Popular Broadway Songs [Youtbe Clips]

On-again Off-again Gypsy Movie

On the subject of film musicals, it looks like the Barbra Streisand Gypsy has returned to the back burner. STX Entertainment came in on a white horse in April to save the project, but they backed out a few weeks ago, so the film is back to looking for financing.

Maybe it's for the best.

In the meantime, here is a bit from the last Broadway revival of Gypsy with Patti LaPone who was pretty devastating in the role. Here is the first act finale with Lapone, Boyd Gaines as Herbie and Laura Benanti as Lousie.


Can Streisand top that? Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?

Just for fun, here the Forbidden Broadway parody of LaPone's Gypsy.

Best Broadway Musical Overture

You know that feeling - the lights come down, the conductor comes out to applause, he raises his arms, and then that big blast of music that signals an exciting evening of theater is about to begin.

Truth be told, most Broadway musical overtures are thrown together at the last minute out of town. The composer rarely has anything to do with them; usually the musical director or conductor hacks them together. (There are notable exceptions below - namely Jule Styne, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim compose their own pieces.)

The big overture seem to have become a relic of the "golden age" of Broadway. Jerome Robbins pioneered scrapping the musical medley and replacing it with a big opening number that sets the tone and theme like Comedy Tonight in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Tradition in Fiddler on the Roof.

But looking back, do you have a favorite? What would you call the best? Here are some of my candidates. Have I overlooked a great one?

Carousel (Richard Rodgers 1945)

Some shows don't have an overture, per se, but instead a prologue or theme. Follies opens that way. Sondheim probably got the idea from Richard Rodger's Prologue / Carousel Waltz. (The waltz is one of Rodgers most beautiful melodies, in my opinion.) Conductor John Wilson leads the BBC orchestra in this 2010 radio and TV broadcast from the Victoria & Albert Hall in London.


South Pacific (Richard Rodgers 1949)

This is from the PBS broadcast of the Lincoln Center revival. Glorious sound! I love the moment when the stage floor pulls back to reveal the 40 piece orchestra. Here Richard Rodgers comes back to a more traditional overture medley of tunes - but wonderfully integrated and evocative.


Candide (Leonard Bernstein 1956)

While Candide opened to so-so reviews, the music was universally acclaimed. Since then, the overture has become one of the most frequently performed orchestral compositions by a 20th century American composer. If we are looking for the best overture for a musical, we might as well just stop searching here. Nothing else is this intricate or so fluidly balances several musical themes all at once. Orchestrator Hershy Kay worked together with Bernstein on this masterpiece.


My Fair Lady (Fredrick Loewe 1956)

This is John Wilson back again conducting the BBC orchestra for the Proms radio broadcast in 2012. A great overture needs a great score, and MFL has one of the best. It also had two of the best orchestrators: Robert Russel Bennett & Philip J. Lang who did this overture.


Gypsy (Jule Styne 1959)

Jule Styne worked with orchestrator / conductor Milton Rosenstock to create what many feel is the essential Broadway overture. It has the brassiness of a showbiz musical along with some of Styne's best melodies. I've heard excellent rendtions of this piece from the Warner Brothers orchestra on the movie soundtrack (an excellent but abbreviated version, unfortunately) and the many revivals. But nothing matches the dynamics and life force of Milton Rosenstock's original recording.


Camelot (Fredrick Loewe 1960)

This is another Robert Russel Bennett & Philip J. Lang collaboration with Lowe's beautiful 1960 score. Trivia note: Camelot was the #1 selling album in the US for sixty weeks!


Funny Girl (Jule Styne 1964)

Gypsy or Funny Girl? It's hard to choose between these two Jule Styne overtures. This piece of music is so strong, Streisand used it to open her 2006 concert tour, which is the recording used here (conducted by Marvin Hamlish - who was Barbra's rehearsal pianist for Funny Girl rehearsals back in 1964 at the Winter Garden theater.) Personal story - I played Eddie Ryan in a community theater production of FG. One of my strongest memories is making sure I was in costume and makeup in time to stand just behind the curtain to hear the conductor strike up this overture. All the energy and character charged up inside me just listening to this music.


Promises Promises (Burt Bacharach 1968)

Bacharach brought a whole different sound to Broadway in 1968 which sets this apart from the pack. In the 2010 revival Rob Ashford choreographed the overture to give us our first look at the offices of the Consolidated Life Insurance company.


No, No, Nanette (Vincent Youmans 1925, 1971)

Nostalgia was big in 1971 and Broadway made the most of it bringing back this cheezy 1924 show. But listen to that brand new overture - it sounds like a million bucks! This arrangement was put together by Bob Fossee's right-hand man, Ralph Burns, before he moved over to work on Pippin. (He played himself in Fosse's film All That Jazz where he did that great dance arrangement for the Take Off With Us / Airotica number.) Even if you don't know the show you'll probably recognize the melodies for Tea for Two and I Want to Be Happy. (I found a clip of Nanette from the 1972 Tony Awards with Bobby Van, Helen Gallagher, and the legendary Ruby Keeler.)


Merrily We Roll Along (Stephen Sondheim 1981)

This is the only Sondheim show I can think of that even has an overture. But it's appropriate since Stephen's goal for the score was to get a real Broadway jazz sound. Sondheim wrote the overture which was scored by Jonathon Tunick. (He shortened it subsequent versions.) The show flopped, but the music is revered. There have been several good productions since - you can find excerpts on YouTube of the recent City Center Encores concert version with Lin Manuel Miranda and Celia Keenan-Bolger. Also look for the short film of Jeremy Jordan, Darren Criss, and America Ferrara performing Opening Doors from the film Six By Sondheim.


Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber 1986)

Of course, Phantom doesn't have an overture per se. After the short opening scene it uses this theme to transition back in time to the beginning of the story. But, it's close enough. This is the version from the 2004 film which is close to what is used in the show - just double the number of instruments.



Speaking of the movies...

