Sunshine Challenge #7
Jul. 25th, 2020 05:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestIf you've been reading my responses to the Sunshine Challenge, you'll have noticed that I use the prompt as a jumping-off point for talking about something that may or may not be related to fandom. It has been an interesting set of prompts, getting me to write about things I otherwise wouldn't have done, and I'm pondering trying to work out a few more apparently random-ish prompts to see if they spark me to write about stuff that I otherwise would have forgotten about or not bothered to say. Watch this space, I guess.
Anyway, today's prompt is Violet. I'm going to fold 'purple' in with violet, because for me, purple includes a range of colours from dark bluish red through to true violet and probably out again on the other side as far as lilac and mauve.
So. First of all, there is a story here. It's another in my Chronicles series. The purple in this one is a bruise, by the way.
On the![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sunshine_challenge page, Violet is associated with such things as poetry, creativity, music. And, as it happens, the story I linked to is what led me to think of today's subject, because the story was quite a lot inspired by a musical. If you read it, I expect you'll be able to tell which one! And musicals are my subject today.
I love musical theatre as an art form. I know there are people who find the whole concept absurd—people don't burst into song!—which is silly. Accept the premise, or don't go. Music occurs to express things that can be better expressed in music than in speech or other action, and it works. You've fallen in love? Your heart soars and so does the music. You hate the world? Music enhances that. And anyone who thinks it is a purely trivial form should watch some, from Showboat to South Pacific to The Book of Mormon to The Last Session. It says all kinds of things.
I've loved musical theatre for a long time. I joined the choir at school specifically so that I could be in "the opera"—La Belle Helene by Offenbach. In my year at secretarial college before I went to university, I joined a local group that performed The Music Man. While my new husband and I lived in Sutton, I joined the local group that was doing Die Fledermaus, but had an unfortunate obstetric mishap during the dress rehearsal and didn't get to do the show. I also learned to love American standards while I was at Radio Luxembourg—not for any connection with the station, but one of the people I worked with there had a passion for that kind of music and introduced me to the Benny Green show on Radio 2, from which I learned a lot. Not all American standards are from musicals, but there's a strong connection.
But I really got into musical theatre in big way when I joined the amateur theatre group in Hemel, where I remained for twenty-five years.
Twenty-five years and change of performing, plus a lot of shows seen, whether they were by my or another amateur group or on the professional stage. My favourite musical ever is Guys and Dolls, and the best Sky Masterson I have ever seen was Clarke Peters, in that performance at the National Theatre where an utterly brilliant Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat (okay not sung by Sky) actually stopped the show, something I'd never experienced before. After that, Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd jostle for second place. Then probably West Side Story, and after that, there's so much competition! I've seen Kiss Me Kate with a full, lifelike set and Candide with seven trunks and a big piece of cloth. I've seen Into the Woods at the Donmar and 1776 at the Gershwin. So much joy! By the way, if you've only seen Into the Woods or Sweeney Todd on screen, you haven't really seen them. Get live! Er, when you can.
Back in the amateur theatre world, I was Musical Business Manager for several years, and on the Musical committee for longer, so I was involved in show selection for quite a long time. And it's hard, it's really hard! The most commercial shows generally have the least for the chorus to do (and make biggest demands on the leads, of course), and they are owned by Weinbergers and others who will take a mighty chunk of your earnings. It would cost at least £10,000 to put on a show, back when I was active in amateur theatre, what with the royalties, the costumes, renting the scores and libs, paying the orchestra, the set, props, director's fees and what not.
Rodgers and Hammerstein shows were usually winners in terms of bringing in an audience (although in the UK, nothing beats Oliver!, which hauls in a dozen family members for each child on stage!). I was never that excited about Rodgers & Hammerstein's shows—I acknowledge their excellence, but they aren't quite my thing. For one reason or another I never performed in one, the closest I came was to be 'producer' (ie dogsbody to the director) on Oklahoma!
