2000s
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Once More With Feeling (2001)
OK, I’m going to avoid commenting on the success of the plot aspects of this, because I haven’t watched it, and I see from Wikipedia (which is not the same as wanting to hear from anyone else, in the considerable detail I’m sure could be supplied ;-) that this episode of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”… Continue reading
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Passing Strange (2006)
“I let my pain fuck my ego and I call the bastard art”… It’s difficult to tell exactly what’s going on in this one. From the songs, you can tell that a musician goes off on a journey, taking in Amsterdam, where he spends some time getting high, and he has some relationships which help… Continue reading
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The Pirate Queen (2007)
I refer you to the plot summary here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Queen – got that? OK, now I refer you to Grainne Ni Mhaille’s bio here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr%C3%A1inne_N%C3%AD_Mh%C3%A1ille – compare and contrast. Oh OK, I’ll do it for you. God, talk about rewriting history. In the show, the seafaring daughter of an Irish chieftain falls for an attractive young… Continue reading
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Priscilla – Queen Of The Desert (2006)
Bah. This soundtrack is basically an album of camp classics, so you can pick your own rating for it. You all know I don’t usually care for covers of pop songs, particularly when musical theatre gets hold of them (it’s mostly down to the instrumentation) and this doesn’t really change my mind on that. I’m… Continue reading
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The Producers (2001)
You probably know the plot. Fifty words or less: crap Broadway producer meets corruptible accountant, a plan is hatched to raise money for a deliberate flop, the appalling musical “Springtime For Hitler” is evolved, the audience loves it as a satire, and the producers end up in prison… doing the same thing again. Wikipedia says… Continue reading
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Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)
Every so often I’m privileged (I believe that’s the word) to listen to something like this, and a healthy combination of enthusiasm and WTF stylings leads me to appreciate it against my better judgement. I don’t know that this is necessarily a recommendation, but it wasn’t dull… How to describe this? It’s a sung-through sci-fi… Continue reading
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Ring Of Fire (2006)
This is a jukebox musical featuring songs by Johnny Cash. (And possibly others – Windows Media Player kept giving me composer information about some of the songs, like I would know. I’m not at all an expert on country music, not even a novice… I just tend to avoid it on uninformed principle. After all,… Continue reading
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Seussical (2000)
So, Ahrens and Flaherty are back at GHM to work their magic. “Seussical” is their musical from 2000 based on the work of Dr. Seuss… you know who that is, right? If not, you are the living definition of Late To The Party; go discover him right now, no matter how old you are, and… Continue reading
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Shout! The Mod Musical (2000)
Postponed from last week, here’s what I think of this jukebox musical, which no doubt asserts that captures the spirit of the Swinging Sixties in London, England, with a cast of five Mod girls – “mod” = “modern”, in case you’re not enough of a face or a high number to know this – who… Continue reading
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Songs From An Unmade Bed (2005)
This show is short – I like that – and a revue – I usually like that – and features one singer singing eighteen songs with lyrics by one guy, Mark Campbell, and music by eighteen different composers – which is interesting. The result is eighteen vignettes of single gay life in New York –… Continue reading
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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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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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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
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Thoroughly Modern Millie (2000)
This is a strange show. Based on a 1967 movie telling a pastiche 20s story and featuring period songs, it was turned into a stage musical in 2000 (with original music by Jeanine Tesori, who later brought you the “Shrek!” musical). It features some pretty good Ira Gershwin-style comedy lyrics, one complete steal from Gilbert… Continue reading
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Tom Waits’ Alice (2002)
So you might not know who Tom Waits is: suffice to say he has a voice that makes professional singers wince, but he’s managed to sing with it for forty years without apparent problems, and he has a somewhat eclectic musical output. He’s worked on movie soundtracks and in theatre, most prominently with Robert Wilson… Continue reading
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Urinetown (2001)
This musical was apparently inspired by the author’s encounter with a pay-toilet in Europe. (There are also, you may wish to know before you travel, pay-turnstiles at London train station toilets.) How to describe “Urinetown”? It somewhat reminds me of “Evil Dead – The Musical” and also of “The Threepenny Opera”. At the start a… Continue reading
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Waiting For The Moon (2005)
You know, the longer I do this GHM thing, the more Frank Wildhorn comes across as the closest thing America has to Andrew Lloyd Webber. As with ALW he works with a range of lyricists and apparently prefers to constrain them with his melodies (“dancing in chains” as his lyricist here put it). The problem… Continue reading
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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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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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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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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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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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