27 of My Favorite Things>...........................(Which are Musicals) Part 2
Here is part 2 of my favorite musicals from A-Z...I picked a movie musical...a musical-movie adaptation and a song cycle.
D
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Candy Heart Message: DREAM BIG
This was by far the hardest pick thus far. Two others (Which will go in the honorable mentions post I do after going A-Z) Dreamgirls and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels were really hard to choose from, but it had to be Dancer in the Dark. I know, I know it's not a stage musical, but it is one of my favorite pieces ever so it passes. So...if you've never seen Dancer in the Dark...wow. If you care about this art form, even in the slightest, you must see this movie. Controversial Writer/Director Lars Von Trier bring us this completely unexpected masterpiece through the brilliance that is Bjork. If you don't like Bjork's music, it may not be for you, but give it a chance. The story/concept alone make it worth the watch. You may (or may not) be able to watch the whole movie on Youtube. But I can neither confirm nor deny such things. Dance in the Dark centers around a woman named Selma who lives in a small trailer with her son behind the house of an officer and his wife in rural America. You find out that she is slowly going blind from a hereditary condition that she has passed on to her son (which he is unaware of). She works in a factory, saving up all her money in order to get her son the surgery he needs to save his eyesight. Selma is in love with musical theatre and when she needs to escape from the world she goes into a musical dream world of her own creation. When we are watching her in reality the movie is shot documentary style, but in her escapist musical sequences the camera is still and crisp. It's a beautiful juxtaposition between real and make-believe. SPOILER ALERT: THIS MOVIE IS DEPRESSING AS HELL. It's probably one of the most soul crushing movies I have ever seen. When I watched it for the first time, I remember when the film finished and the credits started rolling I just sat there, frozen, unable to vocalize or process what I had just watched. Then, came the water works. If you do not cry in this movie you have no soul, period. There aren't many songs in this movie (7 in total) and I know that I've poo poo'd a recent "critically acclaimed" movie for the same thing...but this isn't trying to be something it isn't. Dancer in the Dark isn't trying to conjure movie musicals of yore. It is using songs to heal the soul of a broken character, not for our amusement. Seen it All (above video) which Bjork went on to record with Thom Yorke is my absolute favorite song, but Cvalda for it's innovative percussion and In the Musicals are also strong...I mean who can resist tap dancing Joel Grey, the wizard and MC himself! Please do yourself a favor and check this little heartbreak out...but probably not today...unless you're a masochist like that...
E
Evil Dead: The Musical (2003)
Candy Heart Message: SOUL MATE
This is at the top of the list on musicals I want to produce/be in. Cheryl is 2nd on my list for dream roles, only below that of Roxie Hart...as stated in my blog about Chicago. This show his hilarious! If you are an Evil Dead fan...even better. This is the perfect irreverent adaptation of a cult classic. Often referred to as the "new Rocky Horror", Evil Dead the Musical makes good on that statement. It's everything we love about Rocky, but with one addition...a better plot. Don't get me wrong...I love Rocky, but the storyline is sub-par and a bit WTF after Toucha-Toucha...Evil Dead, however remains strong throughout. PLUS if you sit in the first few rows or "splash zone" you get splattered with blood from head to toe...doesn't that sound fun?!? Evil Dead melds the stories of both Evil Dead 1 and 2 together to make a cohesive story. (If you've seen the movies you would know that they are exactly the same story/lead characters but 2 adds a handful of minor characters in the mix...plus a talking moose) It follows 5 college students as they spend their Spring Break squatting in an old abandon cabin in the woods. They find an old book (The Necronomicon or "Book of the Dead") and an old recording of read passages in the cellar...of course, they decide to listen, and open up the flood gates for the undead to populate the living. One by one they are taken, but Ash has the power to defeat them all with his boom-stick...which is a shotgun taped to his arm after he chopped off his possessed hand to keep from infecting his whole body...yeah...I know...It's crazy, but that's what makes it so fun. The writing is beyond first rate, comic gold. Songs such as Cabin in the Woods, Look Who's Evil Now, What the F*** Was That, Join Us, All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons...the list goes on. You're welcome screwheads!
F
Fugitive Songs
Candy Heart Message: I WONDER
Fugitive Songs is one of those tiny little shows everyone should know about. It's technically a song cycle,so there is no story line per se, but the songs are SOOOOO phenomenal that you will instantly fall in love. The voices...I mean the voices...You may recognize a few...Gavin Creel, Karen Olivio, Joshua Henry, Barret Dilbert Weed...you know...small crackers...The harmonies/the lyrics, everything is right and well with the world, perfect. This show is for anyone who has felt they didn't belong, wanted to run away and all of the rewards and regret by doing so. My past is only prologue...Stand outs sure to make you laugh, cry, self reflect: Subway Song, Kansas Highway Sky, Passing Tracy, Poor Little Patty, Shine, Wildflowers, I Could Go Back, One of These Nights...Um so I guess...the whole album...Just go listen to it.
