The (brief) return of Musical Sunday!
Sep. 15th, 2013 05:34 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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So, like, AGES AGO, I used to do a weekly post highlighting a musical I loved or was in or had recently seen... and then I got distracted by other, shinier things and stopped doing them. Which is a shame, because musical theater is my first and truest love. But I've had a very musical week, so I figured I'd bring it back, even if I immediately get distracted again (OMG Iron Man 3 screencaps muuuuuuuuust iconnnnnnnnnn, also I have a half-finished Gone with the Wind meta I should do something with).
If you live in the DC area, you really should check out the Signature Theater in Shirlington, because it is awesome. Seriously, (1) they love Sondheim, (2) my girl Heidi Blickenstaff comes there a bunch, and (3) it is basically in my backyard. I actually just saw Heidi on Friday, since she did a solo concert, which was lovely as ever, and I want to steal her gorgeous voice in an Ursula and Ariel kind of way I MEAN OMG. How does she not have a solo album yet? Say the word, Heidi, and I will Kickstarter the hell out of it.
Earlier this week, I also saw Signature's main show right now, Miss Saigon. Which, although I've been familiar with the music since high school, I had never actually had the opportunity to see. And it turns out... it is not one of my favorite shows, lol. I mean, the music is as great as ever, and the cast in this production was outstanding, but I keep hearing echoes of Les Miserables and that keeps reminding me how much better that is? lol
Like, I don't think Miss Saigon really should've been sung through, if for no other reason than Claude-Michel Schonberg clearly used up all of his talky-music in Les Mis and was forced to crib quite a bit of it here? Even being sung by a completely different actress, a lot of Kim's stuff reminds me of Lea Salonga as Eponine. It's weird. Plus, the central romance is about as half-baked as Marius/Cosette (they meet and fall in love in the space of a day), and a lot of the lyrics/dialogue are way too cheesy and on-the-nose.
So, brief plot synopsis if you don't know the show: Chris is an American GI in Vietnam near the end of the war. He meets Kim on her first night in Saigon as a prostitute, and her genuine innocence appeals to him when everything and everyone else about the war is corrupt and full of lies. He spends the rest of his leave with her, and promises to take her with him when he goes back to the US. Except then the Americans are evacuating Saigon before the North Vietnamese take the city, Chris gets shoved on a helicopter, and Kim gets left behind. Three years later, Kim commits murder to protect her (and Chris') son, Tam, and flees to Bangkok with her former pimp, who hopes to use the kid as a ticket to the US. Meanwhile, Chris has married an American woman, Ellen, only to find out that Kim is still alive, and that he has a son. He goes to Bangkok to see them, but he's torn because he can't take Kim back to the US when he already has a wife, and decides that he'll support Kim and Tam monetarily, but that they'll stay in Thailand. Kim is determined that Tam will grow up in America and have the life she dreamed of for him, and kills herself so that Chris and Ellen will be forced to take him home with them. So... not a happy ending.
I appreciate that it actually is a show about the Vietnamese characters, and not just an exotic background for a story about white people. Chris is clearly the third lead role, behind Kim and the Engineer (her pimp), who, although you can't tell from the synopsis, TOTALLY steals the show as one of those sleazy characters who always finds a way to survive no matter what (like the Thenardiers, lol).
I do feel like it would be so much more awesome if the show subverted the romance more overtly. Because they're played as star-crossed lovers from two different worlds and isn't it tragic, but the real tragedy isn't that they don't get to be together - it's that these two worlds had to crash in this way, that both of them felt like they needed each other to escape it.
I don't see Kim as in love with Chris as a person - she's more in love with the idea of Chris, of what he represents: an escape from Vietnam, the freedom of America, a new life and a future for her son. And although she claims that her love for Chris is what keeps her alive for the three years they're apart, it's really more that the thought of him someday coming back to rescue her gives her hope. He could be anybody - it just so happened that he was the one who was there and made her promises he couldn't keep. (This actually occurred to me when I was thinking of movie casting - because of course Cameron Mackintosh is talking about it now that Les Mis was a success - and I realized that Kim and the Engineer are really difficult to cast, because they have to be talented enough to convey these complex characters, while Chris could literally be played by any dude that can sing and looks decently soldier-y.)
