May 22, 2013
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Collecting Musicals
I thought that we’d do faerie tales this year, and musicals (big ones) next year, but … I think we might be a while on faerie tales, yet! I had *NO* idea how many versions/movies there were, out there!! In fact, I just found THREE more Cinderellas… and it took us waaaaaay longer to do Red Riding Hood than I expected!
Still, I have to start collecting Musicals for our net thing. And if I don’t sit down and list them… I’ll miss something, I just know it.
Music Man – Carousel
- Fiddler on the Roof –
My Fair Lady – Evita
Phantom of the Opera – King & I
Sound of Music – State Fair
Wizard of Oz – Fantastiks – Oliver
Annie – Grease – Bye Bye Birdie
South Pacific – Annie Get your Gun
Man of LaMancha – Brigadoon
Hello, Dolly – Camelot – Mame
Meet me in St. Louis – Guys & Dolls
Oklahoma – Showboat
- Finnian’s Rainbow –
Porgy & Bess – Chicago
Les Miserables – Joseph/Dreamcoat
Hairspray – Little Shop of Horrors
Sweeney Todd – Cabaret
- West Side Story –
A Chorus Line – 1776
42nd Street – Jesus Christ Superstar
Pajama Game – Damn Yankees
Anything Goes – Godspell – Cats…Musicals. Musicals. I’m missing some, I’m sure. Can you add to my list?FooTNoTe: All this talk of plays drew me to go lurk at my ex-theatre on FB. Hil-arious, what’s going down. They lost another major member (the one who created the most beautiful costumes, ever). That would be the set builder Doug, newsletter person Deb, the props person Pat, the website person Bob, the costumer Kelly, I was the perennial house manager, box office Lila… it’s a procession out of there, I’m telling ya! Most of them just drop their gig and fade away, and aren’t considered out of the group, but it’s all semantics. All of the tasteful and creative people are leaving, and what they have now? It’s… well, I’m amused with it, anyhow.
Heck, I told Brian who the new prez is, and he was like, “Who?!” Yeeeeeah, exactly. SO glad I’m no longer with them. OTOH, I would love to find a different group to contribute to. I’d hate to go Grand Rapids (too big/fancy for my anti-social tastes), so I’m watching… because there’s just nothing quite like live theater… and I’d like my kids to see/participate, someday…
Comments (9)
I have only seen four of those.
and I know some songs from three others. Somedays I wish I was getting hoemschooled at your house! (just for summer school though – snow and me are not talking to each other anymore)
Okay yay! I can post this list I’d been saving for you now ;p
But a question.. does the musical need a film? Or does it have to of been on stage first to count as a musical?
yentl
mary poppins?
singin in the rain
high society
kiss me kate
a star is born
thoroughly modern mille
mama mia
girl crazy (this was one of the first broadway musicals I went to see when it was rebranded ‘crazy for you’)
there’s a few others i can think of that were strictly musical films and not exactly on stage first..
Just off the top of my head:
“Wicked” – if you’ve never read the book I’d suggest that first. The opening chapters are slow BUT it was written as the back story to “The Wizard of OZ” and…wow…makes a good point that perspective is everything and maybe Dorothy was wrong about who was good & bad during her time in OZ. The song “Loathing” is so fun.
Now we listened to the CD first & I don’t know what your personnel level is with jokes but we (kids too) loved Spamalot. There is a big gay themed song at the end which, depending is funny but you might want to preview. It’s on youtube to check it out. Even if you just listen to the CD you’d have fun. And “you won’t succeed on Broadway if you don’t have any Jews.”
The girls in my various classes & our director go on about “Momma Mia”
There was a big discussion about Disney movies turned into stage musicals with “Lion King” and “Beauty & the Beast” both getting good comments. I am not too certain I’d enjoy that but those who’d watched loved them. So good reviews from theater people.
Thomas’ acting group is doing a stage version of Snoopy & I think it’s “Your a Good Man Charlie Brown” but not positive as we just call it “Snoopy.” It’s a lot of fun but you might have to watch it on youtube.
Oh man I nearly forgot “Into the Woods”! I spent about two years begging our artistic director to do that show and after checking it went on the list. It had to wait until the new building as the old one was just too small. It is the after the “happily ever afters” of many fairy tales. You would so love it after doing the fairy tale study. I saw the filmed stage version on PBS with Bernadette Peters and Wow!
