On Second Thought....In Defense of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard, the movie starring Gloria Swanson as the iconic character Norma Desmond, is considered one of the greatest films of all time.  If you've seen it, you know that it's a biting look at the Hollywood movie system that ate up and spit out silent movie stars as the shift was made to talking films.  When Andrew Lloyd Webber created a musical version of this classic film in the mid 90s, there was a collective sigh and eye roll in the entertainment community.  Why remake something that was close to perfect?

Keep this in mind I am no Andrew Lloyd Webber apologist. While I think Evita is one of the greatest musicals of all time, I also think Cats and especially the roller skating musical Starlight Express are two of the worst things to ever grace musical theater.  All that said I think the musical version of Sunset Boulevard is some of Lloyd Webber's best work and perhaps one of the most underrated and unfairly maligned musicals in existence.

I first saw Sunset Boulevard in 1995 on the London Stage.  I had heard the mixed reviews, but I was new into my fandom of musical theatre, so I was very excited to see the show.  Some of the reviews were right. The show was a bit of a mess.  The show was known for its expensive, over the top large set pieces and frankly they were a bit much.  They were a distraction.  Take that away and what was left was a melodic piece of biting satire as well as a damnation of our culture's treatment of women past a certain age.  I left the show feeling not disappointed but also  not entirely fulfilled.  The groundwork of an amazing musical was there but not fully realized.

Generally even the people who hate the show could appreciate Glenn Close's portrayal of Norma Desmond in the original Broadway version.  She and the musical won Tony's in an admittedly weak year for musical theater.  But Close's performance was over the top and grandiose in the moments where it should be and in the next moment childlike and vulnerable.  Glenn Close is perhaps  my all time favorite actress and when I heard that she was going to be portraying Norma Desmond again in a semi staged smaller  scale version of the show in London, I had to find a way to go.

I expected that Glenn Close would be amazing and she definitely was.  I definitely felt like I was witnessing greatness in her performance in a way that I don't often feel when I see movies,television, theater or music performance.  But what did surprise me was how good the show stood on its own without the big set pieces and with the orchestra on stage.  The focus could now go on the performers who were all excellent and the beautiful music and clever lyrics.  If you were able to get past the fact that it was a remake of one of Hollywood's finest movies, you were able to  witness greatness.

I expect that based on the sold out month of shows in London that this version will make its way to Broadway with or without Glenn Close.  If you open your mind to it, you may be surprised by how well done this show really is.

The best, worst and non-winners of the Best Musical Tonys

In honor of the Tony nominations tomorrow.  May I present three lists? They pertain to musicals as I have not seen as many non musical plays.

While I've seen many musicals, I obviously haven't seen all of them.

The first is the Top 10 musicals to win Best Musicals ranked by how much I love them!
10.  Billy Elliot
 9.  Sunset Boulevard
 8.   Avenue Q
 7.  Evita
 6.  The King and I
 5.  Sweeney Todd Demon Barber of Fleet Street
 4.  A Chorus Line
 3.  Cabaret
 2.  Rent
 1. Les Misérables.


Second is an alphabetical order list of ten musicals that won Best Musicals that I'm not particularly fond of.  A few of them I hate, but most are kind of meh to me even if they have their merits.

Cats
Damn Yankees
Hello Dolly
In The Heights
Memphis
Once
Phantom of the Opera
Spring awakenings
The Sound of Music
Titanic

Finally, here is my ranked list of  the best musicals that did not win the Best musical Tony and what beat them.

10.   The Drowsy Chaperone (defeated by Jersey Boys)
  9.    Grey Gardens (defeated by Spring  Awakening)
  8.     Chicago (defeated by A Chorus Line)
  7.  Hedwig and the Angry Inch (not nominated.  When it was finally on Broadway it was nominated as a revival.  A little cheat on my part)
 6.  Ragtime (defeated by The Lion King)
 5.  Matilda (defeated by Kinky Boots)
 4.  Into the Woods (defeated by the Phantom of the Opera)
 3.  West Side Story (defeated by the Music Man)
2.   Wicked (defeated by Avenue Q)
1.  Next to Normal (defeated by Billy Elliot)

My 10 favorite cities and towns in Europe and North America.

I have done a good amount of traveling in Europe and North America.  This weekend I went to London for the first time in over twenty years and the first time as an adult.  What a great experience to have so many years later when I can appreciate it more.  As celebration I'm going to list in alphabetical order my 10 Favorite cities and towns in North America and Europe in alphabetical order.   Please feel free to comment or question.  London is not eligible as I'm still processing the experience.   Also no city or town I have lived in is eligible.   So that would explain no Seattle or Boston

1.  Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2. Budapest, Hungary

3. Florence, Italy

4.  Madrid, Spain

5. Montreal, Canada

6. Naxos,Greece

7. New York City, USA

8.  Paris, France

9. Prague, Czech Republic

10. San Francisco, USA

Short Movie Reviews 3: The Search for a Smock

The drill is I rate the movies.  They get a score 1 to 10.   The review of the movie reflects their score. If a movie gets a 5, the review is 5 words.   Here we go.

