211 posts
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Post by BoOverall on May 21, 2020 13:04:58 GMT
It’s the Carrie Underwood Sound of Music this week (shown as premiering on Friday on the YouTube channel) oh good lord. That should never see the light of day again Quite! Mind you, it at least has the truly sublime Audra McDonald: a delight for the precious few minutes she is on screen. Climb Every Mountain has never sounded so ravishing.
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Post by alece10 on May 21, 2020 15:30:25 GMT
Is that the live American version of Sound of Music? God it was awful.
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Post by chernjam on May 21, 2020 15:31:57 GMT
I was able to put up two tabs - one for the Cats and one for the commentary - not too bad on the coordination. I wonder if they will leave up ALW's commentary on YouTube when Cats comes down. Some notes on his commentary - some of which was new to me. 1. The Americans wanted Michael Bennett to re-choreograph the show for Broadway. Bennet came to London, watched the show and told ALW, et al that he wouldn't change the choreo (maybe a small bit here and there) and wrote a lovely letter of congratulation to Gillian Lynne. And the American producers wouldn't believe that Bennett had written the note! 2. ALW says a British author could not/would not have written the Eliot poems - at least in the way they were written 3. Eliot wrote Skimbleshanks to a 1930s song - and ALW thinks he knows which one - but he wouldn't disclose it! ALW's music is different. 4. John Mills did his scene in one take. 5. Others here knew - I did not - that Stoppard had written a screen treatment. 6. ALW dedicated this showing to his cat Mika that just died. I think he really loved that cat. 7. Mr. Mistoffeles was the first poem set to music. 8. I don't think ALW liked the Hooper film...… 9. I really enjoyed ALW singing along at the end. I so love listening to ALW talking about his works - or reading about them (like the books made on the makings/adaptations of Aspects of Love and Sunset Boulevard into musicals)- maybe he can host a listening party with some of his other scores and do the same Didn't get to listen to the entire commentary to Cats - but was there anything specific he said regarding the film? I know when I saw the "world premiere" of UnMasked in February (seems like ages ago) here in New Jersey at the Paper Mill Playhouse and they got to the Cats section he joked about it saying something like "there was this film version that sort of came and went of this, but I suppose it was always meant to be done on stage"
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Post by richey on May 21, 2020 16:16:56 GMT
Is that the live American version of Sound of Music? God it was awful. yes. Not even in 'so bad it's good' category
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Post by johartuk on May 22, 2020 22:02:36 GMT
A few thoughts after watching SOM:-
1. Audra McDonald - wonderful! Stunning voice and loads of charisma. She also acts the role beautifully.
2. The Nuns' singing at the beginning - sublime! That bit always gives me goosebumps and it was lovely to see them stage it in full.
3. Carrie Underwood lacks the acting chops - most of the humour (e.g. with the dress - "The poor didn't want it!") was lost.
4. Liesel looked 16 going on 17, but Rolf looked more 26 going on 27!
5. On the subject of age, Max looked a bit young.
6. The costumes - not keen on most of them. They seemed a bit lacking, especially Maria's wedding dress. I thought the wedding dress in the film was absolutely stunning. The one in this production looked cheap, and it didn't seem like the kind of dress a catholic bride of that period (especially one who had intended to be a nun at one point) would wear.
7. I missed the Baroness Schrader's waspishness.
8. Brigitta is a liability - she's the kind of person who you don't share anything with unless you're happy for the whole world to know about it!
9. I can see why the songs that didn't make it into the film were dropped.
10. Staging - some effective and some not so. I did like the moment when Maria was leaving the Von Trapp house and a panel opened to reveal the outside of the Abbey. Very effective, especially when the reprise of the nuns' singing started.
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Post by crabtree on May 23, 2020 7:44:40 GMT
rather cruelly, I remember playing and replaying the moment when Maria loses her footing in the woods at the beginning - ironically after 'trips and falls', but she kept going. I confess to being rather immune to the charms of ms Underwoods' voice.
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Post by djp on May 23, 2020 22:37:09 GMT
rather cruelly, I remember playing and replaying the moment when Maria loses her footing in the woods at the beginning - ironically after 'trips and falls', but she kept going. I confess to being rather immune to the charms of ms Underwoods' voice. Its as if they forgot its a soprano role. How Do You Solve a problem like Maria alone found 3 people who played the role better, another one who might have been better still, and another who could sing it better than this. And i have never seen anyone sing it like that on a UK tour, including 3 of the graduates of another ALW casting show. How do you manage to to not find a soprano in America?
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Post by justfran on May 24, 2020 12:42:23 GMT
Unfortunately I was really underwhelmed by The Sound of Music Live. Laura Benanti as the Baroness was the highlight and probably too good for this production. Being a fan of Smash, I really enjoyed Christian Borle as Max and I think he always has a lot of charisma in the roles he plays. Made me appreciate even more just how special the original film is.
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Post by distantcousin on May 24, 2020 13:14:23 GMT
Never heard of it. Different from the Kara Tointen thing I assume. So has this got anything to do with Andrew Lloyd Webber or has the channel moved on from him now? It’s essentially the US equivalent I believe, and was done prior to the Kara Tointon version. I believe his involvement was a reality casting show for it?
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Post by zak97 on May 24, 2020 13:38:59 GMT
It’s essentially the US equivalent I believe, and was done prior to the Kara Tointon version. I believe his involvement was a reality casting show for it? Do you refer to ‘How do you solve a problem like Maria’ which casted a Maria for the Palladium revival?
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Post by Dr Tom on May 24, 2020 16:44:59 GMT
Do you refer to ‘How do you solve a problem like Maria’ which casted a Maria for the Palladium revival? If I remember correctly, they did a Canadian version of that reality show (to find the Canadian lead), but not a US one. For the live version, Carrie Underwood was a very popular and successful winner of American Idol, which I presume is why she was chosen. Not an actor, unfortunately, but I did watch this again and thought it better than I did the first time around. The ITV version was much better. I don't think ALW had any involvement with either live version (and the London Palladium version was still on its international tour at the time), but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
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Post by richey on May 24, 2020 17:08:24 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2020 17:08:58 GMT
The UK version with Kara Tointon was much better - okay so she’s no Julie Andrews but who is? At least Kara had the acting chops for the part. Shame it didn’t deliver on the ratings for ITV - I’d have liked an annual live TV musical at Christmas.
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Post by chernjam on May 24, 2020 19:00:01 GMT
I've been hoping for this... and really, really hope we can get past Phantom and talk Aspects, Sunset - WDTW
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Post by Marcus on May 24, 2020 19:06:27 GMT
Can someone clarify for me if I’m going crazy. SoM with Carrie Underwood, normally in the scene where all the children come into the bedroom they sing favourite things (they did in the film and I’m sure in the stage version) but in this version they sang Lonely Goatherd?
Favourite things was only sung during the scene in the Abbey (which I know from the stage show). Or did I fall asleep??
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Post by Dr Tom on May 24, 2020 19:14:19 GMT
Can someone clarify for me if I’m going crazy. SoM with Carrie Underwood, normally in the scene where all the children come into the bedroom they sing favourite things (they did in the film and I’m sure in the stage version) but in this version they sang Lonely Goatherd? Favourite things was only sung during the scene in the Abbey (which I know from the stage show). Or did I fall asleep?? The stage version is also Lonely Goatherd for the storm scene. Maybe some productions have had permission to replace it Favourite Things, but it's not happened in the productions I've seen. Some of the stage productions have added the songs from the film but I suspect they have to pay extra.
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Post by johartuk on May 24, 2020 20:28:58 GMT
Can someone clarify for me if I’m going crazy. SoM with Carrie Underwood, normally in the scene where all the children come into the bedroom they sing favourite things (they did in the film and I’m sure in the stage version) but in this version they sang Lonely Goatherd? Favourite things was only sung during the scene in the Abbey (which I know from the stage show). Or did I fall asleep?? The stage version is also Lonely Goatherd for the storm scene. Maybe some productions have had permission to replace it Favourite Things, but it's not happened in the productions I've seen. Some of the stage productions have added the songs from the film but I suspect they have to pay extra. In the 2006 Palladium production, Favourite Things is performed in the storm scene and Lonely Goatherd later on.
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Post by richey on May 26, 2020 13:46:22 GMT
Hairspray Live this week!
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Post by olliebean on May 26, 2020 19:26:11 GMT
Hairspray Live this week! Do yourself a favour and watch the film instead.
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Post by richey on May 26, 2020 19:27:15 GMT
Hairspray Live this week! Do yourself a favour and watch the film instead. I started it once, gave up after about half an hour
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Post by Jon on May 26, 2020 20:32:45 GMT
I don’t think Hairspray Live has been shown in the UK, The Sound of Music love was shown on Channel 5 a few months after it debuted in the US and Grease Live was shown a few weeks later on ITV2
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Post by dontdreamit on May 26, 2020 21:22:12 GMT
I don’t think Hairspray Live has been shown in the UK, The Sound of Music love was shown on Channel 5 a few months after it debuted in the US and Grease Live was shown a few weeks later on ITV2 Is it the one with Arianna Grande? If it was I’ve seen it on UK tv,I just can’t remember where though.
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Post by sirdaniel on May 27, 2020 1:22:32 GMT
I don’t think Hairspray Live has been shown in the UK, The Sound of Music love was shown on Channel 5 a few months after it debuted in the US and Grease Live was shown a few weeks later on ITV2 Hairspray Live was on ITV2 too
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