1990s
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Once On This Island (1990)
Flaherty and Ahrens are a very reliable writing team aren’t they? I haven’t heard or seen anything by them that’s been less than good. “Anastasia” is a lovely movie, “Lucky Stiff” was funny, and you can expect positive writeups for “Ragtime” and “Seussical” in the next couple of months. I like that. So what about Continue reading
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Parade (1998)
My introduction to Jason Robert Brown’s songwriting: I was in the audience for the 2005 Voice Of Musical Theatre final when Tom Solomon came out and sang “Big News” as the second of his three songs, and we all stared at one another and said, “Well, fuck, he’s won, hasn’t he?” (He won. Talk about Continue reading
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Phantom – The American Musical (1993)
Hmmm. OK. Regular readers will know I have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to Maury Yeston musicals. They just don’t suit me, let’s put it like that. He can definitely write nice music, but I’m not convinced that he can write a gripping musical. This is his version of the Phantom Continue reading
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Rage Of The Heart(1993)
I think this came from the library. Man, they have some unexpected shit in that library. I have them to thank for “Madison Avenue” too. The tale of Abelard and Heloise is one of these great-love-tragedy things which we’re all supposed to know about but of which I know nothing beyond their names and the Continue reading
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Ragtime (1996)
See also Ragtime: The Concept Album. This show surely wins a Nobel Prize for Effort: it features thirty-eight tracks covering two hours of music, let alone the script time. “Ragtime” is based on the novel by E.L.Doctorow, and has a book by Terrence McNally who has written tons of plays and musicals. The music and Continue reading
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Ragtime: The Concept Album (1996)
See also the full review of Ragtime. In 1996 they put out a concept album of 21 tracks from Ragtime, which is a fairly hefty number, but, as we know from yesterday, only just over half the numbers on the full cast recording. The album doesn’t stint on the production or singing quality; concept albums, Continue reading
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Reefer Madness (1998)
(This is the soundtrack to the stage musical, but there are different versions thereof; there’s a movie soundtrack as well.) I saw this show here last year. Now I’m listening to the CD, it’s a definite case of “Oh, so that’s what the lyrics were…” – good old Vancouver theatre sound… This is a spoof Continue reading
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Songs For A New World (1995)
You ought to know Jason Robert Brown’s name by now; his major shows include this, “Parade”, “The Last 5 Years”, and “13”, and he’s also banged out a very good solo album, “Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes”. He’s been called the new Sondheim, and certainly Sarah grimaces in pretty much the same way when someone 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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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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Titanic (1997)
In which yet again Maury Yeston proves that he can write moderately good music but doesn’t know what to do with it… oops, spoilers. And on the subject of spoilers: IT SINKS, so don’t get your hopes up: the only drama in this show is whether the actor playing the helmsman will announce “Fuck me, 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
Gil Hates Everything 