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It is “Seattle Celebrates Bernstein” season in Seattle (which strikes me as a little strange since Bernstein isn’t from nor really resided in Seattle, I don’t believe), so the theater I have season subscription to is putting on 2 classic Bernstein musicals, the first of which is “On the Town”.

I’ve only studied West Side Story (what Bernstein is most famous for) before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The musical definitely had a more classic feel to it, and it ended up being quite a funny comedy (A mixture of slapstick and witty humour). The songs felt classical with a slight touch of modernism, which really fits my taste in that it was easy to digest (not like Sunday in a Park with George) yet a little adventurous (e.g. the major 7th (I think) motive for “Oh well” in Act 2’s “Some Other Time” is quite angular and not classical). There were a few memorable songs as well (at least memorable enough that I can hum parts of it leaving the theater), such as “Carried Away”.

What is special about On the Town (and I suspect this is common for Bernstein’s musicals) is his heavy use of dance (probably because of Jerome Robbins) – it was pretty and at times felt like a ballet, and the genius in it is the dance sequences (nothing is sung) is used to advance the plot as well. So I thought that was quite fresh and clever.

The only downside was the plot was a little thin (although that’s somewhat expected for a slapstick-ish comedy). But overall the music, choreography and stage directing is quite well done, so:

Went to watch Legally Blonde in the last week of its 3 week run in Seattle. A number of people have seen it by now already and all the feedback I’ve heard is positive, so I went to see it with some expectations. I switched my season ticket and got a better seat – Seat F5 Left! 6th row from the stage, a little off center but that’s OK – only until the show started did I realize I’m right in front of the left rack of speakers and subs so the music was super loud for me :|.

Anyhow, when the musical opened I was a little worried, cuz the singing was rather weak for the opening number – but to my relief that was just the ensemble and none of the girls in the opening song was the lead (Elle Woods). The singing was generally well done, though none of the songs seem particularly challenging (nothing like Defying Gravity). The acting/staging and choreography was the more impressive part – there were quite a number of group dances, some of them looking quite difficult (like doing a workout routine with jumping ropes while singing).

The show was very well written – in terms of witty lyrics and throwing in additional humour (more than the movie), but at the same time cramming a lot of complex plot into musical numbers. It follows the movie’s plot line quite closely (which I find surprising, I was expecting a lot of watering down since I couldn’t imagine how you’d pack the movie into the musical), but the musical did run quite long (I think 2h 45 min with intermission). Also, the composer/librettist/book writer does a good job in moving the plot in song. A gripe I have with many modern musicals (e.g. Catch Me If You Can) is all too often the actors talk to advance the plot, and then break into song just to convey emotion – which to me misses the mark of a good musical. But Legally Blonde doesn’t fall into this “cop out” and includes a fair bit of action in its songs, making the musical more fun.

The excitement does taper off towards the end of Act 1, but picks up strongly throughout Act 2. Overall its a fun and festive musical that reminds me a bit of Hairspray in terms of style. Unfortunately no super memorable song from the musical that I can hum the morning after, so I’ll give it 3.5 stars… or adopting sadd3j’s new rating system, 3.5 rolls:

I’ve always wanted to watch Annie since it is one of those Broadway ‘classics’, except I wasn’t sure whether I was going to catch this one. The show was in Seattle for a limited time only (Feb 12 to 14) since it is a national touring company, and I was busy the entire weekend. I had to skip a birthday party to watch this show, and even then I wasn’t sure I’d have went until very last minute after I got off work. I ended up watching the show by myself, which worked out because I found out there was student rush tickets 1 hour before the show started, so I got a really good seat (main floor center, 11th row or so) for a really cheap price :).

I thought Annie was like… Rodgers and Hammerstein old (like ’50s) but it ended being more recent than I thought – the musical was written in 1977, and apparently the lyricist is still around and is the director for this national tour.

As expected, the tunes are more classical styled, with lots of reprisals (makes me wonder why newer musicals don’t have much reprisals anymore), and overall the performance was well done as it definitely gave off an uplifting and heartwarming vibe. The plot is set in the Great Depression (1930s) and the plot talks about some of the national issues faced during that era (e.g. high unemployment rates) and how we ought to be optimistic even in tough times – the entire theme seems oddly applicable to the current “Great Recession”. The casting was impressive as well – there were I think 7 children involved in rather important roles, and more impressively, there’s a dog that’s part of the cast and the plot as well.

The musical is around 2.5 hours long with intermission. The encouraging tone is a plus for me, and I’ll give it 3.5 stars.

Guess I’ll do some musical reviews too after reading the Rent review sadd3j and teewee made. I’m definitely piling up on the number of Playbill programs I have =), but this will be another way of keeping track of what I’ve saw. Oh and I decided to be a season subscriber to one of the musical theaters here too ;).

