Okay, so this isn't really a musical, though there was singing involved ::giggle::. This show was absolutely wonderful. Originally I had wanted to see Noises Off or Urinetown, but the guy at Urinetown was mean, so Sophie and I saw Shakespeare (Abridged). First of all, the people were very nice where we bought the tickets, and they were funny too. And since it was Off-Broadway it was less expensive and more intimate. It was kind of interactive and you don't have to know anything to about Shakespeare to enjoy it. It's probably a tie for Bat Boy in it's funninesss, and you know how much I like Bat Boy. Not to mention that David Turner, one of the actors (the one who played all the women :) ) was very, very cute and of course talented. The other two guys were very talented too. There are only three actors who do all the characters, and at times it gets very harried, especially when they do things fast forward and the such ::giggle::. And, yeah, it's also very educational. It's the best non-musical I ever saw, and one of the best shows period. Funniest show ever! At the end they say that if you like it you should tell your friends and if you hate it you should tell your enemies, so, everyone, go see it!!

My Opinion: Go see it! It's wonderful, click this link and then go see it, because you will not stop laughing.

            Three siblings descend into a dark cave unaware of the wild bat creature that lies in wait. Sounds like a typical bad B-Movie, at least until the teenagers exclaim, �This cave rocks!� They then proceed to get high and offer Frito�s to the strange creature. Thus begins �Bat Boy � the Musical.�
            Bat Boy�s inspiration is an article from the Weekly World News about such a supposed discovery of a child, half-bat, half-human, found in a cave. In the musical, Bat Boy is captured, brought to the sheriff and later to the town�s veterinarian. Some people want to adopt him; others want to kill him; most cry out �Sweet wounded Jesus�
            The one set used does duty as everything in the village of Hope Falls, from the inside of the veterinarian�s house, to the slaughterhouse and even to a revival tent. There is no attempt at subtlety in the scene changes. Characters walk across the stage with signs indicating changes in locale and time.
            Though this production is certainly unique, it borrows from and parodies other musicals. Batboy undergoes a �Pygmalion� type transformation in the scene where he progresses from animal sounds to perfect English. And despite the fact that he learns the language from an American housewife, he speaks with a proper Henry Higgins British accent, thanks to BBC tapes of course. The romantic scene in the woods uses creatively acted animals, clearly mocking the famous safari animals of The Lion King.
            Humor is an important element throughout the play, and, like the scene changes, it is not subtle. The sexual innuendo is strong and blunt. The human/animal interaction in the scene parodying the Lion King would make the Disney creators blush. Yet hidden inside the side-splitting humor, there are serious and dark themes running throughout the play � themes of intolerance, forbidden love and treachery. But even though you are warned in the first song that you are �not here to laugh but to learn,� and even though the life lessons are emotional and important, it is impossible not to laugh out loud. In fact, some viewers might complain that the dark side of this play is so strong that you feel guilty for laughing so hard.
            Deven May could not portray Bat Boy any better if he had been born in a cave with pointy ears and fangs. From Bat Boy�s first appearance as an untamed beast attacking intruders in his cave to his later appearance hanging upside down in a cage, May personifies both the touching human elements of this creature as well as his base animal instincts. Few actors could possibly belt out such emotive songs hanging upside down by one arm with fangs in their mouth. Kerry Butler, as his love interest Shelly, sings beautifully. Her transformation from hating this creature to loving him is made believable by the emotion she puts into her singing and acting. The talented Kaitlin Hopkins gives a superb performance as Meredith, the housewife with the bouffant hairdo and 50�s dress and ideals. Sean McCourt plays both good guy Dr. Parker and evil villain with equal flair. The six other actors, all extremely talented, do double and even triple duty as the other fifteen characters, doing changes from man to woman to animal sometimes even on stage with the audience barely the wiser.
            The other strength in this production is the music. The songs are powerful, emotional and catchy, ranging from rock to rap and classical show tunes. You are likely to leave the theater, as I did, singing, �Love the Bat Boy.�

Whoa, definitely not a show for the faint of heart. It was really good and really funny, but I have been scarred for life by the sight of the Terrence Mann as Frank N' Furter. I mean, he was phenomenal, don't get me wrong. But it was Terrence Mann and he was talking about being a sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania! He said the F-word and he well, if you've seen the movie or play you can imagine. But once you got over your shock it was a really amazing show, very funny and well acted/sung, and Terrence Mann, Javert forgive me, looked incredible in fishnets, a corset, and high heels. He has really nice legs. :) And Sebastian Bach was really good, and so incredibly nice at the stage door. He signed everyone's everything and took as many pictures as you wanted. He stayed until everyone had gotten a picture or an autograph. He was just amazingly nice, and he played his part amazingly!

My Opinion: Great show, great performers. Quite risqu�, and very good! It will be back!

Kiss Me Kate

I thought that this musical was really good! It was very, very funny and the dancing was very good. Carolee Carmello was amazing, her voice has such range and she was so funny. Burke Moses was really funny too. The whole cast was great and I really liked the story. It's a shame they closed down, because it was so good!

My Opinion: Wait for the next revival!

Aida

Wow, this was soooo good! We got to go for a program I'm doing at Columbia (After, I got to see a put-in rehearsal, cool right?) The cast was really amazing and wow, the sets and costumes? Wooooo! I personally like the Disney version better than the opera version, but that could just be me. It was phenomenal. The performers sang so effortlessly, and the dancing was really good. I got to go backstage (which is really understage) and I saw all the costumes and the dressing rooms and it was soooo cool! Adam Pascal, Maya Days (who I met understage) and Idina Menzel were all really good, and though parts of the cast are changing again, it will still be great!

My Opinion: This show is still on Broadway! Go! Go see it now!

