The next batch of musicals. Including two more live musicals (because they’re already filmed, and so end up on DVD), two classic-ish (depends on your definition) musicals, and three Disney-related musicals.
Into the Woods (2014 movie) – The plot mashes elements of “Cinderella,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” and “Rapunzel” with the story of a baker and his wife trying to have a child. I realized halfway through that I had previously seen Into the Woods Jr., which cuts the entire second act, so there were still a lot of things about to happen. It was a bit dark, but I was pleasantly surprised by the cast. I did not know James Corden could sing, though I guess he does host carpool karaoke. . . . The princes were wonderfully dense (see “Agony”). Also, Meryl Streep as the witch was pretty fabulous.
Notable songs: “Prologue: Into the Woods,” “Giants in the Sky,” “Agony”
Peter Pan Live! (2014 live TV production) – This was based on a musical adaptation of Peter and Wendy, J. M. Barrie’s play. I haven’t seen the Disney movie in years, but I remember it being at least somewhat decent. That said, Peter and Wendy did not make a great musical. Most of the songs, excepting the pirate features, were forgettable or not that exciting musically or lyrically. At least the choreography in the pirate songs was fun to watch. Neverland was very Technicolor. I don’t think I would have gone quite so cotton-candy-colored, but that’s a production choice. Also on the production side, the commercial cuts were terrible. The scenes would cut out while the orchestra was still holding their last note. That’s not how cutoffs work.
Notable songs: “I Won’t Grow Up,” maybe?
Mary Poppins (1964 movie) – Another Disney movie I hadn’t seen in years, and I was surprised by how good it still is. The scene inside the chalk drawing is still my favorite.
Notable songs: “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,”
“Chim Chim Cher-ee”
The Music Man (1962 movie) – I’ve seen either the Jr. or full version of this performed live, so I knew the basic story – Harold Hill sells marching band instruments and uniforms to towns, collects the money, and flees before everyone realizes he knows nothing about teaching music, except this time he falls in love. Robert Preston is great as Hill and Winthrop is child Ron Howard. If you’ve ever wanted to see Ron Howard as an 8-year-old singing, this is your chance. I didn’t realize the number of songs I was familiar with, but it was almost half the musical numbers.
Notable songs: “Rock Island,”1 “Seventy-six Trombones,” “Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little,” “Gary, Indiana,” “The Wells Fargo Wagon,” “Shipoopi,” “Till There Was You”
The Wiz Live! (2015 live TV production) – Like Peter Pan, this is another musical where I just don’t like the musical itself. The Wiz is a soul/R&B reworking of The Wizard of Oz, and it’s well done and produced, but I remain partial to the 1939 movie.
Notable songs: “Ease on Down the Road”
More of a split decision this time. Into the Woods was unexpectedly well done, while Peter Pan and The Wiz aren’t must sees, in my opinion, and Mary Poppins and The Music Man are two standards from the golden age of musicals.
1This is a very clever song. It uses the natural sounds and rhythms of the words to suggest the motion of a train even as the actors remain stationary (in the stage production). “Comedy Tonight” in Forum (see previous musical post) does a similar thing where Sondheim decreases the number of syllables in a series of rhyming words to speed up the feel of the song without increasing the tempo. These observations courtesy of The Secret Life of the American Musical by Jack Viertel.
Monday, July 24, 2017
Monday, July 17, 2017
Roses are Red
Peonies are too
I actually go placesWho wants a gallon of glue?
Obviously I should quit my day job and become a poet. No, I really shouldn’t. But my point is that I do, on occasion, go places and do things worthy of being written about. I do also have a bunch of musicals to review, but last month I left my apartment to go on an excursion to see the peonies. Apparently peony breeding is A Thing that is a Big Deal to some people, and the University of Michigan arboretum has a very large collection of peony breeds, so one evening after work I biked over to see what all the fuss was about.
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| Some of the peony beds + people |
It turns out I timed my trip correctly because the online peony tracker later told me I was there during maximum bloom. I had no idea what I was looking at, but it was rather pretty. There was a small crowd of people meandering amongst the peony beds, and I joined them for a few laps around the garden. After a bit of this, I decided to wander around the rest of the arboretum. It’s not huge, but there’s enough space that you can find some pretty quiet areas away from the hospital complex/railway tracks/river filled with tubers/kayakers
I found a nice wooded spot (Heathdale) filled with ericaceous and Appalachian plants. Ericaceous plants dislike alkaline (basic) soil and prefer acidic soil and include rhododendrons, heather, and northern highbush blueberry. Note that I did not pay attention to any of that information while I was actually there; I looked it up on Wikipedia as I was writing this post. I also walked out to the edge of the prairie but I was ready for dinner at that point so I walked there, looked at it for a minute, and walked back to my bike. It was flat and grassy and I suppose prairie-like.
