Oh, Rebecca, I do so love a good musical. Now, much as you and I have in common, I gotta say, "Starlight Express" never grabbed me, but that's okay, because "The Sound of Music" did. (I think Christopher Plummer may have been my first celebrity crush) The Rodgers and Hammerstein "Cinderella" with Leslie Ann Warren was the first I ever saw (on TV) as a little girl. I was hooked. I wanted to be her, to dress like her all the way down to her delicate black slippers. "In my own little corner, in my own little room, I can be whoever I want to be."
Ooooh, I’ve never seen R&H’s “Cinderella" - I shall have to seek it out! Thanks, Mary.
I’ve been to see - or watched on TV - quite a few musicals - it’s amazing how many different kinds there are! '“Mamma Mia”, of course, is built around the ABBA canon of work, and I remember a hilarious night out with a gang of friends at the Hammersmith Apollo, where we saw “Oh What a Night!”, which was basically a story strung together from a 1970s disco playlist. Fun, but a different kind of beast, if you see what I mean. http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_o/OhWhat_a_Night.html
That sounds fabulous! I loved "Mamma Mia" and "Oh What a Night" sounds like great fun. Thank you! I will definitely check out the link (thank you). Something shallow and fun sounds like just what I need these days. (Probably more fun to see with you and a "gang of friends" but alone with earbuds will have to do for now.)
The music in it’s great, although it’s not a ‘traditional’ musical (whatever that is, anyway!). 🤣 Makes for a great singalong, that’s for sure. When I saw it the main male character was played by Will Mellor, a rather handsome young chap from ‘Hollyoaks’ on telly. When the main female character in this boy-meets-girl saga got to kiss him, one of my friends shouted ‘LUCKY THING!’ at the top of her voice - at which point the performance had to pause for a moment while Will regained his composure….
A good friend to have for sure! I love, just love a good laugh. I would imagine everyone in that theater that night remembers her "LUCKY THING!" yell as well.
WOW! Everytime I hear that song, “Memory”, I break out in goosebumps big as marbles and I’m grabbing for the box of tissues! In fact, my husband and I just watched the play on Netflix a couple months ago. I don’t remember if I’d ever seen it in its entirety before, and certainly not on Broadway! But the song still had the same effect on me, the same as when I’d hear it over the years on the radio.
Oh, how lovely, Gail! It's a beautiful song, isn't it? I LOVED that album by Elaine Paige which I mentioned - it was all her show songs, and I listened to it again and again! I didn't know any of the shows when I first listened to it - and was baffled by 'Don't Cry for Me, Argentina' - which out of the context of the whole of the rest of 'Evita' doesn't really make any sense - but oh boy, I got to know some of them rather well!
My sister and I are attending a Sound of Music High Tea at a local cinema in July! My favourite soundtrack is probably Chess by the ABBA gents, but I’ve never seen it live. I’ve seen a ridiculously overblown version of Aida, with actual elephants. Does that count as a live musical? The good old Gilbert and Sullivan HMS Pinafore is always a riot. Phantom of the Opera is always mindblowing. The first live musical I ever saw was Jesus Christ Superstar. I’ve seen Hugh Jackman live in The Boy from Oz. Impossible to choose a favourite. The songs, the spectacle, I haven’t seen nearly enough.
Oh Beth, that sounds incredible - what an awesome thing to do! ‘Ridiculously overblown’ Aida LOL - with, gosh, real elephants - that IS rather overdoing it. Funnily enough I was an extra in the production of Aida at Earls Court in London waaaaay back in 1998! I’d seen an advert in the paper and thought ‘why not?’ 🤣
I love Gilbert & Sullivan! My school would put on a production every year - it was bonkers. I was never made to be in it, though, much to my relief. 😅
We went to see Phantom of the Opera in Toronto when I was heavily pregnant with my first son and when that candelabra started dropping from the ceiling, he swooped inside me - not joking! I am always so moved whenever I go to see a play it can impact me for days afterwards.
