FUN STUFF: Top 5 Sondheim Rhymes

Posted on July 21, 2011 by David Fick
THE MUSICALITY OF SONDHEIM

To purchase THE MUSICALITY OF SONDHEIM on CD, click on the image above.

In the latest edition of The Village Voice, Michael Musto listed his top 5 Sondheim rhymes – check out the link for his reasons:

1. “When a person’s personality is personable / He shouldn’t oughta sit like a lump / It’s harder than matador coercin’ a bull / To try to get you off of your rump.” – Company

2. “Putting thoughts of you aside in the South of France / Would I think of suicide? Darling, shall we dance?” – Follies

3. “Another chance to disapprove / Another brilliant zinger / Another reason not to move / Another vodka stinger / Aaaaaaaahhhh! I’ll drink to that.” – Company

4. “This is how Samson was shorn / Each in her style a Delilah reborn.” – Follies

5. “The hands on the clock turn, but don’t sing a nocturne just yet.” – A Little Night Music

So what are yours, and why? I might have to think about this for a while before I select mine…

Posted in Stephen Sondheim | Tagged | 1 Comment

NEWSFLASH: Lin-Manuel Miranda in FREESTYLE LOVE SUPREME Pilot

Posted on July 19, 2011 by David Fick

linmanuelmiranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Playbill is reporting that a pilot based on the Freestyle Love Supreme stage show (described as ‘a non-stop, hip hop improv ride, spinning cues from the audience into instantaneous riffs and fully realized musical number’) will be produced, starring Lin-Manuel Miranda. The pilot would feature original music by Miranda and Bill Sherman.

Miranda is a super wordsmith and I’ve enjoyed a great deal of his work, admiring particularly his work on the revival of WEST SIDE STORY, which must have been a pretty thankless job given the hostile stance so many took to Arthur Laurents’s idea of translating certain of the Stephen Sondheim-Leonard Bernstein songs in that score into Spanish. I guess he has to do something now that the In the Heights film has been canned. Of course, he still has Bring it On going. That show ran in January and a tour begins in November. If there are revisions happening there, I guess that’s what he’s busy with at the moment. I hope he manages to keep his momentum going. I would hate to see him go the way of Meredith Willson.

Anyway, I wonder how this will work given that the show upon which the pilot is based relies on interaction with the audience. Will it be like a live hip-hop version of Whose Line is it Anyway? with a live studio audience?

Thoughts?

Posted in Arthur Laurents, Bill Sherman, Leonard Bernstein, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Meredith Willson, Stephen Sondheim | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

INTERVIEW: Lenora Nemetz in THE EXAMINER

Posted on July 17, 2011 by David Fick
GYPSY

To purchase the 2008 Broadway Revival Cast Recording of GYPSY, click on the image above.

Here’s an interesting interview with Lenora Nemetz, the actress who originated the role of Fritzie in Cabaret, who understudied and then went on to replace both Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera in Chicago, who understudied Liza Minnelli in The Rink and who played Mazeppa in the most recent revival of Gypsy. What a talent. Enjoy!

Posted in General News | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Opening Nights: TOMMY at the Colonial Theatre

Posted on July 7, 2011 by David Fick

Since tonight is the opening night of the Berkshire Theatre Festival’s Tommy, I thought it might be interesting to share some photos of the new production of Pete Townshend and Des McAnuff’s show, which stars Randy Harrison (from Queer as Folk), Jenny Powers and James Barry.

Tommy

Tommy

Just sharing a couple of shots here; the rest can be seen at the Playbill.

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Lesser Known Musicals Month: METROPOLIS

Posted on July 4, 2011 by David Fick
METROPOLIS

To purchase the cast recording of METROPOLIS, click on the image above.

Metropolis

I just finished listening to the cast album of Metropolis for the second time this month after not listening to it for years. Certainly, having read up a bit about it too, it seems as though the technology required to run the set overwhelmed everything else in the original production and the critics certainly didn’t hold their punches in their criticism of the book, score and lyrics. Of course, the show is a hot mess, but not one that is unsalvagable by any means. My favourite songs in the score are “It’s Only Love/Bring on the Night”, “You are the Light” and “The Sun”. “One of Those Nights” also has a great deal going for it, despite the very obvious flubs in the lyrics. There is some great work in the “101.11” theme, which is again reprised in “50,000 Pounds of Power/One More Morning”. While there certainly is a prominent use of motifs, both musically and in the lyrics, the biggest problem I have with the score is its lack of coherence. There are so many competing musical styles here (power ballads, disco, folk, gospel and so on) that the show just doesn’t ever come together as the sum of its parts. The orchestrations don’t help either. One presumes that the synthesisers were meant to give the impression of futuristic technology back in the 1980s. Although I have my doubts about how convincing a ploy this actually was even back then, the synthesisers just sound hopelessly dated now.

