What's Up, Live Performance?

Seriously, why is there no buzz here? Live theater is the best!! I doubt that this thread will be seen, but if it is, what is your favorite musical or play and why??

Personally, my favorites are an eternally rotating list, but right now I would say my favorite is Heathers the Musical. The music is fantastic, the humor is great, and the emotional beats all hit very hard.

So, anyone else who wants to give a shout out to a favorite musical, feel free to go ahead!

Some of my favorites?

Sweeney Todd

Camelot

Les Miserables

Porgy and Bess

The Marriage of Figaro

Susannah

Man of La Mancha

The Music Man

Those are some musicals and operas. Straight plays I'll have to think on a bit.

edited 23rd Jan '15 3:51:53 PM by Pannic

Weirdly enough, while I enjoy performing in musicals, and I love music, I seldom enjoy watching them as much as I do straight plays. I think part of it is that a) I want to sing along on the songs I know and b) whether or not I know the song, I tend to be keenly aware of when the singer isn't quite on-key.

^^ Oooh, Sweeney Todd and Les Miserables are also some of my favorites!! I've seen Les Mis twice, once on the West End and once on Broadway last year. As for Sweeney, I've just seen many bootlegs. :P

^Wait, you mean you don't sing the songs under your breath while you're watching the show? That's what I do! XD

Problem is, I don't keep them enough "under my breath" for my wife...

A very fluid top-five list would usually be Sweeney Todd, Elisabeth, Tanz der Vampire, Evita, and Cabaret.

edited 18th Apr '15 10:55:50 PM by Phoenixflame

Oh man, Sweeney is in like my top ten!. And Evita is great, but i've only seen the first act. I don't think i've heard of those other ones, though.

Aw man, I love Elsabeth(who's your favourite der Tod? Mine's a tie between Stanley Burlson and Mark Seibert)! My other favourites would be The Music Man and Sweeney Todd.

My favourite Shakespeare play is Much Ado About Nothing, followed very closely by Taming Of The Shrew

Taming of The Shrew is also one of my favorites, even if it's only because of Kiss Me, Kate. XD

Also, I saw Matilda the Musical last night! It was the girl playing Matilda's last show, so she gave an amazing performance. It was really just a fantastic show.

I've been digging around and finding early Pulitzer Prize winners on the internet.

Hoo boy, "Strange Interlude" is awful.

'Yes, he's dead—my father—whose passion created me—who began me—he is ended. There is only his end living—his death. It lives now to draw nearer me, to draw me nearer, to become my end!'

Ugh. Ed Wood could have written that.

edited 6th Jul '15 12:10:47 PM by gallium

Problem is, most people on this site (in all likelihood) can't afford to consistently attend live theater performances. I'd love to be more up on theater and such, but I can't on a salary that's just barely above minimum wage.

Very true. The problem with live performances are that most of them, specifically broadway, cost a lot of money to go see. Of course, there are always bootlegs, but those seem to be frowned upon by many. I personally believe they are amazing and that we should commend the brave souls that record the shows, but I digress. XD

So I discovered this Japanese art form called Rakugo. In short, it's sit-down comedy. A guy sits down and tells a routine, or a tale, playing ALL the characters ALL BY HIMSELF. Start at 1:05.

I generally love the concept of one-man narrative performance, where one person becomes a myriad characters and holds an audience's attention for over an hour. That's amazing.

I saw some shows while I was in England. Jersey Boys and War Horse on West End.

Oh hey, the Papermill Playhouse released a studio recording of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

. . . opera, anyone? I'm sort of an opera newbie, but I have a student discount at the Met Opera so I go when I see something that looks interesting. I also watch stuff on their streaming app. You should definitely check out the app, if you haven't. ^_^; \\ I used to be really into Broadway but nothing on Broadway recently looks like any good...
I'm just not interested. But there's a lot I haven't seen in opera, so I'm catching up with that.
I think I just tend to prefer older stories (19th century and before) to newer. Les Miz is my favorite musical... and I've noticed that most of the anime I like are closer to opera or Shakespeare in their stories than they are to other anime...

edited 12th Feb '16 12:39:01 PM by lavendermintrose

Oh, I love opera. I like a good Mozart or Menotti... though Menotti doesn't get performed much outside of colleges.

I've been thinking a lot about musicals recently, and I want to listen to some cast recordings. Any suggestions?