I think this was what Aristotle was going on about right, lol.
Oh wow, that’s a lovely story, Sue! I haven’t ever seen ‘Phantom’, but thanks to my collection of soundtracks on tape I do know all the songs from memory! I’m not sure quite what that says about me! 🤣
You are indeed STARLIGHT, my friend. And we are fortunate that you shine down on us every week with your delightful posts. I love your enthusiasm for musicals here! I will be listening to all your embedded examples.
When I graduated from college in 1983, my mother-in-law gave me a celebration in NYC. We had a meal at Windows on the World in the World Trade Center, and seats on the stage for Cats. Previous to that the only Broadway musical I'd seen was the touring production of Chorus Line, so it was a big deal to me. I still remember the cast members crawling over and through us there on the stage.
I saw Starlight Express in Vegas, go figure. I loved the music and adored the show, and just wanted to sit and watch it again and again. Thanks for the memories!
Oh, brilliant, Gayla! Wow, it’s just the show for a city of such bright lights as Vegas - and it sounds as if you enjoyed it just as much as I did! I can’t WAIT to see it on my birthday for a second time! 😁
I hope you have a wonderful time. I may be headed to London next spring/early summer. Maybe it will still be playing then. I'd love to see it. Report back after you go and tell us all about it. :)
Thanks, Gayla! I think it’s going to be a long run, so the chances are you’ll get to see it when you’re over here. I’ll report back in full - I can’t wait to see it - I’ve got a little while to wait! Thanks so much for reading. 😊
I love musicals! My best friend and I visited New York City together in the 90s and saw Cats on Broadway. 😻 I remember learning to play the Memories song on the piano when I was in high school, and singing along dramatically.
We see various touring shows when they come to Seattle, and just a couple weeks ago we saw a local production of Spring Awakening.
I can relate to ‘singing along dramatically’, Jen! Musicals are terrific - I’ve still got plenty on my list to see, though. I hadn’t heard of ‘Spring Awakening’ but Google tells me that it’s a ‘coming-of-age rock musical’, which sounds great!
Does Saturday night fever count as a musical? Grease? Tommy? I like the sound of musak, and I think that's about it. So basically musicals are not my cup of tea at all, but I enjoyed reading your article about them, because of the variety and your enthusiasm.
Thanks, but don't be daft. My suggestion WAS reckless. But it's only a willingness to break the rules that leads to progress in my humble opinion. That's my excuse anyway.
I love musicals! The experience is the closest thing to being transported to another world, and the feeling lasts a lifetime, through the songs. When my husband and I were dating, he had several musical soundtrack albums, which I fell in love with, as I did with him. I have been to several musicals in my lifetime, though not as many as you have, no doubt. I enjoyed this so much, Rebecca!
Oh how lovely to hear, Sharon - I feel just the same way as you do! '...being transported to another world, and the feeling lasts a lifetime, through the songs.' You've absolutely nailed it!
How lovely that your husband shares your love for musicals. LOL - I wish I could say the same about Jim, but I'm working on him! 🤣
Well, Miss Starlight, when is your birthday proper? Asking for a friend . . . .
Also, I'm with you about loving musicals of childhood. So much drama, crescendo, intensity, beauty, cleverness, and on and on. Climb that mountain, Rebecca!!
Loved this! While I haven't had the luck to see any on stage musicals, I do indulge in a few musical films from time to time. The latest one I checked out was "Wonka" with Timothee Chalamet, and I gotta say, the songs were stuck in my head for days on end!
How fun, Rebecca! Someday, but not today, I'll dredge up the Playbill from my early 80s Cat's experience (also, coincidentally, Barnum). There's a chance we were there at similar times. When I was in high school, I had bit parts in productions put on by our local Shakespeare Company. Many of the cast came from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and were top notch actors, including Terrence Mann, who went on to play Lyman in Barnum, The Rum Tum Tugger in Cats, and Javerts in Les Miserables. He came to my surprise 16th birthday party, and it was a thrill to see him on Broadway in two of those three shows.