Hollywood has a mixed record when it comes to adapting Broadway shows. However, in the 1960's two studios - Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox - had truly excellent music departments which greatly enhanced films like West Side Story, Camelot, My Fair Lady, Finian's Rainbow and Sound of Music. Some of those were better than the others, but they all sound fantastic.

West Side Story (Leonard Bernstein 1961)

Once again, Bernstein is in a league of his own. This time Bernstein is working with Fox orchestrator Irwin Kostal under the direction of Lionel Newman (head of music at Fox), with the Fox orchestra conducted by Johnny Green. Usually in film an overture is either used as audio before the movie starts, or as background for the credits. Here, Robert Wise brought in title designer Saul Bass to design a graphic that slowly morphs into the title and New York City skyline as a prologue.


The Sound of Music (Richard Rodgers 1965)

For some reason, this wonderful overture was left off the hugely popular soundtrack album. That has been corrected in a recent deluxe CD release. This new overture was created by Irwin Kostal under the supervision of Lionel Newman and Roger Edens (uncredited and formerly the music supervisor at MGM in it's musical heyday).

New Musicals for Fall 2016

Last month I looked at the revivals headed for Broadway this year - but what about the new shows? Or maybe I should say that some are new and others are "New" adaptations of old properties. I've already seen three of them Off Broadway: if you like rock musicals, then keep your eye on Dear Evan Hansen and Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. Here is what is coming in chronological order, with links to video previews.

• Holiday Inn - We're really stepping on the gas in the way-back machine to raid the golden age of movie musicals for this stage adaptation of the Bing Crosby-Fred Astaire 1942 film “Holiday Inn.” The Broadway cast is led by Bryce Pinkham (A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder) in the Bing Crosby role and Corbin Bleu (Godspell, High School Musical) in the Fred Astaire part. It has 20 classic Berlin songs, including “Steppin’ Out With My Baby,” ‘’Shaking the Blues Away,” ‘’Easter Parade” and “Cheek to Cheek.” Now that Singin' in the Rain has been canceled, this may be the go-to nostalgia dance show for folks wanting an old-fashioned entertainment. (Opens Oct. 6 at Studio 54)
• In Transit - Some of the folks behind the films Frozen and Pitch Perfect have combined for an a cappella romantic comedy set in the New York City subway. The show has a book, music and lyrics co-written by Academy Award winner Kristen Anderson-Lopez of “Frozen” fame and vocal arrangements are by Deke Sharon, of the “Pitch Perfect” movies. Kathleen Marshall will direct. (Previews begin Nov. 10 at the Circle in the Square Theatre)
• Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 - A dinner theater musical of War and Peace? Why not? The enticing musical based on a small slice (about 70 pages) of the Tolstoy novel which I saw in a tent downtown New York City in 2013, is returning with Josh Groban making his Broadway debut. It is directed by Rachel Chavkin with the rock score by Dave Malloy who also wrote the book. This is one to keep an eye on. (1st Preview: October 18th, Opens: November 14th)
• A Bronx Tale - I saw this at the Paper Mill Playhouse and was less than impressed with the material. Based on Chazz Palminteri’s solo show about his life as a youngster meeting the local neighborhood crime boss, it has potential, but the score by Alan Menken and book and lyrics by Palminteri and Glenn Slater needs work. But that's what out-of-town debuts are for, right? Opens at the Longacre Theater in previews November 3rd, and opens December 1st.
• Dear Evan Hansen - After a knock-out run Off Broadway last spring, this is the new show with all the buzz. For starters it has a great performance by Ben Platt as a teenager constantly bullied by a popular kid at school. When the popular kid dies, a letter mistakenly leads the kids parents to believe that Evan was their son's best friend. Does he go with it, or force the grieving parents to face an ugly side of their son that they never saw? Socially inept Evan is unprepared for these choices as he is showered with attention for the first time in his life. Directed by Rent's Michael Grief, it opens at the Belasco in December.
• Come From Away - This is the true story of how a small Canadian town cared for 6,579 airline passengers stranded there on 9/11. When 38 planes were diverted to its doorstep, the town of Gander doubled in size playing host to an international community of strangers and offering food, shelter and friendship. This looks like it uses a similar mix of pop and folk storytelling as Once and The Last Ship. Scheduled for February. (I'll be seeing this in three weeks at its out-of-town tryout, so I'll report back.)

It's too early to talk about the rest of the spring. There are at least a half dozen possible new musicals that are in workshop or regional theaters that might try to move the Broadway in time for the 2017 Tony Awards. But with long runs tying up the best musical houses (and two major theaters closed for refurbishing) they are going to have to either wait for one of the above to fail, or take up residence in a smaller theater.

UPDATE 9-15-2016: Groundhog Day is coming to Broadway. I repeat: Groundhog Day is coming to Broadway. In April. The musical opened early in the summer in London, and has earned rave reviews for the show and it's star, Broadway's own Andy Karl (Rocky). The musical’s script is by Danny Rubin, who co-wrote the film, and keeps it faithful to the spirit of the original. The music is by composer-lyricist Tim Minchin (Matilda).

UPDATE 10-13-2016: War Paint - The new musical War Paint, starring two-time Tony Award winners Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole, will arrive on Broadway this spring, beginning previews March 7, 2017 and opening April 6 at the Nederlander Theatre

UPDATE 10-20-2016: Bandstand - This 1940's swing musical got great reviews this year at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey. It is coming to Broadway this spring with the same cast, Laura Osnes (Bonnie & Clyde, Cinderella) and Corey Scott (American in Paris, Newsies). It's directed by Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton, Cats) and will open in April 2017.

While not necessarily popular or from a musical per say I was haunted by this song after hearing it performed at a fund raiser years ago. It is rather simple but powerful and well just listen....

Closing Notice: Jersey Boys on Broadway


Big guys don't cry. It's the end of an era: Jersey Boys, which won the Tony Award in 2006 for Best Musical, just announced that they will close on Broadway on January 15, 2017. At time of closing, the production will have played 4,642 performances. That gives it a longer run than Grease , Hello Dolly, My Fair Lady, or Fiddler on the Roof.

