Musical Theatre ( that's right dears )

boogieman

Dominic said:

@boogieman - seen it.....You are quite right ,but Old Hollywood musical films are in a different league to modern musical theatre ....even the old Cole Porter / Irving Berlin / Sondheim theatre productions have musical gems in them - I think its the Lloyd -Webber Cats type of thing that grates on me
@RaymondLin - Yes they love it 
Have to say I was a bit wierded out by the Moulin Rouge /Ewan McGregor thing

@Dominic the Singing in the Rain comment was aimed at Raymond Lin. I think a lot of the appeal of the old Hollywood musicals is tied into nostalgia, but I agree they had much better songs in too than the modern ALW crap, there are some real classics. I always equate old musical films with rainy Sunday afternoons  when I was a kid... they always seemed to be on the telly. 

TheBlueWolf

@boogieman  that was the gig I missed! 

boogieman

TheBlueWolf said:

@boogieman  that was the gig I missed! 

He seems to tour over here fairly often so you might get a chance to catch him again. Definitely worth it. O2 tickets weren't too outrageous either. 

DLM

Motorhate said:

It's fucking abysmal. All of it. Personally I'd fucking ban all musicals, there's just no need.

@motorhate Lovin' your NSFwork here, man: 

Dominic

@DLM - VERY GOOD.....couldn't stop laughing !!!!!!

DLM

Cheers, namesake!

Motorhate

Ha ha , that actually sounds like me when I hear musicals.

ESBlonde

I am largely in agreement with the OP and once something irritates everything of that genre tends to get lumped in to the hate.
But I get asked each year to play in a panto pit band with some other old farts and it is enjoyable, however the tunes are predominently pop songs shoved in an amdram production rather than written specifically for the play. But for sure you couldn't drag me to a west end musical with a dozen horses.

crunchman

ESBlonde said:

I am largely in agreement with the OP and once something irritates everything of that genre tends to get lumped in to the hate.
But I get asked each year to play in a panto pit band with some other old farts and it is enjoyable, however the tunes are predominently pop songs shoved in an amdram production rather than written specifically for the play. But for sure you couldn't drag me to a west end musical with a dozen horses.

I'm a bit like you.  I'm not a huge fan of musicals but I've played at the end of year production at my daughters' school the last 4 years.  It is quite fun, but it's a lot of work for two evenings!

I get what has been said about musical songs.   Most musicals stand or fall on their songs.  As much as lot here will hate it, something like Let it go is a massive song (and I wish I had the songwriting royalties).  If I go back to my childhood we were all singing Summer Nights in the playground, and it was a must at school discos when I was 10.  It's important for a musical to have strong songs - even if they are commercial rather than brilliant musically. 

It's interesting that there is now a trend of writing musicals are written around existing songs e.g. We will rock you, Mamma Mia etc.

Dominic

Your last point is a very good one .........................but that's cheating !!!!

robinbowes

crunchman said:

It's interesting that there is now a trend of writing musicals are written around existing songs e.g. We will rock you, Mamma Mia etc.

So called "jukebox" musicals. Very popular, esp. if you like the artist. Eg. I love Buddy.

R.

Nitefly

I've never been to see one (and probably never will), but when I was a nipper my Ma used to play the soundtrack albums of stuff like Camelot, The King and I, My Fair Lady, South Pacific, and West Side Story while she was doing the ironing, so I know most of the songs from them.  

Proper songs, with tunes and lyrics - brilliant!

vale

some rubbish i said because i was avoiding work.