My mother was a huge fan of music and music theatre, so I too am deeply moved by many show tunes. I loved reading about your connections!
Oh wow, Elizabeth, I love to think that we might’ve been in the same theatre at the same time! Do you remember a girl singing along to ‘Memory’ and being shhhhhhhd by her mum, or a boy standing up in surprise and then finding his seat wasn’t there any more? Please say you do! 😁
One thing that’ll always stay with me was seeing a very smartly-dressed lady walking along a corridor in the theatre after the show - I think we must have nipped to the loo or something so we hadn’t left the theatre immediately - she looked absolutely beautiful - that big 1980s permed hair, lovely clothes…. and her face still fully made-up as a cat! That was absolutely awesome!
I could *say* I remembered and launch a new fiction-writing page. Ha!
Maybe you recall seeing The Rum Tum Tugger exit the stage, duck left behind the back row of seats in the orchestra section, and plant a kiss on the heads of two women. That would have been me and my mom!
One day, we'll have stories to tell over tea, I'm convinced.
LOL - oh wow, that’s fantastic! I’m sad to say I have no recollection of that happening at the performance I had seen, but how absolutely wonderful!!! 😍
Oh Rebecca, what a wonderful whistle-stop tour of musicals past and present - I'm trying to recall if I've ever actually been to a musical? I fear that may be a gaping hole in my childhood. I certainly can't remember doing so.
Then again, my introduction to Cinema aged about six was not Disney or even slapstick, but 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' a 4 hour and 20 minute Biblical epic starring Charlton Heston as John the Baptist (even now...) and if I'm not much mistaken, John Wayne as the centurion at the crucifixion. I'm not sure my parents should have had children.
Now The Sound of Music is another thing altogether. When I was a child, the cinema up on the 'big road' in the city of my birth, having presumably reached its zenith with The Greatest Story, seemed later only ever to show The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, and Ben Hur. My dear father used insist that it was a continual showing of an epic entitled 'The Sound of My Fair Ben Hur.' The mind does indeed boggle, at the notion of Audrey Hepburn potentially developing her vowels on an alpine chariot run.
Oh Jackie, this has really made me laugh - "My dear father used insist that it was a continual showing of an epic entitled 'The Sound of My Fair Ben Hur.' The mind does indeed boggle, at the notion of Audrey Hepburn potentially developing her vowels on an alpine chariot run." I'm now imagining all kinds of crazy musical mash-ups - CatS on a Hot Tin Roof - Greased Hair - Phantom of the Chocolate Factory....!
What an absolute nightmare for a first trip to the cinema - not only for the intensity of the subject matter but also for the expectation on a six-year-old child to sit still for over four hours! I'm so sorry that happened to you!
Oh, Rebecca, I do so love a good musical. Now, much as you and I have in common, I gotta say, "Starlight Express" never grabbed me, but that's okay, because "The Sound of Music" did. (I think Christopher Plummer may have been my first celebrity crush) The Rodgers and Hammerstein "Cinderella" with Leslie Ann Warren was the first I ever saw (on TV) as a little girl. I was hooked. I wanted to be her, to dress like her all the way down to her delicate black slippers. "In my own little corner, in my own little room, I can be whoever I want to be."
Ooooh, I’ve never seen R&H’s “Cinderella" - I shall have to seek it out! Thanks, Mary.
I’ve been to see - or watched on TV - quite a few musicals - it’s amazing how many different kinds there are! '“Mamma Mia”, of course, is built around the ABBA canon of work, and I remember a hilarious night out with a gang of friends at the Hammersmith Apollo, where we saw “Oh What a Night!”, which was basically a story strung together from a 1970s disco playlist. Fun, but a different kind of beast, if you see what I mean. http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_o/OhWhat_a_Night.html
That sounds fabulous! I loved "Mamma Mia" and "Oh What a Night" sounds like great fun. Thank you! I will definitely check out the link (thank you). Something shallow and fun sounds like just what I need these days. (Probably more fun to see with you and a "gang of friends" but alone with earbuds will have to do for now.)
The music in it’s great, although it’s not a ‘traditional’ musical (whatever that is, anyway!). 🤣 Makes for a great singalong, that’s for sure. When I saw it the main male character was played by Will Mellor, a rather handsome young chap from ‘Hollyoaks’ on telly. When the main female character in this boy-meets-girl saga got to kiss him, one of my friends shouted ‘LUCKY THING!’ at the top of her voice - at which point the performance had to pause for a moment while Will regained his composure….
Oh, that is classic!
We couldn't believe she'd said it - well, we could, because she was very loud and very outspoken - it was absolutely hilarious, Mary! 🤣
A good friend to have for sure! I love, just love a good laugh. I would imagine everyone in that theater that night remembers her "LUCKY THING!" yell as well.
I loved that Cinderella as a child; we watched it whenever it came on TV. The music was charming..
WOW! Everytime I hear that song, “Memory”, I break out in goosebumps big as marbles and I’m grabbing for the box of tissues! In fact, my husband and I just watched the play on Netflix a couple months ago. I don’t remember if I’d ever seen it in its entirety before, and certainly not on Broadway! But the song still had the same effect on me, the same as when I’d hear it over the years on the radio.
Thanks for the flashback! 🤗
Oh, how lovely, Gail! It's a beautiful song, isn't it? I LOVED that album by Elaine Paige which I mentioned - it was all her show songs, and I listened to it again and again! I didn't know any of the shows when I first listened to it - and was baffled by 'Don't Cry for Me, Argentina' - which out of the context of the whole of the rest of 'Evita' doesn't really make any sense - but oh boy, I got to know some of them rather well!
I have some amazing soundtrack albums. And live musicals are just SO extraordinary!! Another wonderful post. Thanks so much. 🤗😘💕
Awww, thanks, Beth! We are SO on the same wavelength, aren’t we? What’s your favourite musical? 😘😘😘
My sister and I are attending a Sound of Music High Tea at a local cinema in July! My favourite soundtrack is probably Chess by the ABBA gents, but I’ve never seen it live. I’ve seen a ridiculously overblown version of Aida, with actual elephants. Does that count as a live musical? The good old Gilbert and Sullivan HMS Pinafore is always a riot. Phantom of the Opera is always mindblowing. The first live musical I ever saw was Jesus Christ Superstar. I’ve seen Hugh Jackman live in The Boy from Oz. Impossible to choose a favourite. The songs, the spectacle, I haven’t seen nearly enough.
Oh Beth, that sounds incredible - what an awesome thing to do! ‘Ridiculously overblown’ Aida LOL - with, gosh, real elephants - that IS rather overdoing it. Funnily enough I was an extra in the production of Aida at Earls Court in London waaaaay back in 1998! I’d seen an advert in the paper and thought ‘why not?’ 🤣
I love Gilbert & Sullivan! My school would put on a production every year - it was bonkers. I was never made to be in it, though, much to my relief. 😅
We went to see Phantom of the Opera in Toronto when I was heavily pregnant with my first son and when that candelabra started dropping from the ceiling, he swooped inside me - not joking! I am always so moved whenever I go to see a play it can impact me for days afterwards.
I think this was what Aristotle was going on about right, lol.
Anyway, thanks for such an uplifting overview!
Oh wow, that’s a lovely story, Sue! I haven’t ever seen ‘Phantom’, but thanks to my collection of soundtracks on tape I do know all the songs from memory! I’m not sure quite what that says about me! 🤣
You are indeed STARLIGHT, my friend. And we are fortunate that you shine down on us every week with your delightful posts. I love your enthusiasm for musicals here! I will be listening to all your embedded examples.
