bostonman

It's really about cost. Classical musicians - singers and instrumentalists - are trained to arrive the gig knowing their music. Rehearsal essentially becomes about putting things together - ensemble, tempi, dynamics, etc - making sure everyone is doing the minutia that the conductor wants. There is no need for scads of rehearsal time. Everyone can make adjustments on the fly. Musical theatre singers are NOT necessarily trained to do this, though of course almost off of them will know that advance prep is required in situations like this. But often there isn't enough time to really get all the minutia together, and if it's a one or two performance shot, you get what you get. In terms of a symphony doing these kind of concerts as part of a full, regular seaons, it would become prohibitive to allocate a lot of "extra" rehearsal time, let alone flying the singers in, paying them, lodging them, etc, for extra time. So they don't - and that often means there simply isn't enough time. And orchestra rehearsal time under union rules is also expensive. Also - when I was a kid, I remember "concert" performances of operas in particular, both on TV and locally. Most often, there was no staging. Singers were in concert dress, not costumed - they stood in front of the orchestra as they would for a Messiah or Requiem or Mahler symphony, etc, and simply sang. When you consider that the modern-day "concert" opera/musical is really much more of a staged affair, that takes most of the time away from doing any musical prep that really needs to be done.

Yes they are all under-rehearsed. None of those concerts get much rehearsal time at all - most of the prep needs to be done by the singers on their own time. Some of them turn out better than others, but it all basically relies on casting the right people who are going to come in prepared, just like one would expect with a classical concert. The Company concert starring Neil Patrick Harris? (Which, even in terms of "concert" performances seemed much more full staged than usual) - they had ONE rehearsal together, and as far as I remember, it was the same day as the performance. All that choreography, etc, had to be learned by each performer on their own, and then quickly put together. It only worked because everyone was really prepared. (And even then, there were problems - Stephen Colbert never quite getting the knack of the timing in "Sorry Grateful" for instance. More rehearsal time would have helped that.) I thought the televised concerts of Show Boat and Camelot, among others, were terribly underrehearsed (and also miscast to an extent). My impression of the South Pacific was also that Reba was not ready. Didn't she go up on lyrics a few times? I'd have to look back. I believe that in the "old days," the regular Encores shows got maybe 3 rehearsals tops, including the choreo/staging. I think they may do more now, I'm not sure. But I'm pretty sure that these summer productions are thrown together without much time at all.

I like the name Kevin (as in the guy in the original post), so that's always a plus. When I first started looking for my own apartment in Boston post-college, I was fairly clueless as to how to go about it, but I saw an ad for a place I liked and went to the agency that offered it. The agent I talked to was a really cute guy named Michael. After talking to me for a bit to get a sense for what I was looking for and what I could afford, etc, he grabbed a set of keys and told me he thought he had a place I'd like. We walked. I figured it would be in the immediate vicinity - it was actually a ways to get there by foot for someone who didn't yet really know the layout of the city (for those of you that know Boston, it was from an office in Copley to an apartment on Tremont in the South End) but I kept thinking I'd follow this guy anywhere lol. By the way, yes, I took the place - a cozy, cute studio apartment in the years before the South End got too gentrified to be affordable. Michael seemed very cozy and cute too, though no, I never got to find out how cozy.

Generally, probably. But I will say that I've been with a few escorts who really have seemed interested in detailed conversations beforehand so they can really give me the session I wanted. Which is fun, because the chat beforehand can also serve as a kind of foreplay. But I think that starting with a huge long message without getting a sense for the escort's style can be a turn-off. It'll become obvious if the escort likes to keep communication to just "basic business" or if they have a friendlier, more open conversational style.

I'm surprised this gaffe wasn't caught by the Times. "Fathers And Sons" is by Stephen Schwartz, not Craig Carnelia. I'm also a huge fan of this show, and have done 4 productions of it - the original licensed version twice (before it was tinkered with in the 1990's in what I felt became an inferior rewrite) and the latest 2012 revision (which I mostly love) twice. In fact, I just recently was musical director for a college production of the show this past April. Yes, it's a flawed show in some respects, and it will never please everyone. But I think it's really great material, and it's also a lot of fun to perform. I'm glad to see Encores give it a showing, even if some of Brantley's comments above hint at the result being under-rehearsed (as all many of these "concert performances" of musicals tend to be).

Well, even if nothing else were wrong, that would be a dealbreaker.

This is why I feel this forum is so damn important. His profile just appeared in the Boston section of RM, and he'll be here in July. I like his ad, but figured I'd check here and at the reviews site to see if I could find out anything more. Glad I did. I'll assume he's a flake unless someone has any info to add otherwise? His current profile is https://rentmen.eu/CityGuyDet

This looks dreadful. Is this Candide or Bring It On?

Despite all performers who have done productions of the show since 1956, the plot will always be confusing, lol.

And also just announced, Be More Chill will close the same day as The Prom.

