not to be needy or demanding or anything, but i’m still super curious about more of your thoughts on musicals! you said you had at least 10 more and it’s pretty much all i’ve been thinking about the past two days! 🖤 (thank you for responding to the first one by the way 🥹)
I got busy!
- The first time I heard of Julie Taymor, it was when she signed on for what would eventually become the legendary Broadway disaster Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. I’m not sure, but I think my first Taymor movie was Titus with Anthony Hopkins. (I’ve also seen The Tempest with Helen Mirren as Prospero.) But the movie I’ve watched over and over? Across the Universe, her bold, flawed attempt to turn The Beatles’ oeuvre into something approximating a connected narrative. Evan Rachel Wood is adorably fucked-up —she’s the Jennifer Jason Leigh of her generation— and Jim Sturgess was pretty much born to bring charm to a patchwork character like Jude.
- I cannot for the life of me figure out why my parents let me go see The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. I know they were teetering on the edge of divorce and were desperately looking for some Family Activity, but I feel like taking a tween and his little brother to a Dolly Parton/Burt Reynolds musical about cheerful, singing prostitutes was… a choice. I remember being told to cover my eyes every time a tit popped out, but that’s about all the curation they did. I’m being generous to call it a modest work, but Dolly is always a gem, and Burt had more screen charisma than just about anyