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tanndellApparently I should be ashamed of this, but I am not: I LOVE MUSICAL THEATRE! I really really do. I've been to at least 6 musicals in my short stint in London (ok, some of them were shite). I shamelessly pimp musical theatre to unsuspecting and captive friends. I sing Defying Gravity in the shower, I am that person!
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zorana84 who was forced to spend not one evening, but two, watching both versions of Jesus Christ Superstar so that I could compare and contrast the performances of Carl Anderson and Jerome Pradon (fwiw in my opinion, Anderson rules all when it comes to vocals, but Pradon might have a slight edge when it comes to acting). But feel free to compare for yourself.
Or asklazy_daze or poor persuna who were forced to watch the slashiest 10 seconds I have ever seen in any medium, just so that I could get a degree of validation. Thanks to that wee snippet, I now ship Enjolras/Grantaire forever, because OMG gentlemen what are your acting choices? Seriously watch this from 0.30-1.31. I just askjgdhiaiosodj every single time!
But this brings to the one musical that I had never seen on stage till today: The Phantom of the Opera. Now I owned POTO audio tapes back in the days, I even watched the terrible Gerard Butler film, but I had never seen it staged. And I have thinky thoughts about it, which I will share with the class, even though nobody cares.
See, I am a bad target audience for POTO, because I genuinely dislike all the characters, except for Meg Giry, who is awesomesauce and deserves to be in a better book/show/movie adaptation. Erik, the eponymous Phantom is a stalker and a psychopath, and seriously people, do not ship him with Christine! He is not brooding and appealing, he is insane. Yes, he has better reason than most, but still PSYCHOPATH! Raoul, the love interest, is a whiny, possessive, aristocratic spoilt brat, with entitlement issues, coming out of the wazoo, with all the charm of a horses arse! In fact I have seen horses with more charming backsides. Christine DeChagny is an immature, foolish, annoying little cow, with serious Stockholm Syndrome problems and I can't help wondering how she grew up in the same environment as the aforementioned Meg Giry, and still didn't manage to learn an iota of self-preservation.
That said, I love the music of POTO! I really, really do! Maybe not as much as I love the music of Wicked or Les Miz, which are probably my 2 favourite musicals of all time, but I remember being 13 and listening to Michael Crawford's spine chilling version of Music of the Night on repeat forever and it was one of my first introductions to musical theatre. And this creates a genuinely problematic watching experience.
That's because I am automatically emotionally involved with the narrative. This doesn't really pose a problem with most other musicals like Wicked, where I love all the characters OMG (Oh Elphaba, you total woobie! Oh Galinda, such a fascinating character arc!) or Les Miz where the story arc subsumes character development (Yes, I would like to know more about Javert, Eponine, the Thenardiers etc, but oh well, I could always read that 2000 page book if I want it that much) or Jesus Christ Superstar which I can appreciate because a) Controversial retelling of a Christian religious narrative and b) Written and scored by a couple of 22 year olds.
I can't similarly hand wave my issues with POTO, because POTO genuinely wants me to believe that Erik is the good guy in this scenario. Andrew Lloyd Webers critically panned sequel even makes the wishy washy Raoul into an abusive alcoholic because he clearly ships Erik/Christine like a shipping thing. Despite that, when the music swells, I have an automatic visceral reaction. Erik gets the big songs, the best lyrics, the finest moments, and that's why POTO more than anything else I have ever seen on the musical theatre stage drives home the point about what a terrifyingly manipulative medium musical theatre really is, and forces me to reconsider how I engage with the medium.
Lol, I know nobody else will have any thoughts on this, because MUSICAL THEATRE WTF, as I kept telling myself as I wrote this post, but I leave you with the most femslashy song of all time (JUST BE TOGETHER AND BE HAPPY BBS.. sniffle)
Just ask
zorana84 who was forced to spend not one evening, but two, watching both versions of Jesus Christ Superstar so that I could compare and contrast the performances of Carl Anderson and Jerome Pradon (fwiw in my opinion, Anderson rules all when it comes to vocals, but Pradon might have a slight edge when it comes to acting). But feel free to compare for yourself.Or ask
lazy_daze or poor persuna who were forced to watch the slashiest 10 seconds I have ever seen in any medium, just so that I could get a degree of validation. Thanks to that wee snippet, I now ship Enjolras/Grantaire forever, because OMG gentlemen what are your acting choices? Seriously watch this from 0.30-1.31. I just askjgdhiaiosodj every single time!But this brings to the one musical that I had never seen on stage till today: The Phantom of the Opera. Now I owned POTO audio tapes back in the days, I even watched the terrible Gerard Butler film, but I had never seen it staged. And I have thinky thoughts about it, which I will share with the class, even though nobody cares.