Anyway, Chris' side of the romance idealizes Kim just as much as she does him. He clearly is driven by a bit of a hero complex and is swept up in the drama of his circumstances - he's disillusioned by the war, so he's drawn to the ONLY virgin in the club (so predictable) and wants to ~save her from her horrible life. In a way, their relationship is sort of a microcosm of the Vietnam conflict itself? Like, well-meaning American tries to intervene and be the savior of the innocent, and only ends up fucking things up even more. And, to be fair, when Chris fails, it genuinely haunts him... just not enough to stop him from getting married to someone else, lol.
Not that Chris and Ellen make a better pairing, lol. I mean, at least their relationship lasted two years, so they might actually know each other enough to be in love, but Chris really just wanted a fresh start, and Ellen could be that for him. Maybe, he thinks, if he can make enough new memories with her, they will crowd out his nightmares of Vietnam and his guilt over leaving Kim behind. Meanwhile, Ellen wants someone she can "fix" and Chris is nice and broken, but she ends up with more than she bargained for.
Basically, I feel like there is an awesome story about the pitfalls of idealizing romance in there that kind of gets lost in the overwrought drama of the musical, and I really want to see a grittier, more subversive version done somehow. I thought this staging sort of tried to convey that, but I think it's something that would require some actual rewriting to really make it pack a punch. So... maybe for the movie?
Okay, YouTube time! My favorite songs:
Why God Why? (way more acoustic than the show, but Ramin Karimloo!!!)
Last Night of the World
I Still Believe
Also, Lea Salonga auditioning for the role of Kim because OMG SHE IS A GODDESS. She is practically a BABY in this vid and is sight-reading near perfectly.
And finally, my Broadway bb, Aaron Tveit, has released an album! It's a live recording of his 54 Below concert, and if nothing else, it is worth the price of admission to hear his TRULY EPIC cover of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." Teen!girl!Aaron is my new favorite Aaron. "No, like. Like, EVER." Laughed so hard I CRIED. Go buy it.
If you live in the DC area, you really should check out the Signature Theater in Shirlington, because it is awesome. Seriously, (1) they love Sondheim, (2) my girl Heidi Blickenstaff comes there a bunch, and (3) it is basically in my backyard. I actually just saw Heidi on Friday, since she did a solo concert, which was lovely as ever, and I want to steal her gorgeous voice in an Ursula and Ariel kind of way I MEAN OMG. How does she not have a solo album yet? Say the word, Heidi, and I will Kickstarter the hell out of it.
Earlier this week, I also saw Signature's main show right now, Miss Saigon. Which, although I've been familiar with the music since high school, I had never actually had the opportunity to see. And it turns out... it is not one of my favorite shows, lol. I mean, the music is as great as ever, and the cast in this production was outstanding, but I keep hearing echoes of Les Miserables and that keeps reminding me how much better that is? lol
Like, I don't think Miss Saigon really should've been sung through, if for no other reason than Claude-Michel Schonberg clearly used up all of his talky-music in Les Mis and was forced to crib quite a bit of it here? Even being sung by a completely different actress, a lot of Kim's stuff reminds me of Lea Salonga as Eponine. It's weird. Plus, the central romance is about as half-baked as Marius/Cosette (they meet and fall in love in the space of a day), and a lot of the lyrics/dialogue are way too cheesy and on-the-nose.
So, brief plot synopsis if you don't know the show: Chris is an American GI in Vietnam near the end of the war. He meets Kim on her first night in Saigon as a prostitute, and her genuine innocence appeals to him when everything and everyone else about the war is corrupt and full of lies. He spends the rest of his leave with her, and promises to take her with him when he goes back to the US. Except then the Americans are evacuating Saigon before the North Vietnamese take the city, Chris gets shoved on a helicopter, and Kim gets left behind. Three years later, Kim commits murder to protect her (and Chris') son, Tam, and flees to Bangkok with her former pimp, who hopes to use the kid as a ticket to the US. Meanwhile, Chris has married an American woman, Ellen, only to find out that Kim is still alive, and that he has a son. He goes to Bangkok to see them, but he's torn because he can't take Kim back to the US when he already has a wife, and decides that he'll support Kim and Tam monetarily, but that they'll stay in Thailand. Kim is determined that Tam will grow up in America and have the life she dreamed of for him, and kills herself so that Chris and Ellen will be forced to take him home with them. So... not a happy ending.
