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Popular Broadway Songs [Youtbe Clips]

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Hamilton

One Last Time from Hamilton

On December 2 The Kennedy Center honored several artists with their lifetime achievement award. In addition, they decided to honor Hamilton for its contribution to US culture.

Which gave us a great performance of one of the most moving points of the musical - George Washington's farewell address when he stepped down and refused a third term as President. Here we have the original Washington (Christopher Jackson) and Alexander Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda) supported by the Voices of America Youth Choir. Music director Alex Lacamoire is at the piano.

(The YouTube link has been taken down, but you can see it on Facebook here.)
 
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O'Leary Car Ride

What's a teenager to do when he has a long car commute with his mom every day? Well, Colin O'Leary found a way to pass the time: lip-sync to musicals. It started out with just some drama, but costumes, wigs and props soon followed.

Of course, the star of the show is his mom.

 

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On a Clear Day You Can See Forever

Love With All the Trimmings by Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane from On A Clear Day You Can See Forever

A couple of weeks ago I put up the way Vincent Minnelli made Judy Garland look gorgeous singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Probably her most transcendent moment on film. Well, 25 years later he did the same thing for Barbra Streisand - he made her transcendently beautiful in this moment in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. Add Streisand's sexy vocal and Cecil Beaton's unbelievable costume and you have a moment for film musical history.

 

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Favorite Dances

Lonesome Polecat lyrics by Johnny Mercer and music by Gene de Paul from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Everyone remembers choreographer Michael Kidd's barn raising dance scene from Seven Brides (1954) with some of the most spectacular dancing / tumbling ever done in a musical. But this slow ballad blows me away with the control and minimal use of dance "steps" and the way it instead incorporates the brother's daily tasks. And to top if off, it is all done in a single camera shot from beginning to end - no edits, no cuts.


Michael Kidd was at a loss as to how to realistically make back woods brothers dance. He asked the MGM prop department to send over anything they had that might be on a farm - and got a truckload of objects dumped on the soundstage that Kidd was using as a rehearsal space. For weeks he and his assistant picked up the items to play with them and see what they could create. This number and the barn raising came out of all that work.

Casting the brothers was tricky and took a lot of back and forth with the MGM front office. MGM wanted director Stanley Donen to hire studio contract players. Kidd wanted trained dancers. In the end, they compromised. Kidd brought in four dancers from the ballet world:

  • Matt Mattox as Caleb (yellow shirt): a professional dancer, appeared on stage on Broadway and also danced in many Hollywood musical films. Matt leads this number - though he doesn't actually sing it. His singing voice for the film was dubbed by Bill Lee (who also dubbed Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music).
  • Marc Platt as Daniel (mauve shirt): a professional dancer, danced the role of Chalmers / Dream Curly in the original 1943 Broadway production of Oklahoma!.
  • Jacques d'Amboise as Ephraim (dark green shirt): a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, was given special leave for the filming.
  • Tommy Rall as Frank (red shirt): , a professional dancer and singer, appeared on stage on Broadway and in many musical films. These included the role of Bill Calhoun (Lucentio) in the film version of Kiss Me Kate. He was also in the film Funny Girl, in the role of the Prince who partnered Barbra Streisand in a parody of the ballet Swan Lake.

In return, Donen cast two MGM contract actors:

  • Jeff Richards as Benjamin (orange shirt): was a former professional baseball player who topped out at the AAA level of the minor leagues. Although obviously athletic, he is noticeably in the background, seated, or standing during the dance numbers so as to not expose his lesser dancing skills. This often relegated his partner, the classically trained ballet dancer Julie Newmar, to the background as well.
  • Russ Tamblyn as Gideon (blue shirt): was cast in the role of youngest brother. Kidd showcased Tamblyn's gymnastics training throughout the action sequences. Russ also showed that despite his lack or training he could handle choreography. (He also had a starring role in the musical West Side Story as Riff).
 

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My older siblings took me to see this movie as a pre-schooler or perhaps even younger but I remember the dancing over the tables. Around the same time I was also taken to see Disney’s Cinderella of which all I remember were the bubbles rising from the floor she was scrubbing.
 

