I Dreamed A Dream

Hello my lovelies! As you know I saw the new revival of Les Miserables recently and absolutely loved it. I know that I’ve mentioned this a few times before but Les Mis was the show that got me hooked on musical theater and now with the revival recently taking it's Broadway bow I wanted to share with you all my personal Les Mis story.

I was twelve years old and in the 6^th grade the first time I saw Les Mis. Up until then, I knew a little bit about the world that is Broadway and musical theater. As I mentioned in my recent post about Aladdin, my first cast recording was of Beauty and the Beast. I worshipped Susan Eagan, knew all about the Broadway production of The Lion King after an obsessive phase where we used the music for a dance camp production when I was 10, I had memorized the words to “Happy Talk” and “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair” from South Pacific by the time I was six and had seen many movie musicals. My knowledge of theater was somewhat limited and I had only really seen the touring company of Beauty and the Beast when I was nine. But then I saw Les Mis and not to sound over dramatic but it changed my life.

It was a production at my school at the time and they were known for putting on some of the best productions in the area often times selling out performances. I went with one of my friends and her parents and we thought that we were so grown up going to see this show that we honestly knew very little about. By the end of the night I was a stunned little 12 year old that was wondering what I had been missing out on for so long.

When I got home that night I plopped myself down at the family computer and started to look for the music to listen to again and again-with this being around 2005 the search wasn’t that um extensive. The next morning over my bowl of Special K cereal I went on and on about the show to my mom saying how amazing it was and how much I loved the music. She asked me who my favorite character was expecting that I would say Cosette and I immediately told her that it was Eponine cause I thought that she was the best. In the coming months I borrowed a VHS of the 10^th anniversary concert from my public library, which I watched a number of times enthralled by brilliance that is Colm Wilkinson and Lea Salonga. I began to check all of the cast albums out of the public library and read anything and everything about theater that I could get my hands on. As I grew older and as the Internet really developed with YouTube and other such sites I delved further into the world of musical theater. I started listening to more show tunes regularly to the point that I now have a number of cast albums memorized and would watch countless performance videos on YouTube. Fun story when I was about 14 I memorized the choreography for “You Can’t Stop the Beat” after watching the video of the original cast of Hairspray’s performance on NBC News Today.

Broadway quickly became more than just a phase for me but something that I loved and was passionate about. Yes, it was definitely something that most kids my age didn’t know or for that matter care about, but that didn’t faze me one bit. I loved that it made me unique for loving something that was uncharted territory for most as it wasn’t music that was played on the radio. I reveled in the idea of getting my hands on new cast albums and books, a playbill vintage or new was treated like gold and souvenir programs were carefully stored in my dresser drawers. The obsession or passion whatever you want to call it even spilled over into my schoolwork. In my junior year of high school my English class was British Literature and for our research paper, my teacher said, “I do not want to see one more paper about The Beatles” and most of the class groaned. But, I had no interest in writing about The Beatles; I wanted to write about The Phantom of the Opera and its influence on theater as I explained to my teacher that it was originally a London musical so it fits the guidelines. She said yes and later told me that it was the first paper that she had ever read about Phantom and she loved it! The next year, my senior year I wrote my research paper on Rogers and Hammerstein. I moved to New York later that summer for school and so I could see shows regularly not just the handful of times a year that I was used to when I was able to get one of my parents to agree to go.

Why did I just sit here and ramble on about all of this for a while that has nothing to do with Les Mis? I fully believe that it is because I saw that school production all those years ago. I honestly do not think that I would sitting here at my desk typing this with Dogfight playing softly in the background if I hadn’t went my friend to see that show. My parents aren’t musical theater people and the only exposure that I had to it was the few cast recordings and old movie musicals that I had seen as a kid. The signs were there when I was growing up, but I think that I fully understood it when I saw Les Mis. Like with anything that you love, my passion for Broadway and musical theater has helped to shape and mold me to the person that I am today and for that I’m eternally grateful.

Barbra Streisand once said that “You have to discover you, what you do, and trust it.” Les Mis helped me to discover who I am and I hope that Les Mis or any show for that matter can do that for you.

"Here Right Now"-Ghost review

Hello my lovely readers! So, in case you all didn’t know tonight Ghost the Musical based off the iconic Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore film plays its final Broadway performance. I got to see the show recently on the shows bloggers night and I will be honest I wasn’t exactly mesmerized but parts of the show were absolutely stunning. First off, a shout out to Rebecca Cohen who organized this event as well as the bloggers night that I went to to see the riveting and equally thrilling Venus in Fur a few months ago. If your are ever invited to a bloggers night seriously go, they are so much fun!

Like I stated above the musical which is based off the film by the same name tells the story of a young couple, Sam and Molly who are madly in love until they are torn apart by Sams’ murder. Sam, who worked as a banker had noticed some inconsistencies in certain accounts before his death stays as a ghost instead of moving on by staying with Molly and doing all that he can in his power to protect her from his killer and the impending danger from him. Throughout the show with the help of psychic Oda Mae Brown and other ghosts, Sam is able to protect Molly while finding is killer, which was a hired killing by his best friend and co-worker Carl while resolving the issues at the bank.    

The cast, which includes Richard Fleeshman and Caissie Levy in the lead roles from the London production, has its moments. Richard and Caissie have incredible chemistry and you can really feel the love between Sam and Molly as well as Molly’s’ pain and grief after his death. However, the standout performance of the show was Da’vine Joy Randolph who plays psychic Oda Mae Brown (the Whoopi Goldberg character in the movie). She was absolutely hysterical and whenever she opened her mouth the audience roared with laughter. The book written by Bruce Joel Rubin is so-so with mediocre lyrics by Rubin, Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard set to decent music that had its great and thrilling moments by Stewart and Ballard. The musical does have some aspects that are just beautiful to see, as it is a very visual show such as the CGI boards that provide shots of New York City as well as interior backdrops such as banking offices. However, I felt that they were overused in a sense, as the audience doesn’t need to see them constantly throughout the show. While these effects are part of what made this show visually stunning but a little less would have made a big difference as we know what we can do with our technology today but seeing it in practically every scene was a bit overdone for my taste. On the other hand some of the additional effects were executed beautifully such as the portrayal of Sam as a ghost, watching him go through doors and seeing objects being thrown around on the stage by themselves. Now while we can piece together how these bits are pulled off what made them so lovely was how they were executed. They didn’t look cheesy or campy but instead they fit so well into the show because of again how they were performed. All in all the show was mediocre, it didn’t blow me away, leave me stunned or emotional after the final curtain. It can use some work but with a little retooling before any of the international productions open will do the show some good.