Friday, May 16, 2008

Things I have learned while writing the intros for Melis’ Broadway Revue.

1. The premise of Cats is so utterly ridiculous, I am convinced Andrew Lloyd Webber must have been smoking the crack when he wrote it.*

2. Oklahoma was so innovative, it set the style for the modern musical. It’s that style we take for granted, where the songs and dances weave together a coherent storyline with recurring motifs, and emotions aside from just laughter are evoked. Before musicals like Oklahoma and Showboat, it was just stuff like HMS Pinafore. No offense to Gilbert and Sullivan, but have you ever seen HMS Pinafore? Well I have, and if that didn’t kill me, perhaps nothing can.

3. Les Mis is really depressing. No, no. Even more depressing than you realize.

4. The plot of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat plays out just fine on the stage, but when you actually try to explain it to someone in synopsis form, it’s like a Busby Berkeley number on mescaline. Which brings us back to Andrew Lloyd Webber* again. See how everything comes full circle?

* Mr. Webber, I am joking. Please don’t sue me.

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