I never knew how I could send my drama kids home to tell their parents they were hookers in the school play. When I was directing high school plays, my kids wanted me to do Les Miserables (and it wasn’t even being licensed yet), I just could just imagine the following scene:
Virginia: Mom, mom, I got a part in the school play!
Mom: How exciting, honey. I’m so proud of you. What’s your character?
Virginia: I’m a hooker!
Mom: A hooker . . . ?
Virginia: And I don’t even need a costume. My director said everything you bought for me to wear to school this fall will work just fine.
Mom: I find that very offensive. We were going for Pussycat Dolls.
Okay, so the conversation I imagined didn’t exactly go like that (and I always had the “True Love Waits” kids auditioning for my plays, so this really was fictionalized), but I am curious how parents react to their kids being in Les Miserables. I tried to see a high school production just to see the cuts that were made, but it was sold out. Still, a prostitute is a prostitute, and that’s an odd thing to tell your mother you’re playing in the school play.
Yes, times have changed. When my mom was in high school in the 1960s, they did a musical revue where “’Cause no one wants a fella with a social disease” in “Gee, Officer Krupke” from West Side Story got changed to “’Cause no one wants a fella who doesn’t say please” (my mom never addressed why this song, of all songs from that show, would be selected for inclusion in a high school musical revue, but I say no judgments). How different is that from the current era, where kids get heckled on MTV for not having sex. Now that lyric is so outdated because we’re getting more inclusive than in the 1960s; too many kids have social diseases not to be. Take that, Stephen Sondheim.
I have an acting copy of My Sister Eileen (which was the source material for Wonderful Town). There are 4.25 pages printed in tiny print, titled “My Sister Eileen for High Schools.” It’s the authors’ suggestions for making the play acceptable for high school productions.
Some highlights:
Before
1st Man: (Delightedly.) Another dame! Look, Pete! There’s two broads—one for you too!
After
1st Man: (Delightedly.) Another dame! Look, Pete! There’s two dames—one for you too!
Before
Wreck: “I’m a rambling wreck from Georgia Tech
And a helluva engineer—
A helluva, helluva, helluva,
Helluva engineer—“
After
Wreck: “I’m a rambling wreck from Georgia Tech
(Follow with indistinct humming).”
And there are, indeed, some lines that get omitted for sexual overtones. In the high school version, it seems like Violet really is a rumba teacher (as opposed to being a prostitute), Wreck and Helen were actually married secretly (instead of just living together), and there are cuts like:
Before
Lonigan: I found him in the alley, with all these bed-clothes. I think he’s some kind of sex nut!
After
Lonigan: I found him in the alley, with all these bed-clothes. I think he’s some kind of nut!
But maybe kids in the high school version of My Sister Eileen took matters in their own hands like my kids did during the final performance of The Pajama Game.
There’s a comedy bit at the picnic where womanizing Prez tells Brenda that he’s taking her to get another beer. She protests that the refreshments are opposite from where he’s pulling her. They disappear off stage left, then after some dialogue between Babe and Sid, Brenda walks back on stage straightening her clothes, saying to Babe, “Stay out in the open, honey, don’t get down in them woods.”
In that final performance, I almost died when I saw my Brenda re-enter the stage buttoning up her top, followed by my Prez zipping up his pants. And my Prez came from a very conservative family. It was hilarious because they actually did it, but at the same time, I was mortified that it looked like I had directed them to do it.
the Broadway Mouth
September 16, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
High School Musicals, Part 1: The Most-Performed High School Musicals
According to the Educational Theatre Association, the most-performed high school musicals are (drum roll, please) . . .
Little Shop of Horrors
Seussical
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Beauty and the Beast
High School Musical
Okay, so I don’t get the High School Musical thing since, I would think, many high school students would shy away from being in the show even if they love the movie, but I found this list fascinating considering the lack of the usual suspects—no Camelot, Grease, or King and I. No Annie, Oliver!, or Fiddler on the Roof. Yes, we have no No, No Nanette.
To me the biggest surprise is Thoroughly Modern Millie considering, though it is based on a well-known movie, of the list, it would not have the most instantly recognizable name for students.
I recently finally picked up the updated edition of Let’s Put on a Musical! (more on that later), and it got me thinking about what shows I would want to choose if I were directing a high school musical again (which, to be honest, I would so love to do).
