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What can it be?
That thing that's rapidly approaching us, like a thing with a mission?
Why, it can only be our old friend the last day of the month.
And that means there's just time to squeeze in another visit from the feature that just doesn't know when to stop visiting and wouldn't stop visiting even if it did know how to stop visiting.
It can only be the one in which you The Reader get decide just what the topic of debate shall be.
It may be something that's only just occurred to you or something you've been tortured by for many decades but, whatever it is, you can register it for discussion in the comments section below.
Posts
37 comments:
October 1st marks the 90th birthday of Julie Andrews so that's a good reason to ask your opinion of musicals...
Do you love them or avoid them? What are your favourite musicals or songs from musicals?
Nice question Colin.
Charlie loves musicals.
More specifically, Charlie and his fam love Julie Andrews in Sound of Music.
FWIW in the youth hostel in Salzburg SOM is on 24x7! And the bier is cheap!
That said, never really grooved to Mary Poppins. Time to revisit as an adult?
Great topic, Colin! Our house also enjoys musicals. First movie I remember seeing as a boy was "Mary Poppins". My parents were big fans of musicals, so we saw many, pretty much anything by Rogers and Hammerstein.
My favorites would include "The Sound of Music", "West Side Story", "On the Town" and "Grease".
A brief addendum, in the remote chance that anyone would care- the only two plays I ever appeared in, in my momentary acting career, were both musicals: "Pippin" and "Camelot".
The Sound of Music is good. Also, it provided a springboard for the acting careers of Peter Parker/Spider-man (1977), & Jessica, from Logan's Run
( the series.)
Musicals aren't a big thing, for me. The only one I've seen live is Mutiny, in the 80s.
Carousel's okay (on tv). Grease has great songs. Lots of songs from Chess are good, too.
Supposedly, mid-80s, Absolute beginners was the coolest thing in the world. But I've never watched it.
Phillip
I don’t hate them but neither am I especially keen.
Stage musicals are a definite no-no. I have an inability to suspend disbelief in the theatre, and that + the heightened style of stage acting makes it very difficult. When everyone bursts into song every 15 minutes it’s even harder to take.
Everyone keeps banging on about ****ing Hamilton and urging me to go see it. I saw a snippet of it on Curb Your Enthusiasm and it looked like absolutely the worst thing in the world ever. Worse than war or famine or poverty.
Film musicals are less painful but still not anywhere near top of my list. Even the ones I like, like Cabaret, Forbidden Zone and - as far as I can recall - Rocky Horror - are slightly less comfortable than I’d like.
I edited a musical film a couple of years ago, though, and I’d do that again in a shot.
I went to see Absolute Beginners in 1986 and it was very long. Nice production design, but very long indeed.
I’m not a huge fan of musicals, generally, but I’ve enjoyed some. “West Side Story” is great, and I love “Sweeney Todd” (but not the Tim Burton movie). Saw “The Book of Mormon” and a revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” on Broadway, thought they were both a lot of fun. Saw “Les Miserables” and “Miss Saigon” onstage, but neither of them made a big impression on me. Didn’t much care for “Phantom of the Opera”. Or “Sound of Music”.
I’ve managed to never see many older “classic” musicals like “Oklahoma”, “Meet Me In St. Louis”, “Easter Parade” etc. They’re not on my list of “Movies I Must See Before I Die”, either.
I think “Grease” is objectively not a “good” movie. It’s full of crass or dumb (or just plain not funny) jokes and actors in their late 20s / early 30s unconvincingly playing teenagers — but for whatever reasons, I’ve seen it many times and always enjoyed it.
b.t.
In fact Charlie’s two latest vinyl purchases were used MY FAIR LADY and CAMELOT in August in St Louis. Julie ANDREWS was truly a real force in the musical and movie industry. Wow.
And I feel really lucky to have seen JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR on stage around 1971 (?). I still crank that record every lenten season.
And seriously, who cant enjoy ASTAIRE and ROGERS in TOP HAT and THE GAY DIVORCEE??? That said are they musicals??