Certainly, a mainstream revival of the the show would need a thorough overhaul to address the problems of the show, but with the recent suicide of Joe Brooks, who was basically the driving creative force behind this show and relaive inactivity of lyricist Dusty Hughes, things look pretty bleak for a major revival of the show at this point. It’s great to have such a complete cast album, although I find the acting and singing incredibly uneven. A perfectly pitched Judy Kuhn is paired with a generic sounding and rather bland Graham Bickley. Brian Blessed soars so far over the top in his role that he’s basically out of sight. The accents are all over the place. Characters and actors get lost in all the noise made by the score. If this is any reflection of what the performances were like, it’s not hard to imagine why this was less than compelling back in the 1980s. Many a mediocre show has been saved by virtuoso performances, but – besides Kuhn – Metropolis doesn’t seem like it got it together in that area either. Kuhn sounds like she is busting her ass to try and hold things together, but it’s just not enough. Even so, Metropolis is an interesting listen if nothing else, that’s for sure.

Want to add your own thoughts about Metropolis? Head to the comment box and submit your answers!

Posted in Dusty Hughes, Joseph Brooks | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Lesser Known Musicals Month: THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK

Posted on July 3, 2011 by David Fick
THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK

To purchase the THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK, click on the image above.

The Hunting of the Snark

I developed a very unhealthy obsession with this musical (which was created by Mike Batt, who wrote “Bright Eyes” and “Caravans” and discovered Katie Melua) after the concept album was played during our Class Music lesson in 1990. I was given a cassette of the album by my Music teacher, which I basically played until it wore out, sadly thinking at that time that I would never be able to find it again. Imagine my delight when I found it at a flea market on CD! Anyway, there are some fantastic songs in this : “Children of the Sky” is a marvellously evocative opening number following the brief “Prologue”, some great character work in the shot pieces where each character describes why they came on the hunt, some fantastic disco in the Act I closer “Dancing Toward Disaster”, and a beautiful ballad late in Act II called “As Long as the Moon Can Shine”. The only song that really didn’t appeal to me as a child was “Midnight Smoke”, which of course holds the key to understanding the final lines of the play. I still think there is a great stage production in this material, just waiting to be brought to the world. That said, I think it could be a marvellous animated musical too, with marvellously creative and even surreal visuals.

Want to add your own thoughts about The Hunting of the Snark? Head to the comment box and submit your answers!

Posted in Fun Stuff, Lorenz Hart, Mike Batt, Richard Rodgers | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Lesser Known Musicals Month: FIRST LADY SUITE

Posted on July 2, 2011 by David Fick
FIRST LADY SUITE

To purchase the FIRST LADY SUITE cast recording, click on the image above.

First Lady Suite

First Lady Suite: This musical by the brilliant Michael John LaChiusa first opened Off-Broadway in 1993. It deals with four of the USA’s Ladies: Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Eisenhower, Bess Truman and Jacqueline Kennedy and features a great score that offers singing actresses four super roles. A revised version of the show appeared in Los Angeles in 2002, and the show eventually made it to the UK in 2009. Thank goodness that a cast recording (of the 2002 version with the LA cast) was released. It’s a great to be able to listen to another exciting score from one of musical theatre’s most prolific and compelling serious contemporary composer-lyricists.

Want to add your own thoughts about First Lady Suite? Head to the comment box and submit your answers!

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EDGES, Tonglen and a Theatre of Compassion

Posted on June 2, 2011 by David Fick
EDGES8824

David Fick, Shannyn Fourie, Roland Perold and Luella Holland in EDGES

Last night’s preview of Edges was awesome. We had a packed house and the audience was incredibly responsive and engaged. The theatre is an incredibly intimate one, so the front row is about a couple of steps away from our most downstage positions and the back row is perhaps less than 5 metres from that point. As we sing, the response from the audience is immediate for us. There is no fourth wall here and the interaction is direct. As we tell our stories, we see everyone sharing them. It becomes so clear that we are all together in this experience of being human. It reminds me of the tonglen meditation practice I discovered recently when I bought myself The Compassion Box. Tonglen is about sending and receiving energy, acknowledging the suffering of yourself and others on an in-breath and releasing happiness and success to all on the out-breath. Perhaps confronting all of that pain sounds like it might be quite heavy and it certainly can be at the start of a meditation but, by the time you’re done, you’re filled with light and love and kindness. Now I am not suggesting that the performance of Edges is a meditation, but the cathartic, spiritual dialogue that the show brings about is a similar reminder that we are not alone, that we are all always becoming and that even in our darkest moments there is hope and healing.

