2000s
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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that’s because it’s fun annoying people by saying “Your favourite old / venerated musical is, in fact, horrible tacky outdated crap”.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