Sisters starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler-6
Shouldn't this movie be way funnier?

The Good Dinosaur-6
Better  than Cars and Monsters Inc.

The Intern-7
Anne Hathaway learns lessons? Sign me up!

James White- 6
Need more antidepressants after this movie

Suffragette- 5
Women who vote deserve better!

The Peanuts Movie- 6
Why so much damn Red Baron?!

The Tribe- 5
Deaf people make no sounds?

King Prince

After January 10th, I read tributes regarding the surprising death of David Bowie with respect and admiration.  But I hadn't experienced peak Bowie.   Most of my musical knowledge of his was his 80s music which inarguably was not his best.   As I read and listened to these tributes I wondered who  my David Bowie was. Which music artists had such an effect on my life and who I came to be as a person.  Two names came to mind quickly: Madonna and obviously Prince.  I wondered what it would feel like when they, two of my artistic heroes, would pass from this world.  Here less than four months later I'm feeling the feels so much sooner than I ever would have expected.  Prince was iconic to me as he was for many, but also an important cultural influence in my childhood and early adulthood.

I first became aware of Prince in about 1983 when a lot of other people did.   The song was Little Red Corvette.   I hovered over the radio for hours listening to KTRS in Casper Wyoming waiting for the very second the song began so that I could record it onto a blank cassette.  At this point I knew little about Prince (but did I or anyone really ever know that much about him?), but I knew that I loved this song. There was something exciting and new about it.

Perhaps a year later I became very aware of Prince the man.  MTV played music then, and they used to have World Premiere videos at the top of the hour.  There had been huge buzz about this relatively known artist and the fact that he was making a rock musical called Purple Rain, but nothing had been seen until that day. The video of When Doves Cry came on that day and I was excited, terrified and in lust as Prince arose out of the bathtub and crawled and writhed and beckoned his audience to follow him.  It was unlike anything I had ever seen before.  It felt like I should look away and yet I never could or would.

I won't pretend to be the world's biggest Prince fan. Sure, like many I consider Purple Rain to be one of if not the the best albums of all time.   Sure, I kept up with his career in wonder as he posed nude on one his album covers, as he performed on the VMA with assless pants, and when he tried to make Sheena Easton a thing well past her expiration date.  After the late 90s I became less of a big fan and more of an admirer as he continued to put out music.   Those later albums didn't touch me in the same way that his earlier work had, but they led me to a realization.  Prince was to my generation and others what the Mozarts and the Beethovens of the worlds were during there time.  Even when I didn't love the newer Prince songs I appreciated the musicianship and technique that went into them.   As an artist there was no one that has rivaled Prince's musical talent in modern times.  He was an enigmatic legend with more talent than we will probably ever see again from one person in our lifetime.

 On December 19th, 2011, I went to my first and tragically last Prince concert.  It had been at the top of my concert bucket list to see Prince live.   Prince was being a little diva that day it seemed.   He came on stage very late and then only performed about 90 minutes which was short for a man with a reputation performing several hours on end.   I was a little disappointed the show was so short, but only because I was in awe of what I did see.  I knew Prince was a magical musician but as a live performer he took that magic to a different level.  After he left the stage we stuck around for an hour hoping that Prince would return to the stage for another encore.  Sadly he did not.  I vowed to see him live again, but I never did.   I'm very pleased though to have had that time with him and for ninety minutes to have been in the presence of a genius.  

Favorite Prince songs:
When Doves Cry, Little Red Corvette, Take Me With U, I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, Cream, Let's Go Crazy, U Got the Look

Favorite Prince written songs:
Nothing Compares 2 U, Manic Monday, When U Were Mine.  

Three Weekends at the Theatre

Over the last three out of four weekends, I have been fortunate enough to have tickets to three musicals. Here is my response to each of them.

The Color Purple- I can't lie.  I saw this show because I love Jennifer Hudson to the infinite power.  I love the story of the Color Purple, but I saw the touring company of the original production  several years ago and found it to be a big mess.   While Jennifer Hudson was what got me in the door, I left with many reasons to rave about it.  This revival is a vast improvement from the original musical.   Lots of editing was done, the sets are more sparse, and there is just less. And in this case that lets the performers and the songs shine.  Jennifer Hudson is well suited vocally and personality wise to play Shug Avery, and she pulls it off, especially vocally.   Danielle Brooks from Orange is the New Black is well cast as is the rest of the cast, but ultimately the show is a "star is born" moment for unknown actress Cynthia Erivo as Celie.   In the way that Whoopi Goldberg made one of the all time great debuts in the movie version, Erivo shines and steals in a theatrical experience that I was so pleased to witness.  If there is any justice, Erivo will continue to do great acting work in the future, and I will be able to say "Remember when...."   I have seen many plays and musicals, but this is the first time that I had seen an actor get a standing ovation in the middle of the show.  Jennifer Hudson is leaving the production soon so if you want to see her, hurry up! But ultimately Cynthia Erivo is who you should be there to see!