When I left my first teaching job where I was also director, I had been contemplating Mame for the following year. Not only am I big fan of the movie (yeah, I know), but it was a show that highlighted my school’s strengths—actresses—and downplayed its weaknesses—having actors.
So, what shows would be high on my list to direct all these years later?
Mame
Bells are Ringing
Aida
Jane Eyre
Urinetown
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Side Show
Flower Drum Song (revisal)
Of course, to appease kids and parents, there would need to be some better-loved titles in there—The Sound of Music, Oliver!, Guys and Dolls—but I probably would have continued the trend I started, picking a well-known musical one year (Hello, Dolly!) and a lesser-known play (Up the Down Staircase), then picking a lesser-known musical the next year (The Pajama Game) and a well-known play (The Diary of Anne Frank, Kesselman revision).
I picked The Pajama Game largely because of the number of female parts, but I also loved getting to do something people hadn’t seen ten times. Attendance was down, but we had a blast putting the show up (and the audience did laugh their butts off). Could you imagine the fun of introducing a whole new audience to Urinetown or The Scarlet Pimpernel?
the Broadway Mouth
September 14, 2008
Okay, so I would never expect a high school to produce No, No, Nanette. It was just a fun sentence to write.
Little Shop of Horrors
Seussical
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Beauty and the Beast
High School Musical
Okay, so I don’t get the High School Musical thing since, I would think, many high school students would shy away from being in the show even if they love the movie, but I found this list fascinating considering the lack of the usual suspects—no Camelot, Grease, or King and I. No Annie, Oliver!, or Fiddler on the Roof. Yes, we have no No, No Nanette.
To me the biggest surprise is Thoroughly Modern Millie considering, though it is based on a well-known movie, of the list, it would not have the most instantly recognizable name for students.
I recently finally picked up the updated edition of Let’s Put on a Musical! (more on that later), and it got me thinking about what shows I would want to choose if I were directing a high school musical again (which, to be honest, I would so love to do).
When I left my first teaching job where I was also director, I had been contemplating Mame for the following year. Not only am I big fan of the movie (yeah, I know), but it was a show that highlighted my school’s strengths—actresses—and downplayed its weaknesses—having actors.
So, what shows would be high on my list to direct all these years later?
Mame
Bells are Ringing
Aida
Jane Eyre
Urinetown
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Side Show
Flower Drum Song (revisal)
Of course, to appease kids and parents, there would need to be some better-loved titles in there—The Sound of Music, Oliver!, Guys and Dolls—but I probably would have continued the trend I started, picking a well-known musical one year (Hello, Dolly!) and a lesser-known play (Up the Down Staircase), then picking a lesser-known musical the next year (The Pajama Game) and a well-known play (The Diary of Anne Frank, Kesselman revision).
I picked The Pajama Game largely because of the number of female parts, but I also loved getting to do something people hadn’t seen ten times. Attendance was down, but we had a blast putting the show up (and the audience did laugh their butts off). Could you imagine the fun of introducing a whole new audience to Urinetown or The Scarlet Pimpernel?
the Broadway Mouth
September 14, 2008
Okay, so I would never expect a high school to produce No, No, Nanette. It was just a fun sentence to write.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Finale Ultimo: 20 Great Broadway Songs of the Past 10 Years
All Alone in the Universe (Seussical)
A Change in Me (Beauty and the Beast—added to the show in 1998)
Defying Gravity (Wicked)
Dividing Day (The Light in the Piazza)
Forget About the Boy (Thoroughly Modern Millie)
Freedom’s Child (The Civil War)
I’ll Forget You (The Scarlet Pimpernel—added to the show in 1998 or 1999)
My New Philosophy (You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown—written for the 1999 revival)
96,000 (In the Heights)
Not That Kind of Thing (The Wedding Singer)
Ohmigod You Guys (Legally Blonde)
Oklahoma? (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)
Painting Her Portrait (Jane Eyre)
People Like Us (The Wild Party)
Show Off (The Drowsy Chaperone)
This is Not Over Yet (Parade)
Way Back to Paradise (Marie Christine)
Wheels of a Dream (Ragtime)
Written in the Stars (Aida)
You Can’t Stop the Beat (Hairspray)
That’s a pretty impressive list, particularly since I haven’t even heard all the scores from the past ten years. Two significant scores not represented (because I’ll be seeing my first local productions of the shows in the next year and want to wait until then to hear the scores) are Jeanine Tesori’s and Tony Kushner’s work with Caroline, or Change and Scott Frankel and Michael Korie acclaimed work on Grey Gardens.
