Mondo Musicals!

Meet THE PROTOMEN!

2011-08-05T15:07:00.000-04:00

I first learned of this awesome Nashville-based band when a guy who sings in the opera chorus with me started showing up wearing their t-shirts. It's some good shit.

Interview with tor.com

Dystopia: The Musical!

2011-07-07T16:36:00.001-04:00

Here's a good article from Tor.com about Urinetown and other dystopic musicals.

Coming Soon: THE ROCK OPERA SHOW

2011-06-15T22:47:00.014-04:00

What's THE ROCK OPERA SHOW, you ask? As well you might. I'll explain later...

Klaus Nomi

2011-02-18T11:36:00.001-05:00

Not many updates lately as I've been super-busy. But here's some Klaus Nomi outerspace rock opera fabulousity, via Dangerous Minds.

SPIDERMAN - Finally!

2010-11-29T09:14:00.003-05:00

Well they finally had a first preview for that Spiderman thing. Here's a commercial. Meh.

UPDATED TO ADD: I am finding it hard to even enjoy a bit of schadenfreude at the reviews this show is getting.

NSFW: Cee-Lo

2010-09-08T09:00:00.003-04:00

Cee-Lo Green's awesomely catchy and gleefully radio-unfriendly new song apparently features the girls from Little Shop of Horrors (or their modern equivalent).

Color Me Magenta!

2010-09-07T13:26:00.001-04:00

At Atlanta's Dragon*Con this weekend I had the wonderful experience of meeting Patricia Quinn. What a lovely, friendly, funny lady. A class act all the way.

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS: Cross-Pollinization!

2010-08-25T15:53:00.047-04:00

I thought I'd make a list of the references and quotes of popular songs I find in the Little Shop of Horrors score. The Little Shop songs have been like a personal scavenger hunt for me, as I explore 60s music and find all the little references which make this an indelible bit of Baby Boomer nostalgia.

By design, the Little Shop score evokes Motown, Doo-Wop and the songs of Ellie Greenwich as produced by Phil Spector. As a point of comparison, Menken's Brill-Building-inspired, piano-driven pop is very much in the same vein as Billy Joel's. Of course, Menken marries these pop/rock influences to a classic Broadway sound, exemplified by Rodgers & Hammerstein (The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, etc) and Lerner & Loewe (My Fair Lady, Camelot etc), with just a smidgen of Kurt Weill in there, too. Menken's musical style is also quite consonant with that of Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, Wicked). It is surely no accident that both composers have been tapped by Disney for its newer films.

As for Howard Ashman's lyrical style and its possible influences, that is a much more difficult thing to pin down, though of course the book and lyrics abound with witty references to pop hits of the era. One might observe that his clever, idiomatic lyrics recall the work of Frank Loesser (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Guys & Dolls, etc).

These general influences aside, I have found a lot of direct musical and lyrical quotations, and I thought it would be fun to enumerate them, with links galore for your listening pleasure. Click "Read More" for the full list. I advise right-clicking on links to open in a new tab, so you can listen & read without interruption.

"Little Shop of Horrors" - The opening fanfare and narration reference any number of Hollywood epics, from The Ten Commandments to Star Wars. The song itself is a pastiche of 1960s bubblegum pop, but specifically, the "Look out!" bit is from "The Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las. (Bonus reference - In Rocky Horror, Columbia and Magenta reference this when they say "Down, down!" during Janet's song.)

The line "feel the Sturm und Drang in the air" is a reference to dark and stormy dramas of the German 18th Century, and Kurt Weill's music, which was originally much more prominent in the original version before the "60s Pop" motif took over.

"Downtown" - This is what you'd call an "answer song" to "Uptown" sung by The Crystals. (There was a song by Petula Clark called "Downtown," but in terms of subject matter and overall feel, they are worlds apart.)

"Da Doo" - Reference to the famous "Da Doo Ron Ron," also by the Crystals. The movie adds a Doo-Wop style musical interlude on the bridge.

"Grow For Me" - I can't think of a specific reference for this song, but it's a parody of the type of lovelorn ballad a romantic hero might sing to the girl who doesn't notice he exists.

"Somewhere That's Green" - It's a fantasy wish-fulfillment song for our heroine along the lines of "I'm Wishing" from Snow White or "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" from Cinderella. Or, for that matter, Ashman & Menken's later "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid (the title phrases even have the same syllabic construction). The song is also quite reminiscent, lyrically, of songs like "Corner of the Sky" from Pippin.

"Ya Never Know" / "Some Fun Now" - This Calypso-flavored number (and, in the movie, its rooftop setting) somewhat evokes "America" from West Side Story, but not really all that much. Still, I don't need much prompting to include a link to this dynamite number, as performed by the fabulous Rita Moreno.

"Closed for Renovations" - Reminds me a little of "Whistle While You Work" from Snow White. On crack.

"Dentist!" - Like "Little Shop," this song references "Leader of the Pack" both lyrically ("The Leader of the Plaque!") and musically. Orin's introduction and playoff music heard in the play (but not the movie) lift a riff from this song. The song lyrics also reference "He's a Rebel."

"Mushnik & Son" - This klezmer-based song reminds me of Fiddler on the Roof . And wouldn't Zero Mostel have made an amazing Mushnik?

"Feed Me" - A spoof of old-time blues numbers, specifically of "Rock Me, Baby," which has been sung by BB King, Etta James and many others. The bluesy riff really only takes up the first verse, which is constructed in the classic manner of repeating the first line & having the third, longer line add to what was said in the first two. You can pretty much sing the first verse to the tune of this song.

The repetitious two-note "Feed Me" motif also can't help but remind me of the famous John Williams theme to Jaws.

"Now (It's Just the Gas)" - Can't think of a specific song or style this is spoofing. It's quite a unique little tune.

"Call Back in the Morning" - Again, can't think of a specific reference for this one, but memories of our old friend How to Succeed keep surfacing.

"Suddenly Seymour" - According to Howard Ashman, this was their attempt at a song like "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel. There's some Rodgers and Hammerstein in there, too, and of course, "Tonight" from West Side Story.

"Suppertime" - Ashman says this was supposed to sound like "Tubular Bells," better known as the theme from The Exorcist. It's worth noting that the thrumming guitar lines heard in the Off-Broadway version are ripped from Pink Floyd's The Wall.

"The Meek Shall Inherit" - Not based on any specific song, but the sales pitches remind me very much of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (indeed, on Frank Oz's DVD commentary he says he copied the look of that film for this sequence). The dream sequence soliloquy is pure Rodgers and Hammerstein.

"Mean Green Mother From Outer Space" - The song is based on a modified version of the famous "Bo Diddley" riff, and also evokes the 1958 novelty hit, "Purple People Eater."

"Don't Feed the Plants" - The ominous thudding chords are taken from Alice Cooper's "Hello, Hooray!" (at the beginning & especially at 2:30), though it also reminds me very much of The Carpenters' "Superstar." You could also argue that it's really just a slowed-down version of the famous opening percussion of "Be My Baby." The riff in between verses is from Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin'."

CUT SONGS

"A Little Dental Music" - This Muzak-flavored song references the "easy listening" and light-classical musicians André Kostelanetz (conductor who hosted a long-running radio show); Henry "Hank" Mancini ("Pink Panther" Theme, "Moon River"); Gordon Jenkins (wrote lush string arrangements for Sinatra and others, as well as 50s "exotica"); Ferrante & Teicher (easy-listening piano hits); The Mormon Tabernacle Choir (choral renditions of inspirational songs); The Living Strings (a studio orchestra); André Previn (famed Broadway and classical conductor; still alive and working); and Montovani (with his famous "cascading strings").

"The Worse He Treats Me" - A parody of "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" which was banned from the radio. The song was removed from the show because it didn't fit Audrey's character (she's not a masochist), and seemed to make light of battered women. Phil Spector, who produced the original song, is now in jail for murdering his girlfriend, so there ya go.

"We'll Have Tomorrow" (click the title to hear the song) - This is my favorite song from Little Shop of Horrors, and it's not even in the show! It's a heartbreaking, ironic and tragic declaration of love between the main characters, and I greatly regret that it was cut from the show. It's super.
To me, it seems like Ashman & Menken's attempt to write another version of "Somewhere" from West Side Story. The song is truly one of the greatest musical theater songs ever, from one of the greatest-ever shows, and Little Shop has many moments that reference this Romeo and Juliet set in the slums of New York City. There's a little bit of Weill's melancholy "September Song" in there, too, if I'm not mistaken.

Here's a bonus link of The Supremes doing "Somewhere," girl-group style. The Little Shop song can he downloaded from Amazon.com for just 99 cents - so get thee hence!

"Crystal, Ronette and Chiffon" (click the title to hear the song) - The Chorus Girls are named, naturally enough, for 1960s girl groups The Crystals, The Ronettes, and The Chiffons. The first two groups were produced by the legendary Phil Spector, whose "Wall of Sound" production style is also referenced in the lyrics.
This song was originally intended to play over the end credits in the movie, after the "Little Shop" reprise. Instead, it was replaced with a medley of song clips. It's a shame, cause I really dig this song. It is very much along the same lines as Rachel Sweet's faux-60s "Hairspray" song from the John Waters movie, and the 4/4 piano has a bit of Billy Joel in its DNA as well.

PLANET OF THE APES...The Musical!

2010-08-05T14:21:00.000-04:00

I have been waiting for someone to do this!

LITTLE FACEBOOK OF HORRORS

2010-07-02T13:36:00.020-04:00

I have started a Facebook Group for people who'd love to see a new DVD of Little Shop of Horrors with the original ending intact. Let's all sign up and get Geffen and Warner Home Video to notice!

2011 is the 25th Anniversary of the film's release. Isn't it about time we finally saw this legendary "lost ending"?

A handy round-up of all my Little Shop of Horrors material can be found here. Please do read the article "The Mary Poppins of the 80s?" for my heartfelt analysis of why the original ending is integral to the film, both narratively and morally. "Weird And Exotic Cuttings" has some very nice stills of the material cut from the theatrical release.

Here is my DVD Wish-List, which includes both new material and items from the original DVD. While we are at it, a newly remastered version of the Original Soundtrack Recording would also be lovely. That 25 year old CD sounds pretty tinny these days.

DVD WISHLIST

New Material:
• New HD transfer of the Original Theatrical and Restored Versions
• Commentary on Restored Version by Ellen Greene and Alan Menken
• "The Meek Shall Inherit" Dream Sequence (either reinstated, or as an extra - at Frank Oz's discretion)
• Puppetry & Visual FX feature with Lyle Conway, Bran Ferren, Richard Conway, Brian Henson, Anthony Asbury & Martin P. Robinson
• Mike Ploog's storyboards
• Photo Gallery
• Isolated score
• Levi Stubbs performing "Mean Green Mother" at the Academy Awards
• Any rushes, trims, tests and behind-the-scenes footage that might still exist
• PDF version of the FX feature from Cinefex Magazine

From Original DVD:
• Frank Oz Commentary on Theatrical Cut
• Original Ending Rough Cut (both with & without Oz commentary)
• Blooper Reel
• TV & Cinema Trailers
• Original EPK

SOUNDTRACK WISHLIST

All songs, remastered, with the opening verses of "Don't Feed the Plants" restored. If possible, I'd love to include selections from Miles Goodman's excellent score as well. And please do include any demos that might exist for cut songs, like "Crystal, Ronnette & Chiffon," "Your Day Begins Tonight," "Bad" and especially the wonderful "We'll Have Tomorrow," which was cut from the stage show.

Peter, Paul & Mary do G&S

2010-07-01T11:03:00.000-04:00

This is not really "mondo" but it's lovely nonetheless. It's Peter, Paul and Mary in front of the Sydney Opera house, singing their version of the faux medieval ballad "I Have A Song To Sing, O" from Gilbert & Sullivan's The Yeoman of the Guard (1888). Love it!

CONAN: The Musical

2010-06-30T10:40:00.004-04:00

Sorry for the paucity of posts of late. As if anybody's reading anyway! This has made the rounds of the blogs lately and I think it's fairly funny, so here it is.

TOTAL RECALL: The Musical

2010-05-13T15:33:00.002-04:00

Gotta love those YouTube spoofs.

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

2010-04-02T11:06:00.014-04:00

In honor of Good Friday, I am re-posting my 2008 entry on Jesus Christ Superstar. This is one of my favorite musicals. It dramatizes the intersection between faith and politics, using the prism of modern celebrity culture to take a new and compelling look at the story of Judas' betrayal of Jesus. This phantasmagorical combination of rock music and pop culture cynicism, applied to the tales of the Bible, make Jesus Christ Superstar a mondo musical indeed. Read more after the jump!

In 1969, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice embarked on an ambitious project to dramatize the last days of Jesus Christ, from the night before Palm Sunday through to the Crucifixion on Good Friday. The duo had already had a success with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968), based on the Biblical story of the "coat of many colors.” But where Joseph was a light-hearted affair aimed at younger audiences, the new project would take a much more serious and ambitious tone. Tim Rice remembered being fascinated with Judas, whom he felt got something of a raw deal from history. After all, without Judas' betrayal, the sacrifice of Christ could never have happened. Did not Judas, then, play a crucial and thankless part in the salvation of humanity? With this compelling central character in mind, Rice and Lloyd-Webber began work.

Unable to find a theatrical producer for the resulting show, and inspired by the success of The Who's double album rock opera Tommy (1969), the songwriting duo struck a deal with MCA to release the story as a concept album. Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) was a hit, and was followed by productions on Broadway and the West End before being filmed by Norman Jewison in 1973.

Tim Rice’s script leaves the supernatural aspects of the story off-screen and puts the focus on the politics of ancient Judea, as seen through the lens of pop culture celebrity. Rice's Judas is a disillusioned activist who views Jesus as a spiritual leader who has begun to believe his own hype. Judas feels that Jesus’ formerly humble ministry has become a cult with an anti-authoritarian message that threatens both Jewish religious leaders and their Roman occupiers. Judas’ conviction that he must stop Jesus before the authorities crack down on the Israelites leads him to betray his friend, but once Jesus has been betrayed, Judas realizes that the ancient prophecies have been fulfilled after all.

An opera of the Passion would be daring enough even without this sympathetic portrayal of Judas – no opera composer in the 300 years from Monteverdi to Puccini had dared put Christ on the stage. But Lloyd-Webber and Rice, inspired by the success of Tommy and Hair (1968), set the story to a propulsive rock beat, and shone the light of modern pop culture on the tale. The alchemical word “superstar” (a brand-new term coined by Andy Warhol) challenges us to ask whether divinity itself is just another form of celebrity (or is celebrity a debased form of divinity?) and whether religions are just glorified fan-clubs. Judas warns Jesus in "Heaven on Their Minds" that his followers will turn when he fails to deliver on every promise - and we are reminded of the gleeful way tabloids rip into stars who disappoint us with their fallible humanity. Jesus gains immortality by dying young - and we are reminded of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. It's heady, provocative stuff, wrapped up in an irresistable package of witty lyrics and memorable tunes.

This take on the story owes a lot to Tommy, whose titular idiot savant becomes an unwitting celebrity-cum-messiah in a pop cultural hall of mirrors before being torn down by his followers. Both stories are laced with satirical humor, but Jesus Christ Superstar improves on its model by including a heartfelt sense of tragedy and emotion. Though Tommy rocks harder, JCS feels deeper, and rather than undermine the traditional tale, the ironic sensibility makes the story feel fresh, startling and relevant. The Superstar album also featured a full cast, whereas in Tommy all the parts were sung by the four members of The Who.

Jesus Christ Superstar came along just as the "Jesus Freak" movement was gaining steam, as some hippies started to realize they did not need to turn their backs on religion, and that Christ's message of universal love and forgiveness was, like, right on, man. The long hair and muslin duds didn't hurt, either. Though "Jesus Freak" came to be used as a catch-all pejorative for obnoxious Bible-thumpers, it should be remembered that the origin of the term is self-deprecatingly good-humored. Though JCS's harder edges do not quite fit the movement's "Summer of Love" afterglow (the British are always skeptical of unalloyed happiness) it wins points with the image of Jesus as the ultimate counterculture outsider, a spiritual radical whose vision of universal brotherhood places him at odds with the forces of worldly power.

On the radio, 1969 heard Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" and the excellent rocker "Jesus is Just Alright", performed by The Byrds on the Easy Rider soundtrack and later a big hit for the Doobie Brothers. Jesus Freaks invaded Broadway in May, 1971 (months ahead of JCS's October debut), with Stephen Schwartz's Godspell. A much more earnest take on the material, with tunes by the songwriter of the current hit Wicked, Godspell is a perennial favorite of amateur and church theatre troupes. The two shows leap-frogged each other from stage to screen, with both films coming out in 1973. Unfortunately the urban-hippie vibe of the Godspell movie has dated rather badly in contrast to the JCS film's more surreal and timeless feeling. The score included a chart hit with the lovely ballad "Day By Day."

The original UK album cover.

THE MUSIC

Musically, Jesus Christ Superstar is a mélange of styles, leaning heavily on riff-based Brit rock (such as Deep Purple and The Moody Blues) but with Broadway-style chorales, some vaguely Middle-Eastern sounding flourishes, even a smattering of vaudeville. ("Herod's Song" began life as a 1967 Eurovision entry called "Try It And See".)

The "tribal rock" vibe owes a debt to Hair (the tribe here being the Israelites instead of the Flower Children) and songs like “What's the Buzz?” and “Simon Zealotes" wear this debt on their sleeves. Likewise, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” stands side-by-side with “Easy To Be Hard” as the two best pop-rock theatrical ballads of the period.