Mark Ballas from Dancing With the Stars will be final actor to play Frankie Valli when the curtain comes down in the new year.

In any other season, Jersey Boys might have run for another year. It was selling at about 50% consistently, but of course it had paid back it's investment long ago. So with no big stars and everything paid for they could have run up the performances and kept the steady rent for the theater. But as I noted earlier, the theater owners, in this case the Jujamcyn Group, is under intense pressure for open theaters.

For example, right now in London are three musicals (and one play) with great reviews that would like to transfer to Broadway in the spring: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , Groundhog Day, Funny Girl, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II (not a musical, but a potential Hamilton-like hit). Chicago has Sponge Bob: The Musical running right now, which, believe it or not, has also generated a lot of buzz.

The boys will join these shows which have already posted closing notices:

• Les Miserables (9/4/2016)
• Fun Home (9/10/2016)
• An American in Paris (10/9/2016)
• Fiddler on the Roof (12/31/2016)
• Matilda (1/1/2017)
• Something Rotten (1/1/2017)
• The Color Purple (1/8/2017)

Here is the finale from the Warner Brothers movie.

Update #1: If you are in the UK - good news! A new Jersey Boys tour starts in 2017.

Update #2: The American in Paris US tour starts right after the show closes on Broadway.

Update #3: It's official - Groundhog Day will move in to the the August Wilson Theater (former digs of Jersey Boys) and opening night is currently scheduled for April 17, 2017.

Update #4: Something Rotten posted its closing notice at the St James Theater for 1/1/2017. It will start its US tour in February. The St. James is then scheduled for renovation, preparing for the opening of Frozen in 2018.

My Fair Lady 60th Anniversary


Last night the 60th Anniversary production of My Fair Lady opened at the Sydney Opera House. The Sydney production is using reproductions of the original sets by Oliver Smith and costumes by Cecil Beaton. The cast includes British actor Alex Jennings as Higgins and Anna O'Byrne as Eliza.

This production is directed by the original Fair Lady herself, Dame Julie Andrews. Dame Julie is the last living link to the original creative team and cast. She played Eliza for two years on Broadway and then another year in London.

Here is a look back at Julie Andrews in her star-making role in 1956 - 1957.

Appreciation: Bob Fosse

Of course, Broadway isn't just singing. Sometimes, they dance!


Bob Fosse - what do you think of when you hear his name? Jazz hands, bowler hats, gloves and spats? Paired down choreography that extracts the maximum impact from a single finger snap or hip thrust? Winning the Oscar and the Cannes Palme d'Or for Cabaret, the Emmy for Liza with a Z, and the Tony for Pippin all in the same year?

I came across this number from his 1978 Broadway hit Dancin' (here recreated in the review Fosse). This is a different side of Fosse, the lyrical, beautiful first movement shows off his classical chops. But when the pop music kicks in he is completely contemporary. And fun! That's the surprise. "None of that sex stuff", as the producer in the movie All That Jazz comments a couple of years after this was created. It makes me want to get up and dance - it looks like they are all having so much fun.



When Stanley Donen (Singing in the Rain) came out of retirement to make the film musical The Little Prince he asked Bob Fosse to play the Snake as a favor. Bob agreed, as long as he could choreograph and direct his scene. The result is this rare glimpse of Bob performing his own choreography late in his career. When you see it on him, you can see how he translated his own imperfections as a dancer (poor posture, turned in feet) into a style that people are still trying to emulate.

Interested in seeing more? Here is the Essential Bob Fosse:

• Steam Heat from The Pajama Game (1955) - No one had ever seen anything like this on a Broadway stage in 1955. It seemed like a throw-away number, but the Fosse vocabulary was established in the first show he choreographed.
• Big Spender from Sweet Charity (1969) - Bob did Sweet Charity for his wife Gwen Verdon. (This version is a recreation from the musical revue Fosse.) As a teenager Bob tap danced in burlesque houses with strippers, so when it came time to create the world of dancers for hire, he was right at home.
• Cabaret from Cabaret (1972) - This film is the pinacle of his career. The direction, adaption, and filming is incredible - especially since by 1972 Hollywood thought musicals were dead, so this film was independently produced on a shoestring budget. (Liza's costumes are all finds from Berlin thrift shops.) But the cinematography and performances are incredible. Liza Minelli here is not just belting out a song - she is fighting for survival after losing everything she loved.
• Glory from Pippin (1973) - Bob Fosse and composer Stephen Schwartz (Godspell) didn't see eye-to-eye on how to present this Me Generation morality tale based on the life of Pippin, the son of the first Holy Roman Emperor. Fosse, however was at the height of his power so he pushed Schwartz aside and remade the show for an audience weary of war, cynical about politics, and opening up to sex and drugs. For example in this number, Glory, who else but Bob Fosse would insert a soft shoe routine and nickname it "The Manson Trio"? Despite protests from the authors, it was a huge hit. (And the Manson Trio bit was used in the TV commercial.)
• I Wanna Be a Dancin' Man from Dancin' (1978) - After struggling with composers and authors Fosse vowed to only work with dead collaborators from that point forward. Dancin' was essentially a dance concert - just a collection of numbers. But, what numbers! This is the first act finale based on a old routine Bob used to do at parties in the 1950's. He expanded it to this intricate homage to tap and soft shoe.
• On Broadway from All That Jazz (1979) - Fosse combined his life with Fellini's 8 1/2 and an eclectic score make this either his best or most pretentious work, depending on who you talk to. The opening gives a nod to A Chorus Line, only much more realistic and with a focus on the director rather than the cast. Every time I watch I am surprised at how little actual dancing this contains because it feels like the movement is non-stop. It's all choreographed, as far as Fosse is concerned: the performances, the editing, the rejections and reactions. Note: This is the real world - I have been through more of these soul and body draining cattle calls in my younger days than I care to remember. There is no glamour; just endless waiting, followed by sweat, which is quickly followed by rejection.
• Everything Old is New Again from All That Jazz (1979) - Joe Gideon can't really love or accept love - but it comes at him whether he can deal with it or not in this simple moment where his girlfriend and daughter put together a surprise to cheer him up. It's warm and lovely, but the fact that Joe can't do anything with it gives it a sadness, too.
• Take Off With Us from All That Jazz (1979) - This sexy interpretation of a super cheezy song (shades of working with Stephen Schwartz in Pippin) may be one of his most lasting contributions to culture. It has been immitated numerous times including Paula Abduhl's video for Cold Hearted Snake, and on Glee. It also shows how far both Bob Fosse and his alter ego Joe Gideon will dig into their own pain and experience to put something honest on stage.
• Beat Me Daddy 8-to-the-Bar from Big Deal (1986) - Fosse's last Broadway musical didn't last long, but it had Cleavant Derricks and Wayne Cilento leading the company in this hot dance off. (Cliento went on to become one of New York's top choreographers in the 1990's.)

