SWEET CHARITY.8.
In the era after Rodgers and Hammenstein and before Andrew Lloyd Webber this was one of the most entertaining musicals to appear on Broadway. A dozen or so great songs and some fabulous BobFosse choreography and as of writing Tasmin Outhwait playing the dance hall hostess make this a whirlwind of satisfaction. Juliet Prowse played the main part when I saw this many years ago and the show sparkled then. With this new production the show sparkles even more.
Thursday 8 April 2010
COLIN HOLMES ON MUSICALS 6.
LEGALLY BLOND .7.
A modern musical without any really hit songs and with a leaning to modern interpretation of current pop music I found this on CD somewhat uninspiring. I have not yet seen the show but word and mouth is certainly better than I expected. Taken from the film. If you enjoyed the film perhaps you'll enjoy the show. I will change this blog and score when I have seen it.
THRILLER LIVE.4.
Pupported to be a musical. I don't think so. Micheal Jackson music. Product!
A modern musical without any really hit songs and with a leaning to modern interpretation of current pop music I found this on CD somewhat uninspiring. I have not yet seen the show but word and mouth is certainly better than I expected. Taken from the film. If you enjoyed the film perhaps you'll enjoy the show. I will change this blog and score when I have seen it.
THRILLER LIVE.4.
Pupported to be a musical. I don't think so. Micheal Jackson music. Product!
COLIN HOLMES ON MUSICALS 5.
GREASE.5.
This what as known as product. Something put into the West End in the hope that it's familiarity will tempt people into the theatre.This particular production was instigated by an ITV reality show on the lines of Andrew LLoyd Webber's BBC show but wasn't quite as popular. The resulting format opened to good business. Who hasn't seen this show or the film? It has two new songs from the film added which are hardly fifties music (The show has a late fifties setting) in fact "Grease" and "You're the one that I want" are more seventies disco. It changes the leads regularly hoping to attract new audiences. It is a revival of a revival. It is product
DREAMBOATS AND PETTICOATS.4.
Inspired by a CD named D@Petticoats reviving late fifties and early sixties pop songs. More product.
AVENUE Q.6.
Deliciously satirical with adult themes owing much to Sesame Street this show has run for five years showing it's word and mouth popularity. Actors are seen working the puppets a la Lion King but this is a today musical showcasing real people. Pleasant music and very entertaining but falls short of the word Musical more Revue.
BLOOD BROTHERS.7.
A couple of well known ballads "Tell me it's not true" and "Easy Terms" hold this show together as a musical but that's not the point. Always well acted the two times I have seen it, the show has a strong emotional story that takes the audience along with it to it's heartrending conclusion.
A great night in the theatre but if only it had more great songs it would have been a 9 score. If youhavn't seen it you won't be dissapointed.
DIRTY DANCING.4.
The film's a whole lot better!
THE LION KING 8.
Sumptuous opening to an inspiring family show. It gets hold of you straight away and carries you through to the end. Amazingly not distracting with actors and singers puppetering the animals who are the main characters and because of the beautiful presentation of the scenery I found the whole thing irristably charming. Children love the show and are completely entranced the whole evening. Adults could slip a look at their watches when some repetition occurs in places but otherwise a lot to enjoy.
OLIVER!9.
This show has been revived many times and always manages to come up fresh every time. Lionel Barts best musical with his best songs and an intigueing web of story scaled down from the novel for musical show audiences. A different Fagin has appeared in all revivals giving the show a different slant and with this latest production Fagins are changed every few months.The scenery is applause making, the songs are applause making, the characters are intrigueing......What more do you want ?......Oh yes and the children are good too!
This what as known as product. Something put into the West End in the hope that it's familiarity will tempt people into the theatre.This particular production was instigated by an ITV reality show on the lines of Andrew LLoyd Webber's BBC show but wasn't quite as popular. The resulting format opened to good business. Who hasn't seen this show or the film? It has two new songs from the film added which are hardly fifties music (The show has a late fifties setting) in fact "Grease" and "You're the one that I want" are more seventies disco. It changes the leads regularly hoping to attract new audiences. It is a revival of a revival. It is product
DREAMBOATS AND PETTICOATS.4.
Inspired by a CD named D@Petticoats reviving late fifties and early sixties pop songs. More product.
AVENUE Q.6.
Deliciously satirical with adult themes owing much to Sesame Street this show has run for five years showing it's word and mouth popularity. Actors are seen working the puppets a la Lion King but this is a today musical showcasing real people. Pleasant music and very entertaining but falls short of the word Musical more Revue.
BLOOD BROTHERS.7.
A couple of well known ballads "Tell me it's not true" and "Easy Terms" hold this show together as a musical but that's not the point. Always well acted the two times I have seen it, the show has a strong emotional story that takes the audience along with it to it's heartrending conclusion.
A great night in the theatre but if only it had more great songs it would have been a 9 score. If youhavn't seen it you won't be dissapointed.
DIRTY DANCING.4.
The film's a whole lot better!
THE LION KING 8.
Sumptuous opening to an inspiring family show. It gets hold of you straight away and carries you through to the end. Amazingly not distracting with actors and singers puppetering the animals who are the main characters and because of the beautiful presentation of the scenery I found the whole thing irristably charming. Children love the show and are completely entranced the whole evening. Adults could slip a look at their watches when some repetition occurs in places but otherwise a lot to enjoy.
OLIVER!9.
This show has been revived many times and always manages to come up fresh every time. Lionel Barts best musical with his best songs and an intigueing web of story scaled down from the novel for musical show audiences. A different Fagin has appeared in all revivals giving the show a different slant and with this latest production Fagins are changed every few months.The scenery is applause making, the songs are applause making, the characters are intrigueing......What more do you want ?......Oh yes and the children are good too!
Tuesday 6 April 2010
COLIN HOLMES ON MUSICALS 4
HAIR.4.
I saw Hair in the sixties and was very disallusioned by the new Rock musical. It had some good pop songs but was lazily produced onstage with a liberreta that was veering on abysmal. the central reason for people goin to see it was the nude scene at the end of act 1. Things must have changed with the new show straight from America and perhaps it's tighter and more professional. I hope so because it will attract new youth to the musical theatre wondering what us older folks got so excited about which is, I admit, not a bad thing. If you're over 40 buy the CD.
SISTER ACT.6.
Some good reports from this show make me feel it's worth seeing. Critics are not so sure. I have not seen the show and the CD makes me feel it is difficult to make an informed response. The music varies from Disco to Rodgers and Hammenstein if you can imagine such a thing and indeed everybody must have seen the film.....if you havn't then the Musical is a lot of fun. Their aren't many stars fronting musicals these days and I wonder if producers feel it is no longer necessary to lace their shows with a big star. Sister Act has been running for over a year.....How long would it continue to run if the original star....Whoopi Goldberg....was heading it's cast?
JERSEY BOYS.6.
The music of Franki Valli and the Four Seasons is the dominant force of this Musical Biography and if you're not a fan perhaps you could be. Interesting and of it's kind well put together but not a musical that we know and love. Life story of the group with linking hit songs.
I saw Hair in the sixties and was very disallusioned by the new Rock musical. It had some good pop songs but was lazily produced onstage with a liberreta that was veering on abysmal. the central reason for people goin to see it was the nude scene at the end of act 1. Things must have changed with the new show straight from America and perhaps it's tighter and more professional. I hope so because it will attract new youth to the musical theatre wondering what us older folks got so excited about which is, I admit, not a bad thing. If you're over 40 buy the CD.
SISTER ACT.6.
Some good reports from this show make me feel it's worth seeing. Critics are not so sure. I have not seen the show and the CD makes me feel it is difficult to make an informed response. The music varies from Disco to Rodgers and Hammenstein if you can imagine such a thing and indeed everybody must have seen the film.....if you havn't then the Musical is a lot of fun. Their aren't many stars fronting musicals these days and I wonder if producers feel it is no longer necessary to lace their shows with a big star. Sister Act has been running for over a year.....How long would it continue to run if the original star....Whoopi Goldberg....was heading it's cast?
JERSEY BOYS.6.
The music of Franki Valli and the Four Seasons is the dominant force of this Musical Biography and if you're not a fan perhaps you could be. Interesting and of it's kind well put together but not a musical that we know and love. Life story of the group with linking hit songs.
COLIN HOLMES ON MUSICALS 4.
HAIR.4.
I saw Hair is the sixties and was very disallusioned by the new Rock musical happening. Some good pop songs but lazily produced on stage. The librreto inbetween the songs was absymal. The nude scene at the end of Act 1 was the central reason for people seeing something they had never seen before
Thursday 1 April 2010
COLIN HOLMES ON MUSICALS 3.
WE WILL ROCK YOU. 5.
If someone had written " My fair lady" today and it was premiered in the West End of London would it have been as popular as it was in 1958 ? You bet it would. It would have beed heralded as a masterpiece. So then why is there such a pausity of talented people around that they have to gather together Queen's best songs together with a bit of linking liberetto and open it in the west end. Is it a musical or a rock concert? The latter is closer to what I think the public expect from a musical. This is not to say that the show is bad. Queen afficianose will enjoy it as a tribute performance but audiences who are not particularly big fans will be disappointed.
