Dopey Showgirls in Gooey Gowns and then some...
Since I still have to clean the apartment and am procrastinating (Lazy Friday, fools), I figured I would write about Broadway's Greatest Gifts: Carols for a Cure Volume 8. It is a CD I am listening to right now as I type this, and it's really improved from last year. Actually, every year, the Broadway community comes together for a benefit album, and the proceeds go to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Each cast of a show running that season records a song, and it allows for some of them to get a little crazy with their choices, like the cast of Sweeney Todd doing a disco-funk version of "Deck the Halls," where the guy who plays Judge Turpin goes, "You're in a merry mood today, Mr. Claus!" or Fiddler on the Roof getting the guy who wrote "Light One Candle" to sing it with them. It's pretty cool, even if it does come out unusually early for a Christmas album.
Conspicuously absent from this CD? The Grinch. How interesting.
But it's fun to see which cast members actually deigned to participate in this project, and which ones bowed out. Usually, some third-string understudies or chorus members, and people who have either been in the show forever, or have been switched to another show the year after. Which is kind of funny and fascinating in its own way, seeing who's stayed and who's transferred after a year, and who hasn't. Way to go dude from The Producers who's been in that show since the very beginning. That's really, really awesome!
(I'm a little wary of posting names on the blog now. I'm afraid that not all of the people who Google themselves every single day will be nearly as cool or as nice as Lucy Brown.)
Anyway, it's an improvement from last year, in that they couldn't find a real balance between the funny Santa/Hanukkah Harry-type songs and the deadly serious Jesus ones. This year, they made the CDs a "Nice" Disc 1, and a "Naughty" Disc 2 that has all of the comedy numbers on it. Some of the highlights so far:
*The Jewish, black, Korean, Buddhist, gay, and Filipino cast members of Spelling Bee singing a Tenacious D-style ode to "December's Other, Less Famous Holidays," complete with beatboxing and pumped-in arena rock stadium sound effects.
*Altar Boyz' hilarious "Billie Jean" parody about Mary Magdalene, which is actually pretty funny, coming on the heels of that weird tango to it on "Dancing with the Stars" two nights ago.
*Les Miserables doing something right by letting only Inspector Javert get a song in edgewise. How do they get so many people on that revolving stage anyway? I guess some of them don't even sing and just move their lips instead.
*Kiki and Herb. Please come back!
*The cast of Spamlot singing about their manger-born savior, who, as it turns out, is most definitely not Jesus.
*Company's "Auld Lang Syne," singing and playing their own instruments. I've really been looking forward to this show, honestly, because it's not just the post-Monkees novelty of actors singing and playing their own instruments that gets me hooked. You've got so many people who probably wouldn't have been seen for most shows today getting to strut their stuff on Broadway, in a Sondheim show, no less? It's awesome. Where do they find them, anyway?
If I was laying bets on who's been practicing lately and who hasn't picked up their instrument since middle school band? Based on this track? Everyone sort of gets their own little varying from clunky to slightly adequate instrument solos, but there is one person playing the cello over the whole band who just takes it to town. Maybe it's just me thinking that this arrangement sounds very much like a Christmas version of "Still Hurting" from The Last Five Years, or maybe I just like when some musicians flaunt how good they are just by playing a bunch of sixteenth notes in rapid succession. Like, how Yo-Yo Ma's pretty much made a career out of that? It still sounds really pretty!
Although, someone in this show does play the synthesizer. Just tapping out the bass line on her keyboard set. I shit you not. You'd better do something interesting with that, Sondheimy!
*The Drowsy Chaperone's "Rockin' Christmas Angel," CBC-style, eh!
I don't like Mary Poppins. Honestly? I think this Disney crap has gone too far. It just sounds so manufactured and focused into oblivion. Man, I can't believe my dad wants to see this show when it opens. I never really cared for the movie, and those penguins used to creep me out. Although, I have a theory that most people can't really watch Mary Poppins unless they're totally high.
Also, The Wedding Singer has Constantine singing "The Hanukkah Song." Right. You know, I didn't watch "American Idol," and I've never heard this guy sing, but actually, he really does sound a lot like Will Forte's parody of him from "Saturday Night Live"! Unsurprisingly, the guy who plays Alexis Arquette's role in the show covers most of the real singing parts for him.
It is pretty cool, however, to see that two of the Altar Boyz from last year are credited among the Wedding Singer cast. Way to move up the musical theatre food chain, boyz!
I did treat myself to another early present a few weeks ago by buying The Gay Guide to Broadway. Which also makes for some very funny and incredibly kitschy re-gifting. Is it so wrong that I never noticed that the late Christopher "Mr. Belvedere" Hewett played Roger de Bris in The Producers movie until many years later? I still think it's hilarious.
