Except that Waitress has a full, varied musical comedy score, and not just atmosphere. To my (very qualified) ears, it is the best score of all of the singer/songwriters because it is a musical theatre score first and foremost, and a Sara B score secondly. She understood the gig.
If you are not a fan of that singer/songwriter/folk pop sound, that knocks out like half the scores this season: The Notebook, Suffs, Water for Elephants, The Outsiders, Illinoise all have a ton of similarities sonically (what I like to call the Waitress effect) (3/)
Annie was formative to who I am, and Ann Reinking is a major reason for that. All That Jazz is my favorite film, and in its heyday, I saw Chicago on broadway 38 times. RIP to this legend.
In seeing this production of Sweeney Todd, for the first time I heard Mrs. Lovett sing "I thought you was a ghost" and realized that's when she knows that Sweeney is who he is. It usually flies by so fast, it doesn't land.
Hm... the 1989 and 2005 Broadway productions, the 1989 and 2017 off-Broadway productions, the 1984 & 2004 New York City Opera productions, and the 2000 & 2014 New York Philharmonic concerts would like a word...
One of the best things
@DianaOnBroadway
reminded me was that theatre should be, above all, entertaining. We have forgotten that musicals are fun diversions. Diana delivered entertainment in spades.
After winning the Tony for Gypsy,
@LauraBenanti
asked me what roles she should do and I said "She Loves Me", "Most Happy Fella" and "My Fair Lady". The trilogy is complete.
Nick Cordero's album just hit
#1
on iTunes. The last time I designed something that hit
#1
, it was the Broadway For Orlando single. It's not lost on me that both of them were born out of unnecessary tragedy.
(Jeremy Jordan is v good, but when you take Seymour away from character actors, you leave us with nothing but Dr. Dillamond, for which I am available tomorrow)
Not a fun day for Broadway news, so I just want to send collective love out into the world and thank you for the art you create and the stories you tell.
Imagine claiming you were a producer of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” as if it was impressive. You wanna impress me? Tell me you cast Reba in “Annie Get Your Gun”. NOW I’m listening to you.
“Everything always works out in musicals. In the real world, nothing ever works out and the only people who burst into song are the hopelessly deranged."
Howard Ashman would have been 70 today. I often wonder what the last 29 years of musicals would have been like if AIDS hadn’t robbed us of his brilliance.
After 2 weeks of multiple health screens and asking everyone to quarantine, I surprised my closest inner circle with a trip to a private island where we could pretend things were normal just for a brief moment in time.