There are also some top-notch scores that just didn’t fit on the list—Marvin Hamlisch and Craig Carnelia’s masterful Sweet Smell of Success, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s hilarious work on Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, Jason Howland and Mindi Dickstein’s pleasing songs for Little Women, and, of course, Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis’s very funny score for Urinetown all come to mind.
It’s not uncommon for people to say that the talent of today is no match for the talent of days gone by; however, look at that list. Really look at it. There’s a ton of phenomenal talent represented in those songs, people whose potential to write the next Guys and Dolls, Gypsy, or Mame (or Hairspray, Urinetown, or The Drowsy Chaperone) are just one project away.
As I wrote my analysis for each song, I wondered what I would write for the greatest songs of the golden age—“Lucky Be a Lady,” “Hello, Dolly!,” or “Shall We Dance.” Now those are some pretty big shoes to fill, but I think for as complicated and complex as we try to make it (and “Dividing Day,” “People Like Us,” and “This Is Not Over Yet” are all pretty complex), most of the songs on this list do what the songs of the Golden Age did—have great melodies with strong, character-specific lyrics. Call Hairspray pop all you want, but remember that the melody of “It’s Today” from Mame actually originated in another show with entirely different lyrics. We still consider it a great song from a great score. That doesn’t change because of how it originated. And yet, look how critical people can be about modern shows. Hairspray is all about great melodies, just like the Jerry Herman, Frank Loesser, and Jerry Ross and Richard Adler scores.
So . . . I’d love to hear what other songs you think should have made the list. What do you think are the most amazing Broadway songs from the past ten years? Remember that you can always leave comments below without registering.
the Broadway Mouth
September 11, 2008
A Change in Me (Beauty and the Beast—added to the show in 1998)
Defying Gravity (Wicked)
Dividing Day (The Light in the Piazza)
Forget About the Boy (Thoroughly Modern Millie)
Freedom’s Child (The Civil War)
I’ll Forget You (The Scarlet Pimpernel—added to the show in 1998 or 1999)
My New Philosophy (You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown—written for the 1999 revival)
96,000 (In the Heights)
Not That Kind of Thing (The Wedding Singer)
Ohmigod You Guys (Legally Blonde)
Oklahoma? (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)
Painting Her Portrait (Jane Eyre)
People Like Us (The Wild Party)
Show Off (The Drowsy Chaperone)
This is Not Over Yet (Parade)
Way Back to Paradise (Marie Christine)
Wheels of a Dream (Ragtime)
Written in the Stars (Aida)
You Can’t Stop the Beat (Hairspray)
That’s a pretty impressive list, particularly since I haven’t even heard all the scores from the past ten years. Two significant scores not represented (because I’ll be seeing my first local productions of the shows in the next year and want to wait until then to hear the scores) are Jeanine Tesori’s and Tony Kushner’s work with Caroline, or Change and Scott Frankel and Michael Korie acclaimed work on Grey Gardens.
There are also some top-notch scores that just didn’t fit on the list—Marvin Hamlisch and Craig Carnelia’s masterful Sweet Smell of Success, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s hilarious work on Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, Jason Howland and Mindi Dickstein’s pleasing songs for Little Women, and, of course, Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis’s very funny score for Urinetown all come to mind.
It’s not uncommon for people to say that the talent of today is no match for the talent of days gone by; however, look at that list. Really look at it. There’s a ton of phenomenal talent represented in those songs, people whose potential to write the next Guys and Dolls, Gypsy, or Mame (or Hairspray, Urinetown, or The Drowsy Chaperone) are just one project away.
