Sound of Musicals with Neil Brand

[Stanley Stewart]

A pleasure to transfer this 3-part series, (3 hours) to DVD. Neil Brand a witty and informed presenter and interrogator who could also tickle the ivories with the cool ardour of Sam (Dooley Wilson) in 'Casablanca'. Right from the start he revealed how the modern musical was established through a series of pioneering works, examining Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's, Show Boat, and its bold look at America's social divide in the 1920s. He went on to explore innovative uses of songs that further the narrative with several tingle-inducing renditions to Oklahoma! in 1943 en route. By the time we reached the middle of the 20th century the advent of new composers changed our view of what musicals can do; West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, A Chorus Line and Oliver are lovingly deconstructed with the unique oeuvre of Stephen Sondheim given its own celebration- always the bar line for me. As we head for the third decade perhaps the opening of the Sondheim Theatre could establish a base for a new generation of performers to explore revivals starting with the jazz age in the 20th century as well as sensing and shaping the potential for the future of musical theatre? I've often wondered why my enthusiasm has cooled in recent years but the mention of "Disneyfication" in Part 3 delivered a resounding warning!

A refreshing series worth further viewing.

[Serial_Apologist]

I tend to feel that the musical had had its day by the time Tommy and Quadrophenia arrived, let alone Andrew Lloyd Webber's mummification of the handed down musical idiom in rocked up guise. Perhaps its time for a re-think on my part. Thanks for the prompt, Stanley - I'll have a watch of those programmes. Perhaps drawing the line of the musical's origins in the 1920s is a bit late? Wouldn't one class, for instance, "Hiawatha's Wedding" as a being a musical? The dividing line between opéra comique and musical seems tenuous, somehow.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b088n7s9/episodes/player

[ardcarp]

Wouldn't one class, for instance, "Hiawatha's Wedding" as a being a musical?

No.

But I think NB put the origins of Musicals well before 1920, linking it to Edwardian (and possibly Victorian?) Music Hall.



BTW, see also http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...ith-Neil-Brand

[Ferretfancy]

I remember going in a group to see Miss Saigon, one of those musicals which invited us to applaud the scenery. It was certainly brilliantly staged, but I found the music so boring that it made it a tiresome evening. A few days later I asked a friend of mine what she saw in it,"After all," I said it's basically Madam Butterfly, and you can see that down the road at the Coliseum, and with much more memorable music"
"Ah no! " she replied, " That's opera "

This seemed to imply that opera was inevitably too demanding for a popular audience, which I found rather sad.

Neil Brand's last programme brought us into a series of musicals which aim to be significant as well as entertaining, and it certainly worked earlier in West Side Story, but I don't think that musicals should need to shake a fist at the world Beethoven style. It would also be nice to be able to leave the theatre remembering more than one song.

I know it's an old fashioned view, but give me Guys and Dolls any day rather than Les Miserables.