I did get excited, to my surprise, about Gilbert & Sullivan, more and more so as I grew up. I remember being disappointed that the show being put on when I joined was a G&S, though oddly I'm not sure whether it was Pirates or Mikado. But G&S shows are brilliant for amateurs because they are out of copyright. You are not held to ransom by any of the rights holders, you can just book a set of scores and libs from the county library—and profit! Of course, people don't flock to see G&S as they flock to see other musicals, but this is because audiences are sadly undiscriminating and do not realise how magnificently funny these shows are.
I've been in The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. I've also directed both, plus Pinafore and Iolanthe. And I even played Frederic… Oh, drat. I am certain I've written about playing Frederick before, but I cannot find the link. If I tagged it, I can't recognise the tag. Sigh. Well. I was directing The Pirates of Penzance, and mid-way through the run I received a call from my Frederic to say that he had cut his hand open, could see the bone, and was going to the hospital. Wasn't sure if he'd be able to make it to the theatre….. Cue panic. Cue desperate phoning of every theatre group in the county to see if they had a Frederic. They didn't.
Eventually, I decided to do it myself, with our musical director, a wonderful tenor, to sing the part while I lipsynched. Oh yes. It was a very weird experience. I mean, on the one hand, it is every actor's nightmare to be on stage in a part you've never practised. On the other hand, all the fun of playing it! I knew it pretty well—the songs eat their way into your head, and there is precious little dialogue in Pirates. I wrote out my meagre lines and slipped the piece of paper into my sleeve just in case, revising it before each scene. And I had *set* everything so in theory I knew where to stand and what to do. The dance scene with Ruth and the Pirate King was quite a challenge, ahaha! Still, I got through it, even to the extent of prompting my poor Major General, who was thrown by the sight of Me where he was used to someone else and forgot a line.
Fortunately, our Frederic was back, arm interestingly reposing in a sling, for the final two performances.
Anyway. I'm unable to decide whether my favourite G&S show is Pirates, or Iolanthe, or Mikado. If you get the chance to see any of these done by a team with a sense of Britishness, they are all delightful, and clearly marked 'not to be taken seriously'. I have some unhappy memories associated with the Mikado I directed, because our MD behaved like a shit—but the cast were wonderful and I think we ended up with a rather good production. I was proud of them, though not of the MD, who was actually *texting* during the performance and was late on a cue.
The best production I was ever in was Cabaret. It's a brilliant show—it has a kind of cousinly relationship with the film, some music in common, some plot in common—and we did it *very* well. I was a Kit Kat girl (at nearly forty)(see icon), and spent most of the rehearsals practising dance routines and getting fit. Trust me, when you have to dash offstage, do a quick (minimal) change and dash on again to perform a Russian dance, you get fit. And there's the can-can, of course.
There are a few contenders for worst production… Sweet Charity was not impressive. Calamity Jane is a really stupid show for amateurs to attempt, as there are always far too many women around to make the story even plausible, plus there's hardly any music for chorus. Our Sweeney Todd wasn't a bad production, but it was not as good as it could have been (I kept re-directing it in my head as we went through), not least because the MD found teaching the music to be boring, so didn't, and the 'company' was not the usual, familiar crowd and had no coherency.
I've done other posts about aspects of amateur theatre, if anyone is interested:
On directing: https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/414658.html
On auditions: https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/381359.html and https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/384166.html
and on the media misrepresentation of amateur theatre: https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/387050.html
Yes, I've probably stretched the Violet prompt quite a long way, but that's part of the fun!
Anyway, today's prompt is Violet. I'm going to fold 'purple' in with violet, because for me, purple includes a range of colours from dark bluish red through to true violet and probably out again on the other side as far as lilac and mauve.
So. First of all, there is a story here. It's another in my Chronicles series. The purple in this one is a bruise, by the way.
On the
sunshine_challenge page, Violet is associated with such things as poetry, creativity, music. And, as it happens, the story I linked to is what led me to think of today's subject, because the story was quite a lot inspired by a musical. If you read it, I expect you'll be able to tell which one! And musicals are my subject today.I love musical theatre as an art form. I know there are people who find the whole concept absurd—people don't burst into song!—which is silly. Accept the premise, or don't go. Music occurs to express things that can be better expressed in music than in speech or other action, and it works. You've fallen in love? Your heart soars and so does the music. You hate the world? Music enhances that. And anyone who thinks it is a purely trivial form should watch some, from Showboat to South Pacific to The Book of Mormon to The Last Session. It says all kinds of things.
