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Weird Musicals
Unusual Musicals
While iTuning my cd collection of musicals I’ve come across some interesting selections I’ve accumulated over the years. All of these are musicals. Here are some of the more unusual ones:
Side Show (1997): based on Daisy and Violet Hilton, the famous conjoined twins from the 1930’s. This is one of my favorite shows: the music is powerful and wrenching; it features Alice Ripley: her voice is amazing (of late she is/was in the current Broadway musical, “Next to Normal”).
A Fine and Private Place (2004): based on the Peter S. Beagle novel of the same name. I haven’t listened to this at length—it’s been decades since I read the novel and I need to re-familiarize myself with the story.
Night of the Hunter (1998): based on the film of the same name (which starred Robert Mitchum in a great performance). Have not listened to this: I need to, because I love the film. “Night of the Hunter” is one of the finest suspense films of all time: numerous elements in this film would later become clichés in cartoons (like the l-o-v-e/h-a-t-e tattooed on the knuckles of the main character).
The Great American Trailer Park Musical (2005): Low-end concept, high-end fun. A friend of mine saw this off-Broadway and loved it.
Debbie Does Dallas (2003): Another raunchy film-based musical that actually had good music in it. Surprisingly amusing!
How Now Dow Jone’s (1967): A love story in and around the stock market: dated and simplistic (a key plot point is that one character promises to marry her if the Dow Jone’s Average hits 1,000).
Nunsense (1986): A fictional fund-raiser by surviving nuns of a convent where most of their sisters died from food poisoning (and are still in the deep freezer). Particularly hilarious if you’re Catholic.
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993): based on the film of the same name. Torture and fantasy in a South American prison. Fantastic music from the team of Kander and Ebb, who also brought you Chicago and Caberet.
Urinetown (2001): One of my top ten favorite musicals. A sharp satire about a town where water is so scarce you are taxed to pee. Funny as hell. One of the actors, in the program book, noted this amusing story: “When I told my parents what musical I got a part in, they asked, ‘Did you say, “You’re In Town”? “No, mom—it’s Urine-town, like in “pee”.”
While iTuning my cd collection of musicals I’ve come across some interesting selections I’ve accumulated over the years. All of these are musicals. Here are some of the more unusual ones:
Side Show (1997): based on Daisy and Violet Hilton, the famous conjoined twins from the 1930’s. This is one of my favorite shows: the music is powerful and wrenching; it features Alice Ripley: her voice is amazing (of late she is/was in the current Broadway musical, “Next to Normal”).
A Fine and Private Place (2004): based on the Peter S. Beagle novel of the same name. I haven’t listened to this at length—it’s been decades since I read the novel and I need to re-familiarize myself with the story.
Night of the Hunter (1998): based on the film of the same name (which starred Robert Mitchum in a great performance). Have not listened to this: I need to, because I love the film. “Night of the Hunter” is one of the finest suspense films of all time: numerous elements in this film would later become clichés in cartoons (like the l-o-v-e/h-a-t-e tattooed on the knuckles of the main character).
The Great American Trailer Park Musical (2005): Low-end concept, high-end fun. A friend of mine saw this off-Broadway and loved it.
Debbie Does Dallas (2003): Another raunchy film-based musical that actually had good music in it. Surprisingly amusing!
How Now Dow Jone’s (1967): A love story in and around the stock market: dated and simplistic (a key plot point is that one character promises to marry her if the Dow Jone’s Average hits 1,000).
Nunsense (1986): A fictional fund-raiser by surviving nuns of a convent where most of their sisters died from food poisoning (and are still in the deep freezer). Particularly hilarious if you’re Catholic.
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993): based on the film of the same name. Torture and fantasy in a South American prison. Fantastic music from the team of Kander and Ebb, who also brought you Chicago and Caberet.
Urinetown (2001): One of my top ten favorite musicals. A sharp satire about a town where water is so scarce you are taxed to pee. Funny as hell. One of the actors, in the program book, noted this amusing story: “When I told my parents what musical I got a part in, they asked, ‘Did you say, “You’re In Town”? “No, mom—it’s Urine-town, like in “pee”.”
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...but if you have to familiarize yourself with the story _before_ you can make sense of the musical, it can't be a very good musical. Nice score of tunes, perhaps, but terrible theatre.
This is the problem with much ballet, such as Swan Lake. I defy ANYONE who does not already have the story down pat, to see Swan Lake and be able to figure out, without a background narration, what the hell is going on! Brilliant music, exquisite ballet moves, yes - but as a story-telling medium, sometimes (often) Ballet sucks rocks.
I have a fondness for "On the Twentieth Century", myself; saw it staged at that little 99-seat theater on Riverside Drive, before the theater company relocated to the Media Center Mall in Burbank.
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With the Swan Lake example, the story becomes even more baffling if you just hear the music without seeing the dancing...
I'll have to check out "On the Twentieth Century". I know I've heard songs from the show (on various Broadway stations), but I can't remember any specifics.
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If your school does "Sideshow" they'll have accomplished a hat trick!
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