The Wild Blog in the West

After completing my review of Love Never Dies , despite finding the Australian production boring, I became curious about the original London cast recording.  So I wasted perfectly good money in order to have a listen, and came to develop a rather twisted fascination with the recording, and the musical as a whole.  Not fascination as in I suddenly found it good, but in that I wondered how it could have been made less bad. It turns out that the Australian version is, in many ways, a significant improvement over the original.  The original is a train wreck.  That being said, it contained some interesting nuggets, and provided for some interesting contrasts, which I've detailed below. 1.  In my last review, I complained that Christine was "so passive, it's insulting," but remarkably, the Love Never Dies Australian production actually gives her more spine than she had in the original London production.  In the original production, when Christine first sees...

For my articles about Les Miserables , I discussed the various positives and negatives of the different albums, at least five if you don't count the original French concept album and the movie soundtrack.  One reader asked me what album tracks I used to create my idea of the definitive Les Miz soundtrack.  I'll go through each track below, with an explanation as to why I chose it over the others.  Note that I created my "Ultra" version before the movie soundtrack was released, but I'll give some thoughts as to which of the movie tracks would be best suited for an "Ultra" version. Overture/Work Song: Broadway Cast.  I use this album for a lot of the early Valjean tracks because I feel as though Wilkinson is in the best of voice here, though I suppose London would work as well.  While John Own Jones sounds great on the Les Miserables Live! album, I consider Wilkinson to be the definitive Valjean. On Parole/The Bishop: Tenth Anniversary Cast.  This is...

This is a bit of a cheat, I admit.  Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies is not a proper movie musical.  Rather, the cinematic version of this sequel to The Phantom of the Opera  is merely a filmed performance of the stage musical.  However, having done such an in-depth review of Phantom , I can't pass this one by. Often, the stage musical is filmed after a botched attempt at adapting it to the screen, to demonstrate how the musical is supposed to be.  Such was the case with the Final Performance of Rent , and the 25th Anniversary performance of The Phantom of the Opera .  Other times, the stage musical is filmed so that those who likely will never be able to see it live can still see what it's about.  That's likely the case with Love Never Dies , which won't be arriving on Broadway any time soon. It almost feels cruel to kick a musical when it's down.  The critical shredding of  Love Never Dies has been universal.  Most of it is ...

For my first look at introverts in the media, I decided to go with the popular stage musical,  Wicked . Wicked  is, of course, the retelling of The Wizard of Oz  from the point of view of the Wicked Witch of the West, with the intent of making her sympathetic.  It began as a novel called Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, published in 1995.  Eight years later,  Wicked  premiered as a musical in San Francisco, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz.  While the musical made several changes, the basic elements remained the same: the story was about Elphaba, a misunderstood misfit born with green skin. The Plot There be spoilers ahead! Elphaba's mother was the wife of the Munchkins' governor.  After the governor went away, her mother had an affair with a mysterious man, and out of that affair came Elphaba.  Scarred by her daughter's appearance, Elphaba's mother ate milk-flowers so that...

I saw The Book of Mormon back in January and intended to write something about it, but got swept up in my Downton Abbey recapping.  Even though it isn't a movie musical, it likely will be soon enough.  And knowing co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, it will involve puppets… The Book of Mormon premiered in 2011 on Broadway and has been a smash hit ever since.  Its basic premise sprung from the minds of Stone and Parker, whom many know as the creators of South Park .  If you have ever caught a South Park marathon, you are probably aware that the duo has had a fascination with Mormonism for many years, as shown in the classic 2003 episode: "All About Mormons."  Both Stone and Parker grew up in Colorado, where they knew several Mormons, also known as "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." Most of us know of Mormonism as that religion in Utah.  Or that religion Mitt Romney belongs to.  Or that it's "sort of like Christianity,...

Since I have been weighing in on modern movie musicals, I could not resist the opportunity to comment on Carrie Underwood's version of The Sound of Music , which was aired last Thursday to big ratings and will be airing again tonight.  True, it is not exactly the same thing -- it is not a movie musical, but a televised version of the original stage musical of The Sound of Music .  Yet it stands in the long, deep shadow of the 1965 movie  The Sound of Music  starring Julie Andrews, with every note destined to be compared.  (Though I have not yet reviewed movies older than 20 years, let me just say that this movie will not appear on the Wrong list.) Really, this was a can't win situation from the get-go.  Underwood and the brain trust behind the televised version deserve credit for chutzpah alone.  Beyond that, was this a successful musical on its own terms?  Well... kind of.  To the extent that it wasn't, it can't all be blamed on Underwoo...

I don't normally do this, but I figured it was appropriate for the musical that many regard as Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece.  Prior to my review , I had listened to some of the songs and watched part of the stage musical, but I wanted to post the review while the movie was still fresh in my mind. Since then, I have watched the entire stage production on YouTube with George Hearn and Angela Lansbury, purchased the 2005 Broadway version with Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris, and watched the 2001 Sweeney Todd  concert in front of the San Francisco Symphony, starring LuPone, Hearn, and Neil Patrick Harris as Toby.  While I feel as certain as before that Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd  was a very good musical adaptation, I am able to approach the transition with a more nuanced perspective. And durn it, if I can go on and on about the changes to Les Miserables  over the years, I can at least give some attention to the American Mozart's masterwork, can't I? After...