I've loved musical theatre for a long time. I joined the choir at school specifically so that I could be in "the opera"—La Belle Helene by Offenbach. In my year at secretarial college before I went to university, I joined a local group that performed The Music Man. While my new husband and I lived in Sutton, I joined the local group that was doing Die Fledermaus, but had an unfortunate obstetric mishap during the dress rehearsal and didn't get to do the show. I also learned to love American standards while I was at Radio Luxembourg—not for any connection with the station, but one of the people I worked with there had a passion for that kind of music and introduced me to the Benny Green show on Radio 2, from which I learned a lot. Not all American standards are from musicals, but there's a strong connection.
But I really got into musical theatre in big way when I joined the amateur theatre group in Hemel, where I remained for twenty-five years.
Twenty-five years and change of performing, plus a lot of shows seen, whether they were by my or another amateur group or on the professional stage. My favourite musical ever is Guys and Dolls, and the best Sky Masterson I have ever seen was Clarke Peters, in that performance at the National Theatre where an utterly brilliant Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat (okay not sung by Sky) actually stopped the show, something I'd never experienced before. After that, Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd jostle for second place. Then probably West Side Story, and after that, there's so much competition! I've seen Kiss Me Kate with a full, lifelike set and Candide with seven trunks and a big piece of cloth. I've seen Into the Woods at the Donmar and 1776 at the Gershwin. So much joy! By the way, if you've only seen Into the Woods or Sweeney Todd on screen, you haven't really seen them. Get live! Er, when you can.
Back in the amateur theatre world, I was Musical Business Manager for several years, and on the Musical committee for longer, so I was involved in show selection for quite a long time. And it's hard, it's really hard! The most commercial shows generally have the least for the chorus to do (and make biggest demands on the leads, of course), and they are owned by Weinbergers and others who will take a mighty chunk of your earnings. It would cost at least £10,000 to put on a show, back when I was active in amateur theatre, what with the royalties, the costumes, renting the scores and libs, paying the orchestra, the set, props, director's fees and what not.
Rodgers and Hammerstein shows were usually winners in terms of bringing in an audience (although in the UK, nothing beats Oliver!, which hauls in a dozen family members for each child on stage!). I was never that excited about Rodgers & Hammerstein's shows—I acknowledge their excellence, but they aren't quite my thing. For one reason or another I never performed in one, the closest I came was to be 'producer' (ie dogsbody to the director) on Oklahoma!
I did get excited, to my surprise, about Gilbert & Sullivan, more and more so as I grew up. I remember being disappointed that the show being put on when I joined was a G&S, though oddly I'm not sure whether it was Pirates or Mikado. But G&S shows are brilliant for amateurs because they are out of copyright. You are not held to ransom by any of the rights holders, you can just book a set of scores and libs from the county library—and profit! Of course, people don't flock to see G&S as they flock to see other musicals, but this is because audiences are sadly undiscriminating and do not realise how magnificently funny these shows are.
I've been in The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. I've also directed both, plus Pinafore and Iolanthe. And I even played Frederic… Oh, drat. I am certain I've written about playing Frederick before, but I cannot find the link. If I tagged it, I can't recognise the tag. Sigh. Well. I was directing The Pirates of Penzance, and mid-way through the run I received a call from my Frederic to say that he had cut his hand open, could see the bone, and was going to the hospital. Wasn't sure if he'd be able to make it to the theatre….. Cue panic. Cue desperate phoning of every theatre group in the county to see if they had a Frederic. They didn't.
Eventually, I decided to do it myself, with our musical director, a wonderful tenor, to sing the part while I lipsynched. Oh yes. It was a very weird experience. I mean, on the one hand, it is every actor's nightmare to be on stage in a part you've never practised. On the other hand, all the fun of playing it! I knew it pretty well—the songs eat their way into your head, and there is precious little dialogue in Pirates. I wrote out my meagre lines and slipped the piece of paper into my sleeve just in case, revising it before each scene. And I had *set* everything so in theory I knew where to stand and what to do. The dance scene with Ruth and the Pirate King was quite a challenge, ahaha! Still, I got through it, even to the extent of prompting my poor Major General, who was thrown by the sight of Me where he was used to someone else and forgot a line.
