reviews
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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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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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Saturday Night (1955)
This was Sondheim’s first music-and-lyrics show that was intended to be performed (as opposed to the four assignments he got from his mentor Oscar Hammerstein). But unfortunately, 1954 was a bad year for producers dying, and so this show only came to life over forty years later in concert performances. It often sounds old. In… 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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She Loves Me (1963)
Ah, the travails of shop salesfolk who unknowingly fall in love with one another’s correspondence while not getting on with one another in person. This is a popular Hungarian play which has been adapted for James Stewart and Tom Hanks amongst others. This musical dates from 1963 and was popular at the time, and when… Continue reading
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Shenandoah (1975)
1975 is about the back end of what I consider acceptable for the age of a musical these days (it used to be 1970) – so it’s lucky that 1975’s “Shenandoah” (music by Gary Geld, lyrics by Peter Udell, book by them and James Lee Barrett who wrote the screenplay for the James Stewart movie… Continue reading
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Sherlock Holmes (1988)
h god, I oughtn’t to like this… This is by Leslie Bricusse, who brought us “Pickwick”, “Stop The World – I Want To Get Off” (I strongly anti-recommend that show), songs from “Doctor Doolittle” (which are awesome btw, you totally need to watch that film if you haven’t seen it), and lyrics for hire, including… 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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Simply Heavenly (1957)
OK, so as you can see from the above, this was written by Langston Hughes (an actual poet, it’s based on his own work) with music by David Martin. It had a brief but successful run in New York in 1957 but flopped in London, and was revived in the “off-West End” in 2003. I… Continue reading