For many years, the Lenox Hotel in Boston had a famous piano bar/cabaret room called Diamond Jim's. Back in the early 1990's, when there was a truly bustling cabaret scene in Boston, I was part of a one-night event at Diamond Jim's that we called "Fifty Percent Night." All evening, you could get drinks at half price (yup, that's 50% off) and hear any number of Boston area singers and pianists give their renditions of the song - the only song heard all night. I was with Nunsense at the time, and wrote a fun uptempo jazz arrangement for some for the nuns in the cast to sing. I remember I had been working on an Italian translation to sing a la Pavarotti, but I think I wound up just doing the song straight - or, gay, as it were. I remember it being a very fun night.

One of my favorites. "Fifty Percent" from Ballroom - debuted by Loudon. In this case, a woman who lost her husband a year ago finds an unexpected new partner while dancing with him at the Stardust Ballroom. They fall in love. Later she learns that he is married, in a loveless marriage. Near the end of the show, she sings this anthem defending her relationship with him. For many years, this song was a cabaret staple, but no one does it like her.

Given that the first 2 posts here featured Donna Murphy and Marin Mazzie, I should say that I saw them together in the original Broadway run of Sondheim's Passion, playing two extremely contrasting rivals for a young soldier's love, and they were both perfection. (That production was also filmed on the original Broadway set - I'm not sure it's on youtube but it should be available for purchase if not.) Many of you may know that we lost Mazzie last year, after a long and courageous battle with ovarian cancer. She is irreplaceable. @Merboy - yes - "Could I Leave You" is sung by the character of Phyllis in Follies, who 30 years prior fell in love with "stage door johnny" Ben Stone, when she was a Follies girl. Ben had ambitions for wealth and fame - and Phyllis looking back on her life now (which is the whole theme of the show - characters looking back on the lives they have ended up with - many of them "shadowed" by actors playing their younger selves throughout the show), she bitterly realizes she really sold her soul to try to be the kind of woman Ben wanted her to be. Their marriage is on the rocks, she in particular has become very brittle, he has the success he strove for but feels empty. Two things I'll say about the writing of the song - as I'm a huge Sondheim fan and can't help myself, lol. One is the waltz feel - the wonderful irony of this simple, catchy waltz tune becoming more and more edgy and complex as Phyllis goes on a roll - notice how she has to keep pulling herself back from the brink - reflected in the music by returning to the original tune. Also, the clever way Sondheim uses the word "leave." First, just in the idea of divorcing Ben. Then later, "tell me, how could I leave, when I left long ago" - making the distinction between the physical act of leaving and the emotional one. And then, turning the question around to "could you leave me...well I guess you could leave me the house, leave me the flat..." - so that "leave" is now about what gets "left" to each other in a divorce settlement. And though it's obviously all very cleverly mapped out, it actually comes across as very natural stream-of-consciousness thought. Amazing stuff.

Because that's their latest gimmick. Especially with their Broadway shows now (I assume you know that The Lion King will be foisted upon us next month?). It's the "You saw the cartoon, you saw the stage adaptation of the cartoon, now see the cartoon again but with real people!!!" Next, I can predict a newly-staged Beauty And The Beast based on the live action film, no doubt. It will never end.

Some years back - I had just moved into a new apartment and was having trouble with the phone line. The repairman that came over was a very attractive hunky guy. When he had finished checking the line out, and managed to get my service to work, he said to me that he'd give me a direct number to reach him at in case the connection broke down again. (And he did give me a slip of paper with his number.) This was all very matter-of-fact - no sense of hinting or flirting in this - but oh, I did hold onto that number for a while. I was too chicken to call, though. And I would tend to think that he really was straight, but oh, I had fantasies about him, lol. But then - maybe a year ago or so, I met someone online who just wanted to come by and get blown. When he showed up, he was in full Comcast uniform lol. We laughed about it because I said I had always fantasized about making it with the cable guy lol. We only met that one time, but hey, now I can say I've done that...

Yes, but only if the contractor is in the woods with you, lol.

It seems that for years, Encores has been denied the rights to do any of Jerry Herman's scores, so this is great news indeed. I couldn't care less about Millie. It never really interested me in the first place. Love Life, being a huge Kurt Weill fan, is another story. I'm hoping I can get down to see that. I'm also hoping to see either Working or Road Show this summer.