Fortunately, our Frederic was back, arm interestingly reposing in a sling, for the final two performances.
Anyway. I'm unable to decide whether my favourite G&S show is Pirates, or Iolanthe, or Mikado. If you get the chance to see any of these done by a team with a sense of Britishness, they are all delightful, and clearly marked 'not to be taken seriously'. I have some unhappy memories associated with the Mikado I directed, because our MD behaved like a shit—but the cast were wonderful and I think we ended up with a rather good production. I was proud of them, though not of the MD, who was actually *texting* during the performance and was late on a cue.
The best production I was ever in was Cabaret. It's a brilliant show—it has a kind of cousinly relationship with the film, some music in common, some plot in common—and we did it *very* well. I was a Kit Kat girl (at nearly forty)(see icon), and spent most of the rehearsals practising dance routines and getting fit. Trust me, when you have to dash offstage, do a quick (minimal) change and dash on again to perform a Russian dance, you get fit. And there's the can-can, of course.
There are a few contenders for worst production… Sweet Charity was not impressive. Calamity Jane is a really stupid show for amateurs to attempt, as there are always far too many women around to make the story even plausible, plus there's hardly any music for chorus. Our Sweeney Todd wasn't a bad production, but it was not as good as it could have been (I kept re-directing it in my head as we went through), not least because the MD found teaching the music to be boring, so didn't, and the 'company' was not the usual, familiar crowd and had no coherency.
I've done other posts about aspects of amateur theatre, if anyone is interested:
On directing: https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/414658.html
On auditions: https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/381359.html and https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/384166.html
and on the media misrepresentation of amateur theatre: https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/387050.html
Yes, I've probably stretched the Violet prompt quite a long way, but that's part of the fun!
no subject
Date: 2020-07-25 04:41 pm (UTC)It was a joy to read about your passion for theatre and how involved you have been in the art over the years. Thank you for taking part this year!
no subject
Date: 2020-07-25 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-26 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-26 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-25 04:48 pm (UTC)So many shows feel the compulsion to do a musical show when they hit certain episode numbers. It's like it's a requirement, something to tick off. Some shows do it wonderfully (e.g. The Bright Sessions), some weave in the endearing we-wanna-do-this-even-though-we-don't-really-know-how! -side (see, SPN). And, unfortunately, some just make me cringe and wish the creators just concentrated on what they know best instead of forcing out a musical episode just because it's something you gotta do because Tropes.
Um... I feel like I went off on a tangent there. Sorry about that.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-25 09:11 pm (UTC)I haven't seen that many musical episodes, only the Buffy one, which I thought was pretty damn good (but Joss Whedon is obviously a fan of the genre). The idea that it is a Thing That We Must Do is just silly, though. At least Buffy sorta justified it...
Tangents are fine! What would conversation be without them?
no subject
Date: 2020-07-26 11:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-26 01:29 pm (UTC)I liked the Angel puppets episode.
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Date: 2020-07-26 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2020-07-27 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-29 07:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-29 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2020-07-25 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-26 12:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-26 01:30 pm (UTC)It certainly makes a wonderful, at times very stressful, hobby.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-26 09:26 am (UTC)I think Calamity Jane has some of the best songs. 'Black Hills' and 'Whip crack away', but there are so many good musical songs.
Musicals are about being happy, darn it.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-26 01:31 pm (UTC)Musicals are mostly about being happy, though audiences at West Side Story and Sweeney Todd might not agree.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-26 01:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-26 01:34 pm (UTC)I also have a slightly embarrassed love for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. So much wrong, but so much gloriously right.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-27 05:37 pm (UTC)I remember loving this musical when I was in my teens! Swedish tv used to show A LOT of old musicals in the afternoons back in the 70s but I haven't seen it since then so I've no idea what I would think of it now. My love for 'Easter Parade' and 'Singing in the Rain' has stayed strong but I think that's probably because of the actors more than the singing and dancing.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-29 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-26 01:38 pm (UTC)Someday I'd love to see a musical live with real people in the flesh,haha! That is something I know is a different experience and being there in the moment-GOSH!!WANT SO BAD!!
