When I know that I am annoying my non-theatre friends because I go on long tirades about shows, performers, composers, and performances, I know I have too much information in my head. This is a passion project of mine to get what I know out in the world, and something I can reference later in life.
In a previous post, I had a lot to say about the live broadcast of Musicals on network television. I still stand behind my support and adoration for this, even as it works out some kinks. We can all agree that there is much to learn.
I was TERRIFIED when Fox announced that it was going to jump in the game with ‘Grease:Live’. I literally could not complain about it enough.
I was stone cold wrong.
I was so irritated by this idea of Grease being brought to the small screen for a lot of reasons, all of which I had mentioned, and I feel like the Fox executives read my post and said “He’s right, let's change these things”
While Grease will always be sexist AF, and it has been 9 months since I watched this event live, I want to say how wonderfully surprised I was at how much I truly enjoyed the production.
There was so much thought and care put into staging this. The sound stages and exteriors were in front a a live audience, that you COULD SEE on tv. The halls, the gym, the diner, everything looked great.
Also, for good measure, I loved the transition for Marty to singing in her room with the girls, to singing at the US show for “Freddy My Love”
Some of the more questionable lyrics were either omitted or made more family friendly, and most importantly, between Thomas Kail’s direction, and Aaron Tveit’s acting, Danny Zucko seemed like a guy who got sort of lost in a very real way, and tries to be a better guy. Its not implied, it's not awkward. Many have said that his performance in this production was bland, or lackluster (I admit, I did some research for this post) but I disagree. I remember distinctly thinking that there was a choice to soften him up during his "tough guy" Danny, and I thought it went a long way in the storyline. A fresh perspective on where Zucko was coming from. It made sense that Danny joined Doody in “Those Magic Changes”. It spoke more about their journey, particularly Danny's
The dance numbers were on point and actually focused on ALL the dancers, not just leads. That's always nice to see when the choreographer goes through so much work to have most of it scrapped in favor of “star time”
The supporting cast was amazingly well done. Vannessa Hudgens, who’s father had just passed, truly showed the meaning of the show must go on, and using your pain in your performance, Kether Donahue, an all around personal favorite, might have been the funniest thing that graced that sound stage, the boys, who were more or less forgettable, didn't irritate me as the “thunderbirds” or “Burger Palace Boys” (whichever version is your favorite) tend to do. And also, they were multi-racial, which made me very happy.
I was not a fan of Carly Rae Jepsen’s added song. I don't know why it was there. It was boring, it didn't show off her voice, we were all sad. I'm going to chalk it up to something important happening off stage...
Though I will have to gush a little about Boys II Men pulling out all the stops. I grinned ear to ear for one of my favorite numbers in this show. It was such a magical moment.
To be frank, the BEST thing was that race scene!! I appreciate they kept that intact from the film and they used every filming trick in the book to make that come alive, with literal smoke and mirrors. The imagination, and stagecraft (set craft?) behind making this pivotal moment come alive continuously blows my mind and is something that people always mention when discussing this event.
Mario Lopez was a shit show. Plain and simple. While I'm sure he's a lovely and competent man in real life, his performance was unbalanced and distracting. I really needed him to not be there.
Overall I hope this continues. I hope I continue to be surprised, and this format is enlightening children and families of all ages to how wonderful theatre can be. Cheers to the production team of Fox's Grease: Live! and cheers to all the Emmy's you won.
Next up, Hairspray: Live on NBC. will you be watching?
I did this thing, and it was not theatre related. I set a goal and I reached it. I'm super proud of myself. I wanted to share it with you.
About 2 months ago, we had this Leadership and Culture presentation in our office. It was really informative, and I walked away with some perspective, and a lot to think about.
A Little Background: There was a topic that was brought up in the meeting that really got my attention. I wanted to hold on to this idea as soon as I heard about it. It a series of 30-day challenges that had been self-assigned to a guy who ended up having a TED talk about it. We were then asked if there was a 20-day challenge we could do for ourselves. It was presented as something that didn't have to be difficult, it didn't exactly have to change your life or your whole world. A challenge just for you, and help you grow.
To Get a Little Personal: I had recently (and not so recently) been told by medical professionals that I need to focus on cardio in my workout routines. It's good for my body, which is genetically at risk for diabetes and heart disease, just like it's good for most people’s bodies. I had already started showing some of the pre-diabetic warning signs, and I needed to continue to take care of myself to stay healthy. However, I fight with the same boredom that many, many people do when it comes to cardio. Bikes, and ellipticals, and treadmills, and ever the stair climbers… you are huffing and puffing and staying in place. Its tough to stay engaged. So I thought it over and figured one mile is not that hard. I decided to start a mile a day challenge.
For this challenge, I gave myself one simple rule: I had to run at least one mile every day, for 30 days.
Off and Running: It was a simple start and I felt great about it. Sometimes I would be feeling really good, the initial mile would have me energized, and I would run more than a mile. Sometimes the cardio would warm me up and I would actually do some lifting for another 20 or 30 mins. It got me up off the couch and out the door. I was active for at least 15 to 20 mins every day, and I could feel a big difference.
My Mile a Day Goal Tracker
The Good: In the time I had given myself for this challenge, my boyfriend, Ben, and I had a little vacation planned. I had to plan a little in advance and map out a couple of routes while we were gone. It was nice that I was able to get out and run while I wasn't at home. I ran around a super cute area in Oakland, and found a really nice trail outside of Reno. Places I most likely would not have seen!
The Bad: One or two times, I would have to go to the gym late, at the end of the day. 10 pm on a treadmill seems really awful, but it was actually fine. I would crawl back home, shower and get right into bed. Those nights I actually slept extremely peacefully.
The Ugly: The worst was an evening where I was in a dance workshop for almost 3 hours and hadn't run my mile yet. A lot of people said to me “you danced for 3 hours, that counts” but it would have broken my rule. I had to RUN one mile, that was the deal that I had made with myself. I'm glad I stuck to that and didn't compromise. It made me feel that much more accomplished when I looked back on my 30 days.
This was at 10:20 PM
It was one of the tougher months I have put myself through, but it got me into a good routine. My last day of the challenge, I tried to push myself to run 2 miles, but I ran out of time I could spare being at the gym. I ended up with a good idea of what i can accomplish at the gym. I'm proud of myself. I wouldn't even say this is a wholly original idea, either. I obviously got the idea from someone else, who was explaining someone else's journey. Mini-challenges have been around for quite some time, but I like the small little wildfires it creates within a community.
Several friends and colleagues of mine have asked me about this and they have been inspired. Some are modifying the idea so that it for works for them, and what they hope to gain in the fitness department, but using the basics of “it's just one mile” to get motivated.
The Bottom Line: Let’s face it, some days, a mile is hard. You don't want to get out of bed, or you had a long day, you just finished a whole pizza by yourself, but you do it. You get some endorphins, you move on with your day. Other days, you think its going to be a drag, but then you hit a good stride, and you really feel motivated to take the day on and continue being active! I guess its all about perspective.
On Friday, September 30th, Ben and I went and saw the new musical "October Sky" at the Old Globe. This show is an adaptation of the 1999 film starring Laura Dern, and Jake Gyllenhaal.
I have to admit I was excited for this show when it was announced. We had a gift certificate to the Globe that was burning a hole in my pocket and I picked this show as the front runner in my head.
The Good:
The stand out of this show for me was absolutely the set. The set was just phenomenal. I read that, since this was based on the film, they wanted to keep a cinematic quality and have the scenery move seamlessly, and they succeeded. The set moved swiftly and the pieces were gorgeous. The highlight was the large wooden structures. They also had a great giant scrim that projected sweeping west Virginian skies it extremely effective. On several occasions, both of us were pointing at the beautiful things that were taking place.
The Bad:
About 2 weeks before we saw it, I started realizing that this might be the whitest show ever. I was right
The story takes place in a small mining town, Coalwood, West Virginia and is based on a true story. Families lived in the town, that was owned by the mining company and they worked in the mine. The company also owned the houses they lived in, and the schools the children attended.
The bulk (95%) of the actors were white. There was one black family, and the father’s skin color played into the script very minimally, literally in one scene it was quasi-mentioned. There was one other black actor, Bathtub Amos (Destan Owens) who sings a pretty amazing song. That is it. The ensemble was very large, and also very male. I would say that white men took up more than 50% of this cast.
The Ugly:
This show was seriously lacking any sort of female narrative at all. There were maybe 8 women total in this cast, and only 4 or 5 were named, and only 3 had a strong storyline. The 3 “main” females in this cast existed only for the men.
Ironically one of the major plot points was the female teacher, Miss Riley (Sandra DeNise), getting the point across that not everything in the world is designed to pick up or knock down the male main character, Homer Hickam (Kyle Selig), except in this storyline, it is.
I was reading the liner notes about the show, and the guy who wrote the music and lyrics for the show, Michael Mahler, had a strong perspective on why each of the 3 women mentioned had such a strong presence in the show. The female director and choreographer Rachel Rockwell lumped all women in these small towns together as one being. That really bothered me. It felt like she thought of the women as a sole entity that lived to worry about and care for their fellas. I think that is totally unfair.I know historically that this is how these women have been portrayed, and that isn't accurate at all. Even this show proves that they were women who had autonomy, who found a lot of strength where there wasn't much being given, had dreams and hopes for themselves, and their children, outside of their seemingly small lives.