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| More peonies |
In contrast to the arboretum at Cornell, Michigan provides bike racks at each of the entrances. Parking, however, can be a challenge. I’ve written about this before, but the arboretum at Cornell (Newman Arboretum) has exactly zero bike racks and over a dozen parking lots. The parking lots are scattered throughout Newman Arboretum so you can drive through it; you can’t drive (or bike) through Nichols Arboretum at Michigan and have to find parking in the surrounding streets. In terms of size, according to the internet, Nichols Arboretum is actually larger than Newman Arboretum, but it doesn’t feel that way. The Nichols Arboretum is hemmed in by the U of M hospital on one side and the river/railroad tracks on the other. Newman Arboretum is surrounded by hundreds more acres of natural areas, including the land the Cayuga Trail passes through. Minus the lack of proper bike racks, I still prefer the Cornell arboretum, though the peonies were very nice.
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
The Sound of Music
You may have noticed that a lot of my post titles come from songs [see: every post I wrote about summer 2016 (posted in January 2017)]. You can thank band for that. I’m beginning to reach the point in my musical career1 where I have a song for most occasions2. In that line of thought, I’ve been watching a number of musicals. The branch of the Ann Arbor public library system I go to sorts their DVD selection by genre (action, comedy, etc.) and musicals have their own section, so I’ve been working my way through some of the more well-known musicals, including the following:
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966 movie with Zero Mostel reprising his stage role) – Forum is one of those works where everyone spends their entire time running around trying to trick everyone else. Several identities get stolen, there are numerous love polygons, and it’s absurd overall. It’s a fun watch.
Notable songs3: “Comedy Tonight”
Hairspray (2007 movie) – A movie adapted from a Broadway show (2002) adapted from a movie (1988). Based on three minutes of research on Wikipedia, it looks like the 2007 movie and the Broadway show are pretty similar while the original movie has the same plot but a lot of details were changed for the later musical and movie. Hairspray follows Tracy Turnblad’s journey to stardom as an overweight dancer on The Corny Collins Show and her efforts to desegregate the show. The score contains a number of upbeat 60s dance tunes with a bit of a Broadway ballad feel at times. Some of the songs could have been more varied in style and dragged on a little, but overall I liked the movie. And in keeping with tradition, John Travolta plays Edna Turnblad, Tracy’s mother.
Notable songs: “Good Morning Baltimore,” “You Can’t Stop the Beat”
Company (2011 staged reading with the New York Philharmonic) – Company is a series of scenes about the perpetually single Robert and his married friends as they have dinner, fight, get married, and live their lives. This filming used minimal props/set/costumes and the orchestra was actually seated at the back of the stage rather than in a hole in the ground. It worked, and keeping the set simple focused attention on the lines instead of flashing lights or smoke machines.
Notable songs: “Another Hundred People,” “Being Alive”
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967 movie) – In the “see how many people you can scam” style of Forum, J. Pierpont Finch scams his way into jobs at the Worldwide Wicket Corporation. If you know that guy in group projects who does nothing but answers all questions after the presentation with “we,” that’s Finch. Worth a watch for its (satirical) take on climbing the corporate ladder.
Notable songs: Nothing very memorable, but “Grand Old Ivy” is amusing
Grease Live! (2016 live TV production) – This was an interesting production. The opening and closing numbers were purposely done on the soundstage set, with clearly visible supports and the cast riding around in backstage vehicles. The rest of the musical was contained in single scenes that looked like elaborate stages. It was all fine except for the race, which looked like two grown men pretending to drive stationary cars like kids ride carousel horses. I wish they’d found a way to make it look more convincing, but they tried. They also added a song for Frenchy (Carly Rae Jepsen) so she could show off her singing ability, but the style wasn’t quite right. In addition, the actor playing Danny Zuko, Aaron Tveit (who went to Ithaca College), looked too old. My personal policy is that actors playing high school characters can look like they’re in college, but not any older than that. And finally, Grease commits the offense of two characters singing a duet in perfect harmony . . . from two completely different locations (I’m looking at you, “Summer Nights”). Other than that, Grease is a classic. I’ll be looking for the 1978 movie starring John Travolta as Danny Zuko; fun fact: Aaron Tveit was in Hairspray on Broadway. However, he was not Edna Turnblad. He was cast as Link Larkin.