Forbidden Broadway

This is off-broadway and sooo funny. Pretty much, they make fun of all the Broadway shows. The Les Miz parody had me pretty near tears, it was so funny! Same for the Aida one. And the Lion King. And the Beauty and the Beast parody. Oh, and the Rocky Horror one. And Sarah Brightman. And lots of the other ones too. And the people there have such a wide array of different voices. There were only four performers but they did nearly everyone's voice who is currently on Broadway. Amazingly the men go from Adam Pascal to Terrence Mann and Alan Cummings while the women mimic Heather Hedley, Elaine Stritch and Sarah Brightman among others. And since Broadway is constantly changing, so is the show, so you can see it more than once and get a new experience.

My Opinion: Go see this now! And in a month from now! And the month after that too!

Rent

Rent was great! Wonderful! But I don't think there's anything I could say that hasn't already been said. I cried when (if you haven't seen it, I won't ruin it) died. It was soooo sad. ::sniffle, sniffle::

My Opinion: Rent will be here for a while. Go see it now!

Jane Eyre

This was a really, really, really, really good musical. Marla Schaffel is soooo talented and that James Barbour is amazing!!!!!!!!!! He is quite handsome and has a voice that should be cloned so that the entire world could sing that wonderful (if that sentence made any sense at all...). The music was really good, particularly Children of God ( Just a very cool song, has a very cool beat, makes you want to dance, unless that's just me), In the Light of The Virgin Morning (The way that Blanche and Jane sing about the same topic in different ways is kind of poetic, and it's just a really good song), Secret Soul (I love how the voices of Marla Schaffel and James Barbour mix so well.), Sirens (This great song was in my head for about three hours after I first heard it, really, one of the best, this is what they performed at the Tony's), Painting Her Portrait (Wanted to perform this cool song for my audition, but then I realized I couldn't sing...), The Gypsy (Sophie also particularly likes this one, soooo funny), The Proposal (I love Rochester's part in this, makes me swoon), Farewell Good Angel (Wow, I loooooove this man!, I wish I was Jane!)� and Brave Enough For Love (Ties up the whole thing quite wonderfully, great song and just a good ending to a really good musical). And yes, I know I just named a good chunk of the songs, but they're all very, very good.

My Opinion: So sad that it closed... ::sniffle, sniffle:: You can still get the CD though!

P.S. This musical should have won at least one Tony, such a travesty!

Beauty and the Beast

As you can tell from my fanfic, I really like this musical. It is very much like the Disney cartoon (which was also very good), therefore the costumes and the props were amazing. The actor who played Lumiere was sooo funny, and the beast had a really good voice (though since it was Terrence Mann on the recording, I have to go with Terrence Mann, sorry Steve Blanchard). The way that they made a little boy a teacup was really, really cool! I love all the songs from this, especially those sung by the beast, Home, Belle, Me (Christopher Sieber (you know the father from Two of a Kind?) was absolutely hilarious in this role, I almost didn't want Gaston to die. Almost.) Gaston, and The Mob Song.

My Opinion: Go see this musical too! It might not be drastically profound or touching but it is really amazingly good!

Annie Get Your Gun

This was cool because Reba McEntire was in it. The guy who played Frank Butler (Brent Barrett) also had a really good voice. My favorite songs would probably have to be (Even though they were all surprisingly good) There's No Business Like Show Business, Who Do You Love, I Hope, I Got the Sun in the Morning, and Anything You Can Do.

My Opinion: Reba McEntire was really good in the role, totally in character, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable show.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Oh, oh, oh, this show should not have closed down! Barely out for three weeks and they slit it's throat! So sad! I mean, the very first scene has Tom Sawyer jumping out of a pool of water that is set in the stage. I mean, they open the curtain and there's like a tree, a backdrop, a pond, etc. All of a sudden he comes through real water, sooooo cool!!! The scenery and lighting (the only two things it was nominated for) were phenomenal. And that pool in the center of the stage also became a hole in the graveyard and when Injun Joe falls from the cliff in the cave. (That is a death that Javert should have. I� mean, I love how he falls off the bridge, but how cool would it be if he could actually fall through a hole in the stage?) Let's see, favorite songs...Hey Tom Sawyer was really good, I liked it a lot and it started the play off good. I liked The Vow, it comes in my head every once in a while, but I only know like 6 words of it (A vow means forever starting now) so it's hard to sing in my head. Ain't Life Fine was really cool too, I liked that. I Can Read and You Can't Can't Dance were good too. Probably my two all time favorites were Angels Lost (Aunt Polly sings part of this and she was played by the woman on Matlock, so you know that she's cool!) and Smart Like That. Angels Lost uses really cool use of scenery and lighting to simulate caves and the song has lots of people singing it in canon or something and I know that my description stinks but the song was just really, really, really good! Smart Like That is the part with whitewashing the fence and I don't know what kind of 'paint' they used but they used it to paint the fence, and each other and they got it all over the stage as they did this whole cool dance sequence that was just really good.

My Opinion: Stay home and cry that you can't see this great musical or even listen to the recording because there isn't one. I pity you all...

Grease

This was the first musical I ever saw! I was a few years younger than I am now and don't remember much but I do know I saw it with Lucy Lawless. My favorite songs would have to be well, a bunch of them, most of them from the movie. The only one from the musical that I really like that is not in the movie is Freddy My Love

My Opinion: Not greatly touching or anything, but they made a car come out of the stage, that's pretty darn cool.

Les Mis�rables

Oh yeah, I also saw Les Mis�rables, but I didn't think it was that good. (Of course I'm just kidding!)

Back to Musicals Page, let's see what musicals you didn't see

Home will be where the heart is...

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws