Musicals Lee sees

[Gulliver]

Hi.

Lee got a season pass to musicals and tonight she is going to see one called The Schlop and I which I believe is about a lady who has to go be a teacher for a King who has many Schlops.

Maybe she can post here if it was good and also if she thinks this thread was a bad idea then it was Snuffles' fault.

[lee]

Hi Gulliver!

I think the thread is a good idea. Hoo!

The opening was cool. They had a thin white blanket that looked like a sail billowing across the whole stage and then they released it and it floated away gracefully across the stage. Then they had a really elaborate and impressive ship.

I think this was the wrong week for this musical though. I was pretty uncomfortable listening to songs with morals like:

* If you're feeling anything but happy, just whistle and people will think you're fine

* I'm not sure of myself but I'll pretend I'm always right because I'm king

* Don't worry if he's mean or abusive, sometimes he also does wonderful things. :/

Those things are less easy to swallow in our new reality. So I left at intermission. Oh well!

[lee]

Hey Gulliver,

I'm going to see Finding Neverland tonight!

I'll let you know how it is!

[lee]

Hey Gulliver,

Finding Neverland was pretty great!

In the opening song a real-life big fuzzy dog came out and me and the guy in the row behind me clapped for the dog, hoo hoo. Then later in one of the kid's imaginations, the dog turns into a dancing Russian bear- so there was a guy dancing with a bear-head, hoo hoo!

Two stuffies were in the musical and they both looked like Schlepps! Hoo!

The choreography and staging was pretty unique and fun! In the first song the "people of London" were hopping and that was pretty silly and made everything seem like you were watching from a kid-lens. There was also a funny song where the kids and the servants play make-believe under the dinner table while the adults are being snooty.

I also particularly enjoyed the "producer" who then inspires Captain Hook because he kept saying many Hook inside jokes from the movie Hook. Like he says "Good form" and "Bad form" a lot which is from that movie. And also he made a joke where he says "That's me" but he says it slowly so it sounds like "That is Smeeeeee". Pretty clever!

Anyway, it was light-years better than Peter and the Starcatcher. The songs were a little bit weaker but it was far made up for by the fun staging and great acting. The 2nd act made everyone cry. And they got a standing ovation! Hooray!

Definitely worth it!

Oh, and this was at the theater where Sneechilton will be, and I got to sit in the very seat you'll get to sit in for that, and it's a great seat! So that was good news too!

Ok have a good day, Gulliver!

[lee]

Hi Gulliver!

Hope you enjoyed watching Into the Woods with me last night! What strange stylistic choices those were. I'll tell the other bears about it:

* There wasn't really a set. Just some objects scattered about. Every actor was on stage the whole time, and when it wasn't their turn, they sat on objects and watched. There were no costumes, people just wore their petticoats and underclothes (kind of like the chorus in Hamilton). They had a few key items (red cloak, yellow hair, gold shoe). So it was all very "use your imagination" and low-budget seeming.

* The actors played instruments a lot, which I wasn't expecting. (Although there were 3 dedicated musicians on stage who never acted). Also the actors were double-cast a lot. So the girl who was Red Riding Hood was also Rapunzel was also the trumpet player. The actor who played the cow also played one of the step-sisters so that got a lot of laughs during transitions.

* Everything was very spare. They were doing the music with just the bare minimum instrumentation and sometimes they wouldn't even play music and characters would speak lines of dialogue they usually sing. I'm not a big fan of that! And the "dresses" of the step-sister were just curtains hanging on a rod held in front of them. I think the intent was to be clever and creative but to me if felt like low-budget community theater.

* The wolf was just a guy holding a stuffed-and-mounted wolf head on a plaque, like you'd see in a mountain restaurant. That didn't really work for me! But one funny moment was when Red Riding hood starts petting and cuddling the wolf-head as though he were a dog, hoo hoo.

* A guy played the cow with absolutely no costume attempt. He just stood there and said "moo". This resulted in a lot of laughs always and the cow was probably the best part. Strange choice though!

* Also I forgot what a downer the 2nd act is! Everyone dies! So weird! All the songs are about loss, death, parents, grieving. Hoo hoo.

* The singing was good and the transitions were clever. But really I pay expensive ticket prices to see elaborate forest sets with cool witch costumes and full on orchestras playing all the notes with lots of singing! Don't skimp my Into the Woods!

[Gulliver]

Lee is going to see the Schlop of Malm-on tonight

Cool!

[Nibs]

Hi Gulliver!

Lee wanted me to tell you that tonight she is going to see a brand new musical called SOFT POWER.

I hope it is about bears and pillows and all things soft!

There was something about a writer from Sneech Awakening and an actress from Fun Home and anysneech, maybe it will be good?

Lee wishes you could come see it with her!

Just passing on the tidings!