Notable songs: A bunch – “Summer Nights,” “Greased Lightnin’,” “Beauty School Dropout,” “Born to Hand Jive,” “You’re the One That I Want,” “We Go Together”
I’d say all of the above musicals are worth watching. Grease Live! was a little unconventional and if you don’t like watching musicals filmed on stage, skip Company, but otherwise there are a lot of good lyrics and songs and some fun acting. The next set of musicals is still to come.
1Not actually a career
2Road trip? “On the Road Again.” Long walk? “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).” Just set your pet budgerigar loose? “Free Bird.” Missing hairbrush? “The Hairbrush Song.”
3Notable to me, in that I remember them or they’re known in pop culture.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966 movie with Zero Mostel reprising his stage role) – Forum is one of those works where everyone spends their entire time running around trying to trick everyone else. Several identities get stolen, there are numerous love polygons, and it’s absurd overall. It’s a fun watch.
Notable songs3: “Comedy Tonight”
Hairspray (2007 movie) – A movie adapted from a Broadway show (2002) adapted from a movie (1988). Based on three minutes of research on Wikipedia, it looks like the 2007 movie and the Broadway show are pretty similar while the original movie has the same plot but a lot of details were changed for the later musical and movie. Hairspray follows Tracy Turnblad’s journey to stardom as an overweight dancer on The Corny Collins Show and her efforts to desegregate the show. The score contains a number of upbeat 60s dance tunes with a bit of a Broadway ballad feel at times. Some of the songs could have been more varied in style and dragged on a little, but overall I liked the movie. And in keeping with tradition, John Travolta plays Edna Turnblad, Tracy’s mother.
Notable songs: “Good Morning Baltimore,” “You Can’t Stop the Beat”
Company (2011 staged reading with the New York Philharmonic) – Company is a series of scenes about the perpetually single Robert and his married friends as they have dinner, fight, get married, and live their lives. This filming used minimal props/set/costumes and the orchestra was actually seated at the back of the stage rather than in a hole in the ground. It worked, and keeping the set simple focused attention on the lines instead of flashing lights or smoke machines.
Notable songs: “Another Hundred People,” “Being Alive”
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967 movie) – In the “see how many people you can scam” style of Forum, J. Pierpont Finch scams his way into jobs at the Worldwide Wicket Corporation. If you know that guy in group projects who does nothing but answers all questions after the presentation with “we,” that’s Finch. Worth a watch for its (satirical) take on climbing the corporate ladder.
Notable songs: Nothing very memorable, but “Grand Old Ivy” is amusing
Grease Live! (2016 live TV production) – This was an interesting production. The opening and closing numbers were purposely done on the soundstage set, with clearly visible supports and the cast riding around in backstage vehicles. The rest of the musical was contained in single scenes that looked like elaborate stages. It was all fine except for the race, which looked like two grown men pretending to drive stationary cars like kids ride carousel horses. I wish they’d found a way to make it look more convincing, but they tried. They also added a song for Frenchy (Carly Rae Jepsen) so she could show off her singing ability, but the style wasn’t quite right. In addition, the actor playing Danny Zuko, Aaron Tveit (who went to Ithaca College), looked too old. My personal policy is that actors playing high school characters can look like they’re in college, but not any older than that. And finally, Grease commits the offense of two characters singing a duet in perfect harmony . . . from two completely different locations (I’m looking at you, “Summer Nights”). Other than that, Grease is a classic. I’ll be looking for the 1978 movie starring John Travolta as Danny Zuko; fun fact: Aaron Tveit was in Hairspray on Broadway. However, he was not Edna Turnblad. He was cast as Link Larkin.
Notable songs: A bunch – “Summer Nights,” “Greased Lightnin’,” “Beauty School Dropout,” “Born to Hand Jive,” “You’re the One That I Want,” “We Go Together”
I’d say all of the above musicals are worth watching. Grease Live! was a little unconventional and if you don’t like watching musicals filmed on stage, skip Company, but otherwise there are a lot of good lyrics and songs and some fun acting. The next set of musicals is still to come.
1Not actually a career
2Road trip? “On the Road Again.” Long walk? “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).” Just set your pet budgerigar loose? “Free Bird.” Missing hairbrush? “The Hairbrush Song.”
3Notable to me, in that I remember them or they’re known in pop culture.
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