Fosse died in 1987 of a heart attack during previews in Washington DC for a new revival of Sweet Charity. He was the third loss of a major Broadway director-choreographer in the span of just a few years, along with Michael Bennett and Gower Champion - not to mention up and coming talents sucbing to AIDS at the same time. By then the big British sung-through shows were the rage and the era of the dance-driven show faded.

The Last Five Years Concert


In the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub shooting, Broadway composer Jason Robert Brown (Bridges of Madison County, Honeymoon in Vegas) wanted to do something more than just grieve and be angry. It was when he was talking to to Cynthia Erivo and Joshua Henry that he realized that there was something he could do. Last Monday night he staged a concert version of his two person musical The Last Five Years and raised $200,000 for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Cynthia won a Tony award in June for starring in The Color Purple and had to squeeze rehearsals around her eight-show-a-week schedule. Joshua had to report to Chicago Tuesday morning to begin rehearsals to play Aaron Burr for the first National Company of Hamilton.

The Last Five Years traces the life of the relationship between Jamie and Cathy in music. The movie came out last year and it's quite good. Here is a lighter moment from the movie with Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan.



You can see Anna Kendrick's version of I'm Still Hurting here.

Remembering Charmian Carr (Liesl in The Sound of Music)

Unlike most movie casts, the young actors who played the Von Trapp children in the 1965 film The Sound of Music stayed bonded together and a part of each other's lives through various ups and downs. This week, the first one passed on - Charmian Carr - better known to fans as Liesl who was Sixteen Going on Seventeen.

While the kids had always stayed close and pround of their connection to film history, Christopher Plumber spent most of his career avioding his most famous role. However, by this point he embraced the blockbuster and its many fans.


Like many people, I imagine, The Sound of Music was a big part of my childhood. When the film was released it played exclusively in only a handful of theaters across the country and tickets were reserved seat only. I had to wait months before my parents got tickets, and we got all dressed up and went downtown for our big night out. It was like getting in to Hamilton! Later on, the first professional job I had was in a stage version of The Sound of Music - I played Friedrich - the oldest boy. (Our producer got the actual costumes from the movie from 20th Century Fox - that was the coolest part of the whole experience for me.)

As I grew up, so did the actors that played the Von Trapp children in the film. Once the film was released on home video, you started to see them again because everyone wanted to know what had happened to them since the film. Get yourself any of the many DVD releases and you can find more than you ever thought possible in the Special Features.

Charmian Carr only did one other role after SOM, and it was a landmark: the television musical Evening Primrose by Stephen Sondheim.

Carr plays a girl who has been shut away from the outside world since childhood. Anthony Perkins finds her and falls in love. I Remember is one of Sondheim's most beautiful ballads filled with strikingly sensual images - a trick he learned from his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein.

Charmain got married shortly afterward and had her two children. As they got older she found a new passion for interior design and soon was in demand in Los Angeles. This is how she first met Michael Jackson, and they remained close throughout the rest of his life.

Ms. Carr's passing feels personal to me. It also reminds me how lucky we are that Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer are still with us and working. I guess, by extension, how wonderful that all of us are still here and working.

RIP Charmian Carr, a sweet soul and part of some of my best memories.

Broadway Hunks: Jeremy Jordan

Discussion of Aaron Tveit in the Celebrity forum reminded me that there are some pretty good looking (and, of course, talented) guys taking lead roles on Broadway these days.


On TV you might know him from Supergirl or Smash. But going back to the beginning, Jeremy Jordan did not have to toil for years waiting tables and taking classes. Right out of college, he was chosen as a replacement for Tony in the 2010 revival of West Side Story. From there he was hired for a rock musical that needed a strong voice and a pretty face in the chorus - Rock of Ages.


On Broadway in the 2012 - 2013 season he was the "it" boy - he had worked on two shows that were both heading to New York in the same season. Everybody wanted him. He had starred in the workshop of Disney's Newsies, but he had also been working with composer Jason Robert Brown for several years on the Bonnie and Clyde musical. He had to reluctantly bow out of the Disney show (which by then looked like a sure-fire hit), to keep his commitment to B&C.

As it turned out, Bonnie and Clyde flopped in the fall, which left him available to open with Newsies in the spring, which was indeed a hit. He hasn't stopped working since.


Jeremy now has a full schedule of TV, movies, and concert appearances. He regularly appears in New York at benefits and for special one-night-only events. Last year the popular Broadway hang out 54 Below did a Celine Dion tribute night. Jeremy showed up and knocked the crowd over with a passionate and funny version of the Jim Steinman epic ballad It's all Coming Back to Me Now.


For more of Jeremy, check these out:

• 
  Bonnie and Clyde - Both Jeremy and the show got some good notices, but ultimately New York audiences just didn't think Clyde Barrow was all that appealing.
• Smash - TV quickly came calling. NBC wanted to revitalize the second season of Smash with a young contemporary songwriter so they pulled him out of his Broadway contract straight into backstage musical series.
• The Last Five Years - Excellent film version of the Jason Robert Brown musical with Anna Kendrick.
• Let It Go from Frozen - I know, who needs to hear another cover of Let it Go - but Jordan kills it. Like Aaron Tveit this is a straight guy that doesn't mind flirting with his feminine side.