I appreciate that it actually is a show about the Vietnamese characters, and not just an exotic background for a story about white people. Chris is clearly the third lead role, behind Kim and the Engineer (her pimp), who, although you can't tell from the synopsis, TOTALLY steals the show as one of those sleazy characters who always finds a way to survive no matter what (like the Thenardiers, lol).
I do feel like it would be so much more awesome if the show subverted the romance more overtly. Because they're played as star-crossed lovers from two different worlds and isn't it tragic, but the real tragedy isn't that they don't get to be together - it's that these two worlds had to crash in this way, that both of them felt like they needed each other to escape it.
I don't see Kim as in love with Chris as a person - she's more in love with the idea of Chris, of what he represents: an escape from Vietnam, the freedom of America, a new life and a future for her son. And although she claims that her love for Chris is what keeps her alive for the three years they're apart, it's really more that the thought of him someday coming back to rescue her gives her hope. He could be anybody - it just so happened that he was the one who was there and made her promises he couldn't keep. (This actually occurred to me when I was thinking of movie casting - because of course Cameron Mackintosh is talking about it now that Les Mis was a success - and I realized that Kim and the Engineer are really difficult to cast, because they have to be talented enough to convey these complex characters, while Chris could literally be played by any dude that can sing and looks decently soldier-y.)
Anyway, Chris' side of the romance idealizes Kim just as much as she does him. He clearly is driven by a bit of a hero complex and is swept up in the drama of his circumstances - he's disillusioned by the war, so he's drawn to the ONLY virgin in the club (so predictable) and wants to ~save her from her horrible life. In a way, their relationship is sort of a microcosm of the Vietnam conflict itself? Like, well-meaning American tries to intervene and be the savior of the innocent, and only ends up fucking things up even more. And, to be fair, when Chris fails, it genuinely haunts him... just not enough to stop him from getting married to someone else, lol.
Not that Chris and Ellen make a better pairing, lol. I mean, at least their relationship lasted two years, so they might actually know each other enough to be in love, but Chris really just wanted a fresh start, and Ellen could be that for him. Maybe, he thinks, if he can make enough new memories with her, they will crowd out his nightmares of Vietnam and his guilt over leaving Kim behind. Meanwhile, Ellen wants someone she can "fix" and Chris is nice and broken, but she ends up with more than she bargained for.
Basically, I feel like there is an awesome story about the pitfalls of idealizing romance in there that kind of gets lost in the overwrought drama of the musical, and I really want to see a grittier, more subversive version done somehow. I thought this staging sort of tried to convey that, but I think it's something that would require some actual rewriting to really make it pack a punch. So... maybe for the movie?
Okay, YouTube time! My favorite songs:
Why God Why? (way more acoustic than the show, but Ramin Karimloo!!!)
Last Night of the World
I Still Believe
Also, Lea Salonga auditioning for the role of Kim because OMG SHE IS A GODDESS. She is practically a BABY in this vid and is sight-reading near perfectly.
And finally, my Broadway bb, Aaron Tveit, has released an album! It's a live recording of his 54 Below concert, and if nothing else, it is worth the price of admission to hear his TRULY EPIC cover of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." Teen!girl!Aaron is my new favorite Aaron. "No, like. Like, EVER." Laughed so hard I CRIED. Go buy it.
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Date: 2013-09-15 11:06 pm (UTC)-J
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Date: 2013-09-16 02:33 pm (UTC)Oddly, NONE of his songs (except for his bits in "The Heat is On") are on the CD I had of the show... it was a "highlights" CD or some bullshit, lol, so I really had no idea who/what this character was about until I saw the show. And then I was like... oh, he's actually kind of the lead? (The actor I saw was also in the national tour 20 years ago, which is cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBzQkVHW