The simply fabulous theatre thread

[Drago]

As it was, only I and another guy actually remembered the script; multiple times we had to improvise prompts for the others to help things progress.

Ahh, improv. Either an actor's best friend or worst enemy... Though I've had extensive improv experience, I've only ever had one chance to actually improv on-stage, and even then it was only a minor alteration to a line. It was when I was playing Zac in Cosi. Originally, the lines were (abridged),
Cherry: You said you were a painter. (etc)
Zac: I was a house painter...

We'd done the lines so many times, the girl playing Cherry had inadvertently pre-empted my line and said 'You said you were a house painter', effectively killing the humour in my next line. It was funny, right after she said 'house' she kinda stopped, realising what she had done, and tinkered slightly with the next sentence, to which I just looked at her flatly, and snapped 'I WAS a house painter.' lol good times.

Yay to musicals! Some of my lucky friends have seen The Phantom of the Opera on its run in Melbourne; me, being broke (but luckier than them, having spent my money on Muse and Silverchair among other things), will have to give that a miss.

I got to see Phantom when it hit Melbourne (gf bought tickets for me and my father), and I was absolutely wrapt. The stagecraft was just absolutely fantastic, everything just looked wonderful; such a visual splendour, and I'm not usually the kind of guy who gets hung up on the aesthetic aspect. Anthony Warlow wasn't performing on the night I attended, it was Roy Weisensteinner (the announcement of which at the beginning of the show garnered a collective groan from the audience), and I'm quite happy that it was Roy. He really was excellent, it must suck for him to have to put up with those disappointed reactions every time it's announced, but by the end he had the audience in the palm of his hand. Good on him!

My favourite musical is Rent though; I love its sheer exuberance. Phantom isn't bad either, although Lloyd Webbers do tend to get fairly repetitive.

I've liked what I've seen of Rent, but that's only been the first half of the movie, since I keep getting interrupted before I can catch the whole thing. And I wholeheartedly agree with ALW's works getting repetitive, I love Les Mis to death but the fact that it actually recycles tunes for different songs is a mite irksome.

It's a shame your school wasn't equipped to do productions, Tony, but does your uni do them?

That's an interesting question which I never considered... I don't see why they wouldn't, I've just never heard anything about it. That's a great suggestion, thanks! I'll look into that. Also, wow, it took seven years for someone to actually call me Tony on TPM. lol I like it! I feel like somebody.

But if it's a confidence issue, I suggest joining a community choir or something.

Another good idea! You're good at this, you know. I oughta look into it, it just might be a bit of a hassle because I live in the western suburbs, also known as the place creativity goes to die. Looks like a lot of commute lies ahead. Ho-hum.

I've come to like Jesus Christ a little more than Phantom, but I don't see how anybody can go wrong with the more comical productions like Spamalot and Avenue Q.

I saw Jesus Christ Superstar on DVD a week or so ago, and I have to say I was rather disappointed. Not that many songs appealed to me, and it wasn't at all what I expected. That'd be my fault though, because I was expecting a campy, fun Joseph-like experience (though I don't really like Joseph much either), but it was actually a lot more depressing. Yeah, I guess that'd be what you should expect from a story about Jesus. On the plus side, Rik Mayall was very much Rik Mayall, and I really liked Fred Johanson, even if I never expect to see him again.

...And Maggy, I expect to hear reactions to Rent! I command it, dare I say.

On a final note, I saw the movie version of Sweeney Todd yesterday. (I'll keep my opinions limited, as it isn't exactly musical theatre...)
1. Quite good, though Alan Rickman is definitely not a singer. 2. Three Harry Potter actors, eh? 3. It was random seeing Anthony Stewart Head in such a miniscule cameo. 4. Johnny Depp continues to amaze me. 5. Sacha Baron Cohen proves (Spoiler:) after he drops the Pirelli facade that he can do serious acting. Hopefully this means he won't be forever limited to character roles.
The only annoying thing for me now, is that every kid and his dog knows about Sweeney Todd, and not the full history, either. Just that it was a Johnny Depp movie. The stage production is something of an afterthought to these kids, if they are aware it even exists.
Additionally, now this kills any chance of doing an amateur production of Sweeney Todd, it was aging in obscurity rather nicely, but now everyone is gonna want to do it, the rights are going to shoot skyward. We find it hard enough to afford obscure crap, let alone mainstream musical theatre.

And finally, I just want to say how much I miss Parlor Songs. I always loved Parlor Songs, but after hearing Timothy Spall sing Ladies and Their Sensitivities, I knew Parlor would get the chop, for the better no doubt (would've been completely out of context in the themes of the movie, too), but it seems that most Sweeney soundtracks omit the piece anyway.