Re: General Glee Discussion Thread--Part 3

[Lottie2303]

PotO was actually my very first childhood dream to see the musical on stage. My parents granted me the wish when I was 7. I just talked about yesterday as I remember being flabbergasted not more children were watching the show. I was convinced it was a great play for children  .

Love never dies, the sequel, however is a badly written fanfiction. What a piece of crap.

[Glorfindel]

PotO is a very good musical, I agree. I love the blend between opera and musical in the songs. But it's not in my top 3 of musicals, it's not even the best ALW musical imo. That would be Jesus Christ Superstar (okay: it's a rock opera, not a musical).
The other 2 in my top 3: Les Miserables, and yes: Wicked. I love Wicked because it's a very good combination of comedy and drama, plus the theme of the ugly nerd who always wants to do good but never gets recognition for it is very appealing to me (like I'm sure it is to Chris).

Another favorite of mine is Singing in the Rain, a classic,.. oh and another classic: the Sound of Music.
But there are so many musicals to choose from it's too hard to do, as I enjoy most of them, old and new. Unfortunately I'm not able to go see them live very often, as that means travelling to e.g. London. So thank God for youtube.  

[MoviesAreLife]

Has anyone here seen "Next to Normal"? Chris loves it, and I am dying to see it. It's a modern rock musical about mental illness and family dynamics...right up my alley.

[ColdFlame96]

Has anyone here seen "Next to Normal"? Chris loves it, and I am dying to see it. It's a modern rock musical about mental illness and family dynamics...right up my alley.

I thought that was the movie that Jon Groff was filming?

[MoviesAreLife]

Has anyone here seen "Next to Normal"? Chris loves it, and I am dying to see it. It's a modern rock musical about mental illness and family dynamics...right up my alley.

I thought that was the movie that Jon Groff was filming?

No, it's part of the new wave of modern musicals that have been hitting Broadway. It's in the vein of Hair, RENT, A Chorus Line, Bare, Spring Awakening...and so on.

If Jonathan Groff is filming a movie adaptation of the musical, then awesome! I'd love to see it!

[tanita_mors]

Groff is filming Normal Heart, it's a famous play, not a musical.

Next to Normal is about electroshock therapy if i'm not mistaken, and though i haven't heard any of it's soundtrack, i hear it's very good.

Next to The Phantom, my favorite musical is Victor/Victoria (the movie). Julie Andrews, great songs, gender bending and mistaken identities theme (my favorite motif - reminds me of my favorite Shakespeare play - Twelfth Night). What's not to love. Le Jazz Hot baby.

[valkeakuulas]

Next to The Phantom, my favorite musical is Victor/Victoria (the movie). Julie Andrews, great songs, gender bending and mistaken identities theme (my favorite motif - reminds me of my favorite Shakespeare play - Twelfth Night). What's not to love. Le Jazz Hot baby.

Victor/Victoria is my comfort movie and a movie I remember watching with my mum for many times when I was a kid. Along with Cabaret these two were quite cunning in their libral ideals. considering it was the 70's.

Sound of Music is one of childhood musical memories that have stayed good as well, despite it being naive as hell, IMO, as a entertaining musical it works.

There are not a lot of good musical adaptation shown in theatres here. But I did manage to see Legally Blonde and Cabaret two years ago in London and they were really good.

[Glorfindel]

Next to The Phantom, my favorite musical is Victor/Victoria (the movie). Julie Andrews, great songs, gender bending and mistaken identities theme (my favorite motif - reminds me of my favorite Shakespeare play - Twelfth Night). What's not to love. Le Jazz Hot baby.

Yes, I love that movie as well. Julie Andrews is musical royalty.  


(Although Kurt rocked Victor/Victoria too  )

[tanita_mors]

I must have seen Victor/Victory 20 or more times, mostly thanks to TCM. They keep playing the movie and i keep running into it while flipping the channels, and almost always end up watching it.

to be honest, i haven't seen many musicals. all that i have seen have been butleg videos taken in theaters, and we all know that only the really popular ones can be found online. so of course, i'm not the biggest musical expert here. but got to be honest, i did nearly pass out when i was on one of my download sites and run into the 25th anniversary dvdrip of the phantom. first time i saw the play as it should be (with a few minor changes) in clear picture. not counting the 2004 movie (which i liked btw, even though butler had no business playing the phantom - acting was good, but his "singing" should never be spoken off)

[bayth]

I haven't seen many live musicals - only Evita, A Chorus Line, Annie and Godspell.  My favorite out of all: Godspell.  I saw it at Fords' Theatre in DC.  It had only been reopened for plays in 1968 and I think I was there in 1972 or 73.  I remember how small the theater was and that they had wooden seats nailed to the floor.  The play itself was fun until the end with the main character being "crucified" up against a chain link fence.  The movie version had Victor Garber as the lead - he had BIG hair and a lovely voice.  I still catch myself singing "Day by Day" "By Your Side" and "All for the Best".  

