Family Musicals

LINK TO FAMILY MUSICALS PODCAST

The family musical is a genre that I just can’t help but love. I have always been a big advocate of Disney films so being able to see some of my favorites performed in a theater setting is a true treat. However, not all family musicals are released by Disney. Perhaps the first family musical I knew of as a child was Peter Pan.

Peter Pan

This musical went in direct correspondence with the fact that I loved anything related to Peter Pan as a child. The Disney film was alright but the Peter Pan based stories were this musical, Hook, and Peter Pan and the Pirates. It never seemed to bother me as a child that Peter Pan was evidently being played by a woman. In fact that notion doesn’t bother me as an adult either. Peter Pan has always been traditionally portrayed by a woman on stage, going all the way back to J.M. Barrie’s time. I loved so many different songs from the production and as an adult, tried my hardest to procure the film on DVD. I have been unable to obtain a true copy of the production and will not settle for the Cathy Rigby Production.

Though I can’t find the DVD, the entire production can be found on youtube. Above is a clip from the production known as ‘Never Grow Up.’

The Lion King

Erika and I with Mufasa, 2010.

I was lucky enough to get to visit New York City for a third time right before our Broadcast for the Family Musical. I had saved up and redeemed all of my Disney Movie Reward points, which allowed me to get two free tickets to see The Lion King on Broadway. I went with my friend Erika, as she helped me to earn some of the movie reward points. Though the trip was stressful (we missed our bus and had to catch another one), the show experience was just as grand as I remember it being when I first saw the show with my father in March of 2003.

The Lion King, thus far, has proved to be the only musical that will continually make me cry on repeat views. I believe this has a lot to do with the emotional connection I personally have to the storyline, as it is my favorite film of all time.

Mary Poppins

I’ve not had the ability to see the musical as of yet and only can rely upon the cast album, but I have very mixed feelings about the changes between the Mary Poppins stage show and the original film. A lot of the songs are out of the order they appeared in during the film and this raises a red flag to me personally as it indicates that some plot changes have been made. It appears as if the stage show is a blending of the film and of the original novels, instead of a direct adaptation of the film. Even though I may be concerned about the changes in plot, it is a very small amount of worry, since I know that Cameron Mackintosh is behind the production. As evident from my earlier postings in the British Imports post, I adore Cameron Mackintosh so I know to not be entirely skeptical of him.

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast was the very first production that Disney brought to Broadway. While no longer on Broadway, I am hopeful for a revival as I really wanted a chance to see the production.

Favorite Clips

The ‘Circle of Life’ may not be my favorite song within the musical, but it is certainly the one that causes the most emotion from me. It always manages to make me tear up and it takes a great deal of effort for me not to sob when I see the The Lion King live. This is the original Broadway cast performing the song on the Tony Awards.

The ‘Circle of Life’ may be the main song to make me cry during The Lion King, but Endless Night will always be my favorite song from the production. I had hoped that they’d animate the song and add it onto the DVD special features, but instead they choose to do ‘The Morning Report.’ Jason Raize was a great Simba.

I am still putting research into the Shrek musical, but out of the cast album, this is my favorite track thus far. I aired this song during the initial broadcast but this gives a nice visual to how the scene pans out on stage.

I have posted clips of Hugh Jackman before on the blog so when I ran across this clip, I was ecstatic to see the performer in Beauty and the Beast. Gaston is my favorite Disney villain so I really enjoyed seeing him playing the character. It is also an interesting news segment on Hugh Jackman himself.

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Rodgers and Hammerstein

Link to Rodgers and Hammerstein Podcast

Research

As part of my preliminary research for this Blog, I needed to brush up on musicals  that were not necessarily my favorite type. For the most part, this meant the  Rodger’s and Hammerstein genre. I have always respected Rodger’s and Hammerstein,  for they have such a worshiped collection by the general public, and they do have  several amazing shows. I just never latched onto them the way I did other musical contributors, such as Sondheim or Andrew Lloyd Weber. In fact, prior to settling on this capstone topic, I had only ever really seen The Sound of Music, Cinderella and pieces from Oklahoma!

Rodgers and Hammerstein have an intense catalog. If you stick to the basic films they’ve produced, you’ve got at least the big six. The Sound of Music, The King and I, Oklahoma, South Pacific, State Fair and Carousel. Then of course you have other  examples, but because of the film productions, those are the big six that most people are going to know of. I sat down and forced myself to watch The King and I and Oklahoma!

