What is the last musical you listened to?

[Omen II 1,235]

Speaking of Bernstein musicals, I was lucky enough to be able to attend a semi-staged concert performance of On The Town as part of the BBC Proms last Saturday.  John Wilson conducted the London Symphony Orchestra no less at the Royal Albert Hall on what would have been Leonard Bernstein's one hundredth birthday.

 

I do not know if anyone outside the UK can view this but it was also broadcast on TV the same night.  Listen to Some Other Time, which for me is probably the loveliest song that Bernstein ever wrote.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ef9mzc/play/avc82m/p06j86qn

[Disco Stu 15,495]

27 minutes ago, Omen II said:

I do not know if anyone outside the UK can view this 

 

With a VPN I can!  Thanks for the tip.

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

Muppets Most Wanted Christophe Beck's score combined with songs in chronological order

[Nick Parker 3,040]

Sondheim fans call out!

 

 

This version is a little grandiose for my liking, but the essential musicality is there. His Herrmann influence is really prevalent in songs like this. It's amazing how he can incorporate so many lines simultaneously, with all of them being completely discernable. This was something I didn't pay attention to until I played on a premiere of a first-time musical several years ago, where there would be two vocal lines that intersected so much, it was so difficult to focus on any one and became a muddled mess.

 

On the subject of Neil Patrick Harris...

 

 

The big band writing here is surprisingly nuanced, layered, and dramatic. At first I wasn't impressed with the song, but it became a favorite after a few times.

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

33 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

Sondheim fans call out!

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of my favorite performances in the world.  Flawless.  Riveting.

 

 

 

And, no joking, Judi Dench performing "Send in the Clowns" can bring me to tears if I'm in the right mood (translation: slightly tipsy enough)

 

[Jay 37,287]

I'm taking my wife to see Hamilton on Saturday, anybody here like that one?

[Nick Parker 3,040]

2 hours ago, Jay said:

I'm taking my wife to see Hamilton on Saturday, anybody here like that one?

 

My sister and fiancee love that thing so much, I've heard a good amount listening to it in the car with them. There are some well-written and clever moments, for sure; I can understand why it took the world by the storm it did. Not my thing, though, ultimately.

 

On a somewhat related note, the Young Frankenstein musical I'm performing in is opening next week! Obviously being in the band, I don't have the most holistic perspective, but from what I can tell it's very much a crowd-pleaser, and written very much in the idiom of old-style Broadway.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Gosh what a masterpiece!  What an outstanding recording!

 

Leonard Bernstein - On the Town

[SteveMc 2,674]

 

Perhaps a bit too eclectic in spots.  But pretty solid overall.  

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I really can't recommend enough this recent LSO backed cast recording of Leonard Bernstein's Wonderful Town.  An unjustly overlooked, brilliant, fun musical comedy and the music is, well, wonderful!  I daresay this is a stronger overall work than On the Town.

 

 

 

"Ohio" and "Wrong Note Rag" are (deservedly) the most famous songs but there are some great deep cuts here.  I like "Pass the Football" a lot.  A jock singing about how easy his college years were because he could play football.

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

There's so many crappy movie musical adaptations that have been mounted and quickly faded into obscurity on Broadway over the last 20 years, I definitely wrote off the Beetlejuice musical that premiered a few years back.  I listened to and greatly disliked the cast album, just not for me.  But it is interesting that it has slowly become something of a genuine cult sensation apparently.

 

https://variety.com/2022/legit/news/beetlejuice-the-musical-broadway-return-1235237431/

Quote

“Beetlejuice: The Musical” opened to ho-hum reviews and modest ticket sales in 2019 before gradually getting a second life thanks to TikTok fan videos. 

....

During the musical’s initial run, die-hards often showed up to performances in costumes, another rarity in the staid world of Broadway. And the musical’s popularity only seemed to grow during lockdown. Sales of the cast recording surged and “Beetlejuice” afficionados engaged in elaborate displays of devotion: [superfan Adam] Lucas acted in and helped edit an online version of the show that was embraced and shared by the production and its cast. That gave Warner Bros., the musical’s backers, the confidence to push forward with remounting it at a new venue.

 

 

The original songs are just so lame and boring, I don't get it.  There's no Elfman material, but the Belafonte songs are used.

[Tom Guernsey 2,280]

On 06/11/2020 at 4:06 PM, Stu said:

I really can't recommend enough this recent LSO backed cast recording of Leonard Bernstein's Wonderful Town.  An unjustly overlooked, brilliant, fun musical comedy and the music is, well, wonderful!  I daresay this is a stronger overall work than On the Town.

 

 

 

"Ohio" and "Wrong Note Rag" are (deservedly) the most famous songs but there are some great deep cuts here.  I like "Pass the Football" a lot.  A jock singing about how easy his college years were because he could play football.

 

 

Just found this thread and recommendation. My other half has a few versions of Wonderful Town but, entirely randomly and many, many years ago, I was sent (when I did soundtrack reviews) a copy of the Wonderful Town recording by Rattle and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, with a cast including the always wonderful Audra MacDonald (who I was lucky enough to meet at the stage door when she was in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, a play about Billie Holiday). I can't actually seem to find the CD of that version any more but I do now wonder if I should also be getting the LSO version? It seems to have got very good notices, although it would be quite random having two versions of the same show with the same conductor (and none of the others my other half has!).

 

 

We went to see a great production of Wonderful Town in Manchester a few years ago at the Lowry Centre starring Connie Fisher. Despite some well publicised issues with her voice, she did a great job in the lead (I think the role is pitched lower so it's less challenging from that perspective, although it's Bernstein, so I doubt it's easy).

 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Standard response from ' straight' men:

" I'm not into musicals but I do like...."

 

😜😅

 

WEST SIDE STORY ( 2021)

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I'm a straight man who can enjoy a lot of musicals right up until about 1972ish.  But I mostly enjoy musicals from the period when jazz and Tin Pan Alley and Broadway were like a great pop cultural soup (the 20s - 40s).  The farther away from that sound you get, the less I'm interested.  Hence why I listen to Wonderful Town and On the Town far more frequently than West Side Story.

[Omen II 1,235]

I was pleased to see that someone has uploaded to YouTube the full BBC Proms concert of Leonard Bernstein's On the Town recently.  Some Other Time is at about 1:52 and is a lovely rendition.

 

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

IIIIIIIII feeel like I’m noooot out of beeeeeed yeeeeeeeet.

 

What a classic opening.  I can never decide between this and Wonderful Town for my favorite Bernstein musical.