Oh Sharron, you're making me blush! Thank you! ☺️
If you listen to just ONE of the examples, make sure it's 'I am the Starlight' - and watch your arms as the goosebumps appear!
When I graduated from college in 1983, my mother-in-law gave me a celebration in NYC. We had a meal at Windows on the World in the World Trade Center, and seats on the stage for Cats. Previous to that the only Broadway musical I'd seen was the touring production of Chorus Line, so it was a big deal to me. I still remember the cast members crawling over and through us there on the stage.
Oh wow! What an amazing graduation treat - 'Cats' was such a great show! I don't know 'Chorus Line' - would you recommend it?
I still enjoy the music. I saw it when i was a teenager, so I don't recall the plot very well, but I enjoyed it at the time!
I saw Starlight Express in Vegas, go figure. I loved the music and adored the show, and just wanted to sit and watch it again and again. Thanks for the memories!
Oh, brilliant, Gayla! Wow, it’s just the show for a city of such bright lights as Vegas - and it sounds as if you enjoyed it just as much as I did! I can’t WAIT to see it on my birthday for a second time! 😁
I hope you have a wonderful time. I may be headed to London next spring/early summer. Maybe it will still be playing then. I'd love to see it. Report back after you go and tell us all about it. :)
Thanks, Gayla! I think it’s going to be a long run, so the chances are you’ll get to see it when you’re over here. I’ll report back in full - I can’t wait to see it - I’ve got a little while to wait! Thanks so much for reading. 😊
I love musicals! My best friend and I visited New York City together in the 90s and saw Cats on Broadway. 😻 I remember learning to play the Memories song on the piano when I was in high school, and singing along dramatically.
We see various touring shows when they come to Seattle, and just a couple weeks ago we saw a local production of Spring Awakening.
I can relate to ‘singing along dramatically’, Jen! Musicals are terrific - I’ve still got plenty on my list to see, though. I hadn’t heard of ‘Spring Awakening’ but Google tells me that it’s a ‘coming-of-age rock musical’, which sounds great!
Does Saturday night fever count as a musical? Grease? Tommy? I like the sound of musak, and I think that's about it. So basically musicals are not my cup of tea at all, but I enjoyed reading your article about them, because of the variety and your enthusiasm.
"Recklessly"???? Bah. 😡
LOL! Yup, I’d say so, Terry! Thanks so much for your comment.
And come on - at least I’d put ‘recklessly’ in inverted commas!!! 🤣 #joshin’
No you didn't. You put a line through it, which is not the same. I know my rights. I've met your sort before.
You’re right! I’m very sorry. 😢
Thanks, but don't be daft. My suggestion WAS reckless. But it's only a willingness to break the rules that leads to progress in my humble opinion. That's my excuse anyway.
🤣
I love musicals! The experience is the closest thing to being transported to another world, and the feeling lasts a lifetime, through the songs. When my husband and I were dating, he had several musical soundtrack albums, which I fell in love with, as I did with him. I have been to several musicals in my lifetime, though not as many as you have, no doubt. I enjoyed this so much, Rebecca!
Oh how lovely to hear, Sharon - I feel just the same way as you do! '...being transported to another world, and the feeling lasts a lifetime, through the songs.' You've absolutely nailed it!
How lovely that your husband shares your love for musicals. LOL - I wish I could say the same about Jim, but I'm working on him! 🤣
Well, Miss Starlight, when is your birthday proper? Asking for a friend . . . .
Also, I'm with you about loving musicals of childhood. So much drama, crescendo, intensity, beauty, cleverness, and on and on. Climb that mountain, Rebecca!!
I’m climbing, I’m climbing, Mary! 🏔️
And it’s not for aaaaaaages yet - it’s at around the time the clocks go back. It’s a good job I’m patient*.