Nibs out

[Gulliver]

Nibs it is important to note that Jeanine Tesori is the musical composer and arranger of Fun Home. She also wrote the music and additional lyrics for Soft Power.

It is important to get these facts straight.

I hope there will be bears as well.

[Nibs]

Hullo!

As you know Lee and I have declared Soft Power to be the worst musical of all time and we left at intermission barely lasting that long.

But we forgot to mention our favorite part!

As you also know strangely Hillary Clinton is a main character in this musical who gives speeches, tries to learn Mandarin, and does lots of tap dancing, and twerking.

But in one scene a lady pushes a double wide baby carriage on stage and Hillary's assistant says "Mrs Clinton, this woman would like you to take a picture with her cats." And Hillary says "oh all right". Then she walks over to the baby carriage and proceeds to be handed one at a time some soft cat stuffies, each one fuzzier than the last, and these stuffies are all piled into Hillary's arms as each one solicits a laugh from the crowd. We lost count at 14 cat stuffies, there were probably more!

Anyway, like much of the rest of the musical, we don't know why that scene happened but we do think it was the most stuffies ever on stage at once in a musical!

Fuzzah for those cats!

[lee]

Gulliver and friends,

I am so excited to report that we are just a few days away from seeing DEAR EVAN HANSEN on Sunday!

I have listened to the music quite a bit (since Gulliver so nicely got me the cd) but I've still never seen the bootleg version so there's a lot I don't know!

Can't wait to see how it goes. I'll bring kleenex (and Nibs). But I won't use Nibs as kleenex.

[Gulliver]

Hi.

As we all know Lee is one of the original fans of Rent the Musical.

Tonight on Fox they are doing a live performance of Rent.

Well, Lee and I are quite skeptical because we are not very big fans of Vanessa Hudgens who is in it.

In fact I don't think Lee and I are even going to watch it. Unless Lee wants to watch it in which case let me know and I will watch it too.

Duddles - I just meant Fox the TV station, go back to sleep, jeez...

[Gulliver]

Hi.

Lee saw a show called Home. It is really indescribable so I won't even try to describe it.

I think it is like Fun Home but it is just Home. Hopefully Lee will tell us whether it was fun or not.

[lee]

Hi Gulliver,

Thanks for asking about the show.

It was pretty different. I guess the director does a thing called "zoological theater" where he likes to have shows with no narrative and no dialogue.

The show begins with him (the director, creator, main actor) staple gunning some plastic sheeting onto some plywood for a long time.

Then a bed appears and lots of magic trick type stuff happens with one character getting under the covers and then the covers are pulled back and its another character.

Then they roll out an entire giant house frame and spend 30 minutes constructing it on stage (bringing in sinks and toilets, attaching doors, unpacking desks, etc). A guy in white plays exotic instruments like mandolins and zithers and sings Leonard Cohen-esque songs while the house is built.

Then they overlay many characters doing normal house things overlapping each other (one character gets into the shower naked, and the curtain is pulled back by another naked character). Magic tricks and normal life.

The second half of the show was odd. They basically start pulling people at random from the audience onto stage and getting them to interact in a dinner party that escalates into all sorts of parties (graduation, wedding, funeral, etc) overlapping. The mysterious thing was how well-instructed the audience members seemed to be, knowing where to go, getting into costumes, grabbing props, etc. It seems as if the actors were whispering instructions to them on-stage while music drowns that out... but it's hard to tell.

To be honest, while the concepts were novel (magic tricks and set-building-as-show and improv-from-audience-successfully) I really wished for some dialogue or a narrative or something to hook into. By the end I felt like I was just watching a bunch of people have a cool experience in this play-house but there wasn't a lot of meaning for me in the audience. It seems like they could've given us a few recurring characters or plot-lines to hook onto, it wouldn't have taken much and could have been just lightweight. But I guess that was specifically not this director's intention.

The coolest part for me was they did a fake sunrise one morning and had the sun slowly creep down through the rooms of the house through cool lighting and that was neat.

I think this show was for people who really like props, dance, and set design.

Apparently the show was inspired by and loosely based on this graphic novel: https://www.amazon.com/Pantheon-Graphic ... 0375406506

Anyway, cool to see something so different!

Have a good day, Gulliver!

[lee]

Hi Gulliver,

I'm pretty excited because this Wednesday I get to go see RENT and it's the 20th Anniversary Tour.

I saw the 10th Anniversary Tour in SF during which time the original Mark and Roger both returned to star in those roles. I remember crying through most of the show because it was so good.

I still think RENT might be my #1 all time favorite musical. I'm pretty excited to see it again! It always reaches me on different levels at different times in my life.

I wish you could come and see it with me!

Hugs to you!

-Lee

[Gulliver]

Lee saw a performance of Schlop Awakening and rumors are that it was a very good performance indeed.