I wanted to hear more about their stories. I don't think it would have been too tough to have these women speak with each other about something other than the male miners that happen to be dictating their lives. (FYI did not pass the Bechdel test)
Bottom Line:
I will say that I did enjoy a large portion of the music. I love bluegrass and folk, and this was clearly an inspiration to the composer. I did find myself distracted by a lot of the music sounding familiar. I picked up music from David Yazbeck’s the Full Monty, Kitt & Yorkey’s Next to Normal, and Joe DiPietro’s I Love You You’re Perfect Now Change.
The cast really seemed to shine when singing together as well, which is a bummer that the show was so solo heavy. There was a female trio that was gorgeous, the miner’s chorus was amazing, and the whole ensemble together gave me goosebumps
The cast was talented overall. Some of the cast was weaker than others as far as believability in their roles, which was a surprised considering how far along they are in the run. The most impressive singer that stood out, in my opinion, was a black man who sang a glorious song about moonshine. By far the best vocals and the best stage presence.
I guess I came back to the question, Why was the show written? It's not that this was a bad story to tell, but my QUESTION is why are these stories still being told. The white male narrative is so tired. This could have easily been a multiracial cast. There wasn't a lot of dialogue about race, or even class, honestly. Yes, historically speaking, you would not have seen a heavily integrated mining town in the late 50s, but I feel like Hamilton has really paved the road to ignore that.The film paid a great tribute to Homer Hickam, and was did pretty well, and really help launch Gyllenhaal's career. I don't regret seeing this show, but I do not see a ton of marketability in this.
From Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, Children of Eden and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Also, I should probably say Prince of Egypt as well, even though that’s not technically a stage show, but still, learned so much from the music
I find it really odd to be a completely non-religious person and be so enamored with these musicals. I find them entertaining, and very worthwhile story telling.
I had the same experience as most being exposed to some of these shows. I watched the JCS movie really young, and it scared me, and then bored me. I sang "Any Dream Will Do" with a High School Ensemble, I heard "Day by Day" in Wet Hot American Summer, it did nothing for me, until I really started diving into theatre and I teched on Godspell, and then was in JCS a year later, and it hit me what a powerful story it was. It never did anything for me, theologically, but the drama hit home at my emotional core. The love, and the loss, it was great, also, great scores. As you may have read previously, I am not a big ALW fan, but Superstar is just the bees knees for me. Stephen Scwartz is good with me, and has always made me happy, and Godspell is a good example of why.
I'm totally out of the frame in this photo, but I was in this cast
Prince of Egypt was always something I was obsessed with. I saw the movie opening weekend, I got a boxed set with a picture, and tickets to the movie, I just love it. When you Believe, in all of its forms (Feature Length Film version or the ICONIC Pop Version with Whitney & Mariah) always makes me tear up, its just a composing, and great writing.
JATATD & Children of Eden came to me much later in life, and while i'm not as well versed in those scores & books, they are always a great listen, or a great show if i get a chance to catch them. I think its the accessibility of religion, and faith, mixed with the ease of music that makes these stories so grand to me. I did kick but at a Jeopardy category once, and it was on the bible, and I owe my streak to these shows.
When NBC originally announced in 2013 that they would be airing a LIVE broadcast of The Sound of Music, the world side-eyed the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical so hard.
Once the casting got announced (Carrie Underwood, and Vampire Bill in the lead) the world rolled its eyes, and once the broadcast aired, live, as promised, the world laughed. It was a laughable occasion, although it was tremendously important.
Bringing live theatre into the home of millions of people who don't have the means, and maybe not even the desire to explore live entertainment was such a thrill to think about. Hopefully it's creating new theatre lovers, though you would never know it from the hate-filled live-tweeting, and the moment by moment recaps that while hysterical, were pretty defamatory. While i can admit the show had its flaws: Carrie Underwood can't act, Vampire Bill is not very good at…. anything, and it was the first glimpse into the unnerving sound quality that is produced when there isn't a live audience for something that was meant to be live, there was a lot of stuff that was truly wonderful about that evening.
People who never would have had the slightest idea who Audra McDonald, Christian Borle, or Laura Benati was, got a glimpse into their true Broadway Worth talents. They got to see an unmixed sound of raw, talented voices, and how to recover in a performance when something goes wrong. It wasn't perfect, but it was magical.