Lloyd-Webber here pioneers two techniques, one which he has used throughout his career and the second which he eventually dropped. The first and most notable is the repetition of musical themes set to different, contrasting lyrics, such as in “The Temple.” Unlike the classic Wagnerian motifs, his themes don’t develop to show character or plot progression, relying instead on the lyrics to lend the repetitions irony and depth. His approach is more akin to the obsessive re-working of themes as exemplified by his idol, Beethoven (thanks to the fabulous Amy Douglas for this insight!)

The second – no doubt abetted by the freedom of the recording studio – is the abrupt transition, without segue, between musical sections of different time signatures and keys. Note the use of this technique on “What’s the Buzz? / Strange Thing Mystifying” and “Damned for All Time / Blood Money” to signify characters butting in on somebody else’s songs. Lloyd-Webber would later phase out this style of songwriting, but he used it to very dramatic effect in Evita (1978). The transitions are very tricky to achieve live and are often softened on stage.

Interestingly, the music lends Jesus Christ Superstar the sense of fate and mysticism missing from the libretto. Whereas Tim Rice’s book focuses exclusively on the political aspects of the story, Lloyd-Webber laces his score with ominous and ecstatic touches which hint at a larger spiritual meaning. In particular, the spooky, modernistic themes of the Overture, the Crucifixion and “John 19: 41” evoke awe, terror and pity, as well as the hushed, tense aura of the Tenebrae. These passages are seemingly inspired by the work of Hungarian composer György Ligeti, which became famous when used in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) to represent the aliens’ mind-expanding influence on humanity. Whereas Ligeti’s music in the Kubrick film accompanied Bowman’s transformation into a higher being, in Jesus Christ Superstar a similar theme accompanies the Passion sequence to suggest that what is occurring is not just an execution, but an apotheosis.

CONTROVERSEY AND CHARACTERIZATION

The “Christ as celebrity” angle is audacious, and the decision to tell the story through the eyes of a sympathetic Judas guaranteed the project a degree of controversy. Also controversial was the choice to portray the story in strictly secular terms. Though the religious aspect to the story is never explicitly denied by the text, it is never confirmed either, leaving the viewers to make what they will. The story ends with the Crucifixion, leaving the Resurrection off-stage and ambiguous (many productions interpolate a Resurrection during curtain calls, a move of dubious artistic value). What is a little unclear is that Judas was presumably present for the walking on water, the healings, and other miracles, so why does he now disbelieve in Christ’s divinity? Or was he home sick those days? Also, Judas apparently visits Earth after his suicide to sing the title song – so he has an afterlife, but Jesus’ postmortem fate is left ambiguous? Or is Jesus imagining Judas' final say? It’s a bit muddled.

Some critics have leveled charges of anti-Semitism against the work, for its frankly villainous portrayals of Caiaphas and Annas. However, I find this unconvincing. The Pharisees here are simply “The Man” out to crush anything that threatens their power, and their Jewishness, per se, comes into it not at all. It’s all too easy for the machinations of the Pharisees and the Romans to blur into a Sunday School recitation of motiveless perfidy, but Tim Rice’s script does an excellent job of elucidating the conflicting loyalties and spheres of influence at work in this Imperial colony.

Judas has always been a cipher in Christian theology – he has no book of his own, his role among the Disciples is vague and reports of his death are contradictory. His motivations for betraying Jesus are left blank, being portrayed in the Gospels merely as the fulfillment of prophecy. This raises a number of theological questions about the role of free will in a universe of prophecy and fate, all of them too complicated to get into here. But needless to say, the character of Judas is a rich and fertile field for speculation, and provided Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber a lead character full of conflict and ambiguity.

In Tim Rice’s script, Judas is disillusioned with Jesus and his movement, which he feels has become a cult of personality. He is jealous of his formerly privileged position at Jesus' side ("I've been your right-hand man all along") and resents the other Disciples and their rowdy coterie of camp followers and hangers-on. Moreover, he is disturbed by Jesus’ claim that he is Son of God and King of the Jews, and fears reprisals from the Jewish religious authorities or the Roman army. He regards himself as the only person with any sense left in Jesus’ band of followers and the only one willing to challenge Jesus rather than be a star-struck yes-man. Only after his betrayal, with Jesus headed for execution, does he realize what he’s done, and begins to see himself not as the last sane man but as an unwitting pawn in God’s design.

Judas is a reformer, not a revolutionary, and views Jesus' movement as a ministry of social work rather than something transcendent or epoch-making. Perhaps Judas' stance may be likened to the Liberation Theology in vogue in the 1960s. He believes in good works and social justice, though he has no desire to upset the social order. Jesus’ followers have too much “Heaven on Their Minds” to pay attention to the realities of life under Roman rule. “Listen, Jesus, don’t you care for your race? / Can’t you see we must keep in our place? / We are occupied / Have you forgotten how put down we are?” he cries.

It is not much of a leap to think that different disciples would have had their own expectations of Jesus' movement - as we know, the interpretive conflict between Peter, Luke and Paul have shaped the church to this day. But Judas' stubborn pragmatism reveals his low horizons - he is focused on the practical, rather than spiritual, aspects of Jesus' movement. He decries Mary Magdalene for washing Jesus’ hair in expensive oils, since the money spent on the oil could have gone to the poor. Undeniably true, but he misses not only the symbolism of the act but the value of simple, kind gestures. He works for Mankind, but he is no humanist at heart. Similarly, he scorns the Magdalene’s association with Jesus on the grounds that it looks bad for them, never realizing that it is Jesus’ open and non-judgmental heart is the key to his greatness.

The character of Jesus is rendered with a fine sense of a man who feels himself called by destiny, and while we feel for his trials, he is kept at an arm’s length, remote and mysterious. This Jesus thinks of himself as divine – and since the miracles of the Bible are not portrayed, we are left to wonder – but frightened by the hard road ahead and burdened by his follower’s expectations. This Jesus has a sharp tongue that he uses on his Disciples in “What’s the Buzz” and “The Last Supper,” and a temper unleashed in “The Temple.” His inner journey through fear and doubt and towards an acceptance of his fate is given full expression in the gorgeous aria “Gethsemane.” It’s a nuanced and sensitive portrayal of the most difficult person in human history to depict in fiction.

The show humanizes Pontius Pilate without letting him off the hook. Introduced with the haunting “Pilate’s Dream” song, Jesus Christ Superstar portrays the infamous governor as smug and arrogant, but reluctant to execute an innocent man just to satisfy the crowd. He is bemused both by Jesus’ passivity and the mob’s bloodthirstiness, and while he tries to be reasonable, it finally becomes easier to nail a man up than deal with civil unrest. Life is cheap in the Roman Empire, after all, so one less Galilean is small price to mollify the querulous Jews.

Mary Magdalene is given little characterization other than “the whore with the heart of gold,” but she does get to sing the excellent “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” which was a hit for Yvonne Elliman. Other than the scene where Peter denies Christ, the rest of the Disciples are given no depth and scant lines, acting more as a chorus than a collection of characters. However, the Disciples get one of the funniest lines in the show, during “The Last Supper” as they muse that “when we retire we can write the Gospels / So they still will talk about us when we’ve died.”

THE FILM

Barry Dennen, who played Pilate on the album, on Broadway and in the film, deserves credit for getting the Jesus Christ Superstar movie produced. While appearing in Norman Jewison’s 1971 film of Fiddler on the Roof, Dennen suggested that Jewison make Jesus Christ Superstar his next project, and lo, it came to pass. Thanks, Barry!

Jewison wrote his screenplay with British television and film auteur Melvyn Bragg. Faced with the problem of finding a way to meld the contemporary sound and attitude with the ancient and venerated subject matter, they hit upon the idea (inspired by, or at least cross-pollinated with, the Godspell film's putting its flower-power disciples into the gritty urban setting of New York) of a motley crew of vaguely hippie-ish actors performing the show in the Israeli desert. So, Jewison and the cast schlepped out to the Holy Land and filmed entirely on location among Biblical-era ruins, including an amphitheatre and King Herod's palace.

This brilliant move heightened the theatricality of the film while giving cinematographer Douglas Slocombe (whose later credits included all three Raiders of the Lost Ark films) the opportunity for epic vistas and striking tableaux. The diverse elements gave everything a surreal aura and avoided the absurdity of singers gyrating amidst too-realistic sets and costumes. The ruins are evocative and abstract, while lending a powerful sense of authenticity. The desert, mountains and valleys are gorgeously epic in wide-screen, with tiny figures framed against the awesome landscapes. The one bit of green in the parched landscape is the verdant olive grove of Gethsemene (not the actual location, though it does still exist). The flower-power styling of the cast brings a riot of color and movement to the bleached, monochrome desert.

A dilapidated colonnade provides a venue for "Simon Zealotes."

Another impressive ruin doubled as Pilate's house.

Much use was made of the scaffolding on archeological sites, which echoed the set design of the Broadway production. Black-robed Pharisees perch like giant crows.

By allowing the present day to mingle with the past, Jewison acknowledges the dolorous history of a region torn apart by tribal and religions differences. Roman soldiers pack machine guns as well as spears, arms dealers and dope-peddlers inhabit the Temple, and Judas' agonized debate over his betrayal is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a line of Israeli army tanks.

Jewison follows the album's tradition of keeping mum whether Jesus is divine, or just a charismatic leader. But, cleverly lending some ambiguity, Jesus is not among those leaving the bus in the opening sequence - he just appears among them - nor is he seen boarding the bus with the cast at the end. However, the cross is seen to be empty, and as a sunset shimmers behind it, a shepherd leads a flock of sheep across the bottom of the screen (on the DVD commentary, Norman Jewison insists that this was an unplanned bit of serendipity). Another powerful moment comes "Gethsemene," when he sees his fate flash before his eyes in millenia of religious icons.

The film soundtrack was orchestrated and produced by André Previn, the pianist, conductor and composer. Previn was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra at the time of the filming, and he conducted that famous group for the film soundtrack. Previn’s long, Oscar and Grammy studded career encompassed classical, jazz, Broadway and film scores. His version of the Superstar score is lush, with some of the harder edges sanded down, but it still packs a punch. Previn’s jazz piano improvisation in the Crucifixion scene is an apt counterpoint to the choral soundscape.

Before we move on, here's an excellent fan-made movie trailer, set to "The 39 Lashes" that very well encapsulates the movie's dynamic vibe.

ORIGINAL ALBUM VERSUS FILM

In general, I prefer the original concept album and cast to the film soundtrack. The sound is straight-up rock with orchestral touches and closely-miked vocals. It features faster tempi and more guitar than the film sound track, and Lloyd-Webber's sudden transitions are in full force. Since it was made as an album and not a cast recording, some of the songs, such as “Heaven on Their Minds” and “Everything’s All Right” are allowed to groove into long fade-outs, making them more satisfying listening experiences.

Yvonne Elliman and Barry Dennen reprise their roles of Mary Magdalen and Pontius Pilate from the original album, and in both cases give excellent performances. Elliman, of course, went on to sing the disco classic "If I Can't Have You" from Saturday Night Fever, and cult movie fans might be interested to know that Dennen provided the voice for the wheedling, treacherous Skeksis Chamberlain in The Dark Crystal.

Jesus Christ Superstar fans are hotly divided on their Jesus of choice. Both Gillan and Neeley follow in the footsteps of Robert Plant the with high-octane tenor wails that will become the standard heavy metal vocal style throughout 70s and 80s. On the original album, Ian Gillan (of hard-rock pioneers Deep Purple) imbues Jesus with an aggressive, earthy quality and impressively growly high notes. He never played Jesus onstage, so his acting chops are a mystery. He was asked to appear in the film, but his touring commitments with Deep Purple prevented this.

Ted Neeley understudied Jesus on Broadway and was the original Claude in Hair. He gives an excellent, impassioned performance as Jesus in the film, and certainly looks the part, with his wide-set eyes giving him a mystic, faraway gaze. Neeley's voice takes on an irksome tremulous quality in some quieter passages, but his yowling high notes are spine-tingling, especially in “Gethsemene.” He toured for years with Jesus Christ Superstar, and was a featured vocalist in Meat Loaf's early 80s concerts.

Opinions are just as divided about which Judas is better, with the original Murray Head competing with Broadway's Ben Vereen and the movie's Carl Anderson, whom most people consider definitive. I am going to come down as a firm partisan of Murray Head's performance on the original album. Head’s sandpaper tenor registers both cynicism and yearning. It’s the voice made for delivering barbed comments, but there is an underlying sense of wounded emotion that always bleeds through. He makes “Heaven On Their Minds” a cry from the heart, and his sardonic “Strange Thing Mystifying” assures us that while he doesn’t object to the Magdalene’s profession - surely he's availed himself of similar professionals - he certainly objects to her place in Jesus’ esteem. He gives a powerful rendition of “Blood Money” and in “Pilate’s Death” he yelps like a hunted animal, his voice cracking on the “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” reprise and drowning in torment as he cries to God, “You have murdered me!”

Murray Head is best known today for speak-singing the 1984 hit “One Night in Bangkok,” from the musical Chess (lyrics by Tim Rice, music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA) but has also had success as a recording artist in the UK, France and Canada. His two major film roles were in The Family Way with Haley Mills (1966) and Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971). A still of Head from The Family Way is the cover of The Smith’s Stop Me best-of album. Murray Head is the older brother of Anthony Stewart Head, well-known to cult audiences for his roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Doctor Who.

Carl Anderson took over the role of Judas from Ben Vereen on Broadway, and went on to play the role in Los Angeles. The power and charisma of his Judas is undeniable, and while I prefer Murray Head, Anderson’s performance is unimpeachable. It must also be said that he nails the funky rave-up “Superstar,” putting the album cut to shame - and I doubt Murray could have pulled off the white fringe! As fabulous as this number is, it's the only point where the film goes over-the-top into realms of questionable taste. Has Judas died and gone to Las Vegas?

Anderson got two Golden Globe nominations for his appearance in the film, and went on to a long career in film, television and recordings. He also played Iscariot in numerous touring productions. Sadly, he died of leukemia in 2004, at just 59.

Here's Carl performing "Superstar" on The Tonight Show, apparently in the late 1990s. Still sounding amazing after all that time, and with even better diction!

While the casting of a black man as Judas seems tailor-made for controversy, everyone involved has denied this was ever a consideration. Having an African American playing one of the most (unfairly?) reviled characters in history does seem like a deliberate provocation - especially when he ends up swinging on a noose like so much strange fruit, but Anderson's performance transcends easy political point-scoring. For better or worse, it is now traditional that an African American plays Judas in stage shows – Corey Glover, lead singer from In Living Colour, recently toured with Ted Neeley.

Josh Mostel gives a hilarious performance as Herod in the movie, but he can’t compare with Manfred Mann singer Mike d’Abo’s vocals on the record. The only real mis-step in the film cast is the use of Kurt Yahgjian as Annas – his breathy falsetto might have been intended to sound unearthly, but instead he sounds comical. Annas was Caiaphas’ father-in-law, but is instead portrayed as a strangely effete junior priest. Odd.

Larry Marshall gives a wild-eyed performance as Simon Zealotes, though musically I enjoy the "megaphone" effect on John Gustafson's album performance, and it gives the idea of appearing before a giant crowd instead of dancing frenetically right up in Jesus' face! However, both Marshall and the dance routine are great, and the lyrics are easier to understand in the film. It's a well-directed sequence as well, with a swirling blur of dancers amid ruined columns. Judas looks on in disgust at the hysteria, Romans watch from the sidelines as Simon incites Jesus to revolt, and Jesus himself stands still and calm at the center of a swirl of passion.

The Disciple John is played by Richard Orbach, a strikingly pretty young dancer with long curly hair. This is a clever bit of casting, as John, the youngest Disciple, is traditionally been portrayed as a long-haired boy. In Leonardo's "The Last Supper," he sits at Jesus' right hand, and is so androgynous that he is often thought to be Mary Magdalene. Orbach looks strikingly like Leonardo's John the Baptist, with the same hair - different John, but the same idea. Witty, well-informed casting for a non-speaking role which might easily have gotten lost in the crowd.

THE LEGACY

Along with Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar is now recognized as one the seminal rock musicals, groundbreaking shows that proved it was possible to integrate a modern rock sound with the narrative demands of the theatre. The film, in retrospect, looks like a long-form music video that integrates rock performance, stage conventions and cinematic vision into an exhilarating whole. The original album still sells well, and the stage show is constantly being revived and sent out on tour, attracting ardent fans and prompting debate about the true nature of faith and fame in ancient Judea and today.

Rice and Lloyd-Webber would strike gold once more with the even more successful Evita (concept album in 1976, original London production in 1978), which explored similar themes of politics and the cult of personality. Che stepped into Judas' shoes to undermine the adoration heaped upon the lead character. The partnership of Rice and Lloyd-Webber broke up with some acrimony soon after, but the three shows they created together stand as some of the most enduringly popular works of modern theater.

NEWS FLASH - Rice is currently penning lyrics for Lloyd-Webber's sequel to The Phantom of the Opera (1986), which will see the Phantom escape to 19th Century Coney Island. Er, what? Time will tell what becomes of this project.

Goodbye, Baby June

2010-03-31T11:39:00.003-04:00

It's time to say farewell to June Havoc, whose vaudeville childhood was immortalized in the legendary Broadway musical Gypsy.

The actress, whose career stretched from the 1920s to her retirement in 1990, has passed away at the age of 98.

.

SUCK: The Vampire Musical

2010-03-10T10:42:00.002-05:00

This premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, and it looks like fun.

.

SOUL MUSIC: The Moral Dimension of Rhythm

2010-03-04T15:44:00.005-05:00

Just read a very provocative and stimulating article by Roger Scruton, taking the music criticism of Plato and Adorno and applying it to how we encounter the popular music of today. Scruton's distinction between music which moves with us and moves at us is compelling, and I thought I'd share.
_

Best Music Videos of the Aughts

2010-02-25T15:38:00.004-05:00

Slant Magazine has an excellent round-up of the best music videos of the first decade of this, our new century. Sure, I don't agree with a lot of the choices, but as I see the music video as a direct linear descendant of the old-time musical movie, I thought I'd present their list for your perusal.