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RIP

Carol Channing - RIP

carol-channing-actresses.jpg

Carol Channing in Hello, Dolly! - though she was not the producer's first choice for the part, she fought for it and won over audiences and critics.

The tall girl from San Francisco with the gravely voice seemed an unlikely candidate for stardom in the 1940s when cookie-cutter pinup girls were the rage. But she made her mark in her first starring role on Broadway, Lorelei Lei in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1949. (A role she reprised in the 1973 sequel Lorelei.)


There was a great documentary a few years ago - Carol Channing Larger Than Life. See if you can find it streaming somewhere.

But the big atomic explosion at the center of her career was as Dolly Gallagher Levi, the matchmaker in Hello, Dolly!. Dolly was the Hamilton of its day - a monster hit that won all the Tony Awards that year. The title song was a radio hit for Louis Armstrong and it was played and parodied everywhere.

Carol's most famous movie role was Muzzy - the rich widow in Thoroughly Modern Millie - so full of life and song. The film was popular, but writer-producer Ernest Lehman was casting the film version of Hello, Dolly! at the time, and he decided she was too overpowering on film to cast as his Dolly Gallagher Levi, so he passed and gave the part to Carol's rival for the 1964 Tony Award - Barbra Streisand.

Julie-Andrews-Mary-Tyler-Moore-and-Carol-Channing-in-Thoroughly-Modern-Millie-1967-800x1000.jpg

Mary Tyler Moore, Julie Andrews and Carol Channing pose in Thoroughly Modern Millie in 1967.

Carol never made it big on film, but she constantly returned to the stage and nightclubs, and continued working into her late 80s. Even in her 90s, she would still appear at award shows and benefits and was adored by both young and old audiences.


Carol and LL CoolJ present on the 2003 Tony Awards.

Many people have weighed in with their sympathies. The web site The Wrap notes:

The cast of the current Broadway production of “Hello, Dolly” issued a statement this morning, saying. “We are deeply saddened by the passing of the one and only Carol Channing. She was a ‘Dolly’ for the ages, and a true icon of the American Theater. Betty Buckley and the cast will dedicate tonight’s performance in San Diego to her memory.”

GLAAD also honored her Tuesday morning for her contributions to LGBT artists and audiences, quoting her as saying, “The gay community is responsible for so much of my success, and I love them. It’s a mutual love affair, really. They make the better audiences too, because they laugh often and loudly.”

“Thank you Carol Channing for a brilliant career and for being a friend,” the official account of GLAAD said in a tweet.

Rest in peace Carol Channing, and thanks for all the jams.

For more information

 
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Rent

Rent Live on Fox - Sunday Night

rent-live-1.jpg

Sunday night (Jan 27) in the US the musical Rent will be broadcast live from Stage 16 of the 20th Century Fox lot in Los Angeles at 8pm EST. It has a stellar creative team. The staging is by the original Broadway director Michael Greif (also known for Next to Normal and Dear Even Hansen), and the live television direction will be by Alex Rudzinski (who won an Emmy for “Grease: Live”). The show is produced by Marc Platt (La La Land, Wicked, Mary Poppins Returns and Grease: Live!) along with Julie Larson, the sister of the late composer.


The Cast

  • Kiersey Clemons as JOANNE JEFFERSON
  • Brandon Victor Dixon as TOM COLLINS
  • Jordan Fisher as MARK COHEN
  • Vanessa Hudgens as MAUREEN JOHNSON
  • Brennin Hunt as ROGER DAVIS
  • Mario as BENJAMIN COFFIN III
  • Tinashe as MIMI MARQUEZ
  • Valentina as ANGEL DUMONT SCHUNARD
  • with
  • Keala Settle, who will perform “Seasons of Love” and join the ensemble in the live musical.

The cast looks great, and with Michael Greif directing (and Jonathon Larson's sister producing) here's hoping it won't be watered down for TV.

Outside the US keep an eye out for rebroadcasts in your area at some time in the future - and if I see anything on YouTube I will post it.

