My Fair Lady

[Irock]

While we're (sort of) on the subject of musical theatre, I saw My Fair Lady for the first time last week (blame Dayla and her AFI top 100 scheme), and I gotta say, I thought the songs kinda sucked. I figure it made the top 100 more for it's fashion, which was something, and just because everyone loves Audrey Hepburn.

She coulda DAUNCED all night but I couldn'ta listened for another moment, know what I'm sayin?

You seen it?

[Dutch]

Those songs were very in fashion at the time, though.

[squeezle]

my family has a thing for this movie....

higgins' full name is Professor Henry Higgins

my name was almost Eliza

[monet2u]

that's a great movie. the old school musical should be appreciated.

and where have you been sunny besides missing out on the classics?

[katie]

i don't like a lot of the music from classic musicals. some of it's great and i like it, but for the most part i'm like UGHHH ENOUGH. i understand and appreciate why it was groundbreaking at its time, but the rogers and hamerstein/julie andrews junk can be so grating.

[Sybil]

the rogers and hamerstein/julie andrews junk can be so grating.

Bite your tongue young lady! Rogers and Hammerstein were GODS of musical theater. I saw Sound of Music at least five times, at the movie theater when it was first released, and lord knows how many times since. I have the vinyl recordings of most of those shows as well. One of my life's regrets is never being able to see John Raitt do Billy Bigelow - I saw him in summer stock doing some other forgettable show, and he was absolutely stunning, even at an advanced age.

Julie Andrews should have been in ALL the Rogers & Hammerstein movies - Shirley Jones, meh. And as great as Audrey Hepburn was in My Fair Lady (with Marni Nixon dubbing the singing) I have to wonder what kind of film it would have been with Julie Andrews as Eliza.

Next you'll be telling me that Citizen Kane isn't the greatest movie ever made! Damn kids.

Sybil

[Dutch]

Carousel is still one of my favorites, and I've also really learned to appreciate Oklahoma!

For me, though, it's still the later 20th century gods - Sondheim, Fosse, Kander and Ebb, Schwartz, Rado/Ragni/MacDermott; although I'll still take Porter or Gershwin any day, too.

Does anyone remember The Fantasticks?

[Irock]

the rogers and hamerstein/julie andrews junk can be so grating.

You mean those songs where women sing so high-pitched that you can't even understand the words that are coming out of their mouths? Like the screeching climax at the end of "I could've danced all night?" Because I can't stand that either, it seems designed more to show off a singer's range than actually sound, you know, pleasant. I do like the Sound Of Music though.

[katie]

sybil: what sunny said. rogers and hammerstein just ain't my cup of tea. this probably has more to do with me being born in 1984 than anything else, really. i'm sure if i'd grown up with it, i'd love it, but i didn't and i don't. i hate voices that sound stagey and fake, and that's what a lot of the older musicals sound like to me. like parodies, almost.

michael: i do have a soft spot for oklahoma (i played aunt eller senior year of high school) and i agree with most of your list. i have been meaning to ask you if you like jason robert brown. also, your favorite schwartz? lastly, i was going to make a really awful pun about trying to remember the fantasticks, but i think i'll just say yes instead.

sunny: what you said.

ka"jason said forkers has been a lot gayer since i came around"tie

[Sybil]

sybil: what sunny said. rogers and hammerstein just ain't my cup of tea. this probably has more to do with me being born in 1984 than anything else, really.

Please, do not use that "before my time" copout. William Shakespeare was born 400 years before my time, but I can still appreciate his work.

But, I hear you, and I know exactly what you mean about the classic musicals just not being your cup of tea - some of that stuff comes off as plain silly nowadays - especially My Fair Lady, to bring us back to the topic at hand. I did grow up with it, and it sounds ridiculously outdated to me as well. It's kind of like watching old films - I have to suspend my more modern sensibilities and view it in the context of its time.

And yes, things are a lot gayer since Katie's been around.

Sy "think I'll go rent West Side Story" bil

[Irock]

Sound of Music is on right now, yea. Also, I love Oklahoma, but I think it's mainly because when we did it in HS I grabbed a cute boy to be my dance partner. I don't even remember the name of my character, maybe it was "chorus girl #3."

[Dutch]

i hate voices that sound stagey and fake, and that's what a lot of the older musicals sound like to me. like parodies, almost.

100% agreed, mostly.

i have been meaning to ask you if you like jason robert brown.

Not really. From Songs For A New World, I like "Stars And Moon" a lot but that's the only one. I saw the national tour of Parade when it came through Dallas a few years ago, and I really did not enjoy it at all. That's the only work of his I know.

also, your favorite schwartz?

Pippin, though I haven't seen or heard Wicked yet, and I love "Meadowlark" from The Baker's Wife.

lastly, i was going to make a really awful pun about trying to remember the fantasticks, but i think i'll just say yes instead.

Beautiful.

ka"jason said forkers has been a lot gayer since i came around"tie

Now I know there's a good joke in there somewhere...

[katie]

sybil: what sunny said. rogers and hammerstein just ain't my cup of tea. this probably has more to do with me being born in 1984 than anything else, really.

Please, do not use that "before my time" copout. William Shakespeare was born 400 years before my time, but I can still appreciate his work.

sybil: i work with several shakespeare companies. in fact, work with a shakespeare company is what jump-started my career. i can appreciate it, but it doesn't mean i enjoy it. i feel that way about shakespeare, i feel that way about rogers and hammerstein. there is a distinct different between appreciating the significance of a person in the history of literature/theatre/anything and really loving the work they produced. that shit ain't a copout, it's just how i honestly feel.

mr. turner (sorry, it's long): in regards to jason robert brown... check out "last five years." it's sort of an old story, but i really love how it's told. it's about a couple who were happy, got married, got unhappy, and got divorced. however, in the narrative, the female travels backwards in time where the male travels forwards. they intersect at one point, (the song "the next ten minutes") and it's pretty hot. the story is a little cliche, i guess, but the music is really pretty and it's really beautiful to see the evolution and devolution of love from both sides. really a gorgeous piece, i think.

also, i saw parade done at a theatre i love and work at, and it was absolutely goddamn amazing. the music wasn't the best thing ever, but the show as a whole was so fucking intense and strongly acted/sung all around that it really hit my heart pretty hard. i got to work with a lot of the same actors on a recent production of the mystery of edwin drood and i was totes starstruck.

medowlark!!! my buddy courtney fucking wrecks this song. and when i say wrecks, i mean "sings is so amazing it makes me cry."

schwartzy... listen to wicked, it's popular for a reason. elphaba rocks my balls off. saw it with kristin chenoweth and idina menzel and joel grey on broadway... and after the show, stuck around and had joel grey sing a little diddy from cabaret for me and my friends (i iz dork)... but also check out children of eden, which is schwartz retelling the book of genesis.

also: if i ever do a colorblind retelling of once on this island, will you please be in it? kthnksrwesoulmatesorwhut?

ka'"jason's gay"tie