The 50 Best Music Videos of the Aughts
_

The 29 Funniest Musical Numbers?

2010-02-15T16:48:00.003-05:00

The Huffington Post has a round up of what they consider the 29 funniest musical numbers of all time. Not sure why they couldn't include even a single Tenacious D clip to make it an even 30, but there ya go. Enjoy.

The 29 Funniest Musical Sketches of All Time
.

THREEPENNY OPERA

2010-02-15T15:02:00.009-05:00

Here's a case of a classic show getting the mondo treatment - apparently musician Nick Cave (formerly of The Birthday Party) and mime actor Andy Serkis (he played Gollum and King Kong) are teaming up for a CGI, motion capture film of Brecht & Weill's The Threepenny Opera. Sounds interesting. Nick Cave seems like an obvious fit for this material, but the CGI element makes me wonder just what kind of movie they have in mind.

Threepenny Opera, of course, was based on the 18th Century play The Beggar's Opera by John Gay. It has been filmed at least twice before, including a brilliant version from 1930 by G.W. Pabst, and is the source of the ever-popular song "Mack the Knife," as sung by Lotte Lenya, Louis Armstrong, Bobby Darin, Marianne Faithfull, Ella Fitzgerald, and a raft of others. It also contains the song "Pirate Jenny" which was brilliantly performed by Nina Simone in the 1960s. The play was recently mounted in a star-studded Broadway production which got mixed reviews.

Allow me a moment to weep that Raul Julia never got to film his Public Theatre turn as Macheath from the 1970s. We miss you, Raul!

Via SlashFilm
.

BLUE VELVET: "In Dreams"

2010-02-10T15:33:00.007-05:00

As a sidelight to the main idea of "mondo musicals" I'd like to briefly discuss non-musicals which have a musical number that comes out of nowhere, and seems to push the film into the realms of the surreal. And where better to start than with Blue Velvet? It's a film that is fairly surreal anyway, even for an ostensibly realistic crime drama, but the "In Dreams" sequence stands out after all these years as a milestone of creepy musical strangeness. Click through to read more.
David Lynch's 1986 masterpiece is a landmark of film noir, a film of multiple layers and ambiguities, about which much has been written elsewhere. In the celebrated sequence below, the psychotic Frank (Dennis Hopper) has caught the hapless voyeur Jeffrey (Kyle McLaughlin) hanging around his tragic moll, Dorothy (Isabella Rossellini). (Ironic that for these three accomplished actors, this one low-budget art film would provide them all with their most memorable and definitive roles.) He takes them both for a ride, with a stop off to see the disturbingly fey Ben (Dean Stockwell) along the way.

Frank obviously thinks Ben is a riot - not to mention "suave" - and Ben, while he seems to find Frank a bit much, condescends to indulge him. Who is Ben, and why does he seem to be the only person who can talk sense to the twitchy, edgy Frank? Is he a pimp, drug dealer, white slaver, or what? Who are the fat old women surrounding him? Why is Ben the one holding Dorothy's son hostage? Who knows...and who cares, when there's ice-cold PBR for all? (Hopper's line "Heineken? Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!" was single-handedly responsible for making PBR the swill of choice for your modern hipster.)

Before Frank's rage gets out of control, Ben calms his nerves with a lip-synched rendition of Roy Orbison's "In Dreams," using a shop-light as a microphone. This is obviously Ben's favorite party piece, and it prompts Frank into a reverie in which he mutters "Now it's dark" (an incantation to be repeated ad mysterium in Lynch's later Twin Peaks). Frank gets emotional, then agitated (bad memories?) and finally stops the song in the middle. Ben looks piqued, but resigned. He is obviously used to, and wary of, Frank's rages.

This sequence (which does not appear in the screenplay; or rather, the scene is there, sans music) is justly famous, and helped revive Roy Orbison's popularity in the 1980s. David Lynch has always had a canny ear for pop music, and always chooses songs which seem haunted by sinister, melancholy undertones. The film itself is named after the Bobby Vinton song, which is performed by Isabella Rossellini's tortured torch singer. Intriguingly, Frank is seen weeping during her performance. Apparently there's a heart - weird and twisted though it may be - inside him after all.

Idiots, Monsters and Peas at the Grammy Awards

2010-02-03T16:54:00.010-05:00

I don't think they won anything, but here's the cast of American Idiot performing "21 Guns" with Green Day at the Grammy Awards. I would love to see this show!

I have no idea why the new blogger format won't allow full-sized YouTube videos...I could be the American Idiot here, but I can't figure out the new tools. Oh well - you can always click "Watch On YouTube."

Lady GaGa and the Black Eyed Peas both gave stellar performances as well, with staging and concepts that turned their own numbers in to little mini-musicals of their own.

AMERICAN PSYCHO: The Musical

2010-02-03T16:50:00.002-05:00

Variety reports that Duncan Sheik (2007 Tony award winner for Spring Awakening) will write songs for a stage adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho. Should make a nice double bill with American Idiot.
_

COBRA: The Musical

2010-02-01T09:49:00.003-05:00

Presented without comment - video of the GI Joe-based musical which premiered at the 2002 Montreal Fringe Festival.
_

TORCHWOOD - The Musical?

2010-01-08T09:17:00.007-05:00

No. But, there was an idea for it! Apparently, Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of the 70's super-group ABBA approached Doctor Who and Torchwood honcho Russell T. Davies with an idea for a Torchwood musical. Now, this sounds insane, but considering the duo were responsible (with librettist Tim Rice) for the genius musical Chess, a dark, sexy, sci-fi musical thriller doesn't seem so unlikely. And with the all-singing, all-dancing (all-snogging) John Barrowman in the lead, the idea seems even more intriguing. But alas, it was not to be. The incident is related in Davies' forthcoming book The Writer's Tale, Volume 2.

Merry Christmas, Mondo Musicals!

2009-12-22T10:20:00.001-05:00

AMERICAN IDIOT - First Clips

2009-12-11T11:56:00.006-05:00

Not sure how I feel about this. I loved the album, but the idea of putting it onstage as a show...well, let's just say I'm skeptical, and this clip doesn't do that much to remove my skepticism. But, here it is. There are more clips on the tube of you.

UPDATE: Reviews are coming in, and it looks like the production is Broadway-bound!

Rocky Gothic / American Horror

2009-10-08T09:16:00.020-04:00

I have always been intrigued by the appearance of Grant Wood's 1930 painting, "American Gothic," in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Some thoughts about the painting and its possible significance in Rocky Horror after the jump...
The painting is always associated with Riff Raff and Magenta, played by Richard O'Brien and Patricia Quinn, and is always associated with death. First they appear playing the farm couple who sing backup in the "Dammit, Janet!" scene. Then, the painting itself is seen next to the Tempus Fugit clock as Riff Raff and Magenta introduce "The Time Warp." Finally, the triple-barreled laser used to assassinate Frank provides a chance to spoof the image.

What, if anything, does this mean? None of it is in the script, and it likely arose from a combination of production designer Brian Thompson's pop-collage aesthetic and Jim Sharman's own sense of humor. Was this just a little joke? I can see them making the "Dammit, Janet" couple into the American Gothic couple, and then carrying on the joke from there. But, was it intended to mean something? Is there anything to unpack here? I can't claim to have a coherent thesis, but here are a few thoughts.

The "American Gothic" couple are stoic icons of probity and hard work, the very embodiments of the American heartland. Interestingly, the work was controversial as as viewers could not decide whether the image was a tribute to or a parody of Americana. The "Gothic" of the title refers to the style of house in the background, particularly the arched window (the church set in "Rocky Horror" features similar windows). The couple are often thought to be husband and wife, but Grant Wood's sister (the female model) thought the age disparity indecent and insisted that they were father and daughter. Wood himself never commented. The painting has been the subject of countless spoofs and imitations over the years - there is even a blog dedicated to collecting parodies of the image.

Riff Raff and Magenta are space aliens with an oddly puritanical world-view which finds Frank's revels decadent but incest acceptable. Perhaps for Riff Raff, incest is the ultimate form of purity, or perhaps a way of exerting control over his wayward, hedonistic sister. These two eldritch beings have infiltrated the American heartland of Denton, USA - they are in our midst!

The "American Gothic" couple who sing backup in "Dammit Janet" appear to be the church caretakers. The man wipes Brad's chalk heart off the church door, and later, the couple change the church decor from "wedding" to "funeral," swapping white flowers for black and bringing in a coffin. They are joined by a second woman (a daughter?) played by Little Nell, who later portrays Columbia. Tim Curry plays the priest.

The Narrator has a slide with a wedding photo that has Curry's priest and O'Brien's caretaker circled - does this indicate that these people ARE Frank and Riff? That seems extremely unlikely from the way the narrative plays out. Perhaps it was a way for the film-makers to clue the audience in on the joke? Some will say that trying to find narrative sense in Rocky Horror is a fool's game - and though I think this is selling the movie short, it's also true that by its nature, Rocky is a surrealistic pop-art collage more than anything. Also, it was never intended to for the repeated viewings that were its lot.

At the beginning of the "Time Warp," we find a framed print of "American Gothic" in Frank's foyer, complemented by a clock fashioned from a coffin and skeleton (this was not a prop, by the way, but an authentic 18th Century item). Is the American dream dead, rotting, ready for the ground? Are Brad and Janet, the all-American couple, being warned that their way of life is doomed?

Or is it the so-called American Dream itself which is deadly? When the image re-appears during the film's climactic coup, is this American Puritanism reasserting itself in the face of unbridled hedonism? Rocky Horror was, after all, a product of the early 70s, a post-Altamont cultural product, with Richard Nixon's Moral Majority already starting to put its collective foot down (and the disgraced Nixon himself makes a cameo in the film, in the form of his resignation speech heard on the radio).

The climactic coup finds Riff Raff (having struck an "American Gothic" pose with his triple-barreled laser and Bride of Frankenstien-coiffed sister) unexpectedly allied with Dr. Scott, the Nazi scientist turned American college professor and government stooge, who appeases Riff by approving of the carnage. "Society must be protected," he smugly pronounces. "But from who?" we ask ourselves.

All of this definitely throws unsavory light onto the "American Gothic" image, an image which had for decades been the subject of parody and critique, both from left- and right-wing perspectives. A celebration of the plainspoken, hard-working American spirit, or a savage parody of it? Likewise its use in Rocky Horror is ambiguous, but its constant association with death is telling. I can't claim to have any answers, and if I ever get to interview Sharman, Thompson or O'Brien, that will definitely be a question I'll ask.

FORBIDDEN ZONE

2009-09-22T14:07:00.014-04:00

The awesome blog Dangerous Minds (which is fast becoming indispensable) turned me on to this insanely catchy song from Forbidden Zone, a 1980 mondo musical - mondo beyondo, by the looks of it - by the Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo - better known today as Richard Elfman and his brother Danny, film-score maestro extraordinaire. I have always heard of this movie, but had no idea it was on DVD. I will need to track it down. And oh, look, there's Hervé Villechaize smoking one of his trademark cigars.

Just when you thought you'd seen everything, here comes Susan Tyrrell with "Witch's Egg."

I, for one, had no idea witches were oviparous.

UPDATE: The Sacred Fools Theater Company will be producing a stage version in May, 2010. Sounds like fun!

UPDATE II: Here's a trailer:

.

CINDERELLA 2000: Tomorrow's Sexiest Comedy - Today!

2009-09-03T15:16:00.005-04:00

Tip of the hat to the excellent Dangerous Minds blog, which has turned me on to the sexploitation musical Cinderella 2000. The trailer is a sheer delight. Nobody did sleaze like the late '70s.

"Welcome to the future, in the hopes that it will suit ya!" Might be a bit NSFW.

Addams with a Twist

2009-08-27T13:47:00.005-04:00

Avant-garde puppeteer Basil Twist has joined the creative team of the new Addams Family musical, set to open at the Lunt-Fontaine in April 2010.

Basil Twist is a true genius of puppetry, whose water-tank abstractions set to Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique was an unexpected smash, and whose collaboration with drag chanteuse Joey Arias was renowned for its trippy inventiveness. Twist will no doubt be bringing life to Thing, Cousin It and who knows what other grotesques in the show.

Though I was originally trepidatious, with Twist on board, plus Nathan Lane, Bebe Neuwirth and Terrance Mann in the cast and music by The Wild Party's Andrew Lippa, I have to say it's shaping up quite well.

Here's a great feature on Twist's work.

SCHADENFREUDE ALERT - Turn Off the Dark

2009-08-13T11:29:00.005-04:00

Well, it looks like the Spider Man musical, with songs by U2, is kaput. The NY Post says it's the biggest Broadway fiasco of all time, with millions disappearing down the hole.

I was never a fan of this idea anyway, so I am not sorry to see it go. Still, we can likely expect a U2 album of Spidey songs someday. Joy.

MAN ON THE MOON

2009-08-04T15:28:00.003-04:00

Did you know that Andy Warhol produced a space-themed musical with songs by John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas? Neither did I, and by the looks of the clip below, it had a "grown-ups doing a school play" vibe that's pretty charming.

Plastic Bouquets-Man on the Moon from DANGEROUS MINDS on Vimeo.

I won't say that much about it, because the excellent blog Dangerous Minds has a long and fascinating post about it.
.

A VERY POTTER MUSICAL

2009-07-17T11:31:00.001-04:00

I haven't seen Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet, but until I do, this unauthorized spoof musical is keeping me tickled.

An interview with the creators is over at io9.

DESTINO: Disney & Dali

2009-07-07T16:37:00.002-04:00

I have always heard of the Walt Disney / Salvador Dali collaboration Destino. It's not a musical, though as with everything Disney touched, music plays a vital role. Apparently this short project (which I thought was lost/abandoned) was released in 2003 and will make its DVD debut in 2010. Read more about the fascinating history of Destino on Wikipedia.

-

HE-MAN: The Bollywood Musical!

2009-07-01T13:57:00.004-04:00

I have not addressed Bollywood on this blog, partly because I don't know enough about it, and partly because Bollywood's genre-blending, over-the-top musicals would probably ALL qualify as "mondo" by Western standards. I do have good memories of living in New York City, when a local station would show Bollywood musicals on Sunday afternoons. Just the thing to go with the post-hangover brunch cocktails!

Anyway, I came across this and thought it too good to pass up. It's a musical adaptation of "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" performed as some kind of nightclub act. Behold:

Via Topless Robot.
-

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON: THE MUSICAL

2009-07-01T11:00:00.003-04:00

Hey, why not? Seems like vampires are Broadway box office poison, and Frankenstein already had his own show. Can Wolf Man be far behind? Read about it at the LA Times.
-

MICHAEL JACKSON: The King (of Pop) is Dead

2009-06-26T07:53:00.013-04:00

As everybody knows, Michael Jackson passed away yesterday in Los Angeles (1958-2009). He was rehearsing for his big comeback tour, something which even a casual fan like myself hoped against hope would be the return to form that everybody was always looking for. Twenty-seven years after his biggest album (which just happens to be the best-selling album of all time), he was still one of the biggest stars in the world, an international mega-celebrity the likes of which we will never see again. I remember my whole family going to see the "Victory Tour" from 1984. My mom even bought my sister, step-brother and I matching red vinyl jackets!

This is a tragedy and a shock, though sadly, I cannot say I am surprised. I always predicted an early Judy Garland-style end for Michael Jackson. Lost in the pop-fame hall of mirrors, I certainly couldn't see him getting old, gracefully or otherwise. The sad thing is, there is a whole generation who never knew him as anything other than a tabloid freak and late-night punchline. Hopefully the long view will prevail. Whatever negatives you can say about him (and people have said and will say plenty), the man was a genius of a performer, with a vocal and dance style that wove a myriad of influences into something truly unique - crossing lines of race, sexuality and musical genre in the process. He will truly be missed, and my prayers are with him and his family, especially the kids.

Here is a link to the infamous 1983 "Thriller" video, directed by John Landis. This was the first long-form video, and constitutes a self-contained mondo musical. I remember being scared silly by this when I was 10, even as I chuckled at the campy Vincent Price rap and thrilled to the dance moves and fantastic Quincy Jones-produced beat. Where this leaves the planned "Thriller" Broadway musical is unclear (hopefully they will quietly drop the idea).

Here's my personal favorite Michael Jackson song, "Smooth Criminal." A great track and another lavish video.

And speaking of amazing dance moves, here's what was, for me, his single finest moment - premiering the "moonwalk" dance in a live performance of "Billie Jean." He only does it twice, and briefly (first at about 3:30) but you can hear people crying out in surprise and delight when he does. The next day it was all anybody could talk about. Kind of like today, actually.

-

OPERATION: MINDCRIME

2009-06-12T16:23:00.004-04:00

Adam Pascal talks to Playbill about his plans to bring the seminal 80s metal concept album by Queensrÿche to the stage.
-

REPO! On the Road

2009-06-04T11:32:00.002-04:00

The stage show Repo! The Genetic Opera (which spawned a movie musical) is hitting the road. Tour dates here.
-

CHESS - In Concert

2009-06-01T14:34:00.011-04:00

On Wednesday June 17, the PBS series Great Performances will broadcast a spectacular concert performance of the Tim Rice - Benny Andersson - Björn Ulvaeus musical Chess. The concert, taped at the Royal Albert Hall, features Josh Groban, Idina Menzel and Adam Pascal, plus the City of London Philharmonic Orchestra. A CD and DVD are released June 16.

This has long been one of my favorite shows. Chess was originally a 1984 concept album and was staged in 1986, with Murray Head and Elaine Paige. It tells the complicated tale of two chess champions, one American and one Russian, vying for the world championship, with Cold War politics and the messy entanglements of love looming over all. The ending is truly bittersweet, a rarity on the musical stage, but it fits a story where politics, national identity, ambition and status distort every relationship.

