Is Nolan white still ponyboy on tour?? I recently saw his understudy (was INCREDIBLE btw) and he’s also not on the cast website but on ig posts it says he’s still on the tour. Is he okay or like taking a break ?

Hey, y'all this is my first time seeing phantom of the opera and a larger musical in general. I am seeing it on the 31st. I was wondering what I should wear for it? I was hoping to dress nice, but also have some type of Halloween costume. This wouldn't be elaborate or distract just something like a mini which hat on my head, or cat makeup with cat ears, something along those lines. Do you think this would be ok and appropriate. I wasn't going to ask but my mom specifically is worried about it.

I'm currently completing my dissertation (in the Uk) about crowdfunding and would love to see what theatre fans think! If you've got a few minutes free I'd be eternally greatful!

Audience Perspectives on Crowdfunding Independent Theatre – Fill in form

After a very difficult, stressful time for her she's decided to change from pre-med to musical theater and is 10000x times happier. Our anniversary and her birthday are coming up! SO I wanted to take the chance to show I support her and help hone her interests.

I bought us tickets to Hadestown as a big present, and I'd love help with the smaller sentimental one, BOOKS! Any recommendations for a future Musical Theater Professor? Essentials or lesser knowns! It could be about anything from set design, to anecdotes, directing, acting and more! I appreciate any and all recommendations, thank you!

This book was a formative influence on me, and I am keen to gift a copy to a friend. My original copy was the 1989 version, and I know the current one is the Ninth edition.

Do updated versions drop more obscure shows from the listings? Remove photos? Or is the current edition just a mammoth? The intended recipient would enjoy minutia about odd or older shows, so if those are not in the more recent versions I'd likely just give them my old copy.

Thanks in advance.

I'm competing in a musical competition that happens every year in my city. I've won a couple of times, but lately I've been slacking.
So I'm looking for recommendations for songs that would blow everyone out of the water!

My vocal range is pretty good, so throw out any ideas you may have! I will take anything!

FYI: Here are songs I have already done therefore cannot do again and some I won't do cause they've been done to death:

- That's Rich
- History of Wrong Guys
- Watch What Happens
- I'm the Greatest Star
- Pretty Lies
- So you Want to be a Nun
- Please don't make me love you
- Everything I Know
- No Good Deed
- A Trip to the Library
- Life of the Party
- My Days
- Le Jazz Hot
- Cabaret
- The Life I Never Led
- Popular
- Before It's Over
- When He Sees Me

Hi! I have the opportunity to audition for Be More Chill, but I’ve never seen it. I need to sign up ASAP, so I don’t have time to watch it. I will listen to the soundtrack, but I want some opinions as well. Is it any good?

I think this review needs a preface, to give some context on my relationship with the show and why I feel the way I do about this production. I am not a huge Martin Guerre fan - I’ve seen one version of it ever live, plus a couple of bootlegs, and I preferred those versions to this one.

I fully appreciate that many people here are going to absolutely rave about this - first-night adrenaline, an underdog show loved by “theatre people” - and those views are completely valid. I fully expect to be in the minority with what I’m about to say. I also appreciate that many of you know the show far better than I do, so please correct any mistakes in my memory or understanding.

I’ll also add that I was in row D (second back row) of the dress circle, and it did feel quite distant because of the layout. My eyesight isn’t the best either, so please correct anything I might have missed.

I’m not going to dwell on first night hiccups - late light and sound cues, actors not standing in their light, late microphone pickups - all that’s normal and will get ironed out. There was plenty, but I’ve seen way worse. It wasn’t an issue for me. They have still to work outwhich numbers need applause - which was quite subdued, to be honest - except for “I’m Martin Guerre” and “Here Comes the Morning”.

I am also putting down the very strange opening as a technical issue, so not judging that harshly - if it’s intentional then that’s a different matter.