Newsies notes: Jeremy and most of the original cast joined the touring company in Los Angeles last month for a special filming of the show. Disney will release it next year for streaming, so keep an eye out for that. Also, the boys end their National Tour next week in Texas after Carrying the Banner across the country for the last year. Sad to see them go!

Current Tours - US & Canada

You don't have to go to New York to see a Broadway show. They want to come to you. Here is a list of shows that are either on the road now, or are about to launch. These are all "official" productions with union actors cast in New York. The directors usually take a few people from the New York company and combine them with a new set of actors. Everyone is up to the same standards as you would find on Broadway. I have listed the cities that are coming up between now and January. For the full tour schedule, click on the link to find more dates.

New Tours
Several big new companies are getting ready to debut across the country. Of course, the biggest is Hamilton, launching in Chicago next month. But Aladdin should be pretty big as well, following in the footsteps on Lion King which has been on the road for seventeen years. Also if you are on the West Coast, you will have Darren Criss (Glee) recreating his Broadway performance in Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

• An American in Paris (October 2016) Schenectady NY, Boston MA, Buffalo NY, Hartford CT, Philadelphia PA, Greenville SC, West Palm Beach FL, Orlando FL, Tampa FL, Miami FL
• Hamilton - (October 2016) Chicago IL, San Francisco CA, Los Angeles CA
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch - (October 2016) San Francisco CA, Los Angeles CA, San Diego CA, Denver CO, Seattle WA
• The King & I - (November 2016) Providence RI, San Francisco CA, Los Angeles CA
• Something Rotten! - (January 2017) Schenectady NY, Boston MA, Pittsburgh PA
• Motown - (Januray 2017) Las Vegas NV, Reno NV, Los Angeles CA
• Aladdin - (April 2017) Chicago IL

Continuing Tours
These companies are already moving across the country. Newsies is coming to a close in October, and Les Miserables just finished up this month.

• A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder - Boston MI, Hartford CT, Hershey PA, Wilmington DE, Charlotte NC
• Beautiful - Seattle WA, Portland OR, Spokane WA, Salt Lake City UT, Tempe AZ, Boise ID, Des Moines IA, Detroit MI
• Book of Mormon - Kalamazoo MI, Milwaukee WI, Detroit MI, Nashville TC, Hershey PA, Louisville KY, Kansas City MO, Fayetteville AR, Dallas TX
• Cabaret - Minneapolis MN, San Antonio TX, Alanta GA, Charlotte NC, Ft Lauderdale FL
• Fun Home - Cleveland OH, Durham NC, Chicago IL, St. Louis MO, Detroit MI, Minneapolis MN, Las Vegas NV
• Jersey Boys - Dayton OH, Memphis TN, Denver CO, Houston TC, Rochester NY, San Antonio TX, New Orleans LA
• Kinky Boots - Worcester MA, Waterbury CT, Wilmington DE, Ottawa ON Canada
• Matilda - Costa Mesa CA, San Diego CA
• Newsies - (End of tour)
• The Lion King - Albuquerque NM, San Francisco CA, New Orleans LA
• Phantom of the Opera - Fort Worth TX, Cincinnati OH, Toledo OH, Chicago IL
• Wicked - Peoria IL, East Lansing MI, Wallingford CT, Washington DC

Some of these shows are also in London, Australia, and have productions running in other major world cities.

Hamilton - The Post


I'm amazed that this thread has gone on this long and this is the first post about Hamilton! But in honor of Lin-Manuel Miranda hosting Saturday Night Live on television this weekend, it seemed the right time take a look.

This is the biggest, most influential show on Broadway since A Chorus Line. It breaks the preconceived ideas about what a Broadway Musical is, and then puts them back together in a fresh way. Tickets, of course, are scarce but that will change a bit as the show opens in Chicago this month, and then in Los Angeles and London in Spring 2017.


Lin-Manuel is an impressive guy. His first musical In the Heights won a Tony award, then while he was writing Hamilton, he collaborated with Stephen Sondheim on translating selected lyrics from West Side Story into Spanish for the 2010 revival. His lyrics for Hamilton span the history of hip-hop, from the easy flow of the 1980's to rapid-fire precise rhythm filled with complicated inner rhymes.

Even more impressive has been Lin-Manuel himself. Back in the 1970's Michael Bennett struggled to work and even keep his head above water after the avalanche of recognition that came with A Chorus Line. Old friendships died, and drugs, sex, and lavish spending made it hard for him to stay connected to creative spirit he previously had. Lin has kept an even keel, and focused on giving back as much as possible to the theater and the community.

• He worked with the Rockefeller Foundation to create a high school history curriculum built around Hamilton. He set aside seats at performances to bus in over 20,000 New York and New Jersey shcool kids to see the show.
• He set aside tickets for a same-day Rent-style lottery for fans, and sold those tickets for $10. (Hamilton is on the $10 bill, so he called it Ham4Ham.)
• Fans would be in line around the theater all day, so on Wednesdays he started a tradition of going out in the afternoon to meet the fans and give them a little impromptu entertainment. I have links to some of them below.
• He lobbied the Federal Government to keep Alexander Hamilton on the $10 when they were planning to replace the former Treasury Secretary with a woman. (Harriet Tubman will be the new face on the $20 bill.)

So, props to Mr. Miranda who is enjoying the biggest year in show business since Bob Fosse in 1972 swept all the major awards.

Here are some other things to check out.