A few thoughts on some of the other performances: Choir Boy - LOVED it - though I tend to wonder (similar to the Hadestown medley) if the action was just too confusing out of context. Hadestown - likewise, confusing to watch, even though I love this material. (And this is the show I was rooting for the most.) However, everyone sounded great. And hey, I could listen to Reeve Carney sing "I'm comin'" all night lol. The Prom - sorry to say, my only impression is that it's a quasi-retread of Hairspray. And Hairspray has much better songs. Beetlejuice - much more entertaining than I expected - makes me want to find out about the rest of the show. Though I've heard a lot of negative things, so we'll see. I've also decided that at some point, Alex Brightman should play the multiple D'Ysquiths in A Gentleman's Guide. Oklahoma! - I should have expected this, knowing what I know of Fish's direction, but why the hell were they all so angry? Ali Stroker, however, is an inspiration, and her acceptance speech had me crying. I like the new orchestrations (and in fact, the choral arrangement for the title song sounded just about the same as the iconic original one - it was nice to hear them NOT futz with that). Kiss Me Kate - I only wish they had had a little more time to do more of the vocals and build the number a bit more. But I liked the dancing. And speaking of futzing with scores, it's so nice to hear this arrangement, sounding more in the spirit of the original (the 1999 revival version kept flirting with a quasi-West Side Story tonal world, which I really don't get.) Love the solo clarinet writing. Tootsie - let me start by saying that ever since I first heard the CD of The Full Monty, I've been an instant David Yazbek fan. I adore the score to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, I think that Women On The Verge is very fun (and deserved a better break), and The Band's Visit is absolutely gorgeous and very emotional. I can't name you one song in any of those shows that doesn't excite me in some way. And then there was that very disappointing number from Tootsie. I'm hoping that the rest of the score is better (I haven't had the chance to spend time with the recording yet), but I hope they just picked the wrong number to showcase. A real letdown. Be More Chill - well, we were told there wouldn't be a number from this show. But then Corden (or should we say "Ja-ames?") started singing one, ("MIchael In The Bathroom") with new lyrics that composer/lyricist Joe Iconis didn't write. At first I wasn't sure what this was supposed to be - until Groban and Bareilles joined in, and then it really did become fun. Really loved this. My only complaint, indeed, is the sloppy title lyric. "Corden" actually has 2 syllables to match the original song's "Michael" - why they settled on "Ja-ames" I don't know. That's amateur parody writing at its most flagrant. Best performance of the evening - hands down - the classy arrangement of "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" movingly sung by Cynthia Erivo and accompanied by a wonderful chamber group. (Loved the string writing.) It was a fitting accompaniment for the "In Memoriam" segment. If only the cameras could have been more respectfully still.

I tend to think that if I weren't in the biz and/or wasn't such a diehard theatre person in general, I might have hit the remote after the tdious, sloppy and pointless opening number and the overbusy (and musically sloppy) Temptations medley. Not very encouraging. But really, I think the expectation is that the ratings are never going to be exactly stellar, even if this year was worse than usual.

Plus, it's very clear to me that ass play in general is not just a "gay" thing I know straight couples who do anal sex as well as vaginal, and I know straight men who are very aware that that area is an erogenous zone for them. But yes, for others, there is a stigma. During the "puppet sex" sequence in the musical Avenue Q, we hear a male puppet say to his female partner, "you can't put your finger there..." followed by "whoa! Put your finger there!!!" And we all know exactly what's being referred to. For some years now, I've come to terms with the feeling that I'm just not interested in ass-related play. But back in college, I did enjoy rimming. And I do remember rimming a few straight guys, and they always enjoyed it. And in fact, my one real remaining desire to rim is in a fantasy that brings me back to that, in a way - imagining going back to those school years and finally getting my shot with a cocky straight jock type - the guys I secretly drooled over back then but could never get. And at some point, seducing him into letting me finger and eat his ass. And thoroughly enjoying his very audible and conflicted reactions as he struggles with the sensation. Part of him stunned by how awesome it feels - and yet part of him feeling very emotionally vulnerable and taken down a peg, because he realizes that letting this happen and enjoying it is also a huge threat to his perfect masculine image lol. It's fun to think about, anyway.

I think that if SJB had sung in her own voice, I might have liked her better. But she didn't sound like herself, and she didn't sound anything like Cher. She sounded maybe a little bit like Lucy Ricardo did when she was trying to pretend to be a man. Or, as I said, like a bad drag queen just back from the dentist trying to do a Cher impression. Mind you, I'm only judging what I heard last night. But I'm not all that interested in seeing the show, so that may be my only exposure to it. I'll be looking forward to her next show, when hopefully she doesn't have to be trapped aping someone else.

On one hand, I love Stephanie J. Block. (I saw her in the Falsettos revival a few seasons ago - she was fabulous.) On the other hand, last night's musical excerpt was embarrassingly bad. I've settled on the following description: "a Chippendales routine, headlined by a drag queen who was still recovering from serious dental surgery." I suppose it also didn't help that I HATE THAT SONG!!!!!!!! (But that has nothing to do with her odd performance, or the staging of the number itself. It just made it that much more annoying to me, lol.) (Fun fact - for a long time, I though that song was about promiscuity. "Do you believe in love after love after love..." I never got that the first "L" word in there was "life." Regardless, i still find the song to be supremely annoying.)

Tovarich is a forgotten musical. Its composer, Lee Pockriss, had a few gigantic pop hits to his name, including "Johnny Angel" and "Catch A Falling Star." But his musicals aren't remembered at all.

Great clip. She's a lot of fun. Byron Mitchell, also quite fun, is her partner in the scene (you could blink and totally miss Sullivan introducing him, lol). Ed Sullivan is a total mess. Couldn't even get the name of the song right.

You’re making my point well. Thanks.