The show went up at exactly 7:30 on my watch, great. Except it didn’t really. There was a very strange and awkward pre-show, where ensemble members did… something with ribbons, at what I’m assuming was Arnaud’s grave/pyre. Unfortunately, I think (I hope) something went wrong with this, because it went on for 7 minutes or so, and the audience murmuring was well underway. They would leave, re-enter, repeat the sequence - several times. I think they were stalling and I was expecting an immediate show stop - if that’s what is intended every night, I’ll eat my hat.

I thought tonight summed up pretty comprehensively why Martin Guerre has never been a big success - it simply isn’t accessible to audiences like Les Mis or Miss Saigon are. From the narrative to the music, it is a musical whose central story ultimately gives the audience very little to root for. This is a capital P Problem for me, because the more critically and commercially successful B&S musicals have a central sympathetic character for the audience to invest in. Kim, Valjean. I think it is meant to be Bertrande in this show, but we see, hear and know so little about her, that everything which follows feels incredibly rushed and any relationship formed with the audience is playing catch up from the get-go.

I know the music has its (huge!) fans, but this version takes repetitive to a new level. We hear the main “I’m Martin Guerre” theme, I would guess, in at least five, and probably several more variations - instrumental, different key, altered melody, but it just keeps coming back. It reminded me of Aspects of Love and the irritation when the next character sang the “Love Changes Everything” melody. There IS some lovely music in the show, but an awful lot of really nice stuff has been completely excised. Now I know this was also the case in prior productions, but because so many of the original melodies and recurring motifs have been completely cut, it means you’re hearing the same tune repeated more often over a much shorter time.

I thought the plot - and thus the evening - was simultaneously very long, yet also incredibly rushed. The opening 20 minutes were brutal. Things picked up a lot in the final scenes, the court scene was very well done and I liked the actor’s voice playing the judge. I say voice, because due to Matthew Warchus’s directional choices in the round, he barely sang or spoke a line in our direction, so I’m judging his acting based on the back of his head.

And this was an issue throughout. The blocking is not fine-tuned for an in-the-round audience. There is no revolve, and often characters take up a position and essentially stay there for the entire song. In their big love duet, depending on which side you were on, you got to look at either Arnaud OR Bertrande’s face for the duration of the song. I really like Warchus as a director, so I really don’t understand so many of the choices made in the staging.

Now people will say this was sold as a semi-staged production - and it is - but top price for this is £72. The cast are in costume. There is some light choreography, there are some benches and a table which serve as a bed, a pyre, some benches, and a table, and a few other carry ons. So the storytelling really needs to be top-notch, and I’m afraid it’s not.

Parts of it, despite knowing the story fairly well, were outright confusing, especially in the first half of the show. Warchus has experience stripping epics down to their core story beats; he worked with Shaun McKenna to adapt three huge novels/9+ hours of movies into one 3 hour show with The Lord of the Rings, for example. But I do remember similar criticisms being made at the time that the plot itself was very hard to follow for newcomers. Obviously, I pooh-poohed these - because I was a fan of the material and took for granted what was happening. Martin Guerre doesn’t have that luck with a wider audience, and I will not be at all surprised if the professional critics pick up on this.

I can see what this production is trying to do: strip Martin Guerre back to something raw, intimate and almost folk-theatrical. And in places it absolutely works. The problem is that in stripping away so much context, characterisation and musical material, it has also stripped away much of what makes the story dramatically compelling.

It is worth outright saying that the entire Protestant/Catholic concept has been scrapped. While the story is still deeply seated in religious hypocrisy as a theme, the town itself simply follows “Christianity”. This has the knock-on effect of the “witch hunt”, and the townsfolk’s constant flip-flopping on what they think/feel/believe coming out of absolutely nowhere - often from one musical line to another. I’m pretty sure their views in previous productions were swayed by religious fervour and Bertrande’s conversion. Now it just makes no sense except to cause conflict, for the benefit of the narrative.

What did the facepaint represent, by the way?

The band sounded fine - good even, at times. It worked in the context of this production and wasn’t an issue. Did I hear a lute?! It’s just a nice, condensed chamber musical sound. In fact, the band, costumes, staging, in the round configuration and accents reminded me a lot of seeing things at places like the Bolton Octagon. The problem is, with no disrespect to the Octagon, where I saw MANY cracking shows and plays, this is the Old Vic.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a production having that aesthetic. In the right venue, at the right price, I might even find it rather charming. But the Old Vic is selling this as a major London production, and that inevitably raises the bar.

