Entries tagged with musicals

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Canberra
Current Music: Electric Funstuff - Has Anybody Here Seen My Corps

Entry tags:

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Musical junkie that I am I really wanted to enjoy this but I found it to be more impressive than enjoyable.

Certainly the staging, the costuming, the lighting were superb in that inimitable and undefinable Tim Burton style. I enjoyed the performances of the cast, the songs were appropriate if not particularly memorable.

But...something didn't quite work for me. I don't know if it was the subject matter or something else but I don't particularly want to see this again. Nor, unlike Rent, am I particularly interested in seeing a live performance.

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: Canberra
Current Music: Sheila Armstrong, Gerald English, Etc.; André Previn: London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus - Orff: Car

Entry tags:

Dubbing cuts both ways...

The wikipedia page for Maaya Sakamoto* lists her dubbing roles in addition to her roles as an anime voice actress. It's no surprise that an actress as capable as she is would get these roles, the surprise lies in some of the roles she's had. Nothing major, just little things like Padme Amidala and Rose Tyler...

Oh and Eponine** in Les Miserables...

*who among other things played the lead role of Hitomi Kanzaki in the superb Vision Of Escaflowne.
**She also has a gorgeous singing voice.

Current Mood: surprised
Current Location: Canberra

Entry tags:

The Lion King? Really? And then he said what?

Although I've never seen the film, I have seen the stage musical of The Lion King. And wasn't overly impressed.

To say that I was surprised to see it listed as one of "The Canon: 50 Essential Film Musicals" in The Rough Guide To the Film Musical by David Parkinson is something of an understatement. So I skipped ahead to that review and got even more surprised by some of the content. Quote and comments beneath the cut...

( So, Simba is a neo-con? )

Current Mood: creative
Current Location: Canberra

Entry tags:

musicals

Musical Quiz - The Remaining Answers

Here are the remaining answers:

2. But I was, as many young barristers are,
An impecunious party.

This was the Judge introducing himself in Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial By Jury

3. Isn't it nice to know a lot!
And a little bit not...

Red Riding Hood, I Know Things Now, from Sondheim's Into The Woods (and there are certain people out there on my friends list who I'd expected would see this and immediately get it. You know who you are... :) )

5. We just log on and dreams appear

The Ga Ga Kids (ensemble basically), Radio Ga-Ga from Elton's superb We Will Rock You. (This one was hard because several of Queen's lyrics, especially Radio Ga-Ga, were rewritten to fit the story).

I may put another quiz together this weekend but then again I might not.

Current Mood: mischievous
Current Location: Canberra

Entry tags:

musicals

Musical Quiz - 1st Answers

So, so far we have:

spaetlese on 9 points

slrose and

stephen_dedmantied on 5 points

fred_mouse on 2 points.

The answers that have been picked so far are;

1. John, "Bui-Doi", Miss Saigon
4. Mr Bumble, "Boy for Sale", Oliver!
6. Fantine, I Dreamed a Dream, Les Miserables
7. Christine, Phantom of the Opera, Phantom of the Opera

I didn't expect 3 to be missed, but 2 and 5 are less surprising.

Think of it as a challenge. :)

Current Mood: mischievous
Current Location: Canberra

Entry tags:

musicals

Musical Quiz

Inspired by stephen_dedman's comic quizzes. :)

Lines from songs from various musicals I have seen performed live. Sometimes more than once. And if I've seen them they shouldn't be too hard right?

Name the song, the singing character (which may be the ensemble), and the musical.

1. Conceived in hell, and born in strife

2. But I was, as many young barristers are,
               An impecunious party.

3. Isn't it nice to know a lot!
    And a little bit not...

4. Only seven guineas.
   That or thereabouts.

5. We just log on and dreams appear

6. But the tigers come at night

7. In sleep he sang to me, in dreams he came

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Canberra
Current Music: Seasons of Love from Rent

Entry tags:

musicals,
reviews

Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes...

...How do you measure a year in a life?

This evening I watched Rent, the movie of the musical by the late Jonathon Larson.

The movie format... didn't quite work for me. There was something removed. Absent. A lack of connection somehow. A sense of sterility.

Despite this there are moments where the confronting story reaches a level of high tragedy that did really move me.

On the DVD I checked out the alternate ending which I think recreates the way the stage play would end. And it worked better.

Definitely one to see live if I get a chance.

PS: A Seasons of Love music video is available here.