Blue's Reviews: A Trio Of Musicals

Long-time readers of this blog have heard [read] it said before...

To quote my brother-in-law, I "have an affinity for musicals." I just can't help it. There's just something about an entire story presenting in the form of song that I just can't resist. I mean, you should have seen my face light up at the rumor yesterday that there may be a musical edition of Pushing Daisies down the road. Awesome.

Anyways, this is a long-delayed review so I decided to make it a super-sized one combining three separate reviews that I had intended on doing. I had planned on still doing them separately but then it occurred to me that since each was reviewing a musical - each in a different form - it would be kinda cool to mix them all into one. And thus, we arrive at this point in the road.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

I talked a little bit about this in a post a couple of weeks ago but didn't even scratch the surface of how genius I thought this was. The backstory behind the creation of this is that Joss Whedon wrote it during the WGA Writer's Strike as a simple, inexpensive way to demonstrate that quality product could be made explicitly for the Internet - kinda a jab at the suits who didn't want to give the writers their due for Internet work because it was a "unproven field." It was initially released for free on the Internet and quickly gained a cult following - a Joss Whedon show gaining a cult following? Go figure! I knew I probably would love it because... well, I love Joss Whedon and his work... but somehow I kept managing to not get to see it. That finally changed a few weeks ago when the Missus and I both watched it on Hulu and were blown away.

You have to start with the cast because whether you want to admit it or not, the idea of Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion as opposing superheroes and villains is just so damn awesome, how can you not watch it? Add in Felicia Day who did just fine in her role as Penny, the unrequited love of Dr. Horrible's life, and you've got yourself a winning combination.


The plot is simple enough to follow but complex enough that after the 42 minutes of the "show," it leaves you wanting more. We've got Billy/Dr. Horrible shooting a video blog of himself and talking about wanting to join the Evil League of Evil - no, that's not a typo. He's been striving to join the League for a long time and is looking for the appropriate evil deed to gain entry. But Dr. Horrible is not your ordinary supervillain. He's in love. Penny is the apple of his eye - but she's never even noticed him despite their weekly visits to the same laundromat. Horrible is trying to make a freeze ray and hopes that his public theft of his final needed ingredient will gain the respect of Bad Horse, the leader of the League. From there, our story unfolds with the arrival of Horrible's arch-nemesis, Captain Hammer and hilarity ensues.

Until the end - which will likely knock the wind out of you and leave you cursing Joss Whedon a bit. But you'll have to admit the man knows how to rip a visceral emotional reaction out of you. And if you've seen the Buffy musical, you'll also have to admit he makes a damn fine, catchy-as-all-hell musical.

The best praise I can heap upon Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is that when it ends - you actually want a sequel. And as someone who has actually attended a "Once More With Feeling" [the Buffy musical] sing-along, I have to wonder if at some point, Dr. Horrible sing-alongs will become the norm.

From the land of Internet videos, we move on to the stage.

Wicked - Pantages Theatre, Hollywood, California - September 17, 2008

For a long while now, the Missus and I have planned on going to see Wicked over at the Pantages before it wraps up its' run in a couple of months. So, when the opportunity presented itself to get some damn fine seats through Costco for her birthday, we decided to make the plunge. This was our second time seeing Wicked - the first being at the Orange County Performing Arts Center a couple of years ago. This version blew that one out of the water.

For those unaware, Wicked is the story of The Wizard Of Oz told through a slightly skewed point of view. As the marketing materials say, "A Lot Happened Before Dorothy Dropped In." The story actually leads up to that point and goes a little bit beyond it which creates a few plot conflicts for people who know The Wizard Of Oz - like those of us who remember it only being shown once a year on television on CBS as a child and waited every year for that showing - but if you can ignore the conflicts, you'll enjoy it just fine. The story is also loosely based on a novel - but in my opinion, this is one of the few instances where the movie/play/etc. FAR exceeds what the novel pulled off. In fact, the novel is high on my "Do Not Recommend" list. Don't read it thinking you'll like it because you liked the musical version.

Again, we'll start with the cast. There's three cast members in Wicked that need to not suck to successfully pull the show off. Glinda, Elphaba [the Wicked Witch... or is she?], and Fiyero. This particular cast hit two of those out of the park and... well, the other was okay. First, the bad. Derrick Williams just did not fly for me as Fiyero. The role of Fiyero is the spoiled rich kid who is used to having everything go his way as he "dances through life." But Williams just failed at expressing that to me. It also might have had something to do with the image of Fiyero in my mind. I always picture him as a long-haired, hippie type - something like "Sunshine" in Remember The Titans before he gets his hair cut. Derrick Williams was none of those things. It just didn't match up to what was in my head so that probably didn't help matters. His acting also seemed pretty shoddy to me.

