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.
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