Musical Sunday!

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I'm still rather obsessed with Titanic (I totally cry buckets every time I listen to "We'll Meet Tomorrow," and now I kind of want someone to make a vid of all the tragic Jossverse deaths set to that song. I blame stormwreath's post).

Anyway, I thought, instead of featuring a new musical like I usually do, I'd do a themed post today. I actually came up with this theme before I did my Strictly Sexual post, but now it does seem apropos. Way back many computer malfunctions ago, I used to have a "sad songs" playlist, and these are my "He Loves Me Not" songs. They come from three different musicals, two that I've already featured here and one which needs no introduction.

First, from Wicked, "I'm Not That Girl," which - fun fact - I wanted to use as a Dawn song in my fic The Fire Within, but I didn't have room for it. Elphaba (aka the future Wicked Witch of the West) is in love with Fiyero, but his attention has been captured by the much prettier Glinda, and she has to remind herself not to let her imagination run wild, because she'll never be the one he loves.

The second song is from Avenue Q, "There's a Fine, Fine Line," sung by Kate after her boyfriend, Princeton, breaks up with her because he's afraid of commitment. She's angry and hurt that he can't make up his mind about what he wants, and wonders if it was all just a waste of time.

And finally, "On My Own" from Les Miserables, which I'm sure will be featured in due time - I did take a whole course on it in college. If you live under a rock and have never heard this song before, it's Eponine imagining she's wandering the streets of Paris with her love, Marius (who, unfortunately, is in love with Cosette and only ever thinks of Eponine as a friend). This video is a shortened version of the song, but it's Andrea McArdle, who is still my favorite Eponine. She played the role when I saw Les Mis in Philadelphia, and her daughter Alexis played young Cosette, which was unbearably adorable (Alexis is now all grown up and is playing Eponine herself).

Comments

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

Hee! I totally have a "sad songs" playlist. Nothing on it from any musicals, though.

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Heh, musicals have some of the best sad songs. :)

[alexeia-drae.livejournal.com]

Two good songs from two good musicals. You took a whole class on Les Mis? Awesome! My school didn't offer such fun electives.

My sis and I loved Eponine to the point of hating Marius for going for Cosette. Eponine was too good for him:-)

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There should be three songs up there now. LJ decided to randomly delete parts of my html... grr.

And yeah, it was one of my French courses in college. We read the book (in French), but the professor also made a point to show us several different interpretations, so we watched the musical and a couple movies. My final project for that course involved playing "I Dreamed a Dream" and "Stars" on the piano. Easiest final ever. :)

I love Eponine in the musical, but she's a lot less sympathetic in the book. Marius and Cosette are even more ridiculous, though. They have this whole epic romance without ever actually speaking to each other, rofl.

[alexeia-drae.livejournal.com]

Ah, I thought you said you'd be posting three, but I'm tired and hormonal and thought I'd imagined it and was too lazy to go back up. I see the Avenue Q one now, but I've not seen that show (even though I've seen so many musicals, there seems to be even more I haven't seen).

I read through the first quarter of Les Mis. back when I was in high school. I got to the point where M. Thenardier met Marius (or his father may be?) and then my new baby kitten pooped on the book. By the time I got around to replacing it I felt that I'd have to start at the beginning, and just getting that far was a big task the first time around and I'm used to reading old classics! Victor Hugo really must have gotten paid by the word! Anyway, props for getting through it in French, that could not have been easy.

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and then my new baby kitten pooped on the book.

ROFLMAO! That is freakin' hilarious - and perhaps apropos, as Hugo has an awful chapter about the Paris sewer system. I kind of wanted to poop on the book a few times... Hugo is seriously wordy (the French version comes in TWO VOLUMES) and goes off on these ridiculous tangents. One of the things we learned in class is that he wasn't really trying to tell a good story. He was memorializing the pre-Haussmann Paris, and using the book as a vehicle to make statements about religion, politics, and culture. The plot was somewhat incidental, lol.

Also, I don't really deserve many props. I'd already read it in English, so it was totally cheating to take the class in French. :)