As I wrote my analysis for each song, I wondered what I would write for the greatest songs of the golden age—“Lucky Be a Lady,” “Hello, Dolly!,” or “Shall We Dance.” Now those are some pretty big shoes to fill, but I think for as complicated and complex as we try to make it (and “Dividing Day,” “People Like Us,” and “This Is Not Over Yet” are all pretty complex), most of the songs on this list do what the songs of the Golden Age did—have great melodies with strong, character-specific lyrics. Call Hairspray pop all you want, but remember that the melody of “It’s Today” from Mame actually originated in another show with entirely different lyrics. We still consider it a great song from a great score. That doesn’t change because of how it originated. And yet, look how critical people can be about modern shows. Hairspray is all about great melodies, just like the Jerry Herman, Frank Loesser, and Jerry Ross and Richard Adler scores.
So . . . I’d love to hear what other songs you think should have made the list. What do you think are the most amazing Broadway songs from the past ten years? Remember that you can always leave comments below without registering.
the Broadway Mouth
September 11, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
20 Great Broadway Songs of the Past 10 Years: “Ohmigod You Guys”
It does everything an opening number should do. And it’s infectious too.
The key to “Ohmigod You Guys,” the number by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin that opens Legally Blonde, is both a catchy, fun melody and the unceasing and snappy rhymes, particularly the plethora of words that go with guys—prize, qualifies, accessorize, economize, lies, eyes, et al. It’s simply energetic and tremendous fun. That is, energetic and tremendous that also works to effectively establish the tone of the show as well as introduce the main character (as well as the mindset of her friends).
I haven’t yet seen Legally Blonde (it’s coming on tour this season), but because of “Ohmigod You Guys,” I’m very excited to hear the rest of the score. Broadway is replete with opening numbers that function to exactly what “Ohmigod You Guys” does—and O’Keefe and Benjamin have presented us with one in a show that has captured the hearts of millions of teenagers across the country.
Go, Elle!
the Broadway Mouth
September 9, 2008
The key to “Ohmigod You Guys,” the number by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin that opens Legally Blonde, is both a catchy, fun melody and the unceasing and snappy rhymes, particularly the plethora of words that go with guys—prize, qualifies, accessorize, economize, lies, eyes, et al. It’s simply energetic and tremendous fun. That is, energetic and tremendous that also works to effectively establish the tone of the show as well as introduce the main character (as well as the mindset of her friends).
I haven’t yet seen Legally Blonde (it’s coming on tour this season), but because of “Ohmigod You Guys,” I’m very excited to hear the rest of the score. Broadway is replete with opening numbers that function to exactly what “Ohmigod You Guys” does—and O’Keefe and Benjamin have presented us with one in a show that has captured the hearts of millions of teenagers across the country.
Go, Elle!
the Broadway Mouth
September 9, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
20 Great Broadway Songs of the Past 10 Years: “Painting Her Portrait”
I don’t know if there is a more beautiful Broadway score than Paul Gordon’s work on Jane Eyre. The music is like a well-tended garden, a mountain landscape, or a north woods forest—a never-ending vista of beauty.
It’s no secret that Jane Eyre, with music and lyrics by Paul Gordon and additional lyrics by John Caird, is my favorite musical. Months before I ever thought about seeing the show, I was first captured by the OBCR and its sheer beauty, which was closely followed by my attraction to its story.
“Painting Her Portrait” is one highlight is a show filled with riches. In the song, poor ugly Jane Eyre torments herself with the thought of the ravishing Blanche Ingram who seems to have her claws deeply implanted into Rochester’s heart. Jane knows that she has nothing that the Victorian world deems worthy in a woman—beauty, wealth, breeding, or even a superior education. Lacking all, she knows she has no hope of ever having a life with the one man who has ever shown her genuine kindness, whose personality fits with hers.
As Jane paints her own portrait, the song is woven with a haunting melody that underscores Jane’s tormenting lyrics. Jane’s observation of Blanche’s portrait, however, is orchestrated with delicate strings and fragile beauty, all of which is quickly shoved aside when Jane begins to vehemently reprimand herself at the end of the song, the pace of the music speeding up, the fragile beauty meeting the haunting melody, building to Jane’s hurling of the lyrics back at herself with anger and frustration, singing, “Don’t even dare anymore to compare/ Say a prayer for your sorry soul, / Jane!” It’s those final lines that hit home Jane’s agony, the internal rhyming of the words dare, compare, and prayer sending the lyrics hurling back at herself in an unrelenting pace.