History Trivia

Stage 16 is one of the largest sound stages on the Fox lot and was first used for films back in 1937. Other movies shot there:

  • The King and I (1956)
  • Hello, Dolly! (1969) - The Harmonia Gardens restaurant interior was built there.
  • Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
  • The Towering Inferno (1974)
  • Edward Sissorhands (1990)
  • War of the Worlds (2005)
 
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Rent

Rent Live on Fox - Review

rentlive.jpg

The actual live part of Rent Live was thrilling, beautifully performed, directed, and shot with a rich sound mix. Unfortunately, it was only "live" for the final 15 minutes of the two hour production. More on that later - but here is a sample of some of that ending.

[Fox has removed all the video links - ugh!]
Brennin Hunt as Roger belts out his final ballad to a dying Mimi in Jonathon Larson's La bohème re-imaging - Rent. Notice that he is wearing a large cast on his leg propped up on a chair. That's the reason Rent Live wasn't very live Sunday night.[/CENTER]

The majority of what we saw Sunday night was the recording of Saturday night's dress rehearsal. It was good, but not all the performances were finely tuned, lights weren't always focused in the right spot, and the actors seemed to be fighting both the audience and the band in the sound mix.

So, what happened? It was the last commercial break before the final scene during the Dress Rehearsal. Jordan Fisher (Mark) and Brennin were making a dash from top scaffolding down to the main floor to get in place for the ending. On the second set of staircases Brennin misstepped, turned his ankle and actually broke bones in his foot. The production stopped. He was treated by medical personnel and put in a wheelchair to finish the show. Then he was rushed off to the hospital.

The end result was that there was no way he could hobble around that huge multi-level environmental set. As it was a one-night-only event, there were no understudies for the leads. The only thing they could do was adapt.

So, the tape from Saturday was played until the final scene when the actors took their places live - with Brennin securely perched on a table. From that point on it was magic.

[Fox has removed all the video links]
Instead of a curtain call, the show pulled back a piece of the set and revealed the original 1996 Broadway cast of Rent singing Seasons of Love. I swear - all is forgiven! More! MORE![/CENTER]

There were two definite standouts here. Jordan Fisher as Mark - the first actor of color to play that part to my knowledge - laid claim to every scene and song he was in. Mark is the observer - always recording - the only one, as he says, that is likely to survive. This version expanded his part a bit to make him a scene setter telling us how much time has passed and briefly filling holes in the original script. (Thank you!) Some on Twitter complained about "Hot Mark", but I say that is a feature, not a bug.

The second MVP was Vanessa Hudgens as Maureen. When she made her entrance near the end of the first act, the whole show snapped to life. Maureen's performance art send-up "Over the Moon" is excruciatingly bad (on purpose) but Hudgens belted her face off and made it delightful.

For more information

Fox put out clips of most of the songs - but only in abbreviated 1 minute or so trimmed down versions. So, you get a peek, but not the whole song. (Let's concentrate on the glass half full - you get a taste of the number rather than having FOX pull everything off YouTube.)


But, wait! There's more. The cast didn't sit idly by Sunday night with a full audience who came expecting a live show. Although not shown on TV, while the tape of the dress rehearsal was broadcasting the actors gave a concert version of the show to the packed house on Stage 16. Some of it was taped and FOX this morning announced that it would be released with the DVD of the show in the coming months. Here are some excerpts from that experience.

 
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Rocketman

Taron Egerton as Elton John in Rocketman is due in May and now we have an extended look at the musical bio-fantasy.

 

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An American in Paris

Here is a treat. Got a couple of hours? Here is the whole London production of An American in Paris shot for PBS.

The direction and dancing are first class by Christopher Wheeldon from the New York City Ballet. The Gene Kelly role is played by Robert Fairchild - also from New York City Ballet. (Fairchild is currently filming Cats.) Who knew he could act and sing like this?

[Video link removed]

My only regret is that Brandon Uranowitz (as Adam) and Max von Essen (Henri) did not appear in London.

But, sit back and enjoy! (At least until someone takes it off YouTube.)
 
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The King & I

We Kiss In A Shadow from The King & I by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein

From the R&H Goes Pop channel we have a updated version of this classic ballad from 1951. Jelani Alladin (Frozen) and Matt Doyle (Spring Awakening, War Horse and The Book of Mormon) show how timeless this song is.


Note - if you haven't seen a very young Matt Doyle in Private Romeo, you should check it out. It is about a all-boys military school putting on a secret production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juiliet where the student actors blend with the characters, with similarly tragic results. (Doyle plays the Juliet role.)
 

