Watching Musicals

[drcpunk]

As part of preparing for the upcoming larp, mnemex and I have watched Hello, Dolly!, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and The Music Man.

Hello, Dolly! is pleasant, but the man Dolly's picked out doesn't seem like someone one would want to spend one's life with. Okay, granted, she gets her sign, but it just didn't seem to fit the rest of his character. I'd like to see the Broadway version, which seems to have a somewhat different resolution of a key scene, one that makes more sense than what the movie had.

I don't like How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. I like the dance numbers and songs, but I don't like the main character. He is exactly what the foil character accuses him of being, a ladder-climbing back-biting weasel. But, I'll see if I can figure out which bits of the songs I'm supposed to know.

The problem may have been that the lead actor, while good, simply wasn't good enough for me to like the character he played. This was not a problem in The Music Man.

I've seen the play, ages ago, and I saw at least bits of the movie. I'd forgotten just how magnificent it is. Where 1776 broke every rule of a musical with consummate grace and skill, The Music Man epitomizes those rules with as much of both skill and grace. The dancing is great. The singing is great. I don't think more than 15 minutes goes by without a song. The songs fit together musically. The types of songs -- on a moving train, during a piano lesson, emulating the sounds of birds -- show amazing creativity and care. The acting in the movie is great.

And Robert Preston embodies charisma in a way that Robert Morse just does not. Preston's Hill is always on, always oozing charisma in the most charming manner possible, so that even when he is explaining to his sidekick how he is going to cheat the townspeople and leave on the train, he is still likeable. Also, as directed, Hill has a solidity to him that Finch lacks. Part of this is that his transformation is believable. Part of it is that Hill wants to believe in his own bunk. As he says to young Winthrop, "I always think there's a band, kid."

With that combination, I'm perfectly willing to overlook the astonishing series of coincidences, far more absurd, really, than anything in How to Succeed in Business, and to wave away the question of how the band's flawed first performance can possibly sound even that good, given that they've never even tried to play their instruments. It's the Think System!

Comments

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

The bad first performance is, honestly, the hardest number to pull off in The Music Man. It's very, very difficult to play badly, but well enough that the piece is still identifiable, especially in a consistant way in large numbers. Honestly, it takes far better musicians to do that than to play the piece properly.

It's akin to the ice skating, gymnastic, or dance performances which are meant to look clumsy while being cleverly choreographed for humor. Doing those without hurting yourself is often more difficult than doing things 'right'.

Now I'm wondering if I can find the video tape of our high school production.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

I remember acrobatty saying of a musical number he did for an afterschool special that it was far harder to sing it with the notes slightly off than to sing it correctly.

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

How To Succeed is an odd musical - I think it one a Pulitzer, but it's a bit dated. I actually love it, having spent a few years in the corporate world, and I do love the music, which is the main thing. Musicals, especially musical comedies, aren't supposed to make sense.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

I've been in the smaller companies of the corporate world, which is enough to know the truth of some of the show. It just isn't to my taste. the Music Man is, perhaps because I saw it earlier in life.

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

I love The Music Man and Hello Dolly both, though I'm not a big fan of The Hello Dolly movie. Barbra Streisand is no Carol Channing. Plus the movie felt horribly out of date for 1969.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

I don't care for Channing's voice, but I've never seen her acting.

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

I was too young to see her on stage, but everyone I know who did say there was no comparison. It wasn't about the voice, but the whole package was supposed to be incredible.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I missed that.