BILLY ELIOTT.7.
Not in my opinion as good as the film although it has stirring moments but loses something in it's transition to the stage. As in many musicals there aren't many songs you go out humming after the curtain has fallen but the production is sharp and the performances excellant. I enjoyed the Musical thoroughly and the choreography leaps out at you especially as most of it is performed by youngsters and the script bears an uncanny reality to current trends. .....However one good song " Electricity" does not make ten points.
LES MISERABLES.9.
Musically wonderful as ballad after ballad wafts over you in perfect delight. You are sucked in to the story of a man's passion to arrest an innocent man for a crime that doesn't exist with the background of the French revolution high on the agenda. Stirring and Passionate with the full complement of Choral pieces,supreme ballads and bewitching melodic melodies the whole performance is a treat. A must if you havn't experianced it and the only reason it has nine points are because of the few people I have met who considered it boring. I disagree.
WICKED.9.
I would have thought a prequel to "The Wizard of Oz" was not the sort of musical show that I would enjoy. Forget the prequel business ( except of course for the Wizard of Oz addicts) it was very enjoyable in it's own right. Good performances, good music, good comedy adds up to a great show for all the family. Kids are as spellbound as their parents and their parents and that is why at the moment this show is the most popular show in London and New York at the same time.
PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT.5.
An interesting film which has translated to the stage with no original music. Adult in theme with music grabbed from all sources, it is colourful and the music often entertaining. It might be your type of thing but it wasn't mine.
LOVE NEVER DIES. 7.
If you've never seen Phantom, then I suppose it would be a good idea to book Love never Dies as well, as it is Phantom 2 ten years later. I have not seen this show and only have the CD performance to comment on and will update this blog when I have seen it. From the clips I have seen it is certainly spectacular set in Coney Island, America where the Phantom persuades Christine Dyer, the woman he loves, to cross the Atlantic and sing for him. There are not the wealth of remembered songs that the original Phantom had but I have awarded seven points because Andrew Lloyd Webber really knows what he's doing and there's a nine million advance ticket sale.
If someone had written " My fair lady" today and it was premiered in the West End of London would it have been as popular as it was in 1958 ? You bet it would. It would have beed heralded as a masterpiece. So then why is there such a pausity of talented people around that they have to gather together Queen's best songs together with a bit of linking liberetto and open it in the west end. Is it a musical or a rock concert? The latter is closer to what I think the public expect from a musical. This is not to say that the show is bad. Queen afficianose will enjoy it as a tribute performance but audiences who are not particularly big fans will be disappointed.
BILLY ELIOTT.7.
Not in my opinion as good as the film although it has stirring moments but loses something in it's transition to the stage. As in many musicals there aren't many songs you go out humming after the curtain has fallen but the production is sharp and the performances excellant. I enjoyed the Musical thoroughly and the choreography leaps out at you especially as most of it is performed by youngsters and the script bears an uncanny reality to current trends. .....However one good song " Electricity" does not make ten points.
LES MISERABLES.9.
Musically wonderful as ballad after ballad wafts over you in perfect delight. You are sucked in to the story of a man's passion to arrest an innocent man for a crime that doesn't exist with the background of the French revolution high on the agenda. Stirring and Passionate with the full complement of Choral pieces,supreme ballads and bewitching melodic melodies the whole performance is a treat. A must if you havn't experianced it and the only reason it has nine points are because of the few people I have met who considered it boring. I disagree.
WICKED.9.
I would have thought a prequel to "The Wizard of Oz" was not the sort of musical show that I would enjoy. Forget the prequel business ( except of course for the Wizard of Oz addicts) it was very enjoyable in it's own right. Good performances, good music, good comedy adds up to a great show for all the family. Kids are as spellbound as their parents and their parents and that is why at the moment this show is the most popular show in London and New York at the same time.
PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT.5.
An interesting film which has translated to the stage with no original music. Adult in theme with music grabbed from all sources, it is colourful and the music often entertaining. It might be your type of thing but it wasn't mine.
LOVE NEVER DIES. 7.
If you've never seen Phantom, then I suppose it would be a good idea to book Love never Dies as well, as it is Phantom 2 ten years later. I have not seen this show and only have the CD performance to comment on and will update this blog when I have seen it. From the clips I have seen it is certainly spectacular set in Coney Island, America where the Phantom persuades Christine Dyer, the woman he loves, to cross the Atlantic and sing for him. There are not the wealth of remembered songs that the original Phantom had but I have awarded seven points because Andrew Lloyd Webber really knows what he's doing and there's a nine million advance ticket sale.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)