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Kiss Me Kate

The new revival of Kiss Me Kate opened on Broadway last night to mostly good reviews. Here is Kelli O'Hara recording the classic "So In Love" for the new cast album.


Kiss Me Kate is the Cole Porter musical about former husband and wife who are cast opposite each other in a musical version of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew where the fireworks off-stage match those in the play.

This new version is from the same production team that mounted the Bette Midler Hello, Dolly!. It stars Will Chase and Kelli O'Hara as the warring couple, with support from one of my favorite dancing actors, Corbin Bleu in the supporting role.

Here are some more quick scenes from the production.

 
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Just stumbled on these and I thought to share with you'all

Great to see Russ Tamblyn - star of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and West Side Story among others. Russ (father of Amber Tamblyn) is still with us - though after open heart surgery in 2014 not healthy enough to do his legendary acrobatics.

In 2017 actor Steven Webber tweeted out this video of Russ before anyone knew who he was, when he did a dancing bit in the 1956 Glenn Ford Western The Fastest Gun Alive. This was obviously low budget, but that only points out the great skill Tamblyn shows in those long takes of one trick after another. Russ's daughter Amber retweeted the video with the comment "My dad is a badass. Full stop."




Richard Beymer (Tony in West Side Story) left Hollywood after that landmark movie. He joined the civil rights movement and made award-winning documentary films, as well as having a career in photography, painting and sculpture. He did occasionaly return to acting - such as joining fellow West Side alum Russ Tamblyn for David Lynch's Twin Peaks in 1990 (and the reboot in 2017).

West Side Story's two Academy Award winning actors are still around as well - George Chakiris (Bernardo) and Rita Moreno (Anita). Moreno is going to appear in a new part written for her in Stephen Speilberg's remake of West Side that starts shooting this summer.

ChakirisMorenao_Panorama1.jpg

(Left) Rita Moreno and George Chakiris pose with their Oscars in 1961, and (Right) Rita and George in 2017.
 
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I thought that was going to elicit further gems from you, Topdog and I was right. It triggered chills to run on both sides of my head.
 

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Miscast

Miscast-Logo.png

This week was the annual Miscast Benefit where Broadway performers do songs from roles they could never play on stage. My favorite was Jason Tam (Be More Chill, A Chorus Line), Gavin Creel (Hello, Dolly!, Hair, She Loves Me) and Andy Karl (Pretty Woman, Groundhog Day, Rocky) playing the three strippers from Gypsy singing "You Gotta Have a Gimmick".

 

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Oklahoma!

OK-1200x675.jpg

The new revival of Oklahoma! opened this week on Broadway. And this is not your father's Rogers & Hammerstein show. Dubbed "Dirty Oklahoma" or "Angry Oklahoma" by fans, this revival doesn't change a word or lyric, but everything else has been mined for contemporary tension and button-pushing. It is definitely a show that doesn't care if you like it or not.

For one thing, all the orchestrations have been dumped and the parts re-arranged for an eight piece bluegrass band. This is a musical with lots of country twang.


The critics have been mostly positive to mixed. There are a lot of concepts being thrown at the wall here - some work, some not-so-much. Some scenes are staged in complete darkness, including Jud and Curly in the smokehouse. (Which brings to mind Stephen Sondheim's comment from years ago that Oklahoma! was really about gay cowboys. Though this production doesn't go that far.)


Rebecca Naomi Jones and Damon Daunno perform "People Will Say We're in Love" on the Live From Here radio program.

The cast, though is diverse and incredible. A key choice is Ali Stoker (Glee, Spring Awakening) as Ado Annie. Ali is a disabled actress who is now doing her second role on Broadway.
 
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2018-2019 Season - Jukebox Shows

Today is the last day of the 2018-2019 Broadway season and Tony nominations will be out on Tuesday.

I have been negligent in giving you the play by play of the season, so we will have to settle for a rushed synopsis at the end. I will break this down into several posts, each one collecting one type of show: Jukebox musicals, Movie Adaptions, Original Musicals, Revivals and notable plays.

