aq
a
A new Hamil-teaser – Phillipa Soo, the Original Hamilton Cast & The Roots Sing ‘Helpless’
A new Hamil-teaser – Phillipa Soo, the Original Hamilton Cast & The Roots Sing ‘Helpless’ in advance of the movie’s release on Friday
News: #Hamilfilm Official Trailer released
The #Hamilfilm Official Trailer has now been released – excited yet?
News: Hamilton film to premiere on Disney+
It wasn’t meant to be airing until late 2021 but the filmed version of the Broadway production of Hamilton will now be airing this summer. With the cinematic release of In The Heights being pushed back to next year, it means that Lin-Manuel Miranda will still get his chance to take over our households once again.
The film was made with the original Broadway cast (whom I was lucky enough to see) just two weeks before Miranda left the cast. And as it turned out, I saw Javier Muñoz as Hamilton so this means I’ll finally get to see Miranda delivering the music, lyrics and book he wrote and for which he has subsequently won every award going. Continue reading “News: Hamilton film to premiere on Disney+”
Lockdown treat: Hamilton reunion
One of the best things to happen since this whole shitshow started. In fact, the whole show from John Krasinski is marvellous.
Album Review: Amélie (2017 Original Broadway Cast Recording)
“I am not afraid
As everything I’ll ever need appears
his is how my world gets made”
A musical adaptation of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s 2001 film and led by a red-hot Phillipa Soo coming off her enormous success of Hamilton, Amélie felt like a safe bet for at least a half-decent run on the Great White Way. But underwhelming reviews crippled it and striking out on Tony nominations delivered the killer blow, meaning it closed at the Walter Kerr Theatre before even making it to its third month.
Fortunately, we were blessed with an Original Broadway Cast Recording, so those of us unable to see it can experience some of its pleasures. And it is undeniably pleasant, as befits so gently lovely a story as this. With music by Daniel Messé, lyrics by Messé and Nathan Tysen and a book by Craig Lucas, there’s little to take offence at, and you suspect that that is part of the problem. The gentleness that is such an integral part of the show and the score just ends up tending towards the bland in this volume. Continue reading “Album Review: Amélie (2017 Original Broadway Cast Recording)”
Round-up of news and treats and other interesting things
Hamilton-mania never dies down – as the first news about the UK cast arrives, the original Schuyler Sisters are reuniting this weekend!
When you FaceTime your friends from ?? because they’re practicing their SONG FOR THE SUPERBOWL (WHAT?!) pic.twitter.com/2rKARtaUW6— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) January 27, 2017
Continue reading “Round-up of news and treats and other interesting things”
Round-up of summer album reviews
To cover the holiday period, you may have noticed an album review or three – here’s a round-up of them, including my top ten.
Recommended titles
Close To You – Bacharach Reimagined (2016 Original London Cast Recording)
Hamilton (2015 Original Broadway Cast Recording)
Kelli O’Hara – Always
Leslie Odom Jr – Leslie Odom Jr
Matt Doyle – Uncontrolled
Samantha Barks – Samantha Barks
Thérèse Raquin (2014 Original London Cast Recording)
The Last Five Years (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
The Scottsboro Boys (2014 Original London Cast Recording)
Waitress (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
And the rest!