• SNL Host Lin-Manuel Miranda Brings Ham4Ham (and pizza!) to Standby Line
• Ham4Ham with Patti LaPone!
• Ham4Ham with Jimmy Fallon
• Ham4Ham with Lea Solonga sings A Whole New World
• Ham4Ham with Jonathon Groff and the Spring Awakening Cast
• Ham4Ham The Three King George's sing the Schuyler Sisters
• Hamilton and The Public Theater celebrate the 40th Anniversary of A Chorus Line
• Making the Hamilton Cast Album

Also keep an eye out for the PBS special Hamilton's America which is scheduled to air October 21, 2016.

Phantom of the Opera 30th Anniversary


The chandelier has fallen over 140 million times around the world. It has made more than $5.6 billion dollars worldwide. That's more money than than the films Titanic, E.T. and Sound of Music combined!

Last night at Her Majesty's Theater in London The Phantom of the Opera celebrated it's 30th anniversary. The celebration was originally supposed to take place in Paris, but a little fire in the theater last month postponed those plans so they moved the party to the theater where Phantom has been playing continuously to nearly sold out audiences since it opened.


Update 10//16/2016 Bonus video! Here is a capella artist Peter Hollens' medley of Phantom tunes.


Have you seen Phantom on stage?

A Great thread with very good information

topdog said:

The Phantom of the Opera
30th Anniversary October 10 2016


​

The chandelier has fallen over 140 million times around the world. It has made more than $5.6 billion dollars worldwide. That's more money than than the films Titanic, E.T. and Sound of Music combined!

Last night at Her Majesty's Theater in London The Phantom of the Opera celebrated it's 30th anniversary. The celebration was originally supposed to take place in Paris, but a little fire in the theater last month postponed those plans so they moved the party to the theater where Phantom has been playing continuously to nearly sold out audiences since it opened.

(This is from the live Facebook feed. I'll try to keep a live link, but Lord Webber is swatting these down on YouTube.)
​

Have you seen Phantom on stage?

Click to expand...

I have found this the most interesting thread for some time, thanks to all contributors.

Oliver!


I love Oliver!, and I think it has become somewhat forgotten in the United States (but not in the UK). While it is a musical comedy, it keeps the character and flavor of the Charles Dickens novel, as well as some of the darkness. Parents sometimes forget that the last twenty minutes contain the murder of the leading lady as well as kidnapping and child endangerment. But it's the characters like Nancy, Fagin, The Artful Dodger, Bill Sykes and Oliver Twist himself that stay with you - along with all those catchy songs!


Lionel Bart, who can neither read nor write music, wrote the score for Oliver! which became a huge hit in London in 1960, and then came to Broadway in 1963.

Rather than sell the musical to Hollywood, the 1968 movie was a British production and was filmed outside London at Shepperton Sudios with a cast that was a mix of unknowns and some British favorites. Ron Moody, the original Fagin, came to do the film after Peter O'Toole and Dick Van Dyke turned the part down. (He won an Oscar.) Mark Lester, who played Oliver Twist, was already a veteran actor at age eight. The film by director Carol Reed won six Academy Awards including Best Picture.


Next to Bart, the other person most associated with the show is now mega-producer Cameron Mackintosh. Cameron and Lionel (both gay) became friends in the 1970's when Mackintosh was a small time West End producer and Bart was nearly penniless after blowing (literally) through all of the movie money and selling his rights to the property. Mackintosh mounted a London revival in 1977 which launched his career (allowing him to later stage Cats) and as well as make some money and respect for Lionel Bart. They revived the show again in 1984.

Both those revivals recreated the original staging and sets. In 1994 Mackintosh, now the most successful producer in the world, decided to bring Oliver! back, but completely revise it. This was an arena staging with theater and film director Sam Mendes. Bart wrote two new songs, and added several scenes adapted from the hit film. The show was tremendously successful (though controversial because of the changes) and did a limited UK tour.

In 2009 after Bart's death, Cameron went back again to bring Oliver! to the West End. The show was adapted from the 1994 arena version, and he cast the several roles through a reality TV competition I'd Do Anything.

The 2009 revival ran in London for two years, and then toured the UK for another year. Mackintosh did not bring it to Broadway. Hey, Mr. Producer! It's time to bring it back.

Broadway on TV

This week in the USA two special shows will air that will be of interest to Broadway fans. (They should be available for streaming later in the rest of the world.)


While Lin-Manuel Miranda was writing Hamilton, a doentary filmmaker followed his process of putting the award-winning musical together. After the show opened, he continued to add context by interviewing historians and polititicans to get the bigger picture of Alexander Hamilton's impact on the United States. If you miss the orginal broadcast check your listings for repeats or go to pbs.org.




This FOX remake of the cult classic arrives just in time for the Halloween season. It's directed by veteran Kenny Ortega (Dirty Dancing, Newsies) and stars trans actress Laverne Cox along with Adam Lambert, Reeve Carney (Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark), Annaleigh Ashford (Kinky Boots), Ben Vereen (Pippin, Fosse) with Tim Curry as the narrator.

Current: Holiday Inn

We got our first revival of the new season this summer with Cats. Now the first new musical has debuted: The Irving Berlin musical Holiday Inn. The critical consensus is that the cast and choreography is top notch, but the script is lacking. Bryce Pinkham, a Broadway favorite from A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, has the role that Bing Crosby had in the movie. Corbin Bleu, who most know from the High School Musical movies, has the Fred Astaire role and has been singled out by many reviewers.

Filling Crosby's shoes is a tall order, especially considering how his rendition of "White Christmas" has been a holiday standard for more three-quarters of a century. Unfortunately, Pinkham, a seasoned character actor, doesn't quite fit the bill as a romantic leading man. Bleu, on the other hand, provides a great counter and brings out Pinkham's best sides, while dazzling the audience with his own virtuosic tap skills. Paying homage to Astaire in choreographer Denis Jones' thrilling solo production number "Let's Say It With Firecrackers," Bleu proves that he is the contemporary song-and-dance man that Broadway has been searching for. - TheaterMania

Click to expand...