Today we do the Jukebox Musicals. Jukebox shows use familiar songs, usually pop music, and then build some kind of story around it. In the past shows like Jersey Boys and Beautiful used the music to tell the story of the artists themselves. Mama Mia and last year's Margaritaville made up new stories and then pasted the hit songs in.

I will list the shows from best to worst (according to critics + my own opinion) - so if you get bored you can stop reading and still know something about where the most nominations will be going. Let's get started.

Ain't Too Proud

(Or as I call it Dreamguys) is the story of The Temptations. It gives them the Jersey Boys treatment with all their career ups and downs. But, not surprisingly, it kind of follows the Dreamgirls outline which tells us that the 1981 Michael Bennet musical was drawn from a lot of real stuff that went down in the Motown era.


Is this a classic that will be revived over and over? No, but it is constructed cleanly and drives its story forward. But of course the real treat is the tunes: Cloud Nine, Ball of Confusion, My Girl, If You Don't Know Me By Now, Papa Was a Rolling Stone - the list goes on. There are about 30 songs that are sung in part or in whole (mostly in part). Summary: if you like the songs and the era, then you will like the show. If you could care less about the music, then it's iffy - there is enough quality there that you still might like it, or maybe you should pass.

The Cher Show

Like last year's Donna Summer: The Musical this uses three Chers to tell the story: Babe (young Cher), Lady (70s & 80s Cher) and Star (contemporary Cher). Unlike Summer, it doesn't try for a straight chronological story, but rather features Star Cher (Stephanie J. Block) conversing and interacting with her younger selves (kind of like in Follies).


The storytelling is kind of soft, but the music is fab and the Bob Mackie inspired costumes are to die for (Mackie is also a character in the show). Definitely see this or look for YouTube videos if you are a Cher fan. If you can't stand Cher then you won't stand this either. It requires a soft spot for the diva.
 

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2018-2019 Season - Movie Adaptions

Today we look at the new musicals that were adapted from popular movies.

While the die-hard Broadway fans are getting tired of the many recent movie transfers, you just can't discount the value of a pre-sold title when so many millions of dollars are needed just to get a show on stage. Following in the footsteps of Mean Girls, Groundhog Day, and even last year's Tony winner The Band's Visit, this year's crop seemed to concentrate on 80s comedy hits.

Tootsie

Tootsie opened last week to pretty great reviews and audiences rediscovering what it is like to laugh through a musical comedy. One of my favorite actors, Santino Fontana (Cinderella, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Frozen) stars as Michael Dorsey / Dorthy Michaels. If you don't remember the movie, an out-of-work temperamental actor is desperate for a job so he impersonates a women to get cast in a Broadway musical (switched from a soap opera setting in the movie). He becomes a hit which forces him to lead a double life balancing his girlfriend and old friends and trying to keep up the charade with his new colleagues, one of whom he is falling in love with.


Critics loved just about everything about the show, except the songs which got mixed reactions. Though you have to hear Sarah Styles (playing Sandy - the Terri Garr role) sing "Here's What's Gonna Happen" at Broadway Con last January.


Beetlejuice

When I say that Beetlejuice (which opened last night - the last opening of the season) got mixed reviews, I mean they were really a love-hate thing. The NY Times began its review: "The dead lead lives of noisy desperation in Beetlejuice, the absolutely exhausting new musical that opened on Thursday...". Still others found constant energy entertaining. There was much praise for the sets and design, as well as most of the performers.


But the word-of-mouth is as split as the critics. You just have to see it and decide for yourself.

Pretty Woman

Pretty Woman opened last summer with Andy Karl (Rocky, Groundhog Day) and Samantha Barks (Eponine in the movie Les Miserables) as the cold financier and the streetwalker with the heart of gold.


"Competent" was the way the critic for AmNY described it. Most critics felt there was little surprise with a script that seemed to be taken directly from the film. The songs... the songs are bad. There is no other way to describe them. Karl and Barks are aces, though, and fight to make the somewhat sleazy story work.

King Kong

I posted about King Kong when it opened last November, so we will leave it at that. It is still a spectacular monster and lead actress trapped in a dull show.

Final Comment - The common thread in most of these shows (and the same goes for Mean Girls and Groundhog Day) is that the scripts are interesting but the music blows. So, why aren't producers just turning these into plays? What's the drive to musicalize something?