I think the second time out, in 2014, they were learning, but this one seemed a lot more off. The casting was poor, Allison Williams, while very talented, was a terrible choice for Peter, Christopher Walken was more interested in himself than the production, and some of the production magic was removed when you saw that rigs sometimes go wrong, and camera ops sometimes get the wrong information. Also, whoever picked this show may have forgotten that it's not Disney's Peter Pan, and it is so very boring. Christian Borle (and his biceps) gave the production some substance, as well as the gaggle of professional Broadway dancers including Ryan Steele and Alex Wong.
I was definitely more disappointed with this production. It was trying to hard to throw around its weight in being a big NBC production, and it really missed the mark.
Though, nothing prepared me for what 2015 brought. When they announced they were going to have the Wiz be live, I had mixed emotions. I like the music from that show, but a lot of the dialogue is dated, it would be awesome to see an all-black cast of a musical on a primetime network, but are they going to do an all-black cast? Are they going to half-ass it like they did with Sound of Music? Are they going to try TOO hard like they did with Peter Pan?
There wasn't a lot of history to look back on. As the months rolled by, and they announced casting and I got more and more excited: Mary J Blige, David Alan Grier, Amber Riley, Uzo Aduba, Ne-yo, Elijah Kelley, and also Queen Latifah as the Wiz… which I will get into later in the post, but I really was excited about. Also having an unknown Shanice Williams as the lead I feel was brilliant, and the cherry on the cake was having the original Dorothy, Stephanie Mills, playing Aunt Em. One of the important things about having the Wiz Live on a primetime network like NBC was the visibility and a representation of black actors. I was ready for this show. I feel it could be done. A great mix of respected performers and artists. I was not disappointed. This show had such a wonderful energy, and look to it. I think NBC really hit its stride with this. I hope to see more of this caliber of performances in the future, and I hope it fosters a new generation of performers and theatre lovers alike.
http://milasuniverse.bigcartel.com/product/representation-matters-12x12 "Photo taken by Kamila Powell of her 3 year old daughter as she is inspired by the talents of women who she can identify with. Spreading the message that representation matters."
This brings me to what I am truly dreading, The bandwagon effect has started and other networks are wanting to get on this ratings monster of live musicals, and leave it up to fox to riddle their new big production of “Grease Live!” with stunt casting and poor choices. Let me just rant for a minute here, but first off grease is a poor choice full or so much sexism it hurts my brain. Ladies, listen to men, and make sure you change every aspect of yourself to be liked. Being sexy is far more important than being yourself. Also, and this is the theatre geek in me getting pissed, they are doing a live production of the MOVIE version of this musical. Which irritates me immensely. I truly, honest to god will fight you on this, the music in the stage version is far superior to that of the movie. Let's talk about the casting of this atrocity as well. The only shining jewel in this crap hat is Aaron Tveit, whom I have mentioned many times before. He is a God among men, he made Les Miz the movie bearable, he brought us all to tears in next to normal, he made us all want to disguise ourselves in catch me if you can the musical, he is just perfect. I am assuming he will still be wonderful as Danny Zuko.
But Julianne Hough has never impressed me, even as a dancer, Vanessa Hudgens is still so full of promise but I also feel like she is horribly miscast as Rizzo, and I wonder if this choice was made to really set herself apart from her as Gigi when she lead the revival on Broadway (that really didn't do very well), Kether Donohue, whom I'm really loving on You’re the Worst, is continuously cast as “the fat one” in things, and she's not even fat! The thing that is cracking me up about the casting of Marty and Frenchie is that both Keke Palmer and Carly Rae Jepsen made their Broadway debut in the same role (The Cinderella Revival). Mario Lopez and Ana Gasteyer will be just fine in their respective roles, but once again, they are only lending their names to this production, and then having Jessie J perform an “updated” version of Grease is the Word… well… we’ll see. I am definitely going to watch this, but i doubt that it will be very good at all. I think that they are intentionally make a lot of choices that NBC was choosing to stay away from, and it seems like this will continue to dumb down the general audiences to what to expect from live shows.
It has been almost a
month since my last post. Life got crazy, and honestly I wasn’t feeling super
inspired. I was listening to Hamilton A LOT, and a lot of other shows that I
like to listen to kind of fell by the wayside, which is bound to happen from
time to time, I suppose
Luckily, I haven't been
hard up for listening delights due to my vocal ensemble hitting rehearsals
really hard in preparation for our next main stage show, Encore Vocal Ensemble of San Diego brings you The Murder, Mystery, Music Show!. We are really digging into some stuff that I already love: Sweeney Todd,
Jekyll & Hyde, Young Frankenstein, and The Full Monty.
Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett, the maker of meat pies, in Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd."
Really trying to bring
some light hearted fun to some dark subjects, like murder and fear. Also some
stuff that we knew would make the fans say “I love that show!”: The Pajama
Game, The Wiz, and of course including the six merry Murderesses of the Cook
County Jail from Chicago
I have found an
unexpected treasure in a piece that wasn't written for a musical, and also has
an interesting history. The Sound of Silence had a lot of crazy ups and downs,
and has really settled into the pop culture mindset with its inclusion in the
1967 film the Graduate. I had only been aware of this song in my life. I don't
think I had ever intentionally listened to this song until we had picked it for
our fall show. It is so beautiful, and it has such poetry to it. I just love
it. I’m so glad to be exposed to this piece of music.
from the 2004 production of “Assassins”
In the planning process
for this show we were looking into a lot of music that didn't quite make it
into the show, but it was fun to think about shows that deal with dark ideas
like crime, panic, and distress. From the true life storylines that run through
Assassin’s (I was hoping for Everybody’s Got the Right) and the animated cloud of
pollution singing “Toxic Love” from Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, because who
doesn't like to think about the rainforest being destroyed? thank you 90’s
children’s movies!
I really enjoyed
thinking about these songs again. It was so much fun! One of the things that’s
so great about musical theatre, and theatre in general in the idea of talking
about (or better yet, singing about) topics that might not be appropriate in an
everyday conversation. I would love to engage an entire courtroom in the matter
of whether or not someone is Gay or European, and i think the world would be a
much better place if we could all sing about how we are “Steppin to the Bad Side”
and have every join us in a dance!
For goodness sake,
here’s a TL;DR for all my super busy friends, heading into the holiday season.
Encore’s Show is on November 21 & 22 and you should come see it
I can’t actually pinpoint the moment I learned who Laura Osnes was. I do know that one time I was listening to the Scott Alan: Live album, and the most heartbreaking song I ever heard was being sung so beautifully. “Now” is one of my favorite pieces, I have written before about it, as I am ALSO obsessed with J-Groff’s version that appears on Scott Alan’s Dreaming Wide Awake, but Laura’s voice on this, brought me to tears (I was on a city bus, too… so that was awesome).
From there, I officially entered the Osnes fandom when I heard her on the Bonnie & Clyde cast album. Some of the music affected me, made me dance a little, made me tap my toes, and adont get me wrong, I love Jeremy Jordan, it was really Laura Osnes singing “Dying Ain’t So Bad” that made me stop everything I was doing, and just listen, and feel. I thought about those words. I thought about the genius that is Frank Wildhorn, and I thought about the power behind her vocals, even when she was barely making sound. It was truly astounding. I was totally hooked!
When I listen to vocal performances, I look for something that is going to move me. I need something tender, or bombastic, or profound to stop me in my tracks, and to keep me coming back to a show, or a song again and again. I generally find these sorts of complexities in women’s voices more often then with men, and it’s why I am drawn to the likes of Sutton Foster, Audra McDonald, Lindsay Mendez, Kerry Butler and Laura Osnes. It’s not even the “screlting”, or the coloratura styled high notes that impress me, these women make me feel life when they sing. I cry, I laugh, I smile uncontrollably, and it’s like a drug-fueled high, that’s the dragon I find myself continuously chasing.
Laura Osnes and Patrick Hinds of the Theater People Podcast January 26, 2015, the Theater People Podcast their 30th episode which was recorded live at Fontana's Bar in New York City as part of the NYC Podfest
Well, shortly after my obsessive listening to the Bonnie & Clyde cast album on a loop did I discover the Theater People Podcast (that’s theater with an “E-R”) and listened to her be interviewed by my now personal idol, Patrick Hinds. Their interview was fun, funny, tender and above all else interesting. I listened to the Cinderella Revival which I love (Santino Fontana? Yes, please!) And rediscovered my love for Anything Goes!
I also found that she popped up in a few other musical theatre recordings that I love. Kerrigan and Lowdermilk’s “Our First Mistake” has her dueting with Meghann Fahy and also on the “K-L Live” album singing ‘The Girl Who Drove Away’. She’s everywhere!
As far as being with her from the beginning, the idea of the show “You’re the one that I want” as a tv show bugged me to begin with, so I kind of steered clear of it all together. I am a huge fan of the original stage version, but now that I know that Laura won, and also that Lindsay Mendez was in the cast, I regret my choices. I have since listened to the cast album, and relieved my personal connections with that score. I’m glad she was such a fan favorite, and I can totally see why.
