I hate tv, I hate sci-fi as a genre, I hate rap and I especially hate musical theater. When I was about 4 someone in my preschool class invited me to a musical and my mom explained the whole thing. So they’re just standing around and then without warning nor provocation they just extemporaneously start singing? Yes, she said, that’s more or less the size of it. I took a pass on that invitation, and here I am, 50 years later, and it still doesn’t make any goddamn sense to me.
Anyway, I’m a lot of fun at parties. Old man yells at cloud server.
I really don’t like very much musical theatre either. I personally avoid it, especially as someone who is a parent to a theatre person–our youngest started in theatre in 7th grade, was in it all through high school, got her BFA, and then a Masters in Arts Administration, is a theatre director at a high school and has her own local theatre company. We’ve seen and appreciated a lot of theatre on many levels in the past 20+ years, and a fair amount of musical theatre so I know wherof I speak. I mostly can’t stand it. I don’t so much mind things like Jesus Christ Superstar that are all music, rock operas I guess, but things like Grease where people spontaneously break into song while cleaning chimneys or getting dressed for a dance are a no go for me.
Word of advice: do not EVER attend a performance of Mother Courage, especially one performed by a high school troupe. You will be scarred for life.
High schools doing Brecht is just…yeah, that’s probably not going to work. Though I will say a high school performance of Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano is maybe the hardest I’ve ever laughed in my life.
I’ve also only seen it on D+… After my wife and I watched it the first time (and struggled to keep up with the rapid-fire lyrics), we watched it again a few days later – this time with closed captioning on. REALLY helped.
The only musical I’ve seen at the theatre is Starlight Express. I’m not saying that’s the reason I’ve never seen another one…but I’ve never seen another one.
Of course, if you want to bring this thread back to sci-fi, there’s only on thing to do…
I second this (talking about the Hamilton part). I went in a bit skeptical but I thought it was terrific. And yes I think the cast could make a difference. It’s hard to imagine anyone coming close to Daveed Diggs performance.
Waitress has become one of favorite modern musicals. I saw it the last time it was in town and listen to the cast album all the time. Poppins will be fun with the kids and batgirl is a big fan of 9 to 5. I’ve never actually seen Rent all the way through but I have seen all the parts of the movie version with the original broadway cast that I might as well have sat through it and like the songs. I wonder if actually sitting through the whole thing we leave me with a different reaction.
The only character in Rent who isn’t a selfish asshole is Benny, the “villain” of the show.
And if you’re going to center this around Roger writing one song good enough to bring back Mimi, that song better be a damn sight better than “Your Eyes”
Are “La Vie Boheme” and “Take Me or Leave Me” absolute bangers? Sure. But the show as a whole irritates the hell out of me now that I’m not a wide eyed college student.
It was the 90s. That shit worked! But yeah, it always seemed to me the whole point of every character is that all of them have their head shoved so far up their own asses and couldn’t understand any concept of anyone having a different opinion than whatever their very specific opinion on any subject is (with Angel being the foil that highlights their obnoxiousness, and then super punctuated at the funeral).
That’s awesome. My daughter was too old for the gig when it was in Houston but I totally would have tried her out for the gig if she were the right age.