The good? Teal Wicks as Elphaba was pretty good. Again, her acting didn't seem all that great at spots but her vocals were amazing. She constantly blew me away song after song - even songs that I don't particularly like in the show [of which there are several]. Her shining moment came at the end of the first act during Defying Gravity - which is, of course, the show's signature song. She was absolutely incredible during the song and during the last few seconds of the act when she's raised above the stage for the finale, she took it to a whole other level and really created a breathtaking moment. There were a sprinkling of wet eyes all around when the lights came up for intermission to be sure.

But the shining star by far in this production of Wicked is Erin Mackey as Glinda. And it wasn't the vocals - although those were nothing to sneeze at. But she had the character down pat. She WAS Glinda and really gave me a glimpse at how Kristin Chenowith must have been in that role. She had all the little things down so well. The hair toss-toss, the voice, the attitude - it was an incredible sight to see and she had the crowd in the palm of her hand every second that she was on stage. If you get a chance to see the show with her in it, do so - you will not be sorry.

As for the musical itself, Wicked is an interesting one for me. While there are songs in the show that I really love [Defying Gravity, For Good, Dancing Through Life] - the songs that I dislike, I STRONGLY dislike and won't even listen to when they come up on shuffle on my iPod. If you contrast that to Rent which has maybe one or two songs that I skip, Wicked comes up a bit short. I've never liked the start of the show as I think it builds too slowly and starts off flat with two numbers that don't do much. In fact, when I first saw the show, I thought I was going to hate it until Elphaba's "The Wizard And I" number. From there, they hit a strong patch from "What Is This Feeling" all the way through to the end of the first act with the exception of "Something Bad" and "A Sentimental Man" - although having Steve from Married With Children singing the latter seemed to add something to it that doesn't come across well on "tape." One of my other problems with Wicked is that it's top heavy. The second act only has two musical numbers that I really like which makes it come off flat. But it's paced faster so you really don't notice it too much.

All in all, this production of Wicked is very well done and with the amazing Pantages as its' home, you're doing yourself a disservice if you're a musical fan and you don't get down to Hollywood to check it out before the end of the run. Also, as a "sneak peek," the new season at the Pantages for 2009 looks awesome with runs of Phantom, Rent, Legally Blonde, Mamma Mia, and Grease among others. Add to that OCPAC getting Avenue Q next year and it should be a fun year for musical fans in SoCal.

And speaking of Rent...

Rent Filmed Live On Broadway

Someone at work who knows I'm a huge Rent fan tipped me off about this. As some of you may be aware, my favorite stage musical just finished up its' Broadway run in September. In tribute to this, they taped the final two Rent performances and spliced the footage together to show the entire musical from start to finish. They also hyped that original Rent cast members would be involved as well. This was set up as a series of special screenings - $20 per ticket over a few nights. As a long time fan of Rent, I just had to check it out as I've always wished they would release all musicals in this fashion on DVD once they had hit the downslide of their run.

After seeing it, I was a little torn. On the plus side, they really did capture the feel of being in the building for the show. With the digital projection, the film was crystal clear and the sound was great. The editing was a little weird for me though. They opted to do a multi-camera shoot of it as opposed to just doing one stationary "wide shot" camera - which probably was the right decision as it allowed for zooming in on actors' expressions and the like but to someone who is used to the musical as it is, it was a little odd to see.

That being said - it was still Rent so I loved it. The music was great, the acting was solid. I thought the person playing Roger was one of the best I had seen in that role as most Rogers tend to get a little screamy at points but he always seemed in control of his voice. The rest of the cast was good enough - nothing super-impressive but it was good.

The biggest disappointment in this was the much-hyped appearance by the original cast who simply walked on stage and sang "Seasons Of Love" with the current cast. Nothing great at all. I guess it was kinda cool to see the old cast back on that stage but... eh, whatever. If you're going to see it for that reason, skip it. But if you've never seen Rent before, this is a decent way to get introduced to it. In the end though, I thought the experience fell a bit flat compared to seeing it on stage. It was better than nothing and I'm hopeful it gets released on DVD but given the choice, you should make an effort to see it on stage whenever the chance prevents itself.

Whew. Annnnnd I'm spent. Well, at least it'll get those rabid Blue fans who wanted this review to be done off my back.