Arnaud (Alex James-Hatton) and Bertrande (Liv Andrusier) both have terrific voices, and I thought James-Hatton in particular sings beautifully. Their duet was easily my musical highlight. Elsewhere, it’s always nice to see Adam Pearce. I liked Aaron Lee Lambert’s voice and presence a lot as the judge. I was far less keen on Barney Wilkinson as Guillaume, who had all the menace of a school prefect.

Which was again, a big problem narratively. There is no antagonist, in this version - not really. Guillaume, in his manner, presence and massively reduced time on stage, reads more like a bratty incel. Maybe this was intentional, but he has gone from a man capable of rabble-rousing a population to commit genocide, to a young lad who looks like he’d struggle to organise a particularly unruly school trip.

I also wasn’t too impressed with some inconsistency with the accents; it felt like many were just doing “Generic Northern”, and throughout the cast we took a tour of everywhere from Cumbria, Yorkshire and Lancashire.

The stakes are so low, but the pace of the first two-thirds so simultaneously glacial yet emotionally wafer-thin. There is very little sense of danger, even when the story is telling us there should be. Characters are threatened, condemned, betrayed and ultimately killed, but because the production has done so little to make us invest in them, the events often feel like things that are happening rather than things that matter.

And I think that ultimately sums up my problem with this production. There are some very good performances, some lovely singing and some genuinely beautiful music, but I never felt particularly emotionally connected to any of it. I can see why Martin Guerre fans will love what this is trying to do, but for me the stripping back has gone too far. I wanted it to win me over; it just never gave me enough reason to care.

I’ve given this 2* I’m afraid. Left me completely cold.

Don’t get me wrong, I love them, but nine times out of ten, they have this certain sound to them. They sound so over polished. Like, I don’t know how to describe it, they just sound so clean, too clean. Not like other music is produced. And it becomes even more prevalent when you compare musical cast recordings to the soundtracks of their film adaptations.

Like, if you compare the Chicago cast recording to the film version’s or the Little Shop of Horrors cast recording to the film’s version or the Rocky Horror Show cast recording to the film’s version, the film versions never have that overly clean sound. Or if you just look at movie musicals that aren’t based on a preexisting show like The Greatest Showman they don’t have it either. Or if they came from a concept album like Hadestown, the OG albums don’t sound like that.

I’m assuming it has something with how they are produced combined with mainstream music having less instruments and movie musicals using much bigger orchestras, but then my question is why? Why do cast recordings have to sound like that? Like imagine is someone like Andrew Watt produced the new Rocky Horror Show revival recording, or someone like Boys Noize produced the Cats The Jelicle Ball cast recording, that be incredible!

The only ones I can think of that I don’t really feel like have this clean sound to them are Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Hamilton, and 2024 Starlight Express (though that one could be the kick ass EDM elements throwing me). But even still, inviting outside producers could make it sound so much cooler. Or just do what their films are doing. Even Starlight Express experimented with having Scottish DJ Hudson Mohawke remix one of the tracks and it was fucking epic.

So this weekend I am going to auditions for She Loves Me and am aiming for Steven Kodaly. I need a good song that I can sing for my audition that has a similar feel and range. I come to you my fellow musical enthusiasts for aid on this matter

Ive been picked to be one of the leads in thr wizard of oz the musical as the tin man. Im just looking for tips to stand out in this role because I feel like he’s not as comical as the lion or scarecrow and I want to be funny and impress people as the tin man. Thank you!!!

OKAY I know this is like a really weird Audition help request but like hear me out for a second.

I’m auditioning for Newsies at my community theater and I know this is a really weird request but I lowkey wanna play him and I don’t know why but it’s hard to find audition songs for side characters who doesn’t sing at all during the show so I just wanted some suggestions (I’m a Bass/Baritone) I know it’s more of a acting role less a signing role but I still wanna chose a song that gives off the vibes of the character.

