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We have a movie thread, and a tv thread, and a book thread, but we don't have a theater/stage thread, so here it is. For those things which probably don't need their own thread, whether it's Broadway, a local theater, a comedy club, or even a high school production you enjoyed, talk about it here.

We just went to see Beauty and The Beast Broadway musical (on tour) last night, and it was fantastic. It was different in several ways from the movie, and drew us in more, emotionally, than the movie. It also reminded me how much fun it is to see a live show, and how hilarious theater often is. I never think, "I'm going to see a comedy" and it's not one, but they do add significant humor to the performances that I simply don't expect. It's like beauty and the beast movie amped up to 11.

Anyway, a good time was had.

What staged arts have you seen lately?

I haven't been to see a play in so long! I should remedy this!

I think the last thing I saw (that wasn't some high school production) was Starlight Express. It's been a while.

--Patrick

One of my college classes had play assignments where he had to go to them; all of them off-Broadway. I had a better time watching dramatic productions than seeing musicals, but their existence is less dependable, usually limited engagements.

So, I probably haven't been to one since 2006, and it was probably either a Chekov play or Hamlet.

I agree, Beauty and the Beast is amazing on stage. The power of the orchestral music is awe inspiring.

Last summer I went to London with my girlfriend, and we took in two shows. The first was Les Miserables, which was good, though our seats were in the nosebleed section, so we couldn't make out many things in detail. I was particularly impressed with how our Eponine managed to sing her songs with an R&B twist.

The second show we saw was Wicked. Now, I went into the theater knowing nothing about Wicked, except that people have been loving it. And I came out a total Wicked fanboy. We sat in the first row, so we had a great view of everything, and it seemed like the performers were singing just for us. It was amazing.

Going to the two shows gave me a good chance to compare and contrast them. To avoid tl;dr, I'll just say Les Miserables is the stage musical equivalent of an epic poem, while Wicked is the stage equivalent of a bildungsroman novel.

Yeah, last real stage play that I saw that wasn't community theater was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Starring Michael Damian. On broadway.... it's been a few years.

Unless you count the recorded version of Into the Woods. I loves me some Bernadette Peters.

I'm dying to see Wicked, Les Miserables, and Rent (yeah, I know, they're probably the most "pop" musicals out there).

Also, finally saw Cats when it came out on video, and boy, I hate that musical.

I'm not overtly flaming in many ways, but I sure got the "showtune gene".

My Roommate has the dvd of Into the Woods. It's great, would have been awesome to see live.

Les Miserables is one of 3 plays that I have seen on Broadway. The others being Annie Get Your Gun and Phantom of the Opera. All 3 were excellent. Les Miserables is still probably one of my all-time favorites.

A theater near me gets Broadway travelling shows, last year I got to see Avenue Q and Wicked for the first time. Avenue Q was fun, but Wicked was just amazing. The cast was great, and I actually prefered the actor who played the Wizard over the man in the Official Broadway Soundtrack. He had more a booming jolly old man voice, and less of a sleezeball. Which coincidentally made him seem more slimy.

Only play I've ever watched, surprisingly I enjoyed. Dunno if you'd call it a strict play as it's on DVD and has famous actors but the entire thing takes place on a singular stage.

Dogsville.

Hey, now, the original wizard was Joel Gray... He was AWESOME in the film version of Cabaret

Went with a bunch of co workers to see Heywood Banks at The Ark. Really funny comedian/folk singer. Two hours of solid laughing at his jokes and songs. My favorite song of the evening was this gem:



He's improved that song since this video. Now I'm buying his mp3s at amazon - perfect sing along music for long car trips with the kids. They're getting a kick out of a lot of his material...

The last play I saw was Wuthering Heights just this weekend. It was amateur theater, and I went to see it primarily because a friend of mine was playing Cathy.

The previous play I went to watch was maybe in November. Yeah, I don't go to theaters all that often, though I have nothing against the art form, and have actually rather enjoyed the plays I've seen.

I highly recommend Young Frankenstein: The Musical. Saw it in 2010 and was highly impressed with it.

Also, I hear The Book of Mormon is supposed to be hitting the road sometime this year...

AshburnerX said:

I highly recommend Young Frankenstein: The Musical. Saw it in 2010 and was highly impressed with it.

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THERE'S A MUSICAL OF YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN!? WHY WASN'T I NOTIFIED!

stienman said:

THERE'S A MUSICAL OF YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN!? WHY WASN'T I NOTIFIED!

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Consider yourself on notice. It has all the humor and raunchiness of the original, except with all new musical numbers... which makes sense, as Mel Brooks helped make all of it and he had a long stage tradition long before he started making movies. Here's a few they've done on various shows. These are abridged versions, mind you. You can get the entire score off of iTunes if you'd like, but you should really see the show on stage.



That clip of "Roll in the Hay" excludes the epic bit where Igor shows off his truly amazing voice. Also, fun fact: The guy playing The Monster and the guy playing Shrek in the stage version of Shrek are IRL close friends from school.

The have an official Youtube channel with clips and making of stuff. If you like Mel Brooks movies, he also did an adaption of The Producers for the stage as well, but I don't know if that's still touring.

The Producers musical play and subsequent musical movie are part of the reason I just can't consider Inception to be that "deep".

I kinda hope Mel puts out a musical version of Robin Hood: Men in Tights or Blazing Saddles before he kicks it. He's getting up there and does not look good.

We are men! Men in tights!