The Musicals Thread

[DaveReading]

As it should be. As I mentioned previously despite the image of Musicals being frivolous a lot of them have depth and are actually about tragedy:-

• Cabaret - rise of the Nazis
• Kiss of the Spiderwoman - persecution of political prisoners in South America
• Titanic (disaster)
• Come from Away (9/11)
• Carousel - domestic violence and coercive control
• Westside Story - gang warfare
• Bonnie and Clyde - Mass murderers
• Assassins - Murderers
• Les Miserables - the French Revolution
• Miss Saigon - the fall of Saigon and its human cost
• Sweeney Todd - mass murderer, grooming and coercive control

And that's just off the top of my head. Obviously some musicals are tragically bad (see Spiderman - Turn off the Dark) but that's different!

Les Miserables isn't set during the French Revolution.

 

[icowden]

Les Miserables isn't set during the French Revolution.

I sit corrected. Its during the French uprising of 1832 30 years after the French Revolution of 1799 and 16 years before the French Revolution of 1848. I'd always thought of it as being the French Revolution but they did have quite a few of them...

 

[Pross]

Musicals are very popular in my family, my daughter is just about to graduate on her musical theatre degree - next stop loads of auditions and a career in waitressing! Off to watch Kinky Boots on Saturday for the first time. Les Mis will always be my favourite, I haven't seen many I didn't enjoy but other favourites are Book Of Mormon (first watched it after lockdown ended when we still had to wear masks and ended up covered in snot from laughing so much with the mask on!), Avenue Q, Blood Brothers and Matilda so quite an eclectic mix.

 

[icowden]

Musicals are very popular in my family, my daughter is just about to graduate on her musical theatre degree - next stop loads of auditions and a career in waitressing! Off to watch Kinky Boots on Saturday for the first time. Les Mis will always be my favourite, I haven't seen many I didn't enjoy but other favourites are Book Of Mormon (first watched it after lockdown ended when we still had to wear masks and ended up covered in snot from laughing so much with the mask on!), Avenue Q, Blood Brothers and Matilda so quite an eclectic mix.

Well, we look forward to your review of Kinky Boots.

FYI - Cam Mac has a shiny new production of Les Mis on. My daughter has just seen it and thoroughly recommends.

 

[icowden]

Took the family to see "Operation Mincemeat" at the weekend. It's on at the Fortune Theatre in the UK and also on Broadway.
It's an absolutely brilliant night out. Very very funny and also moving. Far better than the film of the book I understand. It reminded me a bit of Come From Away in that you have an unlikely story to set as a musical but which offers both comedy and pathos.

It's quite a small theatre and there is a cast of 5 who play multiple roles (actually two casts as they rotate due to the demands of the show. Everyone is on stage for 90% of the show and everyone plays multiple roles).

The cocktails are also good :-)

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Daughter & chap went to see Book Of Mormon a few weeks ago
Hull, rings a bell??

I watched Calamity Jane on TV a couple of weeks ago

Plus, surprised one of the girls at work last week, by playing her Hugh Jackman, in ‘Oklahoma’, singing Oh,What A Beautiful Morning (Maureen Lipman, was in same production)
She thought he was over-dubbed for ‘Showman’, & didn’t realise he was a theatre actor first