What big fags are we?! Sitting here eating chocolate ice cream and watching the Cher concert!

[raybear]

Yesterday afternoon I was walking down honorary Bob Fosse way, singing along to the Busta Rhymes single blaring out of a nearby stopped truck, dodging through people crowded under the scaffolding, on my way to meeting a lunch date at the bank building. I was deposited from the river of people into the open space of the unobstructed sidewalk in front of one of the big Chicago theaters. This theater has offered many torturous moments for me, including the ten-foot tall face of former Miss America and former college nemesis, Miss Kate Shindle, in an ad for the touring production of Cabaret. My mood was defintiely ruined that day.

This was not as bad, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth. I looked up as walking by to see a large poster for a revamped, revised, and revisited version of Starlight Express.

Ugh.

I love me some musicals. I can recite every line and song from Hello Dolly, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Fiddler on the Roof, Cotton Patch Gospel, Godspell, Joseph and the Amazing Techinicolor Dreamcoat, and Camelot backwards and forwards from the years I stage managed or ran lighting boards or starred in choruses in productions of them. I can sing along note for note to the soundtracks of favorite musicals I paid money to see live, including Jesus Christ Superstar, Les Miserables, Blood Brothers, Company, Showboat, My Fair Lady, Sunset Boulevard and more. I have both of Barbra's broadway albums. I love me some musicals.

But I have super low tolerance for some of Andrew Llyod Weber. He wrote JCS when he was super young, and frankly I think he peaked with that one. I enjoyed the grandeur and staging of Phantom of the Opera, but could never get into the music and lyrics and story on their own. I hated hearing Joseph night after night, though I'm sure it didn't help that the lead butchered most of the songs. I did get obsessed briefly with Sunset Boulevard, but that might have been more out of love for the original Billy Wilder film and for Glenn Close. And I've never had an urge to see Cats ever. Ever.

And Starlight Express? I think of standing on the corner in London with my two high school best friends and we're trying to make the most of our pounds and see two plays. Our teacher/advisor was trying to sell us on Starlight.

"Um, did you just say they're on roller skates?"

"Yeah, it's brilliant and fun and they ride through the audience."

"And they're supposed to be trains?"

"It's actually really good."

People on roller skates pretending to be trains and singing about it? I have my limits. I flatly refused to even consider the idea and would gladly take my money and see a play alone than attend that show with them. My two friends stayed out of the heated discussion, except to discuss that perhaps we should just stick to Les Mis and pair it with a more British play. We saw Blood Brothers instead.

I know there are people who's opinions I appreciate and respect that like this musical, and generally I don't like to be such a negative and close-minded person when it comes to artistic endeavors, even pop ones, especially ones that I haven't even seen or heard. I actually have a huge pet peeve for people who have strong negative opinions and ideas about movies or albums or performances that they haven't even consumed. But in this one specific case I can't seem to help myself. Because I realize how unreasonable I'm acting, I find no fault or judgment in people who enjoyed this show and believe it to be worthy.

However, I will never not believe that this is, hands down, the dumbest and worst musical in the entire world.

Comments

[paladincub21.livejournal.com]

without hearing the music though, you'd never know what brilliance is there. (I doubt it in this case.)

That might be the reason why some folks got turned off by Urinetown at first. (Too much exposition and a bad title will KILL a show. :) )Or, why some folks learned to hate JCS - the movie when they were told that all the parts would be played by a traveling theater troupe. Or sins of sins, that a musical would be made based on a John Waters movie. And on and on, from musical about wife-beating husbands, immense French novels, Adam and Eve and Noah, a show about waltzes to shows where the characters have no names there abounds millions of wierd and slightly icky premises that with talent and hard work blossom into interesting shows.

[cruelnails.livejournal.com]

I had the grave misfortune to be introduced to broadway musicals with Starlight Express. It was rally uncomfortable, because my grandmother obviously spent a lot of money (the seats were excellant) and It. Just. Sucked.

I felt embarrassed for the poor actors - and that's never a good sign.