Are operas musicals??? Ms. Charlie has me going to 3 a year now. It took k a few but Chalrie now looks forward to them! FIGARO, FIGARO…. FIIII GAA ROOOO
Musicals aren't my favourite genre but I have enjoyed a few including; Grease ( as b.t. says it's not great but it's fun), Labyrinth, A Star is born and The harder they come . Others like West Side story, Sound of music etc I can appreciate if not fully enjoy.
Operas sing everything... Musicals, not so much.
I like certain musicals but then again, I only see musicals I like. The two I've see on stage are "Annie" (loved it!) and "The Lion King" (not so much). The rest I've only seen in theaters, or theatres, or on TV. I'm mostly a "Classics" guy. "Annie", "Grease," "My Fair Lady", "West Side Story", "Sound Of Music"... etc, etc, etc... Two funny stories. They re-released "West Side Story" so I dragged the Missus to the movie house. Needless to say, she was not impressed. Second story, there is a heavily edited version of "Grease" suitable for Junior High production. It mainly focuses on being a new kid at school and getting a hot rod ready for a big race... I know! Right?
Phillip, I liked the song 'Tahiti' from Mutiny when it was in the Top 40 in 1983.
Matthew, Cabaret has been called "the musical for people who don't like musicals".
When I was a kid my mother had an LP of the South Pacific film soundtrack which she'd bought back in 1959 or thereabouts during the time that South Pacific had spent 115 weeks at #1 on the UK albums chart.
Any opinions on the more recent "jukebox musicals" like Mamma Mia or We Will Rock You?
I've seen the film version of Mamma Mia and I was surprised that the actors did their own singing rather than being dubbed by professional singers!
Musical snippets…
I went through a pre-adolescence stage of liking them, kinda. Went to see West Side Story and Annie on stage. Acted in a few as a young teenager (youth theatre workshops). It’s not like I’ve turned my face away from them.
It’s just kind of a chore to sit through song after song after song when they slow the story down. It’s like pausing the narrative for 5 minutes every quarter of an hour to musically explain something that could be done and dusted in a few sentences.
Did anyone see Spielberg’s version of West Side Story? It sure looked pretty.
I guess musicals gave us songs like ‘Somewhere’ from Annie, ‘The Rainbow Connection’, and ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’ so there’s that.
*’Maybe’ from Annie, not ‘Somewhere’.
Colin, thanks for the topic.
I must confess I'm not a fan of musicals but I did like the My Fair Lady movie soundtrack album when I was 11.
As for my favourite song from a musical, I shall probably go for Chim Chim Cher-ee, even though I've never actually seen Mary Poppins.
Star trek & My Fair Lady/Pygmalion. Star Trek episodes 'Requiem For Methuselah' & 'What Are Little Girls Made Of?' seem influenced ( to a minor degree ) by My Fair Lady/Pygmalion.
Mary Poppins made the world think Cockneys (maybe Londoners in general) speak like Dick Van Dyke's chimney sweep. Nice when you were little.
Tommy Steele's 'Half A Sixpence' is another one I watched as a kid. I think we had a Tommy Steele album, too.
Although not from 'Half A Sixpence', this Tommy Steele song about childhood magic & wonder being crushed by the adult world made a big impact, when I was little:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxePUxNmcIs
Phillip
It was from this album, I think:
https://www.discogs.com/release/5021947-Tommy-Steele-Tommy-Steeles-Family-Album?srsltid=AfmBOoo0IDCwnIaMCtdB8WPMbelKtRVYhzlblkPkFnwrb3NOGche0377
Phillip
I am not much invested in Musicals. But I like the music of RENT very much. Especially "Seasons of Love" and "Light My Candle".
Steve, we're all shocked you've never seen Mary Poppins!!
Does the South Park movie from 1999 count as a musical? I bought the soundtrack which includes such gems as Mountain Town, Blame Canada, Kyle's Mom's A Bitch and the tender ballad Shut Your F*cking Mouth Uncle F*ucka.
I also bought the Cabaret soundtrack but those are the only two film soundtracks I've ever owned.
Charlie, I recently heard a radio documentary about The Sound Of Music which said the film had been popular worldwide except for Germany and Austria so I'm interested to hear TSOM was being played 24/7 in a Salzburg youth hostel!
Nobody's mentioned Saturday Night Fever - in the late '80s the Bee Gees told a British newspaper that the film had been "a steaming pile of crap".