The King and I

I am going to be straight forward on my opinion here. I did not care for The King and I. It is a major work in theater and cherished by many. But I did not care for it. It took me two days to watch because I had to stop it in the middle in an effort to retain interest at a later time. What I can say about the King and I is how it sparked my interest in the actual events. I wanted to learn about Anna Leonowens and King Mongkut. I spent a good deal of time after my viewing researching the actual events of their relationship, as well as King Mongkut’s effects on Siam during his reign. Vastly interesting from a research stand point, but far too dull for an epic musical.

I think the problem lies in my own personal tastes. I am more likely to flock to the musicals that are big epics, such as Les Miserables, or have roots in rock music, such as Hair or Spring Awakening. Shows that have the standardized show tunes are always going to have issues grabbing my attention, even though I love show tunes. Do not let that be misunderstood. I was very bored with The King and I, but I loved the music.  “Shall We Dance?” was simply breath taking from a music standpoint for me.

Oklahoma!

Oklahoma was not nearly as unbearable for me as a viewer. I made the mistake during my radio show by saying that it was my favorite of the Rodgers and Hammerstein film collective. It isn’t. The Sound of Music is. But I did enjoy Oklahoma, so much so that I sought out Hugh Jackman’s version of Oklahoma. I enjoyed that more. I do believe that I enjoyed it more because it was clearly a staged production, not a film. I feel as if staged productions that are filmed and put on DVD are generally more enjoyable than a studio produced film. Not necessarily all of the time, but it has happened more than once in my opinion (best example, Rent).

Broadcast and Music Issues

With the Rodger’s and Hammerstein show, I learned something as a radio DJ. I  learned how to use the vinyl player in our studio. I’ve always known how to use a vinyl player at home, but the one in the studio intimidated me. I am intimidated by the equipment I don’t regularly use. Which believe it or not does include the CD player as well. Since beginning at WSHC, I’ve been primarily using digital music files that are stored on my ipod.

My ipod, presently, is useless. It has some form of a glitch in it that makes it so I can not make a manual playlist properly. If I add a song to a playlist from an album with more then one track, 75% of the time it automatically goes to another song from the list. Almost like it is shuffling the tracks without renaming them. It has caused me many problems in the past few months, to the point where I have given up on it all together until I can fix my music library.

My music library is stored on my desktop computer, the first big purchase item I bought after obtaining a job. It currently has a virus and I’ve been trying to fix it for some time now. What this means for both The S&M Show, and my original show The Late Night Double Feature, is that I have limited music selection. A lot of my cast albums I purchased through the itunes shop but never bothered to transfer to CD. The CD’s I physically own are scattered between my car and my parents house. Sadly, the majority of my Rodgers and Hammerstein (and Sondheim) collection was purchased through itunes features.

Which means very limited selection. I wished I could have been able to play songs from Cinderella or Carousel, for example. I was really yearning to play “If I loved you,” during my broadcast, but sadly could not. Luckily though, I have an obscene collection of Broadway cast recordings on vinyl. I used the vinyls of The King and I and South Pacific for the broadcast. I found that I loved the way the vinyls sounded  over the air. I’ve always been in love with the scratches and pops. I was thrilled with how it turned out.

To end this entry, I figured I’d go ahead and post some links to my favorite clips from the Rodger’s and Hammerstein song catalog.

This is from the Hugh Jackman lead version of Oklahoma. I absolutely love when Hugh Jackman sings and I think this song is a delight as a viewer.

Edelweiss is my favorite number in the Sound of Music and always has been. I think that Christopher Plummer has a real magneficent voice. I often wish he’d have done more musicals during his prime. I prefer the version at the end before they escape from the concert hall, which always evokes tears to my eyes, but I posted this one for readers who may not want the film spoiled if they’ve not seen it.

Patrick Wilson is one of my favorite actors. I discovered him in the film version of Phantom of the Opera. To this day I state that he is one of the only real redeeming factors of the film. Due to my obsession with his voice, I found this clip several years ago and I am absolutely in love with it. His version of “If I loved You” is my favorite and I can only hear it through youtube!

Brandy was massive in my childhood. As a child growing up in the 90’s, nothing was cooler then Brandy. She had her own television show and pretty decent solo albums. So stared in the remake of Cinderella, it was a huge thing for me and my friends. Julie Andrews’ Cinderella is a delight as well, but this was my first exposure to the musical, so it will always mean more to me. Plus, I love Whitney Houston.

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