We had tickets to go see Hamilton in April or May 2020 (if I’m not mistaken). Obviously, we didn’t get to go. So nearly 3 years later, 8 years after the hype machine began, we finally saw it. I mention the hype machine only because I don’t know how much of my experience of this …
Tag: Musical Theatre
Original Cast Album: Company (1970, D.A. Pennebaker)
This brief documentary about the creation of the original cast album for the musical Company is so brief because it was supposed to be a TV pilot. The idea was to have a TV series based around recordings of cast albums. I’m not sure there would have been enough, but it’s kind of a neat …
The Bob’s Burgers Music Album Vol. 2 (2021)
The second volume of music from Bob’s Burgers is another massive collection of original songs interspersed with some deliberately bad covers. Like the first volume it is full of catchy stuff performed extremely campily. It’s more evidence that this show has about the best use of music of any similar “sitcom” since The Simpsons. There …
Moulin Rouge! Music from Baz Luhrmann’s Film (2001) by Various Artists
I have no idea what to do with this. I haven’t seen the movie. (“Then why are you reviewing the soundtrack?!?!”) And so all I have to go on is the music.
Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice
I honestly had no idea this was an album first. I think because it has been so successful as a property I just assumed it had to have been a musical. But, instead, it was an album. And, as a result, it got reviewed as an album. (And, hilariously, it was banned in some countries …
A Chorus Line (1985, directed by Richard Attenborough)
I don’t really know what to do here: I’ve never seen the stage show, as musicals aren’t really my thing, and there are lots of people who will tell you the movie is inferior to the show. On the other hand, I understand why the show was a big deal, because I watched this movie.
Hadrian by Rufus Wainright Live at the Four Seasons Centre, October 17, 2018
This was the second ever performance of Rufus Wainwright’s second opera, Hadrian, which tells the story of Emperor Hadrian’s final day of his life, as he mourns his dead male lover. I should say at the outset that this is only the third 21st century opera I’ve ever seen, most of the operas I know …
Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell (1993) by Meat Loaf
Full disclosure: I don’t like the original Bat Out of Hell. I know most of the words to the songs and probably even most of the words in the spoken word parts. But I hate what that record represents – nostalgia meets the Broadway musical meets arena rock – and the whole thing is so …
Hair (1968) by the Original Broadway Cast
This is not the first cast recording of Hair but it is the first Broadway cast recording (I think) and, more importantly, it was the hit, it’s the version that hit #1 in 1968 – the last Broadway cast album to do so, according to Wikipedia – and sold millions of copies. So whether or …
A Christmas Story Live! (2017, Scott Ellis, Alex Rudzinski)
Like many other people my age, I grew up with A Christmas Story. For as long as I can remember, I have watched it every few Christmases except for when, at one point, I watched it every Christmas. Unlike the vast majority of movies I loved as a child, my adult cynicism has not yet …
Cannibal the Musical at the Panasonic Theatre, February 21, 2015
For anyone who has seen The Book of Mormon, the musical comedy has kind of been killed. Everything pales in comparison to it. I loved Evil Dead the Musical when I first saw it. Then, when I listened to the soundtrack later, after I had seen The Book of Mormon and purchased its soundtrack, I …
The Book of Mormon
Last night I saw the US National Tour version of The Book of Mormon, the musical by the creators of South Park and Avenue Q.