Shows we’ve done songs from: Aint Misbehavin’, Singing in the Rain, Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, All That Jazz, Funny Girl?,
7 Brides for 7 Brothers, Moulin Rouge, Pirates on Penzazz, A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum. There’s 20 years worth of songs somewhere in my head but that’s about it for now.
Then at least one thing by Sondheim (hope that’s spelled right). He is a pretty big name in theater & musicals. He has written songs for a many of the shows in your list & mine.
Here’s a link that might be helpful: http://shareranks.com/1814,Best-Broadway-Musicals-of-All-Time
I *HATE* ‘Into the Woods’. We saw it done by our sister theatre in Ionia (with a lot of players from my group in it), and it was disturbing and wrong. Really, really wrong. This summer, my ex-theatre group is doing it. You couldn’t PAY me to go. HATE that show. Even if I were still a member of the group, I wouldn’t go to that show.
I also am not a huge fan of ‘Kiss Me, Kate’, but we do have it. HOWEVER… because it’s a version of Shakespeare (Taming of the Shrew), we do it with our Shakespeare lessons, not with the musicals. Same with ‘Lion King’ and ‘Beauty & the Beast’ – they’re fairy tale-ish (so would ‘Into the Woods’ be, if I were willing to put myself thru that crap, again. ‘You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown’ was Lydia’s first live theatre experience (the high school where we used to live did it – Charlie Brown is actually directing ‘Into the Woods’, this summer.
But yeah. I was going for well-known musicals, that were broadway shows before movies… so a few of those are good ideas! Thank you!
Singing in the Rain, hands down.
Pirates of Penzance -ok, technically American Opera, but Fabulous.
Pajama Game – cute, silly, but talks about unions. Good for a History lesson.
If you can find a recording of the Broadway Lion King, grab it. We’ve seen it twice, and the costumes are wonderful,
The Secret Garden
You know, I keep scrolling back to see what you have listed…and you have most of what I’d do. The latest Phantom is good, but if you can, you should see it live. The effects are more cool in stage then in the film (because we expect to be thrilled in movies), but the film is still good.
Oh! There’s a Shakespeare play that Branagh did as a musical – Love’s Labor Lost, maybe? I remember it was good…just not which one it was.
LoL!! I did skip Gilbert & Sullivan, but it’s BECAUSE they are (technically) opera… and I plan to do a year of opera/symphony, too! But YES – I performed the ‘Mikado’, ‘Pirates of Penzance’, and ‘H.M.S. Pinafore’ in college with the arts chorale, and it was a RIOT. I still sing it all of the time to the kids.
“There are LOTS of good fish in the sea, there are lots of good fish in the sea, there’s lots of good fish, good fish in the sea. There’s lots of good fish, good fish in the sea – in the sea – in the sea – in the seeeeeeeeea!!!” ((And then they give me the hairy eyeball.))
And YOU gave me the VHS of ‘Pajama Game’ – but I saw it performed up in Negaunee, done by my FIRST theatre group (it was done futuristic – in Jetson clothing – they used wire in the hems of the dresses to make them stand out, and black lights – it was A-Mazing.).
Did you know there’s a version of ‘She Loves Me’ on YouTube that you can’t find anywhere else? It’s in segments… (and I don’t have the bandwidth… homigosh… you. are. GENIUS!!!!! I love you forever!!)) I just got an AMAZING idea!!!!
Thank you…I think.
Thanks to YOU, I’ve gone thru my soundtracks, and need to hit eBay. I have very few musicals on DVD…and I need to fix that. (I just found out I’ve never introduced Camelot to the kids. Must fix that ASP! :rofl: )
That’s cuz you gave your VHS copy to meeeeee!!! :dance:
I straightened our DVDs today, and found my musicals. Flower Drum Song is good (deals with Chinese immigration in early 20th century) and Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang.
For a modern one….IF you’re OK with language and minor innuendo: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Josh Whedon wrote/directed it; Neil Patrick Harris is the sper-villain. We LOVE it here – to he point of quoting it all over the place and breaking out into song sometimes. (Laundry Day. Too funny!)