Every week I am going to be giving you a new musical to try. You can find it on the homepage, but here you can read more details.
Legally Blonde: The Musical
Elle Woods is having the time of her life: she's the President of the Delta Nu sorority at UCLA, is the most popular girl on campus and has the perfect boyfriend by the name of Warner Huntington III. But when Warner dumps her because she's not serious enough for him, she follows him to Harvard Law School to try and win him back. The hit movie starring Reese Witherspoon has been adapted into a stage musical which starred Laura Bell Bundy as Elle when the show opened in New York and starred Sheridan Smith when the show opened in London's West End. This show is a lot of fun, and it's not just for girls. Fun and funny numbers include
Bend and Snap,
Omigod You Guys,
What You Want and
Serious and the touching and emotional title song
Legally Blonde. I hope to see this show in the near future and I'm going to make sure I'm ready to bend and snap down the aisle. If you don't leave the theatre feeling energetic then there's something wrong with you.
Beauty and the Beast
Disney's version of a classic fairytale where a young girl named Belle exchanges her father's freedom for imprisonment in the castle of a hideous, bad-tempered Beast with enchanted objects as his servants. And so Belle teaches the Beast to be kind and to love and she in turn learns to look beyond the Beast and see the man within. Every song stands out on it's own, but the main ones to listen to are
Be Our Guest,
Belle and
Beauty and the Beast. This magical tale has been adapted for the stage with new songs added, most notably
If I Can't Love Her and
Human Again which was recently been animated for the original DVD release and you can still watch it on the Diamond Edition DVD. Please watch the end credits of this film as it has a moving dedication to Howard Ashman, the lyricist and producer for the movie.
Holiday Inn
As it's Christmas, this week's musical has to suit the season. So Holiday Inn is about Jim Hardy and Ted Hanover (played by Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire) who fall in love with an up-and-coming performer named Linda Mason (played by Marjorie Reynolds) and vie for her attention at an inn open only on the holidays. It features the Christmas classic
White Christmas crooned by Crosby himself. Happy Yuletide everyone!!!
The Phantom of the Opera
Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical based on the novel by Gaston Leroux.
It is about a young chorus girl named Christine Daae whose enchanting singing voice brings her to the attention of the Parisian upper class and the Viscount Raoul de Chagny (a childhood sweetheart). But the Phantom of the Opera , her teacher and known to Christine as the Angel of Music, has his own plans that involve Christine.
A wonderful piece of music, the songs take you into the Phantom's and Christine's world. My personal favourite song is the title song
Phantom of the Opera.
Wicked
Music and Lyrics written by Stephen Schwartz (who also wrote music for
The Hunchback of Notre Dame,
Pocahontas and
The Prince of Egypt) based on the novel by Gregory Maguire.
This is the story of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch of the North. How they met at university, became the best of friends... and only to become great enemies. The big question is can their friendship remain strong, or are they just too different?
Dramatic music, great story-telling, I never get enough of it. The best song has to be
Defying Gravity made famous by the first actress to play Elphaba, Idina Menzel.