These things definitely fall into two categories:
  • Movies that songwriters / writers are inspired by and option the property to develop the vision of the story they see (the traditional way any musical adaption happens): The Band's Visit, Waitress, Kinky Boots.
  • Movies that the original producer/studio wants to bring to the stage, so they hire book and song writers to expand the franchise (the Disney model): Mean Girls, Groundhog Day, Tootsie, Pretty Woman, Beetlejuice.

The latter group often feels like a money grab by a studio, while the former tend to feel like more genuinely creative works. Just my 2 cents.

Tomorrow we will look at the original musicals that are not based on movies.
 

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2018-2019 Season - Original Musicals

Today's selection are original musicals that were not adapted from movies and opened this year (and are still running - I won't bore you with the flops that opened and closed within a month). And the word on all three of these shows is positive - there is just more consensus at the top of the list than at the bottom.

The Prom

At the heart of The Prom is a ripped-from-the-headlines story of a lesbian high school girl who wants to take her girlfriend to her prom, but the school threatens to cancel the event. But because this is written by bookwriters Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin and composer Matthew Sklar (who all wrote The Drowsy Chaperone) that is the B story. The main plot involves a pair of self-absorbed Broadway stars who, trying to rehabilitate their image after a big flop, scroll through Twitter to find the story of the young girl from Indiana and decide that "We're gonna help that little lesbian, whether she likes it or not!"


Yes, there are a few digs at the heartland, but most of the satire is reserved for Broadway elites insisting on "helping" a millennial that really can manage this on her own. The script is howlingly funny and the lyrics are sharp. Everyone gets their star turn and the two girls get a couple of lovely ballads. The Prom really has it all - except stars and a pre-sold title, which has proved to be a challenge drumming up business in a season chock full of nostalgic pop stars and movies.

Hadestown

In 2010, Anaïs Mitchell, a Vermont-based folk singer-songwriter, releasedHadestown, a concept album based on the ancient Greek tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, narrated by the god Hermes (a flashy and grooving André De Shields, who was the original Wiz in The Wiz). In the warmth of summertime, songwriter Orpheus (Reeve Carney of Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark) and his muse Eurydice (Eva Noblezada of Miss Saigon) are living it up and falling in love. But as winter approaches, reality sets in: these young dreamers can't survive on songs alone. Tempted by the promise of plenty, Eurydice is lured to the depths of industrial Hadestown, which looks like a folk and jazz infused Bourbon Street. On a quest to save her, Orpheus journeys to the underworld where he must face the cool and sinister god Hades (Patrick Paige, who was also Reeve Carney's nemesis in Spiderman) and the lovers trust in each other is put to a final test.


Critics and audiences loved the jazzy underworld, the direction by Rachel Chavkin (The Great Comet) and especially the performances of De Shields, Paige, and Amber Grey as Hades wife, Persephone. A few found the two lovers rather bland and noted that the score lacks any real upbeat tempos. But everyone found the first act finale "We Build the Wall" rather shocking in it anticipation of current events (it was, of course, written in 2010).

How does the wall keep us free? The wall keeps out the enemy; And we build the wall to keep us free; That's why we build the wall; We build the wall to keep us free.”

Be More Chill

What if popularity came in a pill? Would you take it, no questions asked? In Be More Chill, achieving the "perfect life" is now possible thanks to some mysterious new technology - a “Squip” (a Japanese microcomputer installed into his brain). But it comes at a cost that's not as easy to swallow. Blending the contemporary with retro sci-fi, this new musical is Dear Evan Hansen meets Little Shop of Horrors.


BMC is the little Joe Iconis show that fans wouldn't let go of until it made it to Broadway. It opened to positive to mixed reviews. The pop score is great as are the performances by Will Roland (Dear Even Hansen) as our hero, Jeremy and Michael Salazar as his best friend. Jason Tam (A Chorus Line, Jesus Christ Superstar: Live in Concert) plays The Squip as a mix of Keanu Reeves in The Matrix and Bill and Ted. However, in the five years it took to produce the show the cast and the material has aged out of its demographic a bit. It's still fun, but the satire has softened.

That completes the new musicals that are running and will be competing for Tony nominations tomorrow.
 
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