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newmoonstarWatched a DVD of the 1980 New York Shakespeare Festival production of The Pirates of Penzance, and it was totally great! The rather crappy picture quality didn't matter at all, the production was so fun and energetic that that's all you noticed, and quite honestly it's a miracle to have it at all! It was much better than the movie version of the same production, which I saw some of years back but didn't make it through because it bored me so much. What a difference an audience makes! The cast was having splendid fun hamming it up for them, and the audience was having fun watching them, and I was having fun watching it all too! The cast was wonderful: Patricia Routledge is awesome and I wish she'd been in more musicals; Linda Ronstadt can genuinely sing operetta, she's no pop star just faking it; and even Kevin Kline's pomposity works to advantage for the Pirate King, and he actually comes off as rather charming. The whole production was delightful; even though the sets and scenery were rather minimal, the little pirate ship that they occasionally rode around in was so cute, and since it was filmed on an outdoor stage, the summer breeze was always blowing through, and added a pleasant ambiance of realism to the seaside scenes when it ruffled the actors' hair and fluttered the ladies' dresses. All in all it was a lovely, funny, silly, sweet romp from beginning to end. (I just wish more stage productions would get filmed; I would consider it a huge shame to have missed this simply because I hadn't been born yet when it was originally staged!)
Okay, on to less cute territory: Jekyll & Hyde. I think maybe Love Never Dies has given me a taste for train-wreck musicals, because I never thought it would be any good, and I was pretty much right. But it's the only thing by Frank Wildhorn my library actually has, and since one hears tell of his work often (usually rather disparagingly) I was curious to judge for myself. The only thing of his I've heard is the uber-cheesy ballad "This Is the Moment" which is from this show, so I was prepared for the worst, but I'd heard the 1994 studio cast album is the best version, so perhaps a glimmer of hope? Not really. Jekyll & Hyde is just one of those stories that genuinely shouldn't be a musical. But even so, there must be a way to do it better than this.
WAY too over-the-top doesn't even BEGIN to describe it. There were moments when I wondered if maybe it was supposed to be campy, since it was SO BAD. And it now holds the dubious distinction of containing some of the worst songs I've ever heard in my life! Ridiculously fervent ballads alternate with choruses of dirty crowds in the street commenting (supposedly wittily, haha!) upon the action, a la Les Miz. I did laugh through a good bit of it, but unfortunately I was laughing at it rather than with it. It had all the gloom and bombast of Les Miz without the pretty melodies to make it bearable. I'm really not sure if the lyrics or the music are worse, but it's all pretty awful. A mere glance at the track list should have told me that though; any show with a song called 'Bitch, Bitch, Bitch' isn't exactly going to be a Pulitzer contender! Really, I couldn't believe my ears when I heard it, it's so absurdly, horrifically dreadful! It could only work if you presented this show like Rocky Horror, and had rowdy geeks screaming along with it and throwing stuff and laughing themselves silly. If you try to take this show seriously, it'll just make your brain hurt. O_o
It was also way too long-winded; this story is not deep or interesting enough to support two songs on each subject! Weirdly, before almost every huge ballad, there would be a little pre-song, that would actually explain the characters' situation more clearly than the cheesy ballad it was setting up. Honestly, I wish some of the little pre-ballad songs had been expanded and used in place of the ballads, since they were more interesting musically and said what needed to get across dramatically more succinctly. The big ballads themselves were all SO generic and useless. They all sounded more Muzak than musical theatre.
But the one redeeming thing I can say about it all is that the cast was still excellent despite the bad material. (Seriously, how did they manage to get the likes of John Raitt to be in something this trashy???)
Linda Eder is probably the best ballad-belter ever to walk the earth, and if anyone can make a bad song sound good, it's her. (Although "Bring on the Men" has to be one of the stupidest filthy songs I've heard. If you're going to write a bawdy song, you should at least do it cleverly. Apparently no one here go that memo, but she puts it over with gusto despite it's being truly, abysmally dreadful.) Linda Eder's diva-dom is truly transcendant, and even though there was only one brief song of hers I actually liked, I nontheless enjoyed her performances of them no matter how horrible they were.
Anthony Warlow and Carolee Carmello are both very fine singer/actors, but I think they're actually too good for this material! They were playing it totally straight, but no actor on earth can impart gravitas to a show this poorly written. Still, I give them full marks for effort. Anthony Warlow in particular was really amazing. Despite the ridiculousness of the show and the absurdities of the role, he still managed to maintain his dignity against all odds and turn in a very fine performance, and come off as hugely likeable and sympathetic into the bargain! I don't know how anyone could get any character or emotion out of this score and these lyrics, but he actually managed it here and there. I didn't ever care about the characters at all, mind you, but I liked him terrifically as a peformer, so rock solid and assured, not a misstep or wrong note anywhere. He's got a fantastic voice and wonderful presence, and I can only imagine how great he would be in a well-written show with a good score! I've never heard him in anything before, but apparently he's a huge star in Australia, and I don't question why after hearing him here! I hope to heaven I can find more of his work on CD here in the US!
So, believe it or not, I've actually found a cast album as crackified as Love Never Dies! But LND, at least, had a fantastic score, and it's story was fixed somewhat in later productions; everything I've heard about the Broadway production of Jekyll & Hyde leads me to believe it actually got worse there, and I'd be a little afraid to hear it without this cast. I mean seriously, this score was so bad it made the worst of Love Never Dies sound like Shakespearean sonnets! Even "The Beauty Underneath" and yes, even the original version of "Bathing Beauty" were better than "Facade", "Board of Governors", or "Bitch, Bitch, Bitch"! (I will never get over that song title. OMG.) I mean heck, I complained about the title song of LND being too generic and dull, but after "This is the Moment" and the DOZEN truly generic and dull ballads in J&H, it greets the ear like the sweet strains of a heavenly choir!
