reviews
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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that’s because it’s fun annoying people by saying “Your favourite old / venerated musical is, in fact, horrible tacky outdated crap”.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
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Tell Me On A Sunday (1977)
Wow, this was disappointing, and it’s all in the execution, because this – read the extremely interesting backstory here on Wikipedia – is a very good concept for a show. There’s a great story to be told about a transatlantic relocation, of moving to a new world, and finding how that new world treats you,… 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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The 3 Musketeers (2010)
(its official title appears to use the digit… not sure I like that) Sometimes you just cringe, don’t you? You hear of an adaptation from one form to another of something you like, and you think “Oh god, please, no”, or sometimes you advance straight to “Just don’t fuck it up”, or you can’t stand… Continue reading
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The Threepenny Opera (1928)
Laurie Anderson has a song called “Difficult Listening Hour”. That phrase kept surfacing in my mind like a bad (three)penny while I was listening to this. This show dates from 1928 and was written by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, lifting the plot from an 18th century English show called “The Beggar’s Opera”. It’s about… Continue reading