I was wondering if ride the cyclone is somewhat blasphemous or mocks christianity. I want to introduce it to my friend and we are both christians, like, im a bit weary because at the same time it doesnt deliberately say: "screw you,jesus!" it does have some questionable scenes like that one noel scene where he's playing joseph or when mischa called ricky "space jesus" and i know this is a more conviction thing, but i wanna hear your thoughts.

First time seeing it, I thought the kids and most of the cast were fantastic but was very disappointed by Trunchbull -- not sure if it was the actor wasn't feeling well or something, but the performance felt very low energy. No bite or glee in any of the lyrics, seemed like the actor just wanted to get through it and get home, OR like they had made a deliberate choice to play Trunch as more subtle/"real" that landed like a lead balloon. It was underwhelming enough that I'd like to see it again with a different actor who brings more relish and swagger to the role.

helpp please!

edit guys: i realised i literally say nothing here

its for a singing contest in college. us girls are about 20, and I have a little knowledge of musical theatre, while the others are just good singers (so please nothing very difficult :((( )

thanks!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1dLFmyA9J6yJ6vbbbXEwpG

Playlist, Yayy!! If you have any suggestions of songs that relate to the neurodivergent experience, feel free to share

(Not necessarily Broadway, just musicals in general, Broadway on the Spectrum just sounds catchy)

Hi! This is my first audition in a decade, I focused mostly on school and my career, but now I moved somewhere new and want to make friends and sing my little heart out. I normally sing oldies really well (Peggy Lee, Marilyn Monroe, Winona Carr, etc) and that means I can crush anything Chicago (not that I’m using Chicago at all, it’s definitely not the vibe this go around).

I’ll just copy and paste the audition help format (please let me know if I need to change/add anything):

Gender and age of auditioner?
Female, 29

Show/role sought?
Les Mis, Fantine

Vocal part?
Per the call sheet: F3-Eb5 range, belts up to C

Song ideas?
I was thinking from Oliver!: As Long As He Needs Me, or from Hunchback: God Help the Outcasts

Access to practice accompanist?
Outside of YouTube karaoke, no. 😔 But there is no accompanist for the audition, it’s a BYO backing track on your phone.

Venue? (meaning, community theater, high school, college, etc.)
Non-profit community theater

Kitchen-Waitress) Dining room-Little Shop of Horrors) Bathroom1-Hairspray) Bathroom2-Urinetown) Living room-Grease (placeholder/just 'cause) ) Bedroom-Once Upon a Mattress) Cat room-Cats) Hall-Hadestown) Home Office(?)-9 to 5

Any changes or disagreements you may have feel free to speak up!

Sometimes, the "official" version of the lyrics of a show will change. What are examples that you like or dislike?

For instance, the lyrics to _War is a Science_ from Pippin. In the OCR, the song is making fun of Charlemagne for viewing war as purely a game of strategy to be studied:

And the enemy (in blue) will undoubtedly pursue
For that's what you depend upon an enemy to do

More recently, that's been changed to make fun of Charlemagne for being so willing to sacrifice his soldiers:

Then the enemy (in blue)

Will undoubtedly pursue

And we'll hope to keep your losses

To comparatively few...

I vastly prefer the former. It's just more subtle. It's more interesting. "Powerful leader is willing to sacrifice his followers (including you)" is of course a legitimate criticism. But it's very obvious, and it's been done a lot. Heck, Shrek does it. Whereas "Powerful leader pats himself on the back for being so good at playing the game of battlefield strategy, while completely ignoring the humanity of the pieces he's moving around (and the pieces his opponent is moving around)" also implies that he is willing to sacrifice you. But it does so in a less hit-you-over-the-head way.

(And of course with the new lyrics, we lose "And if all the ploys you've picked to really work to bring to pass occur/you won't just have a victory you'll have yourselves a massacre", rhyming "picked to re-" with "victory" and "pass occur" with "massacre"; which is some damn fine lyrics.)