Alison Jiear – Inspirational
Allegro (2009 First Complete Recording)
An American Victory (2016 Concept Album)
Annie (1995 London Studio Cast Recording)
Annie (2014 Film Cast)
Bad Girls (2007 Original London Cast)
Billy Porter – At The Corner of Broadway and Soul
Billy Porter – Billy’s Back On Broadway
Brian Stokes Mitchell – Simply Broadway
Bright Star (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
Bring It On: The Musical (2012 Original Broadway Cast Recording)
Caroline Sheen – Raise the Curtain
Cheyenne Jackson – I’m Blue, Skies
Cheyenne Jackson – Renaissance
Cool Rider (Original Studio Recording)
Departure Lounge (Original London Cast Recording)
Elf the Musical (2015 Original London Cast Recording)
From Here To Eternity (2014 Live Cast Recording)
Funny Girl (2016 London Cast Recording)
Ghost The Musical (Original London Cast Recording)
In The Heights (2008 Original Broadway Cast Recording)
Jane Krakowski – The Laziest Gal in Town
John Owen-Jones – Unmasked
Kimberley Walsh – Centre Stage
Kinky Boots (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
Kristin Chenoweth – Coming Home
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (2014 Cast Recording)
Lord of the Rings (2008 Original London Cast Recording)
Louise Dearman – Here Comes The Sun
Louise Dearman – You and I
Love Birds (Original Edinburgh Cast Recording)
Mamma Mia (Original Cast Recording 1999)
Mrs Henderson Presents (Original London Cast Recording)
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812
Oliver Tompsett –Sentimental Heart
Our First Mistake – The Songs of Kerrigan and Lowdermilk
Out Of Context: The Songs Of Michael Patrick Walker
Patti LuPone – Far Away Places
Patti LuPone – Matters of the Heart
Prodigy (Original Cast Recording)
Promises, Promises (2010 New Broadway Cast Recording)
Rebecca Caine – Leading Ladies
Renée Elise Goldsberry – Beautiful EP
Richard Beadle – Songs
Ruthie Henshall – The Ruthie Henshall Album
Sally Ann Triplett – Anything Goes
She Loves Me (1994 London Cast Recording)
She Loves Me (2016 Broadway Cast Recording)
Stephen Ward (2013 Original Cast Recording)
Shuffle Along, Or…
The Bodyguard – The Musical (World Premiere Cast Recording)
The Color Purple (2006 Original Broadway Cast Recording)
The Color Purple (2015 Broadway Revival Cast Recording)
The Fix (1997 Original London Cast)
The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (2012 New Broadway Cast Recording)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (2012 Broadway Cast Recording)
Thirteen Stories Down – The Songs of Jonathan Reid Gealt
Tony Yazbeck – The Floor Above Me
Tuck Everlasting (2016 Original Broadway Cast Recording)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (2011 Original Broadway Cast Recording)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (2015 Original London Cast Recording)
Xanadu (2007 Original Broadway Cast)
Album Review: Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (2013 Original Cast Recording)
“Gonna have to study up a little bit
If you wanna keep up with the plot”
It might seem a little disingenuous to wish that Hamilton had won one more Tony than the eleven it scored but the deserving Philippa Soo stood no chance against the juggernaut that is Cynthia Erivo’s Celie in The Color Purple for the Lead Actress award, despite her name being part of a Beautiful South lyric (Jennifer, Alison…). So I was interested to listen to the only other cast recording I could find with her on it, 2013’s Off-Broadway production of Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.
Described as an “electropop” opera (although electropop evidently means something different across the ocean) and with a story filleted from the mid-section of War and Peace (Volume 2, Part 5 to be precise), it’s a rather startling but hugely imaginative piece of writing that folds in musical influences far beyond that descriptor. There’s elements of electro-pop and other contemporary pop sounds including indie rock and they’re somehow combined with Russian folk and classical music in some unholy alliance. Continue reading “Album Review: Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (2013 Original Cast Recording)”
Album Review: Hamilton (2015 Original Broadway Cast Recording)
“Let me tell you what I wish I’d known”
I can understand why people might be feeling a little Hamilton-ed out with more than 12 months to go until it opens at the Victoria Palace and no let up in the hugely successful Broadway run, even as the original cast members are beginning to scatter. I even sometimes think I feel that way myself but the minute I pop the cast recording on to listen to a song or 3 or even the whole damn thing because I can’t resist, I am swept up once again in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s genius.
Part of this comes from the care and attention that was put into creating the Official Broadway Cast Recording, multiple recording sessions over several days were put in with The Roots on production duties, ensuring the layered complexity of every aspect of the score was preserved on record. And it is densely packed, it needs, nay demands, multiple listens to unpack not just the lyrical content but also the musicality, the richness of the orchestrations and how detailed they are. Continue reading “Album Review: Hamilton (2015 Original Broadway Cast Recording)”