about this show is the complete clash of tone between the… Continue reading
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Summer Of ’42 (2001)
I really ought not to have liked this show, for the following reasons: And yet. I think that this is actually a very sweet and in-its-way-hypnotic show. My emotion warning sensor went off fairly early on, registering the slow pace and slice-of-life approach as the calm – the very, very long calm – before the… Continue reading
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Sunday in the Park with George (1984)
Blimey. OK, GHM attempts to step up to the plate for this one… This is Sondheim’s 1984 collaboration with James Lapine. The first act is about Georges Seurat in 1884 painting “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” – i.e. this – http://www.fabulousmasterpieces.co.uk/userimages/seurat.JPG. The second act is set in 1984 and shows… Continue reading
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Sunset Boulevard (1991)
Andrew Lloyd Webber, never one to shy from a challenge, here takes on the task of musicalising the famous and critically-acclaimed 1950 Billy Wilder movie – the one which equally famously starts with a voiceover nominally spoken by that guy floating face-down in the pool. The story is of a wealthy but ghastly former silent-movie… Continue reading
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Troubles: Gil Hates The Booker Prize Winners #2 (1969)
“Troubles” by J. G. Farrell. (Sarah suggested I give this series of reviews this time-honoured title, and why not indeed.) This book won the ‘lost’ 1970 Booker Prize – a change in the rules meant some books had missed out on the competition, so in 2010 they did a retrospective thing and chose this one.… Continue reading
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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (1979)
So in contrast to “Sunset Boulevard”, which probably thought it was tackling some heavyweight nasty characters, here’s what happens when Stephen Sondheim puts his talents to use in service of a strong thriller plot. Of course, being Sondheim, it’s not that simple, but happily the complex aspects are all positive ones. GHM is going to… Continue reading
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Sweet Charity (1966)
A short and sweet review, this one. The show description doesn’t sound very interesting, and from the soundtrack this doesn’t sound like it’s greatly special; it generated a few hits, including “If My Friends Could See Me Now”, “Big Spender” and “Rhythm Of Life”, but my pick from the soundtrack is “My Personal Property”. Warning:… Continue reading
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Swing! (1999)
Description here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing! I’m mildly offended that this received nominations for Best Musical. I know this is slightly like arguing for subgenres and classification, because that works so well when you’re trying to find what you’re looking for, and I also suppose that if you were real good at keeping a straight face, you could… Continue reading
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Tarzan – The Musical (2006)
Here at Gil Hates Musicals, we (er, I) are… am… anyway, GHM rarely shies away from controversy. But usually that’s because it’s fun annoying people by saying “Your favourite old / venerated musical is, in fact, horrible tacky outdated crap”. On the occasions where I boost a show, either it doesn’t come as a surprise,… Continue reading