I went to see a touring, revival production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific last night. Rodgers and Hammerstein are definitely the classical Broadway masters – the “Andrew Lloyd Webber of the ’50s”, to help paint the picture. Rodgers is the composer and Hammerstein is the lyricist, and they collaborated on a whole bunch of musicals including Oklahoma!, The Sound of Music, Carousel, The King and I and of course, South Pacific. Random trivia bit: Richard Rodgers is one of 2 people in the world that has an EGOT + Pulitzer prize =P.
Anyhow… South Pacific is a very classical broadway show I would say. The music is very complete but classically styled – a lot of reprises of themes, which makes it very well rounded. Amazing baritone lead with his French accent and the soprano lead is fairly decent. There’s a surprising amount of French dialogue in the show – one of those instances that I’m glad I got a Canadian education, where at least I could understand enough of what they’re saying to catch the gist of what’s happening. Otherwise, the story was very flat – nothing dramatic like Rent or Wicked (granted it is a little unfair to compare to my 5 star musical selections), and people just fall in love at first sight – not a lot of character development. There’s also a very unexpected theme of racial prejudice that shows up in the second act regarding interracial marriage. My initial thoughts were since South Pacific is an older musical from the ’50s, maybe segregation is still a big issue back then and hence the characters made a big deal out of interracial marriage – but on further thought, that seems to be something we (especially as Asians) still struggle with nowadays.
The musical is just shy of 3 hours long with intermission, which is quite lengthy, especially when the plot isn’t moving. 3 stars for me.

I suppose I will follow sadd3j’s format for writing this review. As I recall, the last time I went to Canon/Pantages theatre was to see Wicked, and while the production wasn’t great that night, the theatre was quite comfy and it was still all-round good times. Unlike Wicked, the seats this time were much better, granted we bought them the first day tickets went on sale, so seat selection and dates were not a problem–Sarah and I sat dead centre, front row balcony (AA), so it was a near-perfect view. And as a side bonus, because my glasses prescription is quite up to date, I was able to see things relatively sharp.

The production itself was fairly similar to the original recordings. There wasn’t much deviation on the instrumental side of things (ie: I think it was the second time when we saw it, I’ll Cover You (reprise), the keyboardist put in a few more chords in the chromatic minor opening, this keyboardist didn’t put any extra embellishments. I did pay more attention to the guitarist and bassist this time and noticed they actually changed their guitars midway through songs, which made me wonder what about the songs required changing the whole instrument and not just changing sound patches. Songs like Without You, was particularly excellent because the bass sounded extra smooth and mellow yet the notes were distinct and clear. It made me want to come home and try it out (I’m sure I’ll be disappointed at my own attempts and give up shortly). On the vocalists side of things, the only things I noticed on several occasions was when Roger screamed in (What You Own and Another Day), he would come in at a higher note which almost felt like he was offkey, but then he’d bring it down to the correct register. Not sure if this was a mistake or intentional because I can’t say it was a positive. Overall, no hiccups, no technical issues (re: Mimi’s wireless mic breaking up during the second time we saw it).

For the cast review, I thought of writing all my thoughts down before reviewing what sadd3j had said to see if our findings would be similar or not, but I just lazied out and ended up glancing over the review quickly. I can say my findings are more or less similar.

Mark – Seriously amazing, it was like listening to the original broadway recording (OBR), really couldn’t have asked for more from him. During Seasons of Love, the way he claps and such is very much like from Live from Broadway at the end when they bring out the original cast. I thought that was a nice touch, to see his little mannerisms that make him Mark. its actually him!
Roger – Was he also the original? Either he isn’t and thus explains why it didn’t sound like OBR or it was technical. I think that because of the octive he sings in, being in the same range as the instruments, I found it was hard to hear his voice when the instruments came in hard (Another Day “who do you think you are.. barging in on me and my guitar-those parts were hard to hear as his voice was overpowered by instruments). I kept telling myself that I just need to adjust to him, but I think even by What You Own, it still didn’t feel fully settled.
Collins – He was the same as Live on Broadway, which at first (when I saw Live on Broadway), I thought was not as good as OBR, but I think his voice does grow on you and it was overall very good, he was able to do justice to I’ll Cover You (reprise)
Angel – excellent, no qualms about him
Joanne – Initial impressions was that she wouldn’t live up to OBR, but I think overall not bad, I’d put her on par with Collins and Angel
Mimi – Aside from Mark, Mimi would be my second vote to best voice. The timber of her voice is different from OBR because its not as raspy (maybe that’s what Sam meant by sweeter) but it was still very distinct. She was clear and never overpowered by instruments
Maureen – Again agreed about the piercing-ness, in fact if I didn’t read his review, I’d say the problem with her channel was having too much high end and not enough body to support. This was particularly evident in Take Me or Leave Me, Maureen’s parts weren’t very tolerable because it sounded more like high pitched screams.
Benny – suffice to say that he is no Taye Diggs
Other cast members – the male soloist for Seasons of Love was weak. Voice lacked that presence and command that the song demanded. By comparison, the female soloist was much better than him.

I think one of my goals was to take Sarah to see RENT live at least once to change her negative perception of it and I think this production has now made her to a RENT lover convert.