Musicals are one of the things I have always been the most interested in. From a very young age my dad played classical music at me, mostly orchestral with occasional pieces of choral. Now the orchestral never really got me, since I only learned to play piano, and never really worked at it, but the choral...that's another story.
I started getting into musicals when my dad played the original cast recording of Man of La Mancha for me. I thought it was really, really neat, though at the age of 7 or so, I didn't understand half of the things that were going on. Rape scenes go over your head at that age...*sigh*
From there I went on the Oklahoma, the only other musical he had on record (yes, the real vinyl stuff). And that opened up the world of Rodgers and Hammerstein for me. I have only seen three or four of their musicals: The Sound of Music, The King and I (I think that's one of theirs), Carousel...I can't think of anything else right now. The other "classical" musical duo is Gilbert and Sullivan. They do operettas, usually with impossible settings where nothing goes right. But by the end, the right people end up together and everyone lives happily ever after! The MIT Gilbert and Sullivan Players are putting on Princess Ida this coming spring. I decided not to be in since this semester, since I like my sanity, and I completely lost it last semester.
One of my two musical addictions at the moment is Chess by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson with lyrics by Tim Rice. My friend Laura introduced me to this one, and I am finally starting to find people who have heard of it, at least. I know people who even wrote a LARP based on it...vaguely. The musical is fantastic and fun and silly and has really good music. It's all about a world chess tournament between an American and a Russian. The songs are mostly the same, though rearranged in the different versions, and the Broadway version has a few more added to it. I have never seen it, though MIT Theatre Guild is put it on during IAP. I didn't manage to see it, yet again, so I'll just have to wait...*sigh*
My other current addiction is The Secret Garden, based on the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The music is gorgeous! Not traditional in any sense of the word. Fully half the characters, if not more, are ghosts from the beginning of the play. And they sing with the live characters. MIT G&S did a concert version of the play at the end of January. I auditioned for it, and wonder of wonders, I actually managed to get the part of Colin! I was absolutely ecstatic!!! Wellesley College also did a production of the play in January, though I didn't manage to see that one either.
The first musical I went to actually see was Les Miserables by Boublil and Schönberg. Everyone has heard of this one, though when I first saw it I had no clue what it was about. I knew that there was a guy who had been in prison and now was free and it was about his life. Not much to go on, is it... Anyway, I saw it and I loved it. I have seen it one other time with my best friend and her family. My best friend fell asleep, if you can believe that!! There is a site that has the libretto is about 7 different languages (including the Animaniacs version...*sigh*).
Miss Saigon is by the same writers as Les Miserables. I just saw this one when it came to Boston. It was totally cool! This is the first time I have seen a musical after I got the sound track and knew all the songs, though it was very disturbing to hear a different version than the one I knew so well.
Something I would love to see is the original televised version of Sweeney Todd, a musical by Stephen Sondheim. It's about a barber who goes insane and starts to kill his customers. Very bizarre, and dark, like most Sondheim musicals. The other one I really like is Into the Woods. A musical of fractured fairy tales, it begins with 5 or 6 tales and combines them. By the end of the first act, they have gotten to their conclusion, and the second act contains what might have happened next. The end is depressing with just a hint of light. And with a moral: Children do as they see things done.
Disney has gotten in the habit of making their popular animated movies into Broadway musicals. The most recent one is The Lion King. It's gotten great reviews, from what I've heard, and the music is wonderful. I finally got the CD, and now can torture my husband with all the songs. The other is Beauty and the Beast. I finally saw it, after owning the soundtrack for two years and it's fantastic!!! I've discovered that I tend to like most of the songs they write specifically for the musical better than most of the original ones.
This page last updated 02/23/2000. If you have any questions/problems, please write me.