I think I now need to go listen to The Music Man or She Loves Me or something, just so I can reassure myself that genuinely excellent musicals do still exist somewhere out there. (Or at least to fortify me through the next train-wreck musical I venture to listen to! Heehee!) ;D
Okay, on to less cute territory: Jekyll & Hyde. I think maybe Love Never Dies has given me a taste for train-wreck musicals, because I never thought it would be any good, and I was pretty much right. But it's the only thing by Frank Wildhorn my library actually has, and since one hears tell of his work often (usually rather disparagingly) I was curious to judge for myself. The only thing of his I've heard is the uber-cheesy ballad "This Is the Moment" which is from this show, so I was prepared for the worst, but I'd heard the 1994 studio cast album is the best version, so perhaps a glimmer of hope? Not really. Jekyll & Hyde is just one of those stories that genuinely shouldn't be a musical. But even so, there must be a way to do it better than this.
WAY too over-the-top doesn't even BEGIN to describe it. There were moments when I wondered if maybe it was supposed to be campy, since it was SO BAD. And it now holds the dubious distinction of containing some of the worst songs I've ever heard in my life! Ridiculously fervent ballads alternate with choruses of dirty crowds in the street commenting (supposedly wittily, haha!) upon the action, a la Les Miz. I did laugh through a good bit of it, but unfortunately I was laughing at it rather than with it. It had all the gloom and bombast of Les Miz without the pretty melodies to make it bearable. I'm really not sure if the lyrics or the music are worse, but it's all pretty awful. A mere glance at the track list should have told me that though; any show with a song called 'Bitch, Bitch, Bitch' isn't exactly going to be a Pulitzer contender! Really, I couldn't believe my ears when I heard it, it's so absurdly, horrifically dreadful! It could only work if you presented this show like Rocky Horror, and had rowdy geeks screaming along with it and throwing stuff and laughing themselves silly. If you try to take this show seriously, it'll just make your brain hurt. O_o
It was also way too long-winded; this story is not deep or interesting enough to support two songs on each subject! Weirdly, before almost every huge ballad, there would be a little pre-song, that would actually explain the characters' situation more clearly than the cheesy ballad it was setting up. Honestly, I wish some of the little pre-ballad songs had been expanded and used in place of the ballads, since they were more interesting musically and said what needed to get across dramatically more succinctly. The big ballads themselves were all SO generic and useless. They all sounded more Muzak than musical theatre.
But the one redeeming thing I can say about it all is that the cast was still excellent despite the bad material. (Seriously, how did they manage to get the likes of John Raitt to be in something this trashy???)
Linda Eder is probably the best ballad-belter ever to walk the earth, and if anyone can make a bad song sound good, it's her. (Although "Bring on the Men" has to be one of the stupidest filthy songs I've heard. If you're going to write a bawdy song, you should at least do it cleverly. Apparently no one here go that memo, but she puts it over with gusto despite it's being truly, abysmally dreadful.) Linda Eder's diva-dom is truly transcendant, and even though there was only one brief song of hers I actually liked, I nontheless enjoyed her performances of them no matter how horrible they were.
Anthony Warlow and Carolee Carmello are both very fine singer/actors, but I think they're actually too good for this material! They were playing it totally straight, but no actor on earth can impart gravitas to a show this poorly written. Still, I give them full marks for effort. Anthony Warlow in particular was really amazing. Despite the ridiculousness of the show and the absurdities of the role, he still managed to maintain his dignity against all odds and turn in a very fine performance, and come off as hugely likeable and sympathetic into the bargain! I don't know how anyone could get any character or emotion out of this score and these lyrics, but he actually managed it here and there. I didn't ever care about the characters at all, mind you, but I liked him terrifically as a peformer, so rock solid and assured, not a misstep or wrong note anywhere. He's got a fantastic voice and wonderful presence, and I can only imagine how great he would be in a well-written show with a good score! I've never heard him in anything before, but apparently he's a huge star in Australia, and I don't question why after hearing him here! I hope to heaven I can find more of his work on CD here in the US!
So, believe it or not, I've actually found a cast album as crackified as Love Never Dies! But LND, at least, had a fantastic score, and it's story was fixed somewhat in later productions; everything I've heard about the Broadway production of Jekyll & Hyde leads me to believe it actually got worse there, and I'd be a little afraid to hear it without this cast. I mean seriously, this score was so bad it made the worst of Love Never Dies sound like Shakespearean sonnets! Even "The Beauty Underneath" and yes, even the original version of "Bathing Beauty" were better than "Facade", "Board of Governors", or "Bitch, Bitch, Bitch"! (I will never get over that song title. OMG.) I mean heck, I complained about the title song of LND being too generic and dull, but after "This is the Moment" and the DOZEN truly generic and dull ballads in J&H, it greets the ear like the sweet strains of a heavenly choir!
I think I now need to go listen to The Music Man or She Loves Me or something, just so I can reassure myself that genuinely excellent musicals do still exist somewhere out there. (Or at least to fortify me through the next train-wreck musical I venture to listen to! Heehee!) ;D