There’s other great beauty in the score of Jane Eyre that is worth noting, such as “Forgiveness,” “The Graveyard,” “Secret Soul,” “Sirens,” “In the Light of the Virgin Morning,” and “Brave Enough for Love,” to name a few.
On a recent trip to Barnes and Noble, I noticed that the OBCR of Jane Eyre has recently dropped down to $11.99, which is a real deal for any great Broadway score, let alone one as satisfying as Jane Eyre.
the Broadway Mouth
September 7, 2008
It’s no secret that Jane Eyre, with music and lyrics by Paul Gordon and additional lyrics by John Caird, is my favorite musical. Months before I ever thought about seeing the show, I was first captured by the OBCR and its sheer beauty, which was closely followed by my attraction to its story.
“Painting Her Portrait” is one highlight is a show filled with riches. In the song, poor ugly Jane Eyre torments herself with the thought of the ravishing Blanche Ingram who seems to have her claws deeply implanted into Rochester’s heart. Jane knows that she has nothing that the Victorian world deems worthy in a woman—beauty, wealth, breeding, or even a superior education. Lacking all, she knows she has no hope of ever having a life with the one man who has ever shown her genuine kindness, whose personality fits with hers.
As Jane paints her own portrait, the song is woven with a haunting melody that underscores Jane’s tormenting lyrics. Jane’s observation of Blanche’s portrait, however, is orchestrated with delicate strings and fragile beauty, all of which is quickly shoved aside when Jane begins to vehemently reprimand herself at the end of the song, the pace of the music speeding up, the fragile beauty meeting the haunting melody, building to Jane’s hurling of the lyrics back at herself with anger and frustration, singing, “Don’t even dare anymore to compare/ Say a prayer for your sorry soul, / Jane!” It’s those final lines that hit home Jane’s agony, the internal rhyming of the words dare, compare, and prayer sending the lyrics hurling back at herself in an unrelenting pace.
There’s other great beauty in the score of Jane Eyre that is worth noting, such as “Forgiveness,” “The Graveyard,” “Secret Soul,” “Sirens,” “In the Light of the Virgin Morning,” and “Brave Enough for Love,” to name a few.
On a recent trip to Barnes and Noble, I noticed that the OBCR of Jane Eyre has recently dropped down to $11.99, which is a real deal for any great Broadway score, let alone one as satisfying as Jane Eyre.
the Broadway Mouth
September 7, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway teaser
Here's a teaser (of sorts) for the Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway screenings. There's not a lot of meat there, but just hearing the song makes me excited to see it.
On the Twentieth Century CD Suggestion
I don’t like those clumsy, old-style 2-Disc CD cases, the ones where it is twice as big as a regular CD case. It’s particularly annoying when there’s only one CD in the case, such as is the situation with the OBCR of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and On the Twentieth Century (and probably with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as well as the second Rosalind Russell Wonderful Town recording and, I’m sure, a few others).
It would be my guess that manufacturers use those larger cases because it is a challenge to fit thick, multi-language linear booklets into the normal single-disc case.
But there is hope! For each of my single-disc double-CD case OBCRs, I have found that the booklet, though it is larger, will still fit into a single-disc CD case. It’s easy to use the back of the original double-CD case in a single-disc case because they are the same size. The front cover of the two CD cases are different; however, the thicker booklets easily fit into the cover slot.
For the On the Twentieth Century CD, if you use a fully clear plastic CD case, the white backing of the back cover perfectly compliments the crispy white artwork of the cover. I was thrilled when I saw this because my new but aged-looking CD, once in a new case, looked like a release for a brand new show.
the Broadway Mouth
September 2, 2009
It would be my guess that manufacturers use those larger cases because it is a challenge to fit thick, multi-language linear booklets into the normal single-disc case.
But there is hope! For each of my single-disc double-CD case OBCRs, I have found that the booklet, though it is larger, will still fit into a single-disc CD case. It’s easy to use the back of the original double-CD case in a single-disc case because they are the same size. The front cover of the two CD cases are different; however, the thicker booklets easily fit into the cover slot.
For the On the Twentieth Century CD, if you use a fully clear plastic CD case, the white backing of the back cover perfectly compliments the crispy white artwork of the cover. I was thrilled when I saw this because my new but aged-looking CD, once in a new case, looked like a release for a brand new show.
the Broadway Mouth
September 2, 2009
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