The acerbic lyrics are by Tim Rice, of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita fame, and the themes of politics and celebrity are right in line with his previous works. The ABBA duo of Andresson and Ulvaeus mix their trademark disco-pop with chamber music, sweeping orchestral interludes, and power ballads. The most famous number from the show, "One Night in Bangkok," was a big hit single for Murray Head. The show was a huge hit in London, though a Broadway version (with totally re-written book) was a flop. I saw the UK tour, which combined the best of both, in 1990 and was quite blown away. I can't wait to see this!

AMERICAN IDIOT: The Green Day Musical

2009-05-18T09:47:00.006-04:00

It seems that original musicals are few and far between, and here comes another adaptation. This one seems intriguing and possibly mondo. It's a stage adaptation of the Green Day album American Idiot.

This fantastic collection of songs, with its loose (all right, vague) storyline focusing on the young and discontented in Bush-era America, was a big hit for Green Day in 2004 and yielded the superb singles "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends." The book will be written by Michael Mayer, who directed the amazing Spring Awakening. The new show will debut at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in September.

Green Day have also just released 21st Century Breakdown, a new rock opera concept album.
-

ADDAMS FAMILY - Lane, Neuwirth

2009-05-12T12:04:00.003-04:00

The new musical of The Addams Family, due on Broadway in April 2010, will star Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia. Great casting, I must say. The full cast list is here. My thoughts on the show are here.
-

CORALINE: The Musical

2009-05-12T11:59:00.007-04:00

Magnetic Fields frontman Stephin Merritt talks to The Decider about his new musical adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, which was also adapted into a lovely stop-motion 3D film released this year.
-

BEA ARTHUR: Thank You For Being A Friend

2009-04-28T14:57:00.007-04:00

The fabulous Bea Arthur passed away this weekend (1922-2009). With her imposing stature, raspy baritone, withering put-downs and impeccably timed "takes," Bea Arthur was comedy gold from start to finish.

Her only connection to the world of Mondo Musicals is her appearance as the singing barkeep of the Mos Eisley Cantina in the ill-fated Star Wars Holiday Special, but she's beloved by the gays (myself included) for her turns as the left-wing harridan Maude Findlay on Maude (1972-78) and as the relatively-sane Dorothy Zbornak on The Golden Girls (1985-92).

As a kid, I was a huge fan of Maude (my parents should have known right then) and I've discovered to my delight that it's still one of the funniest and most daring shows ever aired on network TV. Everybody knows about the abortion episode, or the pro-pot episode. But who remembers episodes like the Emmy-nominated "The Analyst," an episode-length monologue delivered by Bea Arthur to an unseen therapist? Or "Vivian's First Funeral," where Maude is forced to steal jewelry off a corpse (with hilarious consequences)? Stuff like that just doesn't get made anymore.

Bea Arthur's Broadway triumphs include playing Lucy Brown in the seminal 1956 New York production of The Threepenny Opera with Lotte Lenya*; portraying the original Yenta in Fiddler on the Roof in 1964; and starring opposite Angela Lansbury in Mame in 1966. She was also the only saving grace of the Mame film starring Lucille Ball in 1974. She headlined a one-woman Broadway show in 2002.

Her last performance was on a Comedy Central Roast for Pamela Anderson, reading "erotic" passages from Anderson's book in her trademark deadpan style.

Here's Bea with Angela Lansbury singing the bitch-fest "Bosom Buddies" from Mame.

* Also starring future TV luminaries Jerry Stiller, Ed Asner, Charlotte Rae, John Astin and Jerry Orbach!
-

SILENCE!

2009-04-23T15:05:00.004-04:00

Music and lyrics Jon and Al Kaplan. SILENCE! Silence of the Lambs: The Musical won the Overall Excellence Award for Outstanding Musical at the 2005 NYC Fringe festival. Their next project is a musical film of the 60s cheesefest They Saved Hitler's Brain.
-

REEFER MADNESS - Have a Brownie!

2009-04-20T10:22:00.005-04:00

As today is 4/20, I thought I'd ~~toke up~~ cue up "The Brownie Song" from the hilarious spoof musical Reefer Madness. Enjoy the nutty goodness.

-

LITTLE SHOP: Another Remake?

2009-04-16T11:53:00.009-04:00

Shock Till You Drop is reporting that director Declan O'Brien has optioned the remake rights to Corman's Little Shop of Horrors. O'Brien promises "I have a take on it you're not going to expect. I'm taking it in a different direction, let's put it that way."

My take? I think it's frustrating to consider another remake of the film while the "original ending" version of the Frank Oz movie still languishes in the vaults, some 23 years after it was consigned there by a bad preview audience.

Still, I look at it this way. O'Brien has optioned the rights to remake the original film, not the musical. There might, indeed, be some value to seeing another take on the material, a take that gets it back to its low-budget shock-comedy roots, with sick humor and buckets of gore. And who knows, it might spur Geffen and/or Warners to pony up the dough it would take to finish the musical right and put it out on BluRay. So, I am cautiously optimistic about this project.

What's Your Damage? HEATHERS: THE MUSICAL

2009-03-16T16:21:00.005-04:00

The Hollywood Reporter says that Heathers, 1988's black satire of high school life, will be turned into a stage musical. Creative types from the musicals Reefer Madness and Legally Blonde are taking the reigns.

"'I love my dead gay son,'" Fickman quoted. "If you can get that into a song, then that is just perfect." Well said.

-

THRILLER: The Musical

2009-01-27T13:51:00.010-05:00

The Nederlander organization has announced that they will mount a Broadway musical version of "Thriller," the Michael Jackson song made legendary in a long-form music video directed by John Landis in 1983. Definitely mondo, and most likely made of "meh." In a way it's appropriate - Broadway has been full of revenants and patchwork monsters for 20 years now. Michael Jackson's monster-mashing zombies will find very few delicious brains to feast upon in the Great White Way.

It's interesting to re-watch the video now, as Jackson's fey Romeo shyly confides that he's "not like other guys" and soon undergoes a variety of terrifying transformations. Jackson's obsession with radically re-inventing himself is there for all to see, though the world could not appreciate how prescient his character's metamorphosis from skinny black man to creepy werecat (repeated in the "Black or White" video) to pasty-faced ghoul (repeated in real life) actually was.

I had to admit, this video scared me silly when I was 11, even as it tickled my funny-bone. I was au courant with Vincent Price at that age, so his presence on the soundtrack was actually reassuring.

UPDATE! John Landis is suing to stop the production, claiming that MJ owes him big bucks in unpaid royalties. Read all about it.
-

Obama On My Mind

2009-01-20T14:31:00.003-05:00

Not very mondo, but definitely topical. Playbill.com reports on a new political satire entitled Obama On My Mind.

In other news, God bless America!

PIRACY! Gilbert & Sullivan's Copyright Wars

2008-12-31T14:07:00.013-05:00

While Andrew Lloyd-Webber is trying to mount three productions of his Phantom of the Opera sequel at once, it bears noting that today is the 130th Anniversary of another experiment in simultaneous - or nearly simultaneous - premiers.

On December 31, 1879, Gilbert & Sullivan's classic comic operetta The Pirates of Penzance premiered in New York City's Fifth Avenue Theater. The day before, a staged reading was performed at the Royal Bijou Theatre, Paignton, on the southern coast of England, in advance of the show's April 3, 1880 London debut. Why this unusual move? To guard against piracy, naturally. Yaarh!

1878's H.M.S. Pinafore was a smash hit on both sides of the Atlantic, but in those days of lax copyright laws, the show's popularity inspired a legion of copycats and pirate performances all over the United States. Enterprising hacks would sketch the show's script and music, and mount their own unauthorized productions. Apparently, it was this very issue that inspired Gilbert to base the new show on a piratical theme. Chagrined at the loss of income, as well as the shoddy and unrepresentative productions, G&S decided that they would premier their new work in the US right away. The dual premiers established copyrights in both England and America, and The Pirates of Penzance became one of the most popular operettas in history. It is still performed very frequently by opera companies, high schools and community theaters, and the phrase "the very model of a modern ---" has entered the common lexicon.

Gilbert & Sullivan's experiement was only a qualified success. Though copyright was established, and four official touring companies were dispatched from New York - having been rehearsed by the composer and author themselves - the first unauthorized production was given at Boston's Booth Theatre in September 1880.

The Pirates of Penzance is one of my favorite shows, and while it's not exactly "mondo," its deft spoofing of the works of Donizetti and Verdi plays on theatrical conventions with a great combination of knowing irony and total musical commitment. G&S were pioneers of the meta-theatrical gag, such as Mabel's endless bel canto vocal trills, or when the Modern Major-General disdains "that infernal nonsense, Pinafore."

I shall leave you with Sullivan's own words, in a letter to his mother. "I think it will be a great success, for it is exquisitely funny, and the music is strikingly tuneful and catching." Couldn't have put it better myself!

Happy new year to all! See you in 2009.

.

PHANTOM 2 - Electric Boogaloo

2008-12-31T14:04:00.019-05:00

Broadway World has an interesting article on Andrew Lloyd-Webber's Phantom of the Opera sequel, Love Never Dies, which looks like it is really happening.

Apparently it will be set in Coney Island at the start of the 20th Century, which should be interesting. Whether it's good-interesting or flop-interesting remains to be seen. Also notable is Sir L-W's plan to premier three different productions in ~~three~~ four cities at once - a theatrical first.

UPDATE: The Equity casting breakdown for auditions reveals the lead characters and summarizes the plot thus: "In 1907 New York, the mysterious 'Maestro' who runs the theatre at Coney Island announces a one-off concert by legendary Parisian soprano Christine Daaé. Her arrival in New York with husband Raoul, Victome de Chagny and son Gustave, and their subsequent meeting with the 'Maestro,' bring the cataclysmic events of 10 years earlier at the Paris Opera crashing back into all their lives."

This sounds like a riff on the Jenny Lind concert tours of America, sponsored by P.T. Barnum, who figured that, after making buckets of cash from the Feejee Mermaid and General Tom Thumb, a nationwide tour from "The Swedish Nightingale" would class up the joint. Or to put it in sanctimonious Victorian-speak, "A visit from such a woman, who regards her artistic powers as a gift from Heaven and who helps the afflicted and distressed, will be a blessing to America."

Gorgeous photo of Coney Island's Luna Park, circa 1905, at Shorpy.com
View the Coney Island photo used in the illustration at StudioPhototrope

.

REPO! Interview

2008-11-10T11:29:00.003-05:00

Now that Repo! The Genetic Opera has opened in selected cities, the good folks over at io9.com have a new interview with creator Terrance Zdunich. Check it out!

UPDATE: Despite playing in only 8 theaters (!) the film is apparently doing very good box office. BroadwayWorld has the story.

.

OBAMA!

2008-11-05T10:48:00.004-05:00

I am over the moon about Obama's victory last night. God bless America, and here's looking forward to a successful presidency!
.

THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN

2008-10-27T16:17:00.005-04:00

According to BroadwayWorld.com, it seems that the producers of Napoleon Dynamite and the creators of the unauthorized spoof musical Silence! (based on Silence of the Lambs) will bring the 60s schlock-fest They Saved Hitler's Brain back to life as a sci-fi musical comedy film.

First Mel Brooks, now this - are we going to be in the position, someday, of griping "What, another Nazi-themed musical comedy!?"

.

Soderbergh's CLEOPATRA

2008-10-27T14:52:00.005-04:00

Variety is reporting that respected writer-director Steven Soderbergh will make a live-action, 3D rock & roll musical film based on the life of the Egyptian queen. Music is by the indie group Guided By Voices, and Soderbergh is courting Catherine Zeta-Jones and Hugh Jackman for the roles of Cleopatra and Marc Antony.

Mondo? Maybe. Unexected? Definitely.

.

TOXIC AVENGER: The Musical

2008-10-23T10:44:00.003-04:00

The good folks over at io9.com have a video report on the new musical of The Toxic Avenger, the 1985 Troma schlockfest that launched a slew of sequels. Check it out!

.

Levi Stubbs, 1936-2008

2008-10-17T16:56:00.003-04:00

Levi Stubbs, the gruff, soulful lead singer of Motown legends The Four Tops, has died at 72. He is beloved by me for providing the voice of Audrey II in the 1986 mondo musical Little Shop of Horrors. He'll be truly missed!

Here are The Four Tops in 1966 singing their huge hit, "Reach Out, I'll Be There." My personal favorite of their songs is "Bernadette" but I can't find a good version online. Other hits included "Baby, I Need Your Loving" and "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch."

FRANKENSTEIN IN LOVE

2008-10-10T14:07:00.004-04:00

If I have any readers in Chicago, I would advise going to see Will Act For Food's production of Clive Barker's 1982 play Frankenstein in Love. Barker, who made his name with the Books of Blood short story collections and the 1987 film Hellraiser, sets the Frankenstein story amid South American revolutionaries and throws in plenty of gore and sex, as one might expect from Barker's blood-red pen.

The show runs through November 1. Tip of the hat to the fabulous Frankensteinia blog.

New Sci-Fi Musicals

2008-10-10T13:25:00.010-04:00

Two new science-fiction musicals are featured in this year's New York Musical Theatre Festival. The first, I Come For Love, finds a lovely alien landing in Roswell and discovering (all together now) "that which you humans call 'love.'" Co-authors Terrence Atkins and Jeffery Lyle Segal pastiche 1950s science fiction - not exactly a fresh field for spoof - and the results sound charming, if not revelatory. You can hear samples of the music here.

A review of the show at Discover Magazine segues into a think-piece on the interesting question, "Why aren't there more science fiction plays?" I've wondered that myself - especially since good sci-fi doesn't depend on effects for its impact, but rather, examines the effects on human psyches and society in the face of changing technology or (alien) cultures.

However, I can also point out two very noteable science-fiction stage shows. The 1921 play R.U.R. by Czech author Karel Čapek introduced the term "robot" into the lexicon, while Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a progenitor of both sci-fi and horror genres we know today, has been a stage hit since the Victorian era.

Meanwhile, in Ho Chi Minh City (how often do you get to type that?), the avante-garde show Nguoi Nam 2222 (Human Being in 2222) blends traditional Vietnamese performance with "the sexy moves of physical theatre." Written by Le Duy Hanh and soon to be translated into five languages, the play finds a husband-and-wife scientific team fighting the robots and clones that they themselves created, as the automata try to impose a soulless regime on Earth. Sounds interesting! Report from Viet Nam News here.

Thanks to io9.com for alerting me to these shows!

.

SPIDER-MAN: The Musical

2008-10-10T10:51:00.012-04:00

The forthcoming Spider-Man musical, with songs by Bono and the Edge, looks set to be the most expensive show in Broadway history. Reports say it will cost up to $40 million to mount the production, to be directed by Julie Taymor (The Lion King). With that price-tag, it will have to run to sold-out houses for 8,000 years to turn a profit!

Pardon me if I don't rush right out and see this totally egregious adaptation of an adaptation, with music by pompous, over-the-hill rockers and flying rigs galore. And pardon me if I don't want to pay for tickets which will probably top Young Frankenstein's famously obnoxious high prices.

Just think - for that kind of money you could mount forty brand-new million-dollar shows Off-Broadway and do them quite handsomely. You might even create a few memorable additions to the world of theatre that way. But that would be too much like art, and not enough like a Universal Studios tour...

.

SCI-FI CONCEPT ALBUMS

2008-09-10T14:49:00.004-04:00

Over at IO9, one of my very favorite sites, there's a great article about science fiction-based concept albums, including the infamous Jeff Wayne War of the Worlds and Bowie's 1984-based "Diamond Dogs."

.

LITTLE SHOP - The Mary Poppins of the 80s?

2008-09-06T15:16:00.018-04:00

Welcome, Film Experience Bloggers! I am a huge fan of Little Shop of Horrors, and I am thrilled to take part in "Musical of the Month." My post will look at the strange ideas that the Warner Brothers marketing department had about this film, and how it led to the change in ending. Further, I'll argue that changing the ending to an ostensibly "happy" conclusion actually made the film far more morbid and amoral.

Before getting started on that, however, let me point you to some of the Little Shop nuggets featured here on Mondo Musicals:

STRANGE PLANTS ARE MY HOBBY - A collection of props and puppet pieces purchased from film puppeteer David Showler
WEIRD AND EXOTIC CUTTINGS - Rare stills of cut scenes, the original ending, and storyboards that have never been published anywhere
SCREEN TO STAGE - From the Corman film to the Off-Broadway show
STAGE TO SCREEN - From Off-Broadway to Hollywood
SEX AND THE SINGLE VEGETABLE - The weird sexuality of Little Shop

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS - The Mary Poppins of the 80s?

It's well known that the ending of Little Shop of Horrors was radically altered before the fiml's release. In the original stage show, Audrey and Seymour are eaten, and Audrey II takes over the world. This was filmed, but the preview audiences found it too dark, so it was re-shot to give a happy Hollywood ending - albeit with the sequel-friendly appearance of a smirking seedling lurking in the flower beds.

This post is a look at the fatally-flawed expectations the Warner Brothers marketing department had for Little Shop of Horrors - and why their misguided notions dealt the story a crippling blow. More after the jump...

Film is an expensive art form, and studios are understandably anxious to protect their investments and reputations. And so a peculiar form of the market-branding study has arisen: the preview screening. This process is a trial run, often of an only partially-finished work, before an audience carefully chosen to meet a demographic definition of "average."

In the theatre, such traditions as out-of-town tryouts and weeks of previews are used as a crucible for discovering flaws in the production. When applied to film, this process is of shorter duration and arguably less artistic value. Rather than sampling the average response of several weeks’ audiences, most films receive only a few test-screenings. Armed with questionnaires, studio researchers try to lend an aura of scientific irrefutability to the responses of the single sample groups. When a test audience says something must change, change it almost always does.