Choreographer Denis Jones is the star player of the production, keeping things playful by finding dance opportunities with wheelbarrows, firecrackers and Christmas garlands — and nearly stopping the show with the exuberant “Shaking the Blues Away,” which evokes the best of MGM musicals. - Variety

Click to expand...

i don't get the fascination with broadway shows. they are so fake. what's the big deal?

Fake?
Absolutely. And that’s the least of it. Try silly, old-fashioned, and an insult to the intelligence of anyone over the age of five. I mean, look at Holiday Inn just above on this page. That story was hokey in 1942!

But Holiday Inn and other nostalgic revues are just one side of the coin. You also have work as cutting edge as Hamilton, as stylistically outrageous as the obscene and sacrilegious black humor of Book of Mormon, and as emotionally raw and personal as The Last Five Years.

But let me twist this “fake” idea a different way: everything in art is fake. Hip-hop – who talks like that? Video games – shooting monsters and villains – all fake. Poetry, rock songs, dance – fake, fake, fake. Movies – we see two lovers sharing an intimate kiss for the first time – FAKE! There are forty people standing around just outside the camera angle. This isn’t their first kiss, this is more like take number fifteen. And see that view over their shoulder – it’s all done with computers.

I don’t think that “fake” is really the problem. Maybe the problem is more that it’s confusing – what are you supposed to take literally and when is Art taking over to comment on what is going on, or is it ironic, or maybe it's just entertaining?

Sometimes writers, composers, and directors are lazy and just throw up cliches that worked before and that musical theater audiences are programmed to recognize. And yeah, there is a campy fun to Holiday Inn, Anything Goes, and 42nd Street – sparkly costume and tap shows that aren’t really telling much of a story but are more of an excuse to string together some great song and dance numbers. If they are done skillfully you can leave the theater humming some melodies, but if other people are also rolling their eyes, then that is understandable.

But, there are also shows that reach for more. And I could end this little essay right here by telling you to please go watch the PBS doentary that just debuted this week: Hamilton’s America


It’s hard for even me, a Broadway nerd, to fathom this, but the biggest cultural phenomenon of 2015 – 2016 is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton.

The Grammy-winning cast album was produced by none other than The Roots. Michele Obama said that it was the greatest piece of live art that she had ever experienced in her lifetime. The show even elevated Alexander Hamilton’s reputation to the point that the US Treasury Department set aside plans to drop Mr. Hamilton from the $10 bill.

Watch that doentary because you will see the skill Miranda exercises in merging Hamilton’s immigrant to founding father story with hip-hop culture and expression. Seriously, watch that and I rest my case. That is what musical theater is capable of when it is applied by its best writers, directors, and actors.

But if I have to make my case using only this post, let me put forward two mysteries of the theater.

Truth

Here is the deal. Since all art is artificial in some sense, it’s a matter of where you want to draw the lines. And if someone in a play is having a conversation and then all of a sudden starts singing their feelings and that pulls you out of the moment, then you are 100% right to say that it doesn’t work for you. And you are not alone.

But as many times as I am sure you roll your eyes, maybe there are sometimes when the story works just fine with music.

You’ve seen The Wizard of Oz, I’m sure? They skip down the yellow brick road singing that they are "Off to See the Wizard". Maybe that doesn’t feel out of place. We’ve all put on some tunes in the car and sung along on a road trip, right? How about "Over the Rainbow"? That’s a little trickier. Dorothy is talking about someplace without trouble, and then she starts singing. But, most people accept that moment because there is some yearning in the song that tells us more about this girl than any dialog ever could.

This is something music can do when it is used right. It can lift off like a rocket and say something that hits deeper and truer than just spoken words.

This song below is from a recent contemporary musical called If/Then and it just slays me. Lucas and Beth had a brief affair in college, afterward Beth got married and moved away from New York. Now she is divorced and back in the city. Lucas is still her dear friend – but it seems Lucas never quite got over her. In a moment of weakness for both of them, knowing she doesn’t have the same feelings for him that he has for her, he still makes his case.

Personal story – in my late teens I wrote and performed with a guy who was about five years older than me and who was my closest and best friend. We shared an apartment together for a while and then he got engaged and later married. That year was excruciating for me as so much of my role as friend and confidant was transferred to his finance (which is, of course, exactly what should happen). It wasn’t until later that I realized that I was actually in love with him – but not knowing that at the time made each moment of being pushed farther into the background more painful. But, I was happy to be there; happy to have just some part somewhere in his life because when that’s the only experience you’ve ever had with love you figure this is all you are ever going to get.

When I heard this song in the theater a couple of years ago I broke down and all those feelings came rushing back. I knew that Lucas was telling the truth and saying something about love that no pop song would ever come close to grasping: this mixture of a pure love that needs nothing back, combined with a fear that it’s the only scrap of real human connection that could ever possibly come your way.

Click to expand...

Is this theatrical moment fake and artificial – of course. People don’t sing in real life in this situation. But people don’t speak in Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter either, yet through his poetic dialog he expresses something that the audience recognizes is truth. The same thing is happening here with this song. How can something so artificial birth something so essentially true? Well, as Geoffrey Rush’s character in Shakespeare in Love says several times in the movie” “I don’t know – it’s a mystery!”.

Danger & Dazzle

The second mystery is the entertaining thrill of someone doing something so hard and complex that we marvel at their skill at being able to pull it off. Have you ever seen Tom Daley or Greg Louganis dive? Or Shaun White do flips and twists in snowboarding half-pipe competition? Or Baryshnikov dance? Or Whitney Houston belt out vocal riffs? Or Usain Bolt sprint or Michael Phelps swim? We marvel at what some can accomplish with talent, training, discipline, and guts.

Musical theater is like the Olympics of acting and performing. Lots of people can dance, act, or sing – and do it extremely well. But can they do all three at the same time while telling a story? As that degree of difficulty goes up, our jaw drops and in addition to being in to the story we marvel at the skill displayed in it execution. Will they hit the note?

Here is a great illustration of a musical theater performer raising the stakes and working without a net – Neil Patrick Harris opening number for the Tony Awards a few years back. (He opens with a slice of the previous year's best musical Once.)