See, I am a bad target audience for POTO, because I genuinely dislike all the characters, except for Meg Giry, who is awesomesauce and deserves to be in a better book/show/movie adaptation. Erik, the eponymous Phantom is a stalker and a psychopath, and seriously people, do not ship him with Christine! He is not brooding and appealing, he is insane. Yes, he has better reason than most, but still PSYCHOPATH! Raoul, the love interest, is a whiny, possessive, aristocratic spoilt brat, with entitlement issues, coming out of the wazoo, with all the charm of a horses arse! In fact I have seen horses with more charming backsides. Christine DeChagny is an immature, foolish, annoying little cow, with serious Stockholm Syndrome problems and I can't help wondering how she grew up in the same environment as the aforementioned Meg Giry, and still didn't manage to learn an iota of self-preservation.
That said, I love the music of POTO! I really, really do! Maybe not as much as I love the music of Wicked or Les Miz, which are probably my 2 favourite musicals of all time, but I remember being 13 and listening to Michael Crawford's spine chilling version of Music of the Night on repeat forever and it was one of my first introductions to musical theatre. And this creates a genuinely problematic watching experience.
That's because I am automatically emotionally involved with the narrative. This doesn't really pose a problem with most other musicals like Wicked, where I love all the characters OMG (Oh Elphaba, you total woobie! Oh Galinda, such a fascinating character arc!) or Les Miz where the story arc subsumes character development (Yes, I would like to know more about Javert, Eponine, the Thenardiers etc, but oh well, I could always read that 2000 page book if I want it that much) or Jesus Christ Superstar which I can appreciate because a) Controversial retelling of a Christian religious narrative and b) Written and scored by a couple of 22 year olds.
I can't similarly hand wave my issues with POTO, because POTO genuinely wants me to believe that Erik is the good guy in this scenario. Andrew Lloyd Webers critically panned sequel even makes the wishy washy Raoul into an abusive alcoholic because he clearly ships Erik/Christine like a shipping thing. Despite that, when the music swells, I have an automatic visceral reaction. Erik gets the big songs, the best lyrics, the finest moments, and that's why POTO more than anything else I have ever seen on the musical theatre stage drives home the point about what a terrifyingly manipulative medium musical theatre really is, and forces me to reconsider how I engage with the medium.
Lol, I know nobody else will have any thoughts on this, because MUSICAL THEATRE WTF, as I kept telling myself as I wrote this post, but I leave you with the most femslashy song of all time (JUST BE TOGETHER AND BE HAPPY BBS.. sniffle)
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no subject
Date: 2012-02-22 11:29 pm (UTC)LES MIS <33333
Jesus Christ Superstar, oh, this was my first musical love - I had a CD of it recorded from an LP and I listened to it over and over again and wrote down all the lyrics in a little book. And I would act out the scenes by myself in my room. I did the same with Joseph.
MUSICALS.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-23 12:17 am (UTC)And lol I am totally willing to watch you in musicals... and lol even!
JCS was among my first loves too... and I did reenactments too... sometimes jumping across the bed for dramatic effect... Lol I was 14! Too old, but yet not!
no subject
Date: 2012-02-23 08:32 am (UTC)You can hear my wonderful Mme Thenardier accent ;)
Thing is about JCS, I had no idea which characters were which, so my reinactments were probably horribly wrong because I made it all up based on the songs. I still haven't seen JCS all the way through, or read the libretto or anything! BUT I LOVE IT.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-23 08:47 am (UTC)Also, why have you not watched the JCS film at least? It's so 70s and kitschy and ridiculous. There are angels! In the desert! And a Scooby van! Get thee to a download!
no subject
Date: 2012-02-23 09:07 am (UTC)I think I tried watching that film when I started uni in 2006, but promptly got very very confused and didnt finish it and then I lost the DVD...
no subject
Date: 2012-02-23 03:55 am (UTC)BUT YAY MUSICAL THEATRE
(sorry, double comment. Thanks LJ)
no subject
Date: 2012-02-23 08:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-23 10:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-23 11:27 am (UTC)*LOVES WICKED FOREVER*
no subject
Date: 2012-02-23 11:53 am (UTC)I am still so jealous that you've seen Idina in Wicked OMG, because IDEEEENAAAAA!