This was filmed when the Twin Towers were being completed - the end of All for the Best.



I really wish that they would have used Victor Garber properly on Glee - Here's the full version so you can hear his lovely voice:

[MoviesAreLife]

Yes, I love that movie as well. Julie Andrews is musical royalty.  


(Although Kurt rocked Victor/Victoria too  )

God, those pictures....  

This was one of the very first Kurt Hummel performances I ever saw! I was blown away!

[MoviesAreLife]

i think marie said before that the highest note wasn't an F but a G or something. i may have remembered wrong so marie or anybody else can correct me. i really don't know what was going on w/ this whole "defy gravity" thing music wise.

That explains so much. I actually thought the end note was very painful to listen to and nothing about it was dramatic or great. Gave me no reason to actually want to see the musical and I am a major musical fan. Too high notes might be hard to achieve, but in my humble opinion, they are not nice for the ears. By the way, I thought that about Lea's and Chris's voice equally. Overall, Defying Gravity is in my opinion overrated (on Glee and the musical) .

I agree. I've always been a bigger fan of "The Wizard and I","What is this Feeling", "No Good Deed" and "For Good".
As for Wicked as a musical, it's basically a dramedy and sort of a farce. Half of it is situational comedy and the rest is high emotion. I like it because it's fun and the numbers are very catchy. But it will never be The Phantom. I know ALW is like universally hated, but i stand by my biased opinion that he created the greatest musical that ever was what he scored The Phantom of the Opera. A perfect bland of drama, comedy, romance, terror, mystery,...

Wicked as a musical is very....cute. I can see why little girls love it. But I LOVED the Defying Gravity scene...it was my favorite part of the whole thing. I adore that climatic high note. Her voice is soaring as she is taking flight for the first time. All of the BS Elphie has dealt with is pouring out of her in this song: hope, fear as well as anger....she is angry and rebelling and she is screaming. It's a great "fuck you" song to the Land of Oz. It's a war cry. I adored Lea and Chris' versions of the song, but they almost made it too pretty...it's an inspirational song but it's also angry. I think if they were both able to put the correct emotion behind the song as intended, they would have both aced it and sent chills down my spine, especially Lea.

Given what we know of Chris and his past, I can see why he so strongly identified with Elphaba. Defying Gravity is like his theme song.

[Delight]

Chris and Lea's 'For Good' gives me chills when I hear it. Their voices blending together in the duet parts are divine  

As for musicals that I've watched live, there's only one and it's 'The Lion King'. (Yes, I'm still a 10 year old at heart, don't you know?  ).

There had been new musicals like 'Legally Blonde', 'Billy Elliot' and 'King Kong' showing in the theatres down under (in Melbourne) over the years, but I just never got the chance to watch them. Or the inclination either, because watching musicals alone is something that I'm not keen on, and no one else around me (that I know) seem to be keen on musicals.

[Glorfindel]

^'The Lion King' has good music and the visuals and costumes are awesome. It's a great musical to see live.

And in that vein, call me 10 too, because I absolutely love 'Starlight Express' and 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'. A lot of colorful and funny stuff happening on stage, so much plain fun, and good parodies of music styles.

To bring this back to Glee (ahum, lol): I always wanted Kurt to sing I Am The Starlight. And call me naive, but I wanted Mr. Shue be the one to encourage Kurt by singing the other part. (Back in the day when Mr. Shue still was somewhat a decent teacher . Deep down inside I still haven't given up on Will as a character yet.)

[MoviesAreLife]

Chris and Lea's 'For Good' gives me chills when I hear it. Their voices blending together in the duet parts are divine

Oh, that song is perfect! It's when Hummelberry became friends!

And there is nothing wrong with liking The Lion King! The stampede scene still makes me tear up...

[coxfire]

(Back in the day when Mr. Shue still was somewhat a decent teacher . Deep down inside I still haven't given up on Will as a character yet.)

I hate what they did of Will, particularly considering Matthew's talent. He is a good actor, singer and dancer, a real triple threat, but they treated his character so poorly I felt bad for him.

As for musicals, it isn't my cup of tea, but I went to see Chicago when visiting New york back in 2008 and loved it, I laughed the whole time.

[MoviesAreLife]

(Back in the day when Mr. Shue still was somewhat a decent teacher . Deep down inside I still haven't given up on Will as a character yet.)

I hate what they did of Will, particularly considering Matthew's talent. He is a good actor, singer and dancer, a real triple threat, but they treated his character so poorly I felt bad for him.

Matthew is so talented. I feel bad for Mr. Schue...I feel like he honestly wants to be a good, earnest character, but the writers just make him a douche sometimes. He reminds me of Artie in that way.

[Glorfindel]

In the beginning of Glee I thought that Mr. Schue would represent me on the show: a hardworking, average, struggling with himself, smalltown teacher trying to make the world a better place for a few kids by giving them a club to make music in and letting them realize how special they all are, super talented or not.
But they screwed Will's whole characterisation up for easy iTunes sales and silly teen drama.  

Glee wasted so many things. And yes, they also messed up Artie's characterisation. I wonder if they will actually do something significant with Artie now that he's going to New York, seeing as they never really used him much in seasons 3 and really pushed him to the background in season 4.

[MoviesAreLife]

I would love to see Artie's storyline fleshed out more and for Kevin to get more solos. Artie's dream is also very interesting to me and I cannot wait to see where it goes.

Now if only they stopped making him say the douchiest things........

[ColdFlame96]

I have a love-hate relationship with Artie. On one hand, I do care about him and want him to get more screentime because of my gigantic crush on Kevin, but on the other hand, Artie's kind of a prick.

[MoviesAreLife]

That's exactly it. I adore Kevin and I sometimes like Artie, but he's kind of a jerk sometimes.

[Glorfindel]

Yes, Artie can be a prick sometimes. But with what RIB have their characters say I think 100% of the characters on Glee are a prick sometimes, including Kurt.

I think that Artie and some other characters just get the majority of these dick (usually reaction) lines on the show because their actors can actually deliver lines without looking like an inflatable doll.
The writing of RIB is storyline driven, not character driven, so they usually just randomly pick a character when they need someone to say something dickish in one of their random storylines. And then they forget about what that character said the next episode and never think of it again, let alone let people call the character out on it or make them apologize.
It's one of the reasons why there is hardly any continuity or character development in this godawfully badly written show.

Kevin, like Chris, Cory, Lea, Jane and most of the time Naya and Matt, is capable of making his character still symphathetic and likeable despite of the shit writing that RIB throws at him.
I still like Artie because I like Kevin as an actor and singer, that's the basic essence of it. Same goes for the characters I just named the actors of. It's one of Glee's few saving grace.

[valkeakuulas]

As much as I do not like characters like Santana, Artie sometimes and Tina I find a bit redundant they are with Rachel and Kurt now the heart of Glee and could be given multiple interesting storylines BECAUSE they are so different personalities.

This rag tag of people trying to make it in NY, best possible solution. Getting their egos stamped, growing up in college and working and really being given an excellent send off for the next two seasons at least. Giving nice examples that not all will make it, but some do after working hard for it, thourgh trial and error.

[MoviesAreLife]

That's true. Not being perfect makes them very human and relatable. Even my favorites have bad moments. For me, some characters are more good than bad (Kurt, Rachel, Artie, Marley, Finn) and others are more bad than good (Kitty, Sue, Quinn, Santana). And then there are others I'm just not sure about at all....the characters on my "bad" list, like Quinn and Santana, do confuse me sometimes. Tina and Blaine also confuse me. I wouldn't hate Blaine if they'd just let Klaine die already. As for Tina, I know the girl I originally adored is somewhere in there.....

[ChrisColferFan1]

Good points. I would not dislike Blaine nearly as much as I do, If he gave  Kurt a real apology for cheating and blaming him for it. Also if he would let Kurt make up his own mind if he wanted to give him another chance or not. I might even start to like him  eventually. Not nearly  as much as I like Kurt though. I also still would want him to lose something at least once.

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