Assassins- I have seen a lot of Stephen Sondheim  over the past couple of years, and Assassins is a departure from what people in the know view as typical Somdheim.  It is a musical telling of the stories of all of the people in the USA who have either attempted to assassinate  a President or  actually were able to follow through with the assassination.  The play does a good job at making the characters human without making them entirely sympathetic for what they did.  It is not the kind of musical that has tons of stand alone sing a long songs, but I did like the Ballad of Booth, The Gun Song, and the unlikely love song Unworthy of Your Love which is about two of the character's dark obsessions with Jodie Foster and Charles Manson. Assassins is not always a smooth ride, and it is easy to see why it has more of a cult following than actually being a huge hit, but I admire the creativity in it and the drive to do something original in musical theater.  In that regard it overwhelmingly succeeds.

Ragtime- This one has been at the top of my musical bucket list for years, and I am glad I was able to catch a performance of it.  Ragtime begins with characters pursuing or living the American Dream.  In the first song, characters are lit up in red, white and blue depending on their lot in life.   The white middle to upper class who are already succeeding in the dream are lit up in white, the African Americans already living in the USA are lit up in red and the immigrants coming to Ellis Island are lit up in blue.   Their paths take them to different places, some to success, some paths  diverge and some don't ever succeed in the American Dream.  It was amazing to me how a story that takes place at the beginning of the 20th century had so many storylines around race and immigrants could be so very relevant in 2016.  As in the original production Coalhouse, Sarah and Mother are the standout characters with the best songs and because I had listened to the Original Cast Recording I had a hard time not imagining the original actors as these characters. (Audra McDonald won one of her six Tony's playing Sarah in the original version).  But the actors who played these characters in this touring version were also excellent.  This isn't a show that tours much so if you ever get the chance to see Ragtime, you must take advantage of it.

The Walking Tease: Why I'm running out of patience with The Walking Dead

This post contains spoilers of Walking Dead Season 6.  

Negan was supposed to be the savior.  

For all of Season 6, I waited out 15 mostly tedious episodes with a promise of Negan.  Negan came.   Negan lifted up Lucille his pet deadly baseball bat and then.....fade to black.  

More tease in a season full of tease.   And the payoffs haven't been worth the tease.  The Walking Dead is giving me blueballs.    

For the past three seasons, I have spent around $50 per season to watch the Walking Dead on Apple TV since I don't have cable.   That is one of the most expensive season passes.  I used to not mind because there was a reason that Walking Dead was the number one show. Sure it had lots of cool ways to kill zombies or...,eh...walkers, but the main draw for me at least was the character interactions on the show and how they survive (or don't) in the extraordinary environment of the undead.   One of the best things about the Walking Deaf was how unsentimental it was about killing off fan favorites since they are after  all in a place for pending doom and a place where death is a reality.  

That's not the case anymore.  Something changed.  

I've been far more critical than most about the show for the past few seasons.  There has been a real pacing problem.  Storylines full of action like Terminus were over pretty quickly while slower ones like Alexandria seemed to go on forever. This would've been fine if anyone had actually thought about building character development, but throughout the first half of season 6 in Alexandria Walking Dead swapped out interesting characters for more gory zombie kills.  

Then there was the second half of season 6 which was spent trying to get excitement stirred up about Negan and his savior crew, but after the third repetitive  episode which involved looking for supplies outside Alexandria and running into walkers, bad guys, or both.  I had started to have enough. Bring Negan on already!!

Then there was the Glenn thing.  This was the moment that the makers of the TV show may have really started to ruin the show.   We see fan favorite (for whatever reason) Glenn in a zombie pileup that nobody could survive.  NOBODY.  The show runners copped out in killing a character that has been long dead in the books BECAUSE they were afraid of fan reaction.  This is a show that decapitated it's wise gentle old sage and had a grieving mother shoot a child who had killed her little sister. Those moments were disturbing and unflinching.  The Walking Dead is better when it doesn't flinch.  With the Glenn debacle, the show flinched badly. 

Then there it was last night.  The moment that the season had trudged  toward.  Most of the cast was on its knees begging at the mercy of Negan.  He decides he is going to kill one of them, he looks to have actually done it, and then it's over.  We won't know for at least 5 months who it was (And it better be Glenn and NOT one of the more ancillary characters).   A season of build up for this?!

The Walking Dead isn't a terrible show.  Not even close. But I'll spend part of the cliffhanger months deciding if it's worth paying for a season pass.  I may have to resort to being a more casual fans and waiting it out and watching it on Amazon Prime or Netflix about a year after it aired on TV.  

You teased one too many times, Walking Dead.