Though this process may indeed make a film more palatable to a wider audience, it can also weaken the story, sometimes changing beyond recognition the film’s main theme. One such case occurred with Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction, (1987), which originally ended with the Michael Douglas character getting his comeuppance from the spiteful Glenn Close, whose suicide framed him for murder. Test audiences rebelled and the ending was changed to destroy the Glenn Close character and reunite Michael Douglas with his forgiving family. The change was apparently successful, since the film went on to be a huge hit. However, the altered ending totally reversed the point of the film - rather than the man’s callous infidelity bringing down his whole world, his one-night-stand was punished for not accepting her lot. (The original ending is included on the DVD.)

The same thing happened to Little Shop of Horrors. The change to the ending made a fundamental difference in tone and impact, fundamentally altering the film's intent and effectively gutting its moral worldview.

WHICH AUDIENCE?

In interviews, Frank Oz noted that “the audience is a very dynamic part of a movie. You don't make a movie for yourself, you make it for the audience." But which audience? This is the paramount question of film marketing, which the test screenings are designed to answer. However, by stacking the deck in favor of a particular demographic - that which movie marketers imagine will be the most profitable - many films are not allowed to find their own audiences by their own merits.

So for which audience was Little Shop of Horrors made? A family audience, a sci-fi audience, a theatre-going audience? Certainly all of the above were represented in the crowds which had given the downbeat ending standing ovations. These same audiences have since made it one of the most popular of all musicals for community playhouses and high-school theatre troupes, right up there with Grease and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

I would argue that this is the point where Little Shop of Horrors failed - not in its conception or execution, but because of the dictates of marketing. Warner Brothers intended the film for the audience least likely to appreciate its genre-bending sensibility. For Little Shop was marketed not as a Halloween treat, nor a summer special effects extravaganza, but as a family-friendly Christmas picture.

Prior to its opening, producer William Gilmore enthused, "Little Shop of Horrors will be the Mary Poppins of the 80’s and this year’s ET." Such expectations seem reasonable for a funny musical fantasy, but bizarrely misguided for a funny musical fantasy with bloodsucking, murder, and dismemberment as prominent plot points. How were mall-weary Christmas shoppers supposed to take the film’s bloodletting, Audrey’s "bruises and handcuffs," or the scene where a mincing masochist (Bill Murray, essaying Jack Nicholson’s role from the original) disgusts macho sadist Steve Martin by actually enjoying his root canal? Even without the heroes’ deaths and the doomsday ending, it sounds like a sure-fire case of right film, wrong time. Oz again: "I'm usually the one who complains when they screw up a movie by giving it a happy ending. But the movie is, first and foremost, an entertainment and it was coming out at Christmas - and as an audience member, I just didn't want to see my hero and heroine die at Christmas."

Inexplicable as the decision to release Little Shop of Horrors as a Christmas film seems, there is a precedent which may have suggested that such a strategy could work. The film in question is Joe Dante’s Gremlins, which was a big hit in 1984. Also released by Warner Brothers (with a soundtrack from Geffen records), Gremlins was an extremely dark comedy in which cuddly, mischievous pets grow into scaly green monsters whose antics quickly turn deadly. However, Gremlins was released in June, not actually at Christmas - Little Shop came out December 19. Gremlins was explicitly made and marketed as a sort of anti-Christmas movie: the film is set at Christmas, but the June release date puts it an an ironic remove from the actual holiday. Moreover, the film has a traditional happy ending: the gremlins are all destroyed, and the boy gets the girl. The death and havoc are conveniently forgotten.

Little Shop of Horrors, while morbid, is not nearly so cynical, insisting instead that its characters’ actions have repercussions. Ashman and Oz treated the characters, scenario and, ultimately, the audience with an honesty and respect that ultimately proved just too sobering.

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS - Amorality Tale

The two pioneering forces of modern sensibility are Jewish moral seriousness and homosexual aestheticism and irony. - Susan Sontag

The great irony is that the story's true point was completely lost with the change, and the addition of a traditional happy ending corrupted a colorful moral parable into a cynical celebration of getting away with murder. The film’s intriguing implications about race, sex, morals and money were rendered senseless, since in its final moments it negates everything stated or implied up to that point.

Howard Ashman stated that Little Shop of Horrors was to be read as "a cautionary tale, a fable which says that if you do these things, this will happen." But just as Marlowe’s Faust allowed the student to escape with his soul intact, Little Shop of Horrors as released demonstrates that murder is acceptable, even rewarded, if you’re not too bright and you’ve done it all for love. Besides, the film whispers, the two characters given to the plant weren’t very likable, so that makes it ok, doesn’t it?

In the original version, Seymour's crimes are punished with irony worthy of the best medieval morality plays or Jewish Golem tales. In the final version, however, the grisly events of the proceeding 90 minutes are rapidly forgotten. The police quickly responded to the dentist’s "disappearance" – are we to believe that they would not inquire into the whereabouts of Mushnik, or the explosion that destroyed his shop and its famous plant? Does Seymour live forever after in suburban bliss, never troubled by memories of blood and dismemberment, or of betraying the flower-shop owner who rescued him from the orphanage? In their attempt to "lighten" the tone, Warner Brothers in fact produced a nihilistic and spiritually hollow film. I would argue that it is this corrupt tone, this falsely-cheerful "happy ending," that turned audiences off far more than the dark thrill-ride of an ending would have.

Though Little Shop of Horrors did decent box-office, it was never the hit that Warner Brothers expected. Even with the "happy" ending, the film was too strange to win holiday audiences’ whole-hearted affection. The decision to change Little Shop of Horrors’ ending hamstrung a powerful and unique film. Warner Brothers, and the test audiences expecting an innocuous musical, were misled by the film's glittery surface and were therefore unprepared for the serious issues it raises. They fell prey to the misconception that important art must be humorless, and that anything which stoops to entertain is de facto devoid of intellectual content. Marketed more boldly – as a summer FX blockbuster or wicked Halloween treat - perhaps the would have tapped into something unexpected among moviegoers. At the very least, it would certainly have become an indelible cult classic. However, studios do not spend such lavish sums to produce cult classics. So while Audrey II and Steve Martin's dentist are generally remembered with affection, it is too odd to become a comedy classic, but too conventional to attract many serious cult fans. Instead of being remembered as a bold, colorful harbinger of the edgy humor of the late 80’s and 1990’s, it is remembered instead as a clever trifle – a precursor to Ashman and Menken’s Disney films The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin.

Viewing the deleted footage today (it is available on YouTube), it is easy to see how the original ending would have been a slap in the face of Reagan's America, and a shocking left turn for family audiences expecting the same old Hollywood thing. No one wants to hear that rampant consumerism could be our downfall, or that "aw shucks" idealism could not excuse any brutality. Little Shop veers into darkness by increments, and by the time the audience realizes that the movie and the plant are playing for keeps, it's too late. That said, it is difficult to imagine how, in an era saturated with special effects extravaganzas, such an overwhelming spectacle as the plants' destruction of Manhattan could not have attracted a huge audience of teenagers, thrill-seekers, and horror movie fans.

SUBSEQUENT TO THE EVENTS...

Little Shop of Horrors was nominated for two Oscars. The song "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space," performed with gusto on the telecast by Levi Stubbs (accompanied by dancers and a 12-foot plant puppet), was beaten out by the turgid "Take My Breath Away," from Top Gun, a feel-good film in which reckless acts of war result in no serious consequences. Little Shop of Horrors’ special effects nomination was trumped by Jim Cameron’s Aliens, a great film in which blue-collar authenticity vanquishes both a treacherous yuppie and another toothy "mother from outer space." However, while Aliens certainly featured more sheer volume of special effects, the effects in Little Shop of Horrors are far more innovative and imaginative. Indeed, the respected effects journal Cinefantastique hailed Lyle Conway's work as "a new standard...another significant advancement in the field of special effects" on par with Dick Smith's makeup for The Exorcist (1974) and Rob Bottin's work on The Thing (1981). It should be remembered that most movie monsters rely on quick cuts and dim lighting to "sell" the effects, while Audrey II holds up to close scrutiny for a large portion of the film's screen time. Audrey II is not only a potent and unique creature, but a memorable character as well, brought to life with such artistry that the effects are nearly invisible. One can only wonder if the Oscar scales might have been tipped by the inclusion of Audrey II’s climactic rampage through Richard Conway's incredibly detailed miniature sets.

Despite the clash of artistic license and fiscal conservatism that made Little Shop of Horrors' initial run a misfire, we have David Geffen to thank for the chance to even make this comparison. Geffen believed in the material enough to shoot the original ending, even though his commercial instincts told him it was folly. Geffen controls the unused footage, and the 1998 Special Edition DVD was pulled from the shelves at his request. "David was upset, because the DVD used a black & white work print of the ending," Frank Oz told the Los Angeles Times. "He's a caring producer - he put his guts into the movie - and after the DVD came out, he called me and said, ‘I have the color version. This could be better.’ David either wants to re-release the movie [with the original ending] in theaters, or at least have a better DVD."

Little Shop deserves to be seen in all its gory glory, and the artists who labored over the beautifully conceived and executed original finale deserve to have their work appreciated. Let's hope a Special Edition DVD materializes soon. There is an excellent article about the recalled DVD featuring footage from the original ending at DVD Savant.

REFERENCES:

CINEFANTASTIQUE Magazine
Volume 17, Number 1 (January 1987)
Volume 17, Number 5 (September 1987)

CINEFEX Magazine
Number 30 - May 1987

FANGORIA Magazine
Number 60, January 1987

THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS BOOK
by John McCarty and Mark Thomas McGhee
St Martin's Press, 1988

LITTLE SHOP - Strange Plants Are My Hobby

2008-09-06T12:26:00.032-04:00

In 2003 I got in touch with Little Shop of Horrors puppeteer David Showler and purchased his collection of memorabilia from the film. These include his satin crew jacket, a cassette of the half-speed "Mean Green Mother" for lip-synch, some photocopied storyboards, and several pieces of the Audrey II puppets. After the jump, see my little pieces of film history!

Here's an unpainted latex skin for the "Grow For Me" pod. It's cast around a hollow resin shell, and measures about 4" long and 3" wide with some lovely sculpted veins and textures. Click on the photos for a large-sized image.

Latex leaves, 3" to 5" long, that were wrapped around the vines. There is a thin metal wire supporting the central vein (it's poking out of the one on the left.)

An unpainted foam leaf, about 13" long.

A molar from the "Mean Green Mother" puppet. It's about 6" wide and 4" tall. The clear, iridescent glitter would have made it glisten in the shadowed recesses of the mouth. I think, based on the shape and the glitter placement, that this was in the left side of Audrey II's mouth.

The cap from the radiator smashed during "Mean Green Mother." It's hollow plastic, about 3" tall.

Here's Dave's crew jacket - it's rayon or similar "satin" material from a company called "The Cloth Tattoo" and the embroidery is hand-made. It features the Off-Broadway logo and plant.

STORYBOARDS

These "mean Green Mother" storyboards, by Marvel Comics artist Mike Ploog, have never, to my knowlege, been reproduced anywhere. One hopes that a Special Edition DVD, if it ever materializes, would include a slideshow of the full set of these. Click the images for a large-sized version.

THE FLY - Interview with Howard Shore

2008-09-04T10:24:00.013-04:00

Salon has a great podcast interview with Howard Shore, composer of the new opera of Cronenberg's The Fly, as well as the original soundtrack to that landmark 1986 horror film. The opera, which premiered in Paris earlier this year, is creating quite a buzz (sorry!) and opens in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 7.

Check out the official website for photos of the production and tons of info.

LITTLE SHOP - A New DVD At Last?

2008-09-03T15:22:00.016-04:00

Online sources are reporting that Little Shop of Horrors may finally be getting the special edition treatment. It's about time! After the jump, a quick history of the now-legendary "deleted" special edition, and my wish-list for a new release.

The first Little Shop of Horrors DVD contained a black & white work-print copy of the original ending. This was pulled from the shelves at the request of producer David Geffen. Whereas Warner Brothers distributes the film, Geffen controls the unused footage. "David was upset, because the DVD used a black & white work print of the ending," Frank Oz told the Los Angeles Times. "He's a caring producer - he put his guts into the movie - and after the DVD came out, he called me and said, ‘I have the color version. This could be better.’ David either wants to re-release the movie [with the original ending] in theaters, or at least have a better DVD." There is a great post about this whole controversy at the DVD Savant.

Little Shop deserves to be seen in all its gory glory, and the artists who labored over the beautifully conceived and executed original finale deserve to have their work appreciated. With the film’s 2006 20th anniversary now gone, Little Shop of Horrors missed a great opportunity for revision. However, the film may yet reward another public airing. The interest seems to be there - the cancelled DVD regularly sells for upwards of $100 on EBay.com and the deleted footage can be viewed on YouTube. Movie musicals are back in vogue, with Chicago, Hairspray, High School Musical and the gloriously bloody Sweeney Todd (Little Shop was once affectionately dubbed “Sweeney Pod”). The current vogue for "director's cuts" and "special editions" has generated good box-office and critical results for such films as Star Wars, Blade Runner and The Exorcist. As paint-by-numbers digital creatures become ever more banal, modern movie-goers may be ready for Audrey II unbound. The Cloverfield monster might be larger, but it can’t carry a tune.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that this special edition DVD with all the trimmings comes to pass. In the meantime, here is my DVD wishlist. Please note that even with a "Director's Cut" on disc, the black & white rough cut must be included. It's a fascinating look at a film's middle stages - no sound effects, demo versions of the songs, and a final sequence containing much, much more footage than could ever be included in the final cut. Keep that rough cut, please!

A remastered version of the soundtrack album would also be welcome, especially if the opening verses of “Don’t Feed the Plants” were included and some of the overly 80s gloss removed.

DVD WISHLIST

• Anamorphic widescreen high-definition re-mastering
• Dolby 5.1 soundtrack

FROM THE ORIGINAL DVD:

• Original Theatrical Cut with Frank Oz commentary
• Rough cut of original ending, plus optional Oz commentary
• Trailers and TV Spots
• Promotional documentary
• Out-takes & bloopers with Oz commentary

NEW FOR THE SPECIAL EDITION:

• Director’s Cut with new commentary by Alan Menken and Ellen Greene
• “The Meek Shall Inherit” dream sequence
• Howard Ashman retrospective
• Gallery of Mike Ploog’s storyboards
• “Evolution of Audrey II” design featurette
(with input from Lyle Conway, Roger Corman and Martin P. Robinson)
• Levi Stubbs singing "Mean Green Mother" on the 1987 Oscar telecasts
• Photo gallery
• PDF or Screen Shot versions of the FX articles from Cinefantastique and Cinefex (like those included with Cronenberg’s The Fly)
• Isolated music option to showcase the songs and Miles Goodman’s score.
• Any video footage – TV commercials and the like – of the Off-Broadway musical that can be found

TENACIOUS D - The Clips of Destiny

2008-08-13T10:23:00.018-04:00

In 2006 the long-awaited Tenacious D movie, The Pick of Destiny, was released to more or less underwhelming response. The film just didn't capture the brilliant insanity of the duo's best recorded work, instead opting for a rote buddy-movie formula.

However, the opening and closing sequences are pure mondo old. Mock-rock YouTube goodness, with special guest stars Meat Loaf, Dave Grohl and Ronnie James Dio, after the jump!

(Lord, how I long to be a "special guest star" someday!)

In the opening scene, Jack Black narrates how his character was punished as a child for rocking out. It's great to see Meat Loaf exercising both his acting chops and his well-worn pipes as Jack Black's dad. You know you're in for an ass-whoopin' when Meat Loaf takes off his belt! And Dio sounds as great as ever as a poster of himself come to life.

The film's finale is a cross between D's own "Tribute" and Charlie Daniels' "Devil Went Down to Georgia". Here, Jack and Kyle face off against Satan (Dave Grohl) in a guitar challenge with their souls (and Kyle's virgin ass) at stake. Dave Grohl is great in heavy makeup and doing his best hardcore "Cookie Monster" vocals, and never has the word "fuck" been so perfectly harmonized.

"Check this riff, it's fuckin' tasty!"

It's too bad the rest of the movie didn't live up to this standard, but these two scenes are classic.

ROCKY HORROR - So it's come to this...?

2008-07-24T13:13:00.041-04:00

Variety reports that Lou Adler will produce a new film of The Rocky Horror Picture Show - to be titled, simply, Rocky Horror - for MTV Films, to air on the erstwhile music video channel at Halloween 2009. The tele-pic will use the original screenplay, but include music not in the film - presumably the cut songs "Super Heroes" and "Once In A While."

Update - Author Richard O'Brien tells the BBC he will not be involved, nor does the remake have his blessing. O'Brien controls the stage show, while Fox owns the film rights.

This seems an exercise in perversity - the wrong kind. Rocky Horror is sui generis, a product of its time and a distillation of a unique set of personalities and sensibilities. Its very success was a fluke, a case of the audience making the film their own. If you do a slick, well-made version, then it loses the amateur charm. If you do it intentionally cheesy, then it's a too-knowing spoof of a spoof. I get the heebie-jeebies imagining Rocky Horror as a sort of High School Musical for the Hot Topic set.

Much as I hate the idea of a remake, my theatre brain can't help but stray into thoughts of casting. First and foremost is the impossible task of finding someone to fill Tim Curry's platform heels. Online speculation reports that Marilyn Manson has been approached to star as Frank N. Furter. As Manson can't sing, act, dance or be funny, he's hardly qualified to embody cinema's grandest camp divo. If they MUST make this film, then impish Alan Cumming would make a vivid, lascivious Frank - and he has the box office credibility to be attractive to financiers. British comedian Russell Brand, so funny and sexy in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, would also be a good choice, though I've no idea if he can sing. Though I insist on a British Frank, John Barrowman might be good - a bit wholesome maybe, but he can trade on his musical theatre cred and sexy Torchwood rep. If budget were no object, I think Robert Downey, Jr. would be a revelation in the role.

