Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Coming Soon: THE ROCK OPERA SHOW
What's THE ROCK OPERA SHOW, you ask? As well you might. I'll explain later...
Friday, February 18, 2011
Klaus Nomi
Not many updates lately as I've been super-busy. But here's some Klaus Nomi outerspace rock opera fabulousity, via Dangerous Minds.
Monday, November 29, 2010
SPIDERMAN - Finally!
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.
UPDATED TO ADD: I am finding it hard to even enjoy a bit of schadenfreude at the reviews this show is getting.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
NSFW: Cee-Lo
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).
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Color Me Magenta!
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.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS: Cross-Pollinization!
Since I first heard them in 1986, 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.
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.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
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