*Actually, I’m the least patient person I know. 🫣
Hooray for climbing, and I never would have guessed you're impatient! You seem like a steady Eddy from this side of the pond. 😁
🤣
Loved this! While I haven't had the luck to see any on stage musicals, I do indulge in a few musical films from time to time. The latest one I checked out was "Wonka" with Timothee Chalamet, and I gotta say, the songs were stuck in my head for days on end!
Thanks, Punit! I’ve heard some really great things about ‘Wonka’ - I shall have to see it!
How fun, Rebecca! Someday, but not today, I'll dredge up the Playbill from my early 80s Cat's experience (also, coincidentally, Barnum). There's a chance we were there at similar times. When I was in high school, I had bit parts in productions put on by our local Shakespeare Company. Many of the cast came from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and were top notch actors, including Terrence Mann, who went on to play Lyman in Barnum, The Rum Tum Tugger in Cats, and Javerts in Les Miserables. He came to my surprise 16th birthday party, and it was a thrill to see him on Broadway in two of those three shows.
My mother was a huge fan of music and music theatre, so I too am deeply moved by many show tunes. I loved reading about your connections!
Oh wow, Elizabeth, I love to think that we might’ve been in the same theatre at the same time! Do you remember a girl singing along to ‘Memory’ and being shhhhhhhd by her mum, or a boy standing up in surprise and then finding his seat wasn’t there any more? Please say you do! 😁
One thing that’ll always stay with me was seeing a very smartly-dressed lady walking along a corridor in the theatre after the show - I think we must have nipped to the loo or something so we hadn’t left the theatre immediately - she looked absolutely beautiful - that big 1980s permed hair, lovely clothes…. and her face still fully made-up as a cat! That was absolutely awesome!
I could *say* I remembered and launch a new fiction-writing page. Ha!
Maybe you recall seeing The Rum Tum Tugger exit the stage, duck left behind the back row of seats in the orchestra section, and plant a kiss on the heads of two women. That would have been me and my mom!
One day, we'll have stories to tell over tea, I'm convinced.
LOL - oh wow, that’s fantastic! I’m sad to say I have no recollection of that happening at the performance I had seen, but how absolutely wonderful!!! 😍
Oh Rebecca, what a wonderful whistle-stop tour of musicals past and present - I'm trying to recall if I've ever actually been to a musical? I fear that may be a gaping hole in my childhood. I certainly can't remember doing so.
Then again, my introduction to Cinema aged about six was not Disney or even slapstick, but 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' a 4 hour and 20 minute Biblical epic starring Charlton Heston as John the Baptist (even now...) and if I'm not much mistaken, John Wayne as the centurion at the crucifixion. I'm not sure my parents should have had children.
Now The Sound of Music is another thing altogether. When I was a child, the cinema up on the 'big road' in the city of my birth, having presumably reached its zenith with The Greatest Story, seemed later only ever to show The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, and Ben Hur. My dear father used insist that it was a continual showing of an epic entitled 'The Sound of My Fair Ben Hur.' The mind does indeed boggle, at the notion of Audrey Hepburn potentially developing her vowels on an alpine chariot run.
Oh Jackie, this has really made me laugh - "My dear father used insist that it was a continual showing of an epic entitled 'The Sound of My Fair Ben Hur.' The mind does indeed boggle, at the notion of Audrey Hepburn potentially developing her vowels on an alpine chariot run." I'm now imagining all kinds of crazy musical mash-ups - CatS on a Hot Tin Roof - Greased Hair - Phantom of the Chocolate Factory....!
What an absolute nightmare for a first trip to the cinema - not only for the intensity of the subject matter but also for the expectation on a six-year-old child to sit still for over four hours! I'm so sorry that happened to you!
*whispers* I’m not a musical person. But I appreciate those who are! And I was even in several - Grease, West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie.
Hang on - you were IN several?! Wowzers! 😍
I had a phase where I acted! I was never the star but I had bit parts.
That’s awesome, Alison!!! 🙌