no subject
Date: 2020-07-26 09:32 pm (UTC)musicals
Date: 2020-07-27 11:22 pm (UTC)I love live musical theater! I so rarely get to go. (The cost is prohibitive.) But when I do, I love it. A friend took me to Come From Away last year (which sounded like a terrible idea for a musical so I agreed with some trepidation, but I loved it) and a relative of hers had plans to visit this year and she asked if I would be interested in going again if she bought tickets for all of us. Of course, that was before the current situation and the show has been rescheduled for next spring.
My mother was musically inclined so I remember getting to see a lot of community theater productions when I was a kid growing up. I think the first thing I fell in love with was Fiddler on the Roof. Kid-me didn't follow the plot at all, but I loved the music.
As a young adult, I would occasionally get given free tickets to see plays at the local community theater (some musicals, some not) as my boss had season tickets and sometimes he just didn't feel like going, so with almost no warning I'd get offered tickets. I never even cared what was playing; I was not passing up free tickets!
I've even been to a few pretty decent high-school productions.
And there was a small and very affordable little community theater near where I used to live that would put on shows; nothing I recognized the name of (other than their annual Dickens' Christmas Carol production), but after each play they always ended with a bunch of vaudeville comedy and musical skits so you knew it would be fun regardless.
For proper (Broadway-esque) touring productions, I've seen Cats (many, many years ago), Wicked, Book of Mormon, Les Mis, and Come From Away.
unrelated tangent re: Die Fledermaus There was a Saturday morning cartoon called The Tick and one of the superheroes was "Die Fledermaus" but I'd never seen that spelled out so I heard the name and assumed his name was "Deflator Mouse". (I wasn't clear, but assumed his superpower had something to do with inflating and deflating himself?) I was a grown-ass adult before I figured that out.
Re: musicals
Date: 2020-07-29 07:19 pm (UTC)Re: musicals
Date: 2020-07-29 11:38 pm (UTC)You have not missed much with Cats. It was all the rage at the time, but I was underwhelmed. I'm glad to have seen Les Mis to get all the pop culture references to it, but it wasn't a favorite. (I've only seen the movie version of 1776.) Loved Book of Mormon (paid full price to see it by myself). Come From Away was sooooo good. I highly recommend it if you get the chance.
Re: musicals
Date: 2020-07-30 03:56 pm (UTC)I saw the stage version of 1776 first, and it was one of those minimal-set productions - basically a revolve, on one side of which was Congress, and on the other side, usually something of the order of a park bench. I loved it. I'll keep an eye open for Come From Away, but at the moment I don't think it's very likely to turn up.
Re: musicals
Date: 2020-07-30 05:02 pm (UTC)Yup. I had a lot of moments of, "Oh! This is what that song is originally from!" Because I probably already knew half the songs without realizing it.
Just in case you haven't seen this classic, SNL's Diner Lobster:
https://youtu.be/Pj-D0jc17D0
"Blankets and Bedding" from Come From Away
https://youtu.be/ChH1xH5OJ9I
(This song really encapsulates the spirit of the musical. It's about a tragedy yet it's somehow funny and uplifting but never trivializes the sad parts. All the characters are based on real people. Everything I've read or watched indicates the real people are thrilled with the musical and so much more was based on reality than I expected. i.e. the rookie reporter really was brand new to the job, the joke about too many people donating toilet paper so they told them to stop really happened, etc, all paraphrased to be more dramatic obviously but very true to the spirit of what happened)
no subject
Date: 2020-07-29 07:54 am (UTC)I knew you had theatrical experience, but wow! You've done so much! I wish I could've seen your Frederic. That sounds AMAZING.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-29 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-08-03 11:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-08-03 03:19 pm (UTC)I came to my own level of peace with RPF a long time ago (15 years, now), and people who still insist it is Bad and Creepy and Wrong just seem out of touch to me. Heh. (Besides, you can probably make a far better legal case against FPF than against RPF.)
no subject
Date: 2020-07-29 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-30 03:57 pm (UTC)