I wasn’t expecting to blog so much about our connection with the audience. In fact, when I sat down I was intending to write about the next song in the show, “Boy With Dreams”. That will have to wait for another day. After all, there are many more days to blog about Edges before our run is through and the audience is an integral part of the theatrical experience of this show. I wonder what will change when we perform in a bigger venue at the National Arts Festival next month.

Opening night tonight! Looking forward to sharing our show with another group of people – including the critics. Bring it on!

(Edges, by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, runs at the Kalk Bay Theatre from 1 – 25 June 2011. For tickets and more information, visit the Kalk Bay Theatre website Edges is directed by Paul Griffiths, with musical direction by Garth Tavares, and features Roland Perold, Shannyn Fourie, Luella Holland and David Fick).

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EDGES… A Song Cycle… A Blog…

Posted on June 1, 2011 by David Fick

David Fick, Luella Holland, Roland Perold and Shannyn Fourie in EDGES

So tonight is the first and only preview for the South African premiere production of Edges, a song cycle by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. I thought it might be a fun idea to devote what time I have for blogging this month to creating a little “time capsule” of my experiences with the show as it runs. I have a feeling this is going to be a great journey: the stories we get to tell are so personal and I am looking forward to sharing them with audiences.

I think that I will spend some time looking at each song as the run continues. I think it is so easy to connect to all of them and I would love to hear your stories, dear reader, in the comments box if you have some kind of special connection to one of the songs in the show.

I guess a good place to start would be with the opening number, “Become”. This song features all four cast members and exists in several versions, each with lyrics that differ to varying degrees. At the audition, I sang:

I’m nineteen and male
I play squash and rackquetball
I have an allergy to grapefruit and tomatoes
My sister goes to Yale
I screwed Jen from down the hall
Over spring break at a beach house in Barbados.

The revised score drops these specific, anecdotal references for a more general approach and, no longer nineteen, Man 1 ends up being a college graduate working in some kind of dead end retail job, disconnected from all the dreams he had for his life. A universal conundrum. How did I get here from there? And how do I get there from here? Trapped in a life full of ‘little’, rather than significant, moments repeating day after day, knowing that something must be missing.

I must admit, opening the show with this seemingly simple little verse and chorus is daunting! There is so much to put across: the introduction of this guy who has a boylike charm but such incredible insecurities, the very real fear of never being able to move past those insecurities so as to realise the dreams that are locked up inside, and the smile that covers it all. Of course, the material offers a good foundation by providing all that conflict with which one can play. This is pretty useful, as I think this is the least – I don’t know quite how to describe the sensibility around it – universal (?) of the songs in the show in terms of the storytelling, although – of course – the emotional core of what is being said connects us all on stage and connects each of us in the show to the song itself.

Random note: there are such great harmonies in this song! Especially what has become known as “the ABBA” in our little company, viz the section that begins “Do I really want to see?” after all four solo sections are complete.

Anyway, the preview awaits. Hope the response to the show is good.

(Edges runs at the Kalk Bay Theatre from 1 – 25 June 2011. For tickets and more information, visit the Kalk Bay Theatre website Edges is directed by Paul Griffiths, with musical direction by Garth Tavares, and features Roland Perold, Shannyn Fourie, Luella Holland and David Fick).

Posted in Benj Pasek, Justin Paul | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

May Madness: New Musicals of the 2011-2012 Season

Posted on May 31, 2011 by David Fick
SPIDER-MAN

To purchase the MP3 Cast Recording of SPIDER-MAN, click on the image above.

May is a mad month. A month of random musings about various topics related to musical theatre. Feel free to share your thoughts on each topic in the comment box below.

New Musicals of the 2011-2012 Season

Not all of these are 100% confirmed yet, but it seems as though this is what we can probably expect to see… so – to which new musical are you most looking forward? About which are you most intrigued? Which do you think will succeed? Which do you think will fail? Thoughts please.

Posted in Fun Stuff, General News | Tagged , , , , , , | 15 Comments