While we are dream-casting, Justin Timberlake as Brad would not only be perfectly appropriate, but a major coup as well - and how about Reese Witherspoon as Janet? These two blonde cuties have the all-American look, and both sing quite well.

Marilyn Manson, if you insist, might make a great Riff Raff - though the vocals would need to be transposed to baritone. Once upon a time, Axl Rose possessed the perfect tenor yowl for Riff-Raff, and though Sebastian Bach can't act his way out of a paper bag, he sounded amazing on Broadway in the role. Killer tenor pipes and the ability to lurk and smirk are a must. As Magenta, Amy Winehouse would be an intriguing match for Manson's Riff, but Daphne Rubin-Vega, sounding just like Darlene Love, was fabulous in the Broadway show and would be more reliable. Jack Black as Eddie seems a no-brainer (get it?) and he'd even be a good Dr. Scott, in make-up. Or, get Meat Loaf to play the Doctor - he was both Eddie and Dr. Scott in LA and on Broadway. Patrick Stewart and Anthony Stewart-Head, with their gravitas and genre associations, would both make excellent Narrators.

Of course, all this misses part of the charm of the original film - the cast were mostly unknowns at the time, and so audiences saw Frank and Brad instead of "Tim Curry as Frank," "Barry Bostwick as Brad," etc. Celebrity casting in Rocky Horror will just make it seem like karaoke. It's the same problem that plagues many projects that rely on casting to sell themselves. Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was was never able to generate horror and pathos for the creature, because all you saw was "Robert DeNiro as the Creature." Then again, this new Rocky Horror will be a pop-culture Event, not a strange cult item that comes out of nowhere, so celebrity casting might actually work in its favor.

Lou Adler has always said that he didn't like the Hammer Gothic style of the film - he wanted it in black and white, with cardboard sets, in a more self-consciously kitschy style. Perhaps this is his attempt to do what Stephen King, who never liked the Kubrick film, did with his made-for-TV version of The Shining. That turned out great, didn't it?

If they want a new version of Rocky Horror out there, what they should do is have a good director - Sam Mendes maybe, or Julian Crouch - stage it, and release a live DVD. There are excellent videos of stage shows like Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and other Broadway musicals, not to mention many iterations of operas such as Don Giovanni, Aida, etc. A new Rocky Horror in this vein would be much more acceptable.

I grow weary of this world. Why can't Hollywood leave well enough alone?

-

DOCTOR HORRIBLE, Acts Two & Three

2008-07-18T11:52:00.004-04:00

Updated -the second and third installments of Joss Whedon's hilarious internet musical, Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, are up! But hurry - they will be taken down Sunday, July 27, 2008!
...

ROCKY HORROR - Once More, with Puppets!

2008-07-17T14:29:00.019-04:00

In March 2006, the Collin Theatre Center at Collin College in Plano, TX, presented what must be the most unique and innovative Rocky Horror in years - The Rocky Horror (Puppet) Show! Directed by Dane Hoffman and Brad Baker with puppets by James Ortiz, this production looks like a bracing blast of fresh imagination for the fairly stale Rocky franchise, as exemplified by the touristy Broadway production of a few years ago.

Read more after the jump (to the left!)

It's rare that I see photos of a Rocky Horror and wonder what, exactly, was going on. The entire cast seem to have their own little puppet avatars, somewhat akin to the combination puppet / costumes created by Julie Taymor for The Lion King. Rocky is a 10-foot rough-hewn rod puppet with five operators, and there appear to be some "Transylvanian" marionettes. Meanwhile, a faux Statler and Waldorf provide audience participation heckles from their box. Wow. Now this is something I'd have loved to see!

Check out the production's website for a gallery of intriguing photos (including a smoking hot Frank) and rave reviews. I wish more people would take up the gauntlet of making Rocky Horror fresh and interesting again!

Presenting DOCTOR HORRIBLE!

2008-07-16T10:39:00.008-04:00

The first installment of Joss Whedon's internet musical, Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, has been posted. It stars Neil Patrick Harris as the dastardly and romantic Doctor Horrible. Check it out!
...

SHOWGIRLS - The Musical!?

2008-06-26T14:51:00.023-04:00

Broadway.com has a great interview with Gina Gershon, the multi-talented actress currently appearing in the Tony-nominated Boeing-Boeing. In the interview, she raises the possibility of a musical based on her 1995 über-flop Showgirls:

"It wouldn't be Showgirls as we know it - it'd be Showgirls as told by me...You think Showgirls was good? You should have seen what went on behind the scenes! So, I would mix up my own weird thought patterns with what was going on with Showgirls...It's funny in my brain, but it would take a lot of time...If was my version, it could be great. If it's just a dumb version, it'll be dumb."

All I can say is: please oh please oh please make this Broadway wish come true! The original film was a delirious blend of All About Eve, 42nd Street and A Star is Born, mixed in a cocktail shaker and laced with tits, glitter and monkey shit. I fully believe that Verhoeven intended it to be a very sly, European joke on American audiences (just as his next film, Starship Troopers, was a spoof on gung-ho Reagan-era blockbusters by way of WWII) - and a musical version, as told by La Gershon, sounds like a delicious mix of bitchery and back-biting to warm the cockles of every show-queen's heart.

You're going to make a lot of money for the Stardust Shuberts!

Tip o' the hat to the FIlm Experience Blog...

Broadway Gets Creepy, Kooky, Altogether Ooky

2008-06-26T10:50:00.012-04:00

Word on the street is that there is a new musical of The Addams Family in the works, with Bebe Neuwirth and Nathan Lane being mentioned for Morticia and Gomez - great casting, it must be said. And with Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch on board - they designed the seriously cool Shockheaded Peter, as well as the ENO / Metropolitan Opera's recent production of Philip Glass' Satyagraha - there is some reason to believe it might turn out to be quite clever. No word on book or music, which will be the life or death of the project.

Is this just another case of Broadway's current lack of inspiration, mining old TV shows, book and films for sure-fire material since producers are too risk-averse and tourist-oriented to take a chance on something original? The idea of an Addams Family musical is not, in itself, a bad idea - the characters are so quirky, with a strange romanticism about them, and strong, if peculiar, takes on the world - and then there's the twisted love affair between Gomez and Morticia. (Once again, it's a shame that Raul Julia, with his wild eyes and booming baritone, isn't with us to reprise his Gomez! He is truly missed.) Certainly, the source material - Addams' comic panels, the TV series, the movies - provide a very fertile field of inspiration, and offer a wide variety of gags and situations for the writers to choose from and interpret as they will. I was among those who pooh-poohed the films, and they turned out pretty funny (and Addams Family Values is one of those rare sequels to better the original). So, time will tell, I suppose.

NY Post story here.

DOCTOR HORRIBLE is Coming!

2008-06-26T10:39:00.002-04:00

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

Congratulations, Patti LuPone!

2008-06-17T15:27:00.013-04:00

OK, a bit off the "mondo" track but...I recently returned from a trip to New York City where I was lucky enough to see Patti LuPone in the revival of Gypsy (1959) at the St. James Theater. This classic musical, with score by Jules Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, has been handsomely mounted by script writer Arthur Laurents, and was one of the most powerful and affecting shows I have ever seen. The entire cast was excellent, but all eyes were on Hurricane LuPone, who portrayed Mama Rose with more ferocity and vulnerability than any other actress I can think of. She also sang the role with more musicality and power than anyone, Merman included. This is one of the most difficult and multi-faceted roles in all of theatre, and she nailed every nuance and tore the roof off the theater with her pipes of burnished brass.

LuPone won a well-deserved Tony award on Sunday night, three decades after winning for Evita. Brava! Sondheim also took home a special Lifetime Achievement award. And let's not forget Boyd Gaines as Herbie and Laura Benanti as Louise (the future Gypsy), both of whom also took home Tonys for Featured Actor and Actress in a Musical. All three are featured in this clip from the Tony Awards, performing the famous Act 1 closer "Everything's Coming Up Roses." Sing out, Patti!

THE FLY - The Opera

2008-06-17T14:50:00.017-04:00

An opera based on David Cronenberg's 1986 remake of The Fly is set to premiere next month in Paris under the baton of Placido Domingo. The opera, with music by Howard Shore (who composed the film score), has a libretto by Henry David Hwang (M. Butterfly) and is directed by Cronenberg himself. The world premiere is July 2, 2008 at the legendary Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, with the American premiere set for the Los Angeles Opera on September 7.

I am most intrigued by this project - I love the opera, love Cronenberg, and The Fly is one of my favorite horror films. The remake's brilliant take on the material - less monster movie than love triangle gone horribly, tragically wrong - provides the outsized emotions that might lend themselves very well to operatic treament. Howard Shore's score for the film was excellent; I still have my vinyl copy of the soundtrack album. This promises to be a modernistic listening experience, with some romantic touches. With Cronenberg and Domingo on board, I have high hopes that this will be a daring, unusual, emotionally wringing operatic experience. Mondo Opera? Be afraid - be very afraid.

The Fly: The Opera Official Website

Photo from Doctor Who: Ghost Light (1989)

THE EVIL DEAD - The Musical

2008-05-28T11:27:00.007-04:00

Those wacky Canadians have given the camp-musical treatment to the classic Sam Raimi film The Evil Dead. Looks fun...can Broadway be far behind? I love the posters, which spoof Broadway hits.

You can see clips from the show here!

Zombified versions of Les Miz and Mama Mia after the jump!

ROCKY HORROR - It was great when it all began!

2008-05-25T16:20:00.057-04:00

Richard O’Brien was an unemployed actor living in London when he came to write They Came From Denton High, later called The Rock Horroar Show, soon to be famous as The Rocky Horror Show (1973).

"Rocky started as a way for me to spend winter evenings shen I was an out-of-work actor," remembers Richard O'Brien. "To me, it was just like doing the crossword or making a collage. I just wrote some songs that I liked. I wrote some gags that I liked. I put in some B-movie dialogue and situations. I was just having a ball." Allied with musician Richard Hartley (who thought “oh no, not another rock musical!”), O’Brien made a demo tape and approached Australian director Jim Sharman – for whom the New Zealand actor had recently performed, briefly and ignominiously, as Herod in the London production of Jesus Christ Superstar - with an idea for a musical B-movie spoof with a bit of sex thrown in. Sharman loved it, and the show was soon on the boards for a limited run at the experimental 75-seat Royal Court Theatre Upstairs.

Read more about the origins of The Rocky Horror Show, and why this seminal piece of rock theatre is now lost to us forever, after the jump...

The Rocky Horror Show sort of came together rather than being worked out in detail; rehearsals started with a bare-bones script that was embellished by the director and cast. Some of the songs O’Brien had rattling around for years: “Science Fiction Double Feature” was written for a party at an Elstree film studios, “Super Heroes” and “I’m Going Home” were tunes O’Brien had doodled with for ages and “Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me” was a late addition when director Sharman noted “We need a song here.” “The Time Warp” evolved in rehearsals to give the three household retainers something to do. “Eddie’s Teddy” was added for the move to the show’s second venue, the Chelsea Classic. Though it does not appear on the cast album, it was released on 45 by O’Brien and his then-wife, Kimi Wong (she is the Asian Transylvanian with the long hair) as Kimi & Ritz.

Richard O'Brien sings "Over at the Frankenstein Place."

Director Sharman gave free reign to his team’s creativity. Set designer Brian Thompson – another Australian who, with Sharman, had made a camp sci-fi film called Shirley Thompson Versus The Aliens (1972) - came up with the idea of an Usherette singing the opening song – the original concept was a kid watching TV. Brian Thompson’s ingenious shoestring set consisted of little more than a couple of platforms, an old Coke machine and some tubes and wires for the lab. In a move of pure genius, he erected scaffolds and draped tarps around the space to suggest a cinema in the process of demolition (indeed, after the Royal Court engagement the show moved to an actual cinema, the Chelsea Classic in the King’s Road). The actors clambered over the scaffolds and played in front of a sagging, dusty movie screen, as if the flickering images of a thousand forgotten films had suddenly popped into three-dimensional life. Thompson’s settings put bones into the shapeless body of the work, just as his designs for the film version placed the story in a setting that, rather than mere background, provided context and coherence to the proceedings. But that is in the future.

The original Brad and Janet were Christopher Malcolm and Julie Covington. Canadian Malcolm is now well-known to Brit-com fans as Eddy's ex-husband Justin on Absolutely Fabulous and now walks with a cane due to a near-fatal motorcycle accident.
After angrily turning down the role of Ralph Hapschatt in the film version, he went on to become a successful theatrical producer. He is part of The Rocky Horror Company Ltd, which oversees new productions of the play. Actress Julie Covington had a career acting and as a recording star in the 1970s. Her biggest success came with the original concept album of Andrew Lloyd-Webber's Evita, in which she sang the title role and had a #1 single with "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina." Covington left the show early in the run, and was replaced by Belinda Sinclair, who is featured on the original cast album.

Richard O’Brien originally planned to play Eddie – sing one song and then retire to the green room – but Sharman convinced him to play the sinister Riff Raff instead. Marianne Faithfull was sought for Magenta, but Patricia Quinn snagged the role. She accepted the part on the strength of the opening number, "Science Fiction Double Feature," which she sang as an ice cream-vending Usherette. Her agent warned against taking the role sight unseen - after all, what if there were only four lines? It turned out there were not many more than that - it depends on which iteration of the script, but there are fewer than 20 - but Quinn's turn as Magenta in the play and film is nonetheless indelible. (Surely I am not the only one who sees Riff Raff and Magenta as the descendants of Lolita's Claire Quilty and Vivian Darkbloom, lurking on the sidelines with mocking smiles, planning the protagonist's downfall?) Columbia was a late addition to the story – Little Nell used to clean Jim Sharman’s apartment, and he thought the spunky, tap-dancing Australian deserved a role, so Magenta’s part was split in two to accommodate her.

Richard O’Brien met Tim Curry outside a gym while scouting for muscle-men to play Rocky. Sharman and O’Brien had considered an actor called Jonathan Kramer for the role of Frank, but Curry’s audition blew them away – he ripped through Little Richard’s manic “Tutti Fruitti” and the show had its leading man. Curry's Frank N. Furter was originally a bleach-blonde. His hair later was dyed blue before reverting to his natural brown ‘fro. Curry flirted with a Lugosi-like “Transylvanian” voice, then an American accent, before settling on the familiar posh “Kensington” intonation. The American-accented portrayal is enshrined on the original cast album. When Tim Curry was indisposed, O’Brien would take over the role of Frank – in fact, when film producer Lou Adler saw the show and decided to bring it to 20th Century Fox, it was O’Brien vamping it up instead of Curry. One longs for a recording or photo of O’Brien as Frank to surface!

Sue Blane created the distinctive costumes, which have become as iconic as any in cinema history. Frank’s famous corset was left over from a production of Genet’s The Maids. Magenta was not promoted to housekeeper until the film - in the original show she is just a hanger-on lurking about in naughty underwear. Most of the other costumes are more or less what made it to the film version.

The show premiered on an appropriately dark and stormy night in June 1973, with legendary horror-movie ham Vincent Price in the audience, as if giving his dark blessing. What must have that first audience thought, as masked ushers silently thrust mimeographed programs - with a crude illustration by Richard O'Brien himself - into their hands, then climbed onstage to whip the tarp off an Usherette, as if she were yet another mothballed relic of the cinema's past glories?

The show was an unexpected hit – its run was extended, and it was later moved (appropriately enough) to a converted cinema seating 400. Rocky Horror was the toast of London - a London giddy with David Bowie and T. Rex, a London in the wake of the decriminalization of homosexuality, a London with the Sex Pistols just around the corner. Rocky Horror presaged the 1950s nostalgia boom that took off with Grease and American Graffiti, a wave of Boomer sentimentality that infused pop culture for the next 20 years. Productions in Los Angeles, Broadway and Sydney followed, as well a movie deal…but that’s another story.

The infamous Jonathan King recorded the original cast album in a single marathon session – and it shows. The sound is garage-band crude and the singing more enthusiastic than accomplished. And yet this record is, for me, the definitive Rocky Horror in many ways. It’s rawer, crazier, and just plain more fun than any version that came after. This is Rocky when it was an impromptu labor of love, staged in a dusty old theater on a shoestring budget. You can just hear the relish with which the actors jump into their roles. The band attacks these brand-new songs with a gusto that almost makes the polished movie versions seem tame. “Sweet Transvestite” is sleazier than ever, all piano and cowbell and squawky guitar, with Tim Curry oozing oily charm and Brad’s verse “rapped” in time to the music. "Touch-A Touch-A Touch Me" has an innocence that all other versions lack, and Chris Malcolm's performance of the oft-deleted "Once In A While" has never been bettered. Curry’s rendition of “Whatever Happened to Fay Wray?” on this disc is unequalled, especially his “Whoa-oh-oooh, don’t dream it…!” The pounding Jerry Lee Lewis-style piano on “Wild and Untamed Thing” never fails to get my heart rate up, and Frank’s breakdown in “I’m Going Home” is hilarious. “I - I’m sorry, I can’t go on,” he sobs. This is the Rocky Horror ur-text, and its cheesy charms seduce me every time.

Jonathan King remembers: “I had to preserve that raw, rough and ready, totally fresh and exciting feeling that had come over in the Theatre Upstairs. And that ethos of amateurishness, that thrown-together quality.” Mission accomplished!

THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW - THE LOST MASTERPIECE

Why do I call The Rocky Horror Show a "lost masterpiece"? Well, the masterpiece part is obvious. This is Richard O'Brien's best work, and what he will be remembered for. But lost? Isn't Rocky Horror alive and well?