Talk about a high degree of difficulty! Neil delivered a mind-numbing barrage of lyrics, singing a melody that constantly changes keys (each time going higher). All the while he did his dances, hit his marks, jumped through that hoop with the Pippin acrobats, and I still haven’t figured out how he got from the magic box on stage to the back of the theater with the Newsies. The audience got it too, and leapt to their feet at the end for the longest ovation I think I have ever heard for a number at an awards show. That wasn’t just a song – it was a theme park thrill ride.

Not everything is that exciting, but it’s still the charge that goes through the audience when Barbra Streisand or Idina Mezel belts that high note, or Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan, or Cathy Rigby soars across the stage singing "I’m Flying" in Peter Pan.

There are so many ways to fail in musical theater, it is so hard to get the formula right. But when it works, wow!

In conclusion...

So we agree - it is all kind of fake. And if the transition from speaking to singing doesn't work for you - then that is perfectly valid. It's the job of the writers, directors, and actors to make it work and maybe they aren't doing their jobs very well. But in every genre, there is good and bad art. And when musical theater is good and you are in the hands of professionals that know how to do their jobs, it can be pretty mind blowing.

Current: Sunday in the Park Concert


Update Dec 13 2016 - It is official, Sunday with Jake Gyllenhaal will be coming back to Broadway for an official (but limited) run in February 2017 at the Hudson Theater in New York!

***

Picture this: Would you let your boyfriend wait 20 or 30 minutes while you finish up those last paragraphs you have to write? You're almost there and you're on a roll. Or maybe you're finishing that sauce for the roast that will make it special. Or those last lines of code, or figuring out that tough riff on the guitar or piano. It's going to be spectacular and he'll love it when he sees what you have created.

Meanwhile the boyfriend is pacing in the other room realizing again that you're going to miss the movie, or the date, or the other plans he has made to spend time with you that are now never going to happen. He's in love with a selfish bastard who cares only for his "work" and not for the feelings of someone who loves him.

Do you keep working and "finish the hat" (to use George's words in the play)? Does the boyfriend wait and wait for whatever bits of time you have left? And the really scary question, would you really want to be married to a boyfriend who had so little regard for their own worth that they would stick around for a lifetime of treatment like that?

For some Sunday in the Park with George is a profound work that probes the origin of art and the value of family and how each one leaves a legacy for the future. For others, it's an interesting first act that shows the famous painting being created, that gets thrown away in a baffling contemporary second act with a completely new set of characters. So it has its lovers and haters.


Into this history steps Jake Gyllenhaal, not known for his singing skills, to take on a role made famous by golden tenor Mandy Patinkin. Jake did an Encores concert last year, (completely miscast as Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors). He was charming, though and did well. But the role of Seurat is something completely different. Charm gets you nowhere with this part. On the other hand, the role of the serious, moody, focused artist is a much better match for Gyllenhaal. So, as an actor he's probably got this part nailed. But does he have the vocal chops?

Listen to the bootleg recording below - Jake's soars through this score. Clearly he has been training like an Olympic athlete with a vocal coach, and all that training has paid off. Jake is joined by Tony winner Annaleigh Ashford (seen in last week's Rocky Horror remake) who handles the role of the woman in his life with ease.

Jake Gyllenhaal, you'll be delighted to hear, can speak pointillism. Even more to the, uh, point, he can sing pointillism, which isn't easy at all. It involves concentration and balance and order, not to mention being able to summon all those radiant flecks of color and light. But when Mr. Gyllenhaal intones, "blue, blue, blue, blue," in a bristling succession of notes, you could swear you hear dabs of paint turning into shimmer. With that moment, we've stepped with Mr. Gyllenhaal through the doorway of one man's vision and into the empyrean summoned by his character, the 19th-century French painter Georges Seurat. It's going to be a long and happy time before we have to return to our dimmer daily worldviews. NY Times

Click to expand...

The good reviews were also spread out among the rest of the cast and production.

Standouts include Zachary Levi as Jules, a fellow artist with a begrudging admiration for Seurat's experiments with color and light, and Carmen Cusack as his wife Yvonne, a snob who longs to be looked at the way Georges looks at Dot. As the married coachman and cook to Jules and Yvonne, Gabriel Ebert (a Tony winner for Matilda) and Ruthie Ann Miles (ditto for The King and I) bring tart characterizations; Phillip Boykin's bassissimo gruffness is an ideal fit for the Boatman; and Brooks Ashmanskas and Liz McCartney are deliciously droll as vulgar nouveau riche Americans who can take or leave Paris, aside from the pastries. Phylicia Rashad delicately mines the concern hidden beneath the disapproving demeanor of Georges' haughty mother, flanked by the always-terrific Lisa Howard as her Nurse.

As for Gyllenhaal, his plan to return to Broadway this season in a revival of the Lanford Wilson drama Burn This has been postponed until the 2017-18 season due to a scheduling conflict. But it seems likely that his stage future might also eventually include a musical, if his continuing flirtation with the form and evident vocal coaching are any indication. - Hollywood Reporter

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, this concert version was a special presentation for just four nights. But, as the Hollywood Reporter mentioned, Gyllenhaal was scheduled to come back to Broadway this spring in the play Burn This - but that has now been put on hold. Does that open up a possibility to take this show to a theater in Times Square this spring? That's the question everyone is asking. New York City Center who produces Encores is observing radio silence. They won't say yes and they won't say no. We can only hope.

For more information:

• Full New York Times Review of Encores Concert
• How Sondheim and Lapine Made a Masterpiece with Sunday in the Park with George (Playbill)
• Sunday in the Park with George - Move On at the Théâtre du Châtelet - Paris with Julian Ovenden and Sophie-Louise Dan (Highly reccomended!)
• See the video of the original 1994 Broadway production on Amazon or other streaming services or on DVD.
• Barbra Streisand records Putting it Together for her Broadway Album (with some lyric changes from Sondheim to make the song about the music industry)