I'd just like to state that I never once doubted Bobby in Company being totally straight. I don't believe the whole thing about him supposedly being a gay stand-in for Sondheim, and the reason he doesn't choose romance over having a social life is because he's only being real.
Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, though? Not gay, just freaky.
Conspicuously absent from this CD? The Grinch. How interesting.
But it's fun to see which cast members actually deigned to participate in this project, and which ones bowed out. Usually, some third-string understudies or chorus members, and people who have either been in the show forever, or have been switched to another show the year after. Which is kind of funny and fascinating in its own way, seeing who's stayed and who's transferred after a year, and who hasn't. Way to go dude from The Producers who's been in that show since the very beginning. That's really, really awesome!
(I'm a little wary of posting names on the blog now. I'm afraid that not all of the people who Google themselves every single day will be nearly as cool or as nice as Lucy Brown.)
Anyway, it's an improvement from last year, in that they couldn't find a real balance between the funny Santa/Hanukkah Harry-type songs and the deadly serious Jesus ones. This year, they made the CDs a "Nice" Disc 1, and a "Naughty" Disc 2 that has all of the comedy numbers on it. Some of the highlights so far:
*The Jewish, black, Korean, Buddhist, gay, and Filipino cast members of Spelling Bee singing a Tenacious D-style ode to "December's Other, Less Famous Holidays," complete with beatboxing and pumped-in arena rock stadium sound effects.
*Altar Boyz' hilarious "Billie Jean" parody about Mary Magdalene, which is actually pretty funny, coming on the heels of that weird tango to it on "Dancing with the Stars" two nights ago.
*Les Miserables doing something right by letting only Inspector Javert get a song in edgewise. How do they get so many people on that revolving stage anyway? I guess some of them don't even sing and just move their lips instead.
*Kiki and Herb. Please come back!
*The cast of Spamlot singing about their manger-born savior, who, as it turns out, is most definitely not Jesus.
*Company's "Auld Lang Syne," singing and playing their own instruments. I've really been looking forward to this show, honestly, because it's not just the post-Monkees novelty of actors singing and playing their own instruments that gets me hooked. You've got so many people who probably wouldn't have been seen for most shows today getting to strut their stuff on Broadway, in a Sondheim show, no less? It's awesome. Where do they find them, anyway?
If I was laying bets on who's been practicing lately and who hasn't picked up their instrument since middle school band? Based on this track? Everyone sort of gets their own little varying from clunky to slightly adequate instrument solos, but there is one person playing the cello over the whole band who just takes it to town. Maybe it's just me thinking that this arrangement sounds very much like a Christmas version of "Still Hurting" from The Last Five Years, or maybe I just like when some musicians flaunt how good they are just by playing a bunch of sixteenth notes in rapid succession. Like, how Yo-Yo Ma's pretty much made a career out of that? It still sounds really pretty!
Although, someone in this show does play the synthesizer. Just tapping out the bass line on her keyboard set. I shit you not. You'd better do something interesting with that, Sondheimy!
*The Drowsy Chaperone's "Rockin' Christmas Angel," CBC-style, eh!
I don't like Mary Poppins. Honestly? I think this Disney crap has gone too far. It just sounds so manufactured and focused into oblivion. Man, I can't believe my dad wants to see this show when it opens. I never really cared for the movie, and those penguins used to creep me out. Although, I have a theory that most people can't really watch Mary Poppins unless they're totally high.
Also, The Wedding Singer has Constantine singing "The Hanukkah Song." Right. You know, I didn't watch "American Idol," and I've never heard this guy sing, but actually, he really does sound a lot like Will Forte's parody of him from "Saturday Night Live"! Unsurprisingly, the guy who plays Alexis Arquette's role in the show covers most of the real singing parts for him.
It is pretty cool, however, to see that two of the Altar Boyz from last year are credited among the Wedding Singer cast. Way to move up the musical theatre food chain, boyz!
I did treat myself to another early present a few weeks ago by buying The Gay Guide to Broadway. Which also makes for some very funny and incredibly kitschy re-gifting. Is it so wrong that I never noticed that the late Christopher "Mr. Belvedere" Hewett played Roger de Bris in The Producers movie until many years later? I still think it's hilarious.
I'd just like to state that I never once doubted Bobby in Company being totally straight. I don't believe the whole thing about him supposedly being a gay stand-in for Sondheim, and the reason he doesn't choose romance over having a social life is because he's only being real.
Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, though? Not gay, just freaky.
posted by Gypsy at 10:43 AM
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