A Performance from Schmigadoon!: Tribulation | The Tonight Show

I didn't get to see Schmigadoon! on TV, but I think one of the conceits is parodies of well-know musical theater tunes.

I wonder how many more parodies of "Trouble!" there have been - the one I know best is "Monorail!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpwCZokDwmE #MusicalTheater #Music #TV

‘Flower Drum Song’ musical returns to the spotlight

Revival of David Henry Hwang's rewrite of the Rogers & Hammerstein musical, put on by LA's East West Players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHP8BNx8O8o #MusicalTheater #Theatre

Book Review: The Complete Book of 1990s Broadway Musicals by Dan Dietz

Author: Dan Dietz
Title: The Complete Book of 1990s Broadway Musicals
Other Books Read by the Same Author:

• The Complete Book of 1930s Broadway Musicals
• The Complete Book of 1940s Broadway Musicals
• The Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals
• The Complete Book of 1960s Broadway Musicals
• The Complete Book of 1970s Broadway Musicals
• The Compete Book of 1980s Broadway Musicals

Publication Info: Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
Summary/Review:

The 1990s feels like a transitional decade for Broadway. On the one hand, after a couple of decades of financial decline, the Broadway theater district felt thriving and viable again. On the other hand, many critics – including author Dan Dietz – saw the decade as the Disnification of Broadway.

Disney introduced only two musicals during the decade – adaptations of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King – but the overall effect is that family-friendly megamusicals that attracted tourists edged out shows intended for grown-up audiences and local theater buffs. Revivals of books musicals continued to outnumber new productions, including Chicago, which became more successful than its original run and still plays to this day.  Speaking of long running shows, any new production on Broadway had to compete with hits like Cats, Les Miserables, and Phantom of the Opera which occupied theaters throughout the decade.

The decade also saw an increase in adapting relatively recent movies as musicals including My Favorite Year, The Goodbye Girl, Big, Victor/Victoria, and Footloose.  There were also a number of revues of songs by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondhem, Johnny Burke, Johnny Mercer, George and Ira Gershwin and blues and swing by Black artists.  This trend presaged the 2000s when movie adaptations and/or jukebox musical rely on reiterating the familiar and nostalgic at the expense of the new.  Nevertheless, several memorable musicals made their debut in the 1990s including: Once on This Island, The Secret Garden, The Will Rogers Follies, Crazy for You, Falsettos, Jelly’s Last Jam, Kiss of the Spider Woman,  Passion, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Sunset Boulevard, Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk, Titanic,  Ragtime, Fosse, and Parade.  Dan Dietz, who grows crankier with each volume of this series, disliked most of these shows, and trashed Rent and Ragtime (two shows I love).  Dietz’s obvious prejudices which manifest themselves in his rents against “political correctness” make this unpleasant read. But I do still enjoy that he’s gathered together so many facts about each show in one place that are hard to find anywhere else.

Rating: ***

Review: Scaramouche, City Lit Theatre, Chicago
https://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/chicago/ch884.html

#Writing #Theater #Theatre #Musical #MusicalTheater #MusicalTheatre #commediadellarte #Review #Chicago #Writing

Review: Loki: End of the World Tour, Lifeline Theatre, Chicago
https://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/chicago/ch882.html

#Chicago #Review #Theater #Theatre #Musical #MusicalTheater #MusicalTheatre #NorseMythology #Writing

Book Review: The Complete Book of 1980s Broadway Musicals by Dan Dietz

Author: Dan Dietz
Title: The Complete Book of 1980s Broadway Musicals
Other Books Read by the Same Author:

• The Complete Book of 1930s Broadway Musicals
• The Complete Book of 1940s Broadway Musicals
• The Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals
• The Complete Book of 1960s Broadway Musicals
• The Complete Book of 1970s Broadway Musicals

Publication Info: Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, [2016]
Summary/Review:

While I didn’t attend many Broadway shows in the 1980s, growing up in the greater New York City area meant marinating in commercials, TV appearances, and references/parodies of the latest shows.  So I have a certain nostalgia for 1980s Broadway.  That being said, it was a tough decade for American musical theater.  A lot of shows bombed, most notoriously Carrie, although that seemed at least an attempt to try something new.  Throughout the decade, Broadway seemed obsessed with book musicals and revues based on vaudeville and burlesque, the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, the Harlem Renaissance and gospel music.  Dan Dietz jokes that there are several songs that appeared in more than one of these musicals.

Despite the struggles, some notable shows include 42nd Street, Dreamgirls, La Cage aux Folles, Big River, Grand Hotel, Barnum, City of Angels, My One and Only, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Nine, and Sophisticated Ladies.  Stephen Sondheim created three thoughtful works: one that would have to wait 40 years for success (Merrily We Roll Along) and two that were immediate hits (Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods).  But the big story of the decade was imported shows – the so-called British Invasion and the birth of the mega-musical.  This includes Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, Starlight Express, The Phantom of the Opera, and Aspects of Love, as well as Les Miserables, Me and My Girl, and Chess.

Dietz’s work remains fun to read for all its facts and details, although he tends to be opinionated and cranky about so-called “political correctness.” He sees the emergence of the mega-musical as negative for Broadway, for which he has a good point as it regards getting smaller and medium-sized productions a chance.  He also dislikes the growth of revivals, noting: “during the 1960s there were ninety-eight book musicals with new music and one commercial revival, but from 2000 to 2009 there were thirty-eight musicals with new musicals and forty-two revivals.”

Personally, I don’t object to revivals so much as there are a lot of older classics that people never had a chance to see.  But the combination of revivals with mega-musicals running for decades leaves very little space for new and innovative productions.  It might be more beneficial of artistry if instead of a show like The Phantom of the Opera running for three decades continuously with replacement casts, if maybe there were five one-year revivals with new casts in the same time period?  But the economics of Broadway would not allow that model to make a profit.

Rating: ***