Perhaps, but the fact remains that we can never again see the show that premiered that dark and storm night in 1973. The show's fame and cult following have robbed it of its transgressive, revelatory power. Imagine going to see a show, having no idea what was in store, and suddenly that score comes blasting out of the pit, and Tim-freakin'-Curry storms down the aisle! Imagine seeing a live production and never hearing the audience anticipate every joke or throw back their own comments, but rather being allowed to experience what is on stage. Rocky Horror helped define a moment in pop culture that has resonated through the intervening 30 years - glam rock, goth, punk, gay liberation, Baby Boomer nostalgia, all have made their mark in Rocky's wake, and all have robbed the original of its status as a uniquely fabulous beast. The wild and untamed things that cavorted on stage at the Royal Court are now VH-1 relics and Hot Topic commodities. How transgressive is a sweet transvestite when the malls of America routinely host fishnet-hosed, black-lipsticked baby goths? Don't get me wrong, I am glad to live in a world where such things are commonplace - but I can't help mourn what is lost in the process.

The show itself has become a museum piece, a bit of commedia dell'arte, with stock characters who resist directorial re-interpretation at risk of alienating an audience who thinks they know what they want. An enterprising director can't do a "new" version - despite such intentions, the fans will be reacting to the show they remember, and will be bemused if not hostile to any true originality. Rocky Horror is a victim of its own success, as are many such seminal works - but few works have suffered so much from being mummified by its own fans.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Many of the quotes in this blog entry come from 2002's Rocky Horror: From Concept to Cult by David Evans and Scott Michaels. The book contains many fascinating, unvarnished interviews with the creators and stars of Rocky Horror, including Richard O'Brien, Jim Sharman, Richard Hartley, Brian Thompson, Patricia Quinn, and other Transylvanians and backstage crew. Particularly intriguing are the revealing information from Kimi Wong and the elusive Peter Hinwood. It's out of print but available used.

Also invaluable is The Rocky Horror Show Book by James Harding - a large format book focusing on the original show and the touring productions. Most of the pictures of the original London cast in this article are from Harding's book. It's also out of print, but not impossible to find.

And no fan should be without The Rocky Horror Scrapbook, designed by Brian Thompson, which gathers a treasure trove of photos, drawings, press clippings and miscellany into a large-format book. Print quality is a bit fuzzy and low-contrast, but the book itself is a treat. Buy it!

Here is a brief, low-quality video of of O'Brien as Frank in 1990!

ROCKY HORROR - The Queen of All Cult Movies

2008-04-29T13:58:00.019-04:00

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the undisputed queen of the “midnight movie” genre. Home video has all but destroyed the tradition of cinemas showing oddball movies in late-night slots, sadly, but in the 60s, 70s and 80s there was a real vogue. It all started with exploitation fare like Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) and Night of the Living Dead (1968). As the counter-culture took hold, audiences embraced campy relics like Reefer Madness (1933) and Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959). Soon, underground movies like Waters’ Pink Flamingos (1972), Jodorowsky’s El Topo (1970) and Lynch’s Eraserhead (1977) aimed directly at the midnight movie circuit.

Into this fray appeared The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Originally released wide, the picture died a death at the box office, and it's only thanks to the far-sighted marketing of Tim Deegan at 20th Century Fox that Rocky Horror found a second life as a midnight movie at the Waverly Theater in New York’s Greenwich Village. Opening on April 1, 1976, it soon found a following and burgeoned into the beloved audience-participation phenomenon of the late 70s and early 80s. Indeed, it became something of a rite of passage among the more arty and alternative teens in middle America, and there is not a coffee shop or community theater where the lyrics to “Dammit, Janet” are not known by heart. While many critics and fans - even some of those involved in its making - find the film an airless, embalmed version of the original stage show, it's very clever on its own terms, and the audience participation brilliantly adds back the raucous energy of a live performance. It's a perfect multi-media event, involving film, theater, ironic deconstruction (of a film that is, itself, an ironic deconstruction) and music. Truly, Rocky Horror is the Queen of All Cult Movies.

Read more about the origins of audience participation and the UK tradition of Pantomime after the jump!

The audience participation angle has its roots in a couple of traditions. First, and most obvious, is the near-universal habit of talking back to the screen. “Don’t go in there!” we shout at the hapless heroines of horror flicks. Liberated by the midnight setting and, perhaps, a certain level of inebriation, audiences were soon sassing back to the portentous dialog and filling its many pregnant pauses with saucy innuendo. Legend has it that the first-ever callback was “Buy an umbrella, you cheap bitch!” when Janet uses a newspaper to shield herself from the rain. (Click here for a history of the Rocky Horror cult by Sal Piro.)

The second tradition the Rocky cult draws on is the British Pantomime. In America, a pantomime is a dumb show, a silent acting-out of something. In the UK, “Panto” is a theatrical tradition dating to the 18th Century, based in the same tradition as the commedia dell’arte. By the Victorian era, the Pantomime became a Christmas tradition, a sparkly, spoofy version of traditional fairy like “Cinderella,” “Jack and the Beanstalk” or “Aladdin.” Broad humor and sing-along songs (often parodies of popular tunes) enliven the proceedings, and the well-worn fairy tale plots are spiced with topical references. There are audience-participation rituals such as children clapping to revive Tinkerbell, as well as call-backs from the audience. “I’ll get that Cinderella, oh yes I will!” snarls the wicked Stepmother. “Oh no you won’t!” cries the audience, and so forth. There are often naughty double-entendres aimed at parents, which supposedly goes over the heads of the children. The juvenile male lead (Jack, Peter Pan, etc.) is traditionally given to a gamine young actress, while the older female lead (Wicked Stepmother, etc.) is a man in drag – a Pantomime Dame. Christopher Biggins, the portly Transylvanian party-goer, is now a well-known Dame. These days, Panto is often a star-studded affair, with TV celebrities dragging it up as Widow Twankey or appearing as the back end of a pantomime horse.

Thus it’s very easy to identify Richard O’Brien’s show, with its stock characters and situations, as a panto for adults spoofing the Hammer Frankenstein films with a Panto Dame instead of Peter Cushing. Suddenly the dress-up, call-back and sing-along tradition makes a lot more sense.

It should also be noted that, in a strange way, the participation is embedded in the film from the first song. "Science Fiction Double Feature" is sung by Richard O'Brien, but lip synched by Patricia Quinn (the lips on the poster are either Tim Curry's or Loreli Shark's; sources differ but they are not Quinn's). So you have lip-synching and gender-swapping subliminally present from the very start. It's also worth noting that Frank spends most of his time trying to emulate glamorous movie stars of 1940s cinema.

Interior of the Audience Participation Album. Sal Piro, front right, is seated next to Dori Hartley, as Frank N. Furter. Piro and Hartley were the leading lights of Rocky fandom in the 70s and 80s.

Sadly, the release of Rocky Horror on home video has all but killed the late-night audience participation phenomenon. While it’s now easier to appreciate the movie on its own terms – and it is certainly not the lousy film that even many of its fans claim – it’s only in big cities that the midnight cult remains. Even these have lost the spontaneity and invention of the old days – a midnight Rocky Horror screening feels rather fossilized by now. Though there is something wonderful about the traditions in and of themselves, it often seems that the audience’s off-the-cuff riffing is left behind in favor of the floor show. Said floor show is usually performed by a regular troupe, ridden with politics and territorial pissings, who are much more interested in doing “their” version instead of allowing for free-wheeling improv.

You are much more likely to get a thrilling, unexpected experience seeing a theatrical production that re-invents the original show than watching a group of college kids and 40-somethings parrot the routines they heard on the Audience Participation Album. Rocky Horror should celebrate creativity, not mimesis. Even live performances of the play suffer from this - how many sub-par Tim Curry impersonators have we seen? And shouted lines about the Narrator’s neck make sense only the context of Charles Gray and his starchy collar.

Future posts in this series will look at the original stage production frim 1973, a quick glimpse at the many productions around the world, Shock Treatment and my own analysis of the Rocky Horror film and how it is not the movie most fans think it is.

Who Is...DOCTOR HORRIBLE?

2008-04-22T13:12:00.011-04:00

Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a coming soon from Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly). It's a musical comedy starring Neil Patrick Harris as Doctor Horrible, a low-rent super-villain, with Firefly's Nathan Fillion and Buffy's Felicia Day. This promises to be something interesting! Whedon is a well-known fan of musicals, and created his own "mondo musical" with the acclaimed "Once More With Feeling" episode of Buffy. Stay tuned!

The Doctor Horrible MySpace Page

SWEENEY TODD on DVD

2008-04-01T09:20:00.031-04:00

This April Fool's Day sees the DVD release of Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007). This fabulously gory and stylish adaptation of Sondheim's classic 1979 musical made a blood-red splash in cinemas last Christmas and is now available in single- and double-disc sets. A good half-hour of the stage music (including all the material for the chorus) is cut, and the manic energy and sick, sick humor are downplayed into a quiet intensity more suitable for film. However, the essentials of the piece are preserved and enhanced by Burton's characteristic style, and this modern example of Grand Guignol is now the first goth musical! Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Alan Rickman and Sasha Baron-Cohen all make the most of their roles in this excellent version of the show they said could never be filmed.

What is it with Depp, Burton, and hollow-eyed hairdressers?

But don't forget that the Los Angeles cast, starring Angela Lansbury, is on DVD as well! This 1982 video preserves the original production in all its gory glory, with George Hearn cutting throats as Sweeney and Lansbury grinning like a jack-o-lantern as Mrs. Lovett. Her Tony, Drama Desk and Emmy-winning performance is rightly considered a Broadway legend, and is a must-see for anyone whose mental image of her consists mostly of Murder, She Wrote. Highly, highly recommended. The original show is also represented on DVD by a concert version with Hearn and Patti LuPone, not to mention Neil Patrick Harris.

After the jump, clips from the various versions!

A non-musical version of the film starring the wonderfully-named Tod Slaughter is also available on DVD. It's worth remembering that Sweeney Todd is a venerable part of British urban legend. It's not known if he ever existed or not, but the tale of the demon barber and his maniacal meat-pie mistress has been a subject of show and story in the UK for about 150 years, and for nearly 50 years (until Sondheim's version came out) this was the best-known version of the tale. I've never seen it, but this British production from 1936 is reputed to be a wonderful little shocker. I intend to give it a spin someday.

The funniest song in the show has got to be "A Little Priest," in which Mrs. Lovett comes up with an economical solution for disposing of Sweeney's victims. Here's Angela Lansbury and George Hearn from the classic Los Angeles cast video.

Patti Lupone and Michael Cerveris in a medley from the 2006 Tonys, where "Sweeney Todd" won the Best Revival award. It's not on DVD but the cast album - in which the actors, sans orchestra, play all their own instruments! - is well worth hearing. The goth style of this revival - which took inspiration from "Marat/Sade" and presented the story as a tale told by inmates of an insane asylum - foreshadow's Burton's version.

Trailer for the 2007 film. They took care to downplay the musical aspect, alas.

Burton's goth style suits Depp and Bonham-Carter to a "T"!

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR – Faith, Fame and Politics

2008-03-21T18:01:00.039-04:00

In honor of Good Friday, I am taking a look at Jesus Christ Superstar. It's a fascinating examination of the intersection between faith and politics that uses the prism of modern celebrity culture to take a new and compelling look at the story of Judas' betrayal of Jesus. The phantasmagorical combination of rock music and pop culture cynicism applied to the tales of the Bible make Jesus Christ Superstar a mondo musical indeed.

Read more after the jump...

In 1969, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice embarked on an ambitious project to dramatize the last days of Jesus Christ, from the night before Palm Sunday through to the Crucifixion on Good Friday. The duo had already had a success with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968), based on the Biblical story of the "coat of many colors.” But where Joseph was a light-hearted affair aimed at younger audiences, the new project would take a much more serious and ambitious tone. Tim Rice remembered being fascinated with Judas, whom he felt got something of a raw deal from history. After all, without Judas' betrayal, the sacrifice of Christ could never have happened. Did not Judas, then, play a crucial and thankless part in the salvation of humanity? With this compelling central character in mind, Rice and Lloyd-Webber began work.

Unable to find a theatrical producer for the resulting show, and inspired by the success of The Who's double album rock opera Tommy (1969), the songwriting duo struck a deal with MCA to release the story as a concept album. Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) was a hit, and was followed by productions on Broadway and the West End before being filmed by Norman Jewison in 1973.

Tim Rice’s script leaves the supernatural aspects of the story off-screen and puts the focus on the politics of ancient Judea, as seen through the lens of pop culture celebrity. Rice's Judas is a disillusioned activist who views Jesus as a spiritual leader who has begun to believe his own hype. Judas feels that Jesus’ formerly humble ministry has become a cult with an anti-authoritarian message that threatens both Jewish religious leaders and their Roman occupiers. Judas’ conviction that he must stop Jesus before the authorities crack down on the Israelites leads him to betray his friend, but once Jesus has been betrayed, Judas realizes that the ancient prophecies have been fulfilled after all.

An opera of the Passion would be daring enough even without this sympathetic portrayal of Judas – no opera composer in the 300 years from Monteverdi to Puccini had dared put Christ on the stage. But Lloyd-Webber and Rice, inspired by the success of Tommy and Hair (1968), set the story to a propulsive rock beat, and shone the light of modern pop culture on the tale. The alchemical word “superstar” (a brand-new term coined by Andy Warhol) challenges us to ask whether divinity itself is just another form of celebrity (or is celebrity a debased form of divinity?) and whether religions are just glorified fan-clubs. Judas warns Jesus in "Heaven on Their Minds" that his followers will turn when he fails to deliver on every promise - and we are reminded of the gleeful way tabloids rip into stars who disappoint us with their fallible humanity. Jesus gains immortality by dying young - and we are reminded of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. It's heady, provocative stuff, wrapped up in an irresistable package of witty lyrics and memorable tunes.

This take on the story owes a lot to Tommy, whose titular idiot savant becomes an unwitting celebrity-cum-messiah in a pop cultural hall of mirrors before being torn down by his followers. Both stories are laced with satirical humor, but Jesus Christ Superstar improves on its model by including a heartfelt sense of tragedy and emotion. Though Tommy rocks harder, JCS feels deeper, and rather than undermine the traditional tale, the ironic sensibility makes the story feel fresh, startling and relevant. The Superstar album also featured a full cast, whereas in Tommy all the parts were sung by the four members of The Who.

Jesus Christ Superstar came along just as the "Jesus Freak" movement was gaining steam, as some hippies started to realize they did not need to turn their backs on religion, and that Christ's message of universal love and forgiveness was, like, right on, man. The long hair and muslin duds don't hurt, either. Though "Jesus Freak" came to be used as a catch-all pejorative for the obnoxious Bible-thumpers, it should be remembered that the origin of the term is self-deprecatingly good-humored. Though JCS's harder edges do not quite fit the movement's "Summer of Love" afterglow (the British are always skeptical of unalloyed happiness) it wins points with the image of Jesus as the ultimate counterculture outsider, a spiritual radical whose vision of universal brotherhood places him at odds with the forces of worldly power.

On the radio, 1969 heard Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" and the excellent rocker "Jesus is Just Alright", performed by The Byrds on the Easy Rider soundtrack and later a big hit for the Doobie Brothers. Jesus Freaks invaded Broadway in May, 1971 (months ahead of JCS's October debut), with Stephen Schwartz's Godspell. A much more earnest take on the material, with tunes by the songwriter of the current hit Wicked, Godspell is a perennial favorite of amateur and church theatre troupes. The two shows leap-frogged each other from stage to screen, with both films coming out in 1973. Unfortunately the urban-Christian-hippie vibe of the Godspell movie has dated rather badly in contrast to the JCS film's more surreal vibe. The score included a chart hit with the lovely ballad "Day By Day."

The original UK album cover.

THE MUSIC

Musically, Jesus Christ Superstar is a mélange of styles, leaning heavily on riff-based Brit rock (such as Deep Purple and The Moody Blues) but with Broadway-style chorales, some vaguely Middle-Eastern sounding flourishes, even a smattering of vaudeville. ("Herod's Song" began life as a 1967 Eurovision entry called "Try It And See".)

The "tribal rock" vibe owes a debt to Hair (the tribe here being the Israelites instead of the Flower Children) and songs like “What's the Buzz?” and “Simon Zealotes" wear this debt on their sleeves. Likewise, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” stands side-by-side with “Easy To Be Hard” as the two best pop-rock theatrical ballads of the period.

Lloyd-Webber here pioneers two techniques, one which he has used throughout his career and the second which he eventually dropped. The first and most notable is the repetition of musical themes set to different, contrasting lyrics, such as in “The Temple.” Unlike the classic Wagnerian motifs, his themes don’t develop to show character or plot progression, relying instead on the lyrics to lend the repetitions irony and depth. His approach is more akin to the obsessive re-working of themes as exemplified by his idol, Beethoven (thanks to the fabulous Amy Douglas for this insight!)

The second – no doubt abetted by the freedom of the recording studio – is the abrupt transition, without segue, between musical sections of different time signatures and keys. Note the use of this technique on “What’s the Buzz? / Strange Thing Mystifying” and “Damned for All Time / Blood Money” to signify characters butting in on somebody else’s songs. Lloyd-Webber would later phase out this style of songwriting, but he used it to very dramatic effect in Evita (1978). The transitions are very tricky to achieve live and are often softened on stage.

Interestingly, the music lends Jesus Christ Superstar the sense of fate and mysticism missing from the libretto. Whereas Tim Rice’s book focuses exclusively on the political aspects of the story, Lloyd-Webber laces his score with ominous and ecstatic touches which hint at a larger spiritual meaning. In particular, the spooky, modernistic themes of the Overture, the Crucifixion and “John 19: 41” evoke awe, terror and pity, as well as the hushed, tense aura of the Tenebrae. These passages are seemingly inspired by the work of Hungarian composer György Ligeti, which became famous when used in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) to represent the aliens’ mind-expanding influence on humanity. Whereas Ligeti’s music in the Kubrick film accompanied Bowman’s transformation into a higher being, in Jesus Christ Superstar a similar theme accompanies the Passion sequence to suggest that what is occurring is not just an execution, but an apotheosis.

CONTROVERSEY AND CHARACTERIZATION

The “Christ as celebrity” angle is audacious, and the decision to tell the story through the eyes of a sympathetic Judas guaranteed the project a degree of controversy. Also controversial was the choice to portray the story in strictly secular terms. Though the religious aspect to the story is never explicitly denied by the text, it is never confirmed either, leaving the viewers to make what they will. The story ends with the Crucifixion, leaving the Resurrection off-stage and ambiguous (many productions interpolate a Resurrection during curtain calls, a move of dubious artistic value). What is a little unclear is that Judas was presumably present for the walking on water, the healings, and other miracles, so why does he now disbelieve in Christ’s divinity? Or was he home sick those days? Also, Judas apparently visits Earth after his suicide to sing the title song – so he has an afterlife, but Jesus’ postmortem fate is left ambiguous? Or is Jesus imagining Judas' final say? It’s a bit muddled.

Some critics have leveled charges of anti-Semitism against the work, for its frankly villainous portrayals of Caiaphas and Annas. However, I find this unconvincing. The Pharisees here are simply “The Man” out to crush anything that threatens their power, and their Jewishness, per se, comes into it not at all. It’s all too easy for the machinations of the Pharisees and the Romans to blur into a Sunday School recitation of motiveless perfidy, but Tim Rice’s script does an excellent job of elucidating the conflicting loyalties and spheres of influence at work in this Imperial colony.

Judas has always been a cipher in Christian theology – he has no book of his own, his role among the Disciples is vague and reports of his death are contradictory. His motivations for betraying Jesus are left blank, being portrayed in the Gospels merely as the fulfillment of prophecy. This raises a number of theological questions about the role of free will in a universe of prophecy and fate, all of them too complicated to get into here. But needless to say, the character of Judas is a rich and fertile field for speculation, and provided Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber a lead character full of conflict and ambiguity.

In Tim Rice’s script, Judas is disillusioned with Jesus and his movement, which he feels has become a cult of personality. He is jealous of his formerly privileged position at Jesus' side ("I've been your right-hand man all along") and resents the other Disciples and their rowdy coterie of camp followers and hangers-on. Moreover, he is disturbed by Jesus’ claim that he is Son of God and King of the Jews, and fears reprisals from the Jewish religious authorities or the Roman army. He regards himself as the only person with any sense left in Jesus’ band of followers and the only one willing to challenge Jesus rather than be a star-struck yes-man. Only after his betrayal, with Jesus headed for execution, does he realize what he’s done, and begins to see himself not as the last sane man but as an unwitting pawn in God’s design.

Judas is a reformer, not a revolutionary, and views Jesus' movement as a ministry of social work rather than something transcendent or epoch-making. Perhaps Judas' stance may be likened to the Liberation Theology in vogue in the 1960s. He believes in good works and social justice, though he has no desire to upset the social order. Jesus’ followers have too much “Heaven on Their Minds” to pay attention to the realities of life under Roman rule. “Listen, Jesus, don’t you care for your race? / Can’t you see we must keep in our place? / We are occupied / Have you forgotten how put down we are?” he cries.

It is not much of a leap to think that different disciples would have had their own expectations of Jesus' movement - as we know, the interpretive conflict between Peter, Luke and Paul have shaped the church to this day. But Judas' stubborn pragmatism reveals his low horizons - he is focused on the practical, rather than spiritual, aspects of Jesus' movement. He decries Mary Magdalene for washing Jesus’ hair in expensive oils, since the money spent on the oil could have gone to the poor. Undeniably true, but he misses not only the symbolism of the act but the value of simple, kind gestures. He works for Mankind, but he is no humanist at heart. Similarly, he scorns the Magdalene’s association with Jesus on the grounds that it looks bad for them, never realizing that it is Jesus’ open and non-judgmental heart is the key to his greatness.

The character of Jesus is rendered with a fine sense of a man who feels himself called by destiny, and while we feel for his trials, he is kept at an arm’s length, remote and mysterious. This Jesus thinks of himself as divine – and since the miracles of the Bible are not portrayed, we are left to wonder – but frightened by the hard road ahead and burdened by his follower’s expectations. This Jesus has a sharp tongue that he uses on his Disciples in “What’s the Buzz” and “The Last Supper,” and a temper unleashed in “The Temple.” His inner journey through fear and doubt and towards an acceptance of his fate is given full expression in the gorgeous aria “Gethsemane.” It’s a nuanced and sensitive portrayal of the most difficult person in human history to depict in fiction.

The show humanizes Pontius Pilate without letting him off the hook. Introduced with the haunting “Pilate’s Dream” song, Jesus Christ Superstar portrays the infamous governor as smug and arrogant, but reluctant to execute an innocent man just to satisfy the crowd. He is bemused both by Jesus’ passivity and the mob’s bloodthirstiness, and while he tries to be reasonable, it finally becomes easier to nail a man up than deal with civil unrest. Life is cheap in the Roman Empire, after all, so one less Galilean is small price to mollify the querulous Jews.

Mary Magdalene is given little characterization other than “the whore with the heart of gold,” but she does get to sing the excellent “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” which was a hit for Yvonne Elliman. Other than the scene where Peter denies Christ, the rest of the Disciples are given no depth and scant lines, acting more as a chorus than a collection of characters. However, the Disciples get one of the funniest lines in the show, during “The Last Supper” as they muse that “when we retire we can write the Gospels / So they still will talk about us when we’ve died.”

THE FILM

Barry Dennen, who played Pilate on the album, on Broadway and in the film, deserves credit for getting the Jesus Christ Superstar movie produced. While appearing in Norman Jewison’s 1971 film of Fiddler on the Roof, Dennen suggested that Jewison make Jesus Christ Superstar his next project, and lo, it came to pass. Thanks, Barry!

Jewison wrote his screenplay with British television and film auteur Melvyn Bragg. Faced with the problem of finding a way to meld the contemporary sound and attitude with the ancient and venerated subject matter, they hit upon the idea (inspired by, or at least cross-pollinated with, the Godspell film's putting its flower-power disciples into the gritty urban setting of New York) of a motley crew of vaguely hippie-ish actors performing the show in the Israeli desert. So, Jewison and the cast schlepped out to the Holy Land and filmed entirely on location among Biblical-era ruins, including an amphitheatre and King Herod's palace.

This brilliant move heightened the theatricality of the film while giving cinematographer Douglas Slocombe (whose later credits included all three Raiders of the Lost Ark films) the opportunity for epic vistas and striking tableaux. The diverse elements gave everything a surreal aura and avoided the absurdity of singers gyrating amidst too-realistic sets and costumes. The ruins are evocative and abstract, while lending a powerful sense of authenticity. The desert, mountains and valleys are gorgeously epic in wide-screen, with tiny figures framed against the awesome landscapes. The one bit of green in the parched landscape is the verdant olive grove of Gethsemene (not the actual location, though it does still exist). The flower-power styling of the cast brings a riot of color and movement to the bleached, monochrome desert.

A dilapidated colonnade provides a venue for "Simon Zealotes."

Another impressive ruin doubled as Pilate's house.

Much use was made of the scaffolding on archeological sites, which echoed the set design of the Broadway production. Black-robed Pharisees perch like giant crows.

By allowing the present day to mingle with the past, Jewison acknowledges the dolorous history of a region torn apart by tribal and religions differences. Roman soldiers pack machine guns as well as spears, arms dealers and dope-peddlers inhabit the Temple, and Judas' agonized debate over his betrayal is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a line of Israeli army tanks.

Jewison follows the album's tradition of keeping mum whether Jesus is divine, or just a charismatic leader. But, cleverly lending some ambiguity, Jesus is not among those leaving the bus in the opening sequence - he just appears among them - nor is he seen boarding the bus with the cast at the end. However, the cross is seen to be empty, and as a sunset shimmers behind it, a shepherd leads a flock of sheep across the bottom of the screen (on the DVD commentary, Norman Jewison insists that this was an unplanned bit of serendipity). Another powerful moment comes "Gethsemene," when he sees his fate flash before his eyes in millenia of religious icons.

The film soundtrack was orchestrated and produced by André Previn, the pianist, conductor and composer. Previn was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra at the time of the filming, and he conducted that famous group for the film soundtrack. Previn’s long, Oscar and Grammy studded career encompassed classical, jazz, Broadway and film scores. His version of the Superstar score is lush, with some of the harder edges sanded down, but it still packs a punch. Previn’s jazz piano improvisation in the Crucifixion scene is an apt counterpoint to the choral soundscape.

ORIGINAL ALBUM VERSUS FILM

In general, I prefer the original concept album and cast to the film soundtrack. The sound is straight-up rock with orchestral touches and closely-miked vocals. It features faster tempi and more guitar than the film sound track, and Lloyd-Webber's sudden transitions are in full force. Since it was made as an album and not a cast recording, some of the songs, such as “Heaven on Their Minds” and “Everything’s All Right” are allowed to groove into long fade-outs, making them more satisfying listening experiences.

Yvonne Elliman and Barry Dennen reprise their roles of Mary Magdalen and Pontius Pilate from the original album, and in both cases give excellent performances. Elliman, of course, went on to sing the disco classic "If I Can't Have You" from Saturday Night Fever, and cult movie fans might be interested to know that Dennen provided the voice for the wheedling, treacherous Skeksis Chamberlain in The Dark Crystal.

Jesus Christ Superstar fans are hotly divided on their Jesus of choice. Both Gillan and Neeley follow in the footsteps of Robert Plant the with high-octane tenor wails that will become the standard heavy metal vocal style throughout 70s and 80s. On the original album, Ian Gillan (of hard-rock pioneers Deep Purple) imbues Jesus with an aggressive, earthy quality and impressively growly high notes. He never played Jesus onstage, so his acting chops are a mystery. He was asked to appear in the film, but his touring commitments with Deep Purple prevented this.

Ted Neeley understudied Jesus on Broadway and was the original Claude in Hair. He gives an excellent, impassioned performance as Jesus in the film, and certainly looks the part, with his wide-set eyes giving him a mystic, faraway gaze. Neeley's voice takes on an irksome tremulous quality in some quieter passages, but his yowling high notes are spine-tingling, especially in “Gethsemene.” He toured for years with Jesus Christ Superstar, and was a featured vocalist in Meat Loaf's early 80s concerts.

Opinions are just as divided about which Judas is better, with the original Murray Head competing with Broadway's Ben Vereen and the movie's Carl Anderson, whom most people consider definitive. I am going to come down as a firm partisan of Murray Head's performance on the original album. Head’s sandpaper tenor registers both cynicism and yearning. It’s the voice made for delivering barbed comments, but there is an underlying sense of wounded emotion that always bleeds through. He makes “Heaven On Their Minds” a cry from the heart, and his sardonic “Strange Thing Mystifying” assures us that while he doesn’t object to the Magdalene’s profession - surely he's availed himself of similar professionals - he certainly objects to her place in Jesus’ esteem. He gives a powerful rendition of “Blood Money” and in “Pilate’s Death” he yelps like a hunted animal, his voice cracking on the “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” reprise and drowning in torment as he cries to God, “You have murdered me!”

Murray Head is best known today for speak-singing the 1984 hit “One Night in Bangkok,” from the musical Chess (lyrics by Tim Rice, music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA) but has also had success as a recording artist in the UK, France and Canada. His two major film roles were in The Family Way with Haley Mills (1966) and Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971). A still of Head from The Family Way is the cover of The Smith’s Stop Me best-of album. Murray Head is the older brother of Anthony Stewart Head, well-known to cult audiences for his roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Doctor Who.

Carl Anderson took over the role of Judas from Ben Vereen on Broadway, and went on to play the role in Los Angeles. The power and charisma of his Judas is undeniable, and while I prefer Murray Head, Anderson’s performance is unimpeachable. It must also be said that he nails the funky rave-up “Superstar,” putting the album cut to shame - and I doubt Murray could have pulled off the white fringe! As fabulous as this number is, it's the only point where the film goes over-the-top into realms of questionable taste. Has Judas died and gone to Las Vegas?

Anderson got two Golden Globe nominations for his appearance in the film, and went on to a long career in film, television and recordings. He also played Iscariot in numerous touring productions. Sadly, he died of leukemia in 2004, at just 59.

Here's Carl performing "Superstar" on The Tonight Show, apparently in the late 1990s. Still sounding amazing after all that time, and with even better diction!

While the casting of a black man as Judas seems tailor-made for controversy, everyone involved has denied this was ever a consideration. Having an African American playing one of the most (unfairly?) reviled characters in history does seem like a deliberate provocation - especially when he ends up swinging on a noose like so much strange fruit, but Anderson's performance transcends easy political point-scoring. For better or worse, it is now traditional that an African American plays Judas in stage shows – Corey Glover, lead singer from In Living Colour, recently toured with Ted Neeley.

Josh Mostel gives a hilarious performance as Herod in the movie, but he can’t compare with Manfred Mann singer Mike d’Abo’s vocals on the record. The only real mis-step in the film cast is the use of Kurt Yahgjian as Annas – his breathy falsetto might have been intended to sound unearthly, but instead he sounds comical. Annas was Caiaphas’ father-in-law, but is instead portrayed as a strangely effete junior priest. Odd.

Larry Marshall gives a wild-eyed performance as Simon Zealotes, though musically I enjoy the "megaphone" effect on John Gustafson's album performance, and it gives the idea of appearing before a giant crowd instead of dancing frenetically right up in Jesus' face! However, both Marshall and the dance routine are great, and the lyrics are easier to understand in the film. It's a well-directed sequence as well, with a swirling blur of dancers amid ruined columns. Judas looks on in disgust at the hysteria, Romans watch from the sidelines as Simon incites Jesus to revolt, and Jesus himself stands still and calm at the center of a swirl of passion.

The Disciple John is played by Richard Orbach, a strikingly pretty young dancer with long curly hair. This is a clever bit of casting, as John, the youngest Disciple, is traditionally been portrayed as a long-haired boy. In Leonardo's "The Last Supper," he sits at Jesus' right hand, and is so androgynous that he is often thought to be Mary Magdalene. Orbach looks strikingly like Leonardo's John the Baptist, with the same hair - different John, but the same idea. Witty, well-informed casting for a non-speaking role which might easily have gotten lost in the crowd.

THE LEGACY

Along with Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar is now recognized as one the seminal rock musicals, groundbreaking shows that proved it was possible to integrate a modern rock sound with the narrative demands of the theatre. The film, in retrospect, looks like a long-form music video that integrates rock performance, stage conventions and cinematic vision into an exhilarating whole. The original album still sells well, and the stage show is constantly being revived and sent out on tour, attracting ardent fans and prompting debate about the true nature of faith and fame in ancient Judea and today.

Rice and Lloyd-Webber would strike gold once more with the even more successful Evita (concept album in 1976, original London production in 1978), which explored similar themes of politics and the cult of personality. Che stepped into Judas' shoes to undermine the adoration heaped upon the lead character. The partnership of Rice and Lloyd-Webber broke up with some acrimony soon after, but the three shows they created together stand as some of the most enduringly popular works of modern theater.

NEWS FLASH - Rice is currently penning lyrics for Lloyd-Webber's sequel to The Phantom of the Opera (1986), which will see the Phantom escape to 19th Century Coney Island. Er, what? Time will tell what becomes of this project.

* * *

Last but not least, here's the rarely-seen promotional clip for "Superstar" as performed by Murray Head. It's an oddly static clip with terrible lip-synching, but interesting for its place in the history of the show.

THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE - A Most Ingenious Paradox!

2008-02-29T07:46:00.008-05:00

February 29, 2008 is the 38th birthday of Frederick, the pirate apprentice from Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance (1879). It's not a mondo musical, but it is one of my very favorites. Poor Frederick was apprenticed to the Pirate King until his 21st birthday - not his 21st year - so although Frederick wanted to give up piracy and marry the daughter of the Modern Major General, duty dictated that he follow the letter of his contract - and that contract says he won't be 21 until 1940! See a clip from The Pirates of Penzance after the jump!

The Pirates of Penzance is one of Gilbert & Sullivan's "big three" most popular operettas that are frequently performed to this day - the other two being HMS Pinafore (1878) and The Mikado (1885).

Here's a clip from the 1983 film version of the stage show as produced by legendary New York producer Joseph Papp. It stars Rex Smith as Frederick, Kevin Kline as the Pirate King, and Angela Lansbury as Ruth. Although the instrumentations are lamentably 80s and synthesized, the sparkling humor of the piece shines through! This scene's absurdly literal legalese, and the knots the characters tie themselves into in order to follow etiquette, is a key feature of the delightfully funny G&S operettas.

So, happy birthday Frederick. You might be 152 in real time, but you're still a youthful 38 to me!

SHOCKHEADED PETER - Songs for Naughty Children

2008-02-26T10:02:00.014-05:00

Der Struwwelpeter is a German children's book from 1845 featuring ten verse tales about naughty children and the dark, Germanic punishments they recieve. Struwwelpeter (Shaggy Peter, usually translated into English as "Shock-Headed Peter") tells of a boy who doesn't groom himself, and whose hair and nails grow to outlandish lengths (making him look rather like Edward Scissorhands). This story, and the other 9 in the book, became a fabulously weird cabaret-style show in 2005, using songs, puppets and pantomine. I saw it in New York and was blown away. After the jump, a YouTube video of highlights.

Read more about Struwwelpeter on wikipedia

UPDATE - Julian Bleach, here seen as the MC with the magnifying glass, is playing Davros, twisted, crippled creator of the Daleks, in the upcoming season finale of Doctor Who!