Xanadu's Olivia Newton John songs were okay. 'Magic', for example!
Phillip
COLIN -since you asked :)
Charlie and the fam did a musical binger over the summer: CATS, MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, SUMMET AFTERNOOON, and PATSY CLINE (and MAMA MIA 2 years ago).
MILLIONAIRE QUARTET… me and me son were blown away! The 4 were excellent guitarists, they looked like Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee and Carl Perkins and sounded like them. The story line was compelling and the music was an integral part of the show. It was a super plus the venue only held 65 persons.
Most interesting was what I learned about CARL PERKINS . Indeed, John LENNON himself said that were there no Carl Perkins there would be NO BEATLES.
SUNNY AFTERNOON about the KINKS early years was also superb. Learned a lot about this group that at least in America is one of the 4 legs of the so-called British invasion: the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the kinks and The Who.
Colin -
I wouldn’t call Saturday Night Fever a musical, as no-one bursts into song. It just has a lot of great tracks in it.
And the Bee Gees were wrong there - it’s a thoroughly entertaining movie, never a dull moment. And contains some of the finest pop music ever recorded.
I like the two Blues Brothers films but otherwise musicals aren't for me.
Are we supposed to forget the story and enjoy the song? Or are we supposed to be imagining a scene that was never filmed that the song is taking the place of and in which the general gist of the conversation matches the gist of the song? That feels like a lot of work. And is it just me or do all the actors look a bit embarrassed at the end of the song when they need to go back to proper acting and pretend that they've just acted out that missing scene rather than jumping on tables and singing?
Colin- my wife and I did like "Mamma Mia". Especially for the music.
And somehow I failed to mention another top favorite musical: "Fiddler on the Roof". Saw the movie at the age of 10, liked it so much that I ordered the book from Scholastic (the school book sales group).
Musicals are indeed a weird kind of entertainment, dangermash!
Another musical that comes to mind is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which was adapted from a story by Bond author Ian Fleming!
Good gosh!
How can we overlook “Oliver “on this site!?
The chances of anything coming from Mars are million to one, but still they come...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16aa5NtpVbw
And then there's that deaf, dumb and blind kid, who sure plays a mean pinball. The record is ok - not the celeb soundtrack one - but the 'Tommy' film is pretty stupid.
Or am I getting into the related area of the concept album there? Or *shudder* the rock opera? Remember those? Thats an expression you don't hear so much these days, 'rock opera'. Thankfully.
I've been to proper opera. Last time was to see a production of Philip Glass' 'Akhnaten'. It was alright.
But in general I agree with dangermash. Musicals aren't for me.
Colin, I came across a review of 'We Will Rock You' a while back, and as soon as I read that its set in an oppressive future ruled by a Killer Queen, where two characters - Galileo, and Scaramouche - just want to break free I just knew it had to be awful.
I actually saw the original 'jukebox musical' film back in the day, the Bee Gees 'Sgt Pepper'. You don't hear it talked about as much as 'Saturday Night Fever'.
When it comes to cobbling together song titles, even those late 70s issues of the Defenders with 'The Revenge of Vera Gemini' were better.
Speaking of which, what happened to the Atlas post this month, Steve? I was looking forward to reading your take on Demon Hunter....
-sean
If anyone's interested, Julie Andrews turned 90 yesterday.
-sean
Oops, I forgot you mentioned Andrews birthday up top, Colin.
Duh.
Anyway, just for Charlie, here's a clip of the Beatles doing 'Dekho Abto' - aka 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' - from the 1965 Indian musical 'Janwar' -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9JMo9xLfzM
-sean
We haven't mentioned The Wizard of Oz featuring one of the most famous songs ever written - Over The Rainbow.
We're off to see the wizard
The wonderful wizard of Oz...
I saw the Sgt. Pepper movie at the theatre. Terrible movie.
b.t.
I love The Wizard Of Oz. It was on TV every Christmas when I was very little, so there’s that seductive nostalgia. But watching it as an adult as well, it’s fascinating.
Also a huge fan of Jeff Wayne’s WOTW album. Though it takes some diabolical liberties with the source material. What a fantastic novel that is.
Sean, I totally forgot about the Atlas post. I shall sneak it in, next Tuesday, and hope that no one notices my error.
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