[bigfatmama.livejournal.com]

this was hilarious. i love musicals. i wouldn't subject myself. i'd rather sit at home and listen to sweeney todd full blast! hey! i'd like to be doing that right now.

i did like evita but i saw it on bway with mandy patinkin and it broke my heart. i have a soft spot for mandy. and la patti lupone. dear lord i am a huge huge fag.

anyone want to hang out and sing songs from dreamgirls?

let me not be the one...

[library-boy.livejournal.com]

to defend andrew lloyd weber. as a composer/lyricist, he makes me cringe in every which way.

HOWEVER...i will defend the three weber/rice collaborations. I believe that joseph, jc superstar and evita are some quality musical. (i also have a special place in my heart for sunset boulevard, but that's probably just cause i worship glenn close and judy kuhn - but have you ever actually seen it? it's long, man....LONG....) all three of these musicals have layers underneath the plot and supporting the characters - joseph is the fluffiest i will admit (it WAS written for a school), but even it has some stuff going on there. all three are comments on fame and stardom, and the price of political or social power. and all three are fairly unique - they aren't cookie cutter versions of anything...

of course, rice and weber will probably never work together again, and even if they did, they wouldn't manage what they pulled off before...

Musical madness

[(Anonymous)]

i only listened to classical music and
musicals until i was about 14-15.
i had a VERY special childhood.
if you ever want to bust into song with
someone, let me know... i have no shame
and a vast array of songs i can sing.

i'm partial to 'rent' also.
i thought it was brilliant, but i know
that i am biased because my ant-man was
the lead character and i know how much
he poured of himself into the project.
saw it in nyc and london while visiting him.
fabu fabu fabu... i cried from start to end.

-D'vil

[lakenaiad.livejournal.com]

Yes, you are a huge fag.

And yeah, Weber pretty much shot his wad with JCS.

Thanks for fun hangin out last night, btw. And if you ever feel like sitting around singing along to musicals like the big nelly fags we are, just let me know.

[vfc.livejournal.com]

I hate Andrew Lloyd Weber. Maybe there's a song or two I can tolerate, but endure a whole musical? You must be mad. But you know what? I think I hate Rent more than anything by Weber. Is that okay?

[raybear.livejournal.com]

Rent irks me, part because it stole plotlines from Sarah Schulman, a favorite novelist of mine. Also, in many ways it gets AIDS and living as an artist in New York wrong.

So yes, it's okay.

[(Anonymous)]

and fiddler on the roof gets being a russian jew in a shtetl wrong and 7 brides for 7 brothers gets living in a rural farm community wrong and jcs gets the story of a pacifist jew wrong and phantom gets the original tale wrong...
art is not always about truth
and i don't think it should strive to be
it's about an image, a moment,
like the distortion that heat can make
along the pavement, esp in the desert.
but as i stated, i'm biased here,
so i am willing to accept that could
be playing into my response.
oh yeah, and it's always okay to disagree,
actually, i find it so damn refreshing.
i don't understand why people are so
afraid to express differences of opinion.
-D'vil

[raybear.livejournal.com]

true enough. though perhaps my peeve is often less with the plays/musicals themselves and more with how audiences and critics and society holds them up as these seminal pieces that ARE representative and symbolic and perfect. which isn't really the art's fault.

i'm probably more bothered about the sarah schulman aspect of "Rent", especially since when she brought up the fact that his story took elements of her novel, she suddenly got dropped by her publisher and her books went mysteriously out of print, because no one want to go against the Next Big Thing making lots of money.

That being said, I love a couple of the songs and I did cry when I saw it. I'm not a total ice-heart when it comes to it. ;)

[(Anonymous)]

i honestly had not heard anything about
the sarah schulman thing, so i can't say.
BUT i can say that i will drop my beloved
cousin a line and ask him what he thinks of it.
he was the original mark, because i would
find that very upsetting too.

somehow i can't see you being an 'ice-heart'
even though our aquaintanceship is fresh.
-D'vil

p.s.

[raybear.livejournal.com]

D'vil, if you could be so kind, you should e-mail me at [raybear at livejournal dot com] because I would like a way to contact directly that doesn't involve responding to your anonymous comment and hoping one day you'll stumble back and find it. :)