What's green, mean, and a killing machine?

Well we are neither going to be talking about shrek or about wicked. so no need to worry about that, but have you ever considered this. The wicked witch of the west? It really is a great show, well great movie, honestly as a show, I don't see the hype. 

Now the reason I bring it up, isn't to go into too much detail, no. Not about the songs, or about the story. Its about the fact that to me, it seems like a very forced musical. Now to clarify even more, I like the musical. but if anything I don't like calling it that because the songs in it seem very filler. They're empty to me, very low exposition or energy. In fact I would call it a show with music. Such as Zoot Suit. It has a small bit of singing and dancing, but you know what, its still a play, not a musical.

That's how I see The Wizard of Oz. Its a good fun little story that you can enjoy watching. When the singing and dancing is there, then by all means, listen to how well the actors sound or see how well they look. But, to say that it should qualify as one, I don't know. something about it feels right. 

Look at it sort of like a mini series to movies and tv series. It feels more like a movie than an actual tv series. Because of how its written. 

Frankly if all I have done is succeed in confusing you all even more this time with my bad comparisons, just ask yourself, to the best of your knowledge, would you be able to call it a musical if you don't really have that spectacle and awe? If you take away the songs( in the case anything that wasn't in the movie) and it would be ok, should it be a musical?

until next week, enjoy!

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar? 

So I was actually waiting to talk about this musical until later, but I was listening to the soundtrack (AGAIN) and frankly, I just couldn't help myself. If you're curious as to what the musical is? Its all about that first run on question I posed to you. Alexander Hamilton.

Hamilton the Musical, I will actually be pretty surprised if you haven't heard about it. Not only because its hit Broadway hard, but because its hit the music, writing, history, and all other theatrical communities everywhere. Hamilton broke all sorts of charts, attracted all sorts of big name celebrities and politicians to go see the show. Although, you may just be sitting there asking yourself, why?

Well recall my post about In The Heights, well, Lin Manuel Miranda wrote Hamilton. Why? Well he read the biography of Hamilton and decided, "this is a true american who i can write a full length 2 act rap musical about." Yeah, he's dedicated. It took him years to write and perfect the show but alas, he did it. Now, let me tell you why I love this show. 

First off, LIN MANUEL MIRANDA. He's still my favorite playwright and musical composer. With his absolute love as a theatre artist, his sincerity and dedication to the field always shows. Coupled with his hard earned talent, its no wonder he sells out houses. Moving on.

The actual music is just so gorgeous in its making. Miranda manages to perfectly use both classical music, rap, and musical theatre music(if that makes sense). Acclaimed by both rappers and composers his love and studies in both genres mesh perfectly to tell the story. Sometimes leaning more towards either genre depending on the song, We see the emotions, as any proper musical shows, flowing out of the characters as their lives advance. The personalities and rough lives of the politicians and actual people are shining in the compositions. And as a lyricist, Miranda has such precision in what he writes its astounding. 

"I’m in the cabinet. I am complicit in watching him grabbin’ at power and kiss it. If Washington isn’t gon’ listen to disciplined dissidents, this is the difference: This kid is out!" 

Most characters are absolutely eloquent but just as easy to run their angry mouths. For someone to write like that, well, its impressive. 

The actual story is no pushover either. Hamilton was much more than what our schools taught us. Which was that he was for the aristocracy, which was bull. and that he was shot, which, well that's true. We are entangled into the lives of these people who try, succeed, hurt and suffer. 

HAMILTON HAS BEEN DEAD FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS AND I STILL MOURN OVER THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 

Its rather unfair, but an amazing script in order to do that to so many people.

Either way, give the soundtrack a listen, you can find in on youtube, and its on itunes, i highly recommend buying it. Its actually considered am opera musical. Which basically means everything is in song, so if you listen to the soundtrack you don't lose any context. By all means, enjoy the show!

Everything is better down where its wetter!

I sat and thought to myself, could I have chosen a better quote from our next musical? yes, yes I could have. Did that stop me? Absolutely not. That being said we can now safely move on to our next musical, which once again, won't necessarily be a summary of the show. Not at all, I decided just to take a show and completely ignore almost all the qualities about it and instead choose to compare one thing in it to that of another country. Now for those of you who have already figured it out from the title, this weeks musical is The Little Mermaid.

Now for the sake of those who may not actually know what The Little Mermaid is, and in order to at least keep some continuity in this week's blog post. The Little Mermaid is a story of a young mermaid of 16 years who is intrigued(obsessed) with the human world. Though her crab friend does his best to convince her that life under the sea is best, she longs for the air breathing kingdom. Early on she falls in love(obsesses) over a prince whose life she saved when his shipped wrecked. She goes to the sea witch for help. The sea witch gives her human legs but says that she has to get a kiss from the prince ( how original) in order to stay happy and human, which is really hard to do in this day and age. 

... All jokes aside it is a cute little story that is pretty well known. What I want to take from this is the American Broadway production to the Japanese production. Take a guess to which is better. Well the answer is the Japanese one is the winner hands down.

Here's what you need to know, the american one they "swim" by using roller skates to glide across the stage and with awkward tails standing erect behind them it almost takes away from the vocal and acting talent that is in the show. Great talent at that.

Now with the Japanese version, They actually fly off the stage with the help of a rigging system, and the tail flows gracefully as they flap their fins in order to swim. You actually see Ariel swimming on the giant statue which fell into the sea. The only downside is that while in the water her hair stand straight upright like a lance, or a very dangerous cone. That being said, its to the effect of when she gets out of the water her hair is down on her shoulders, because the water had it floating!

All in all, if we all spoke japanese I would recommend their version over ours. However, since chances are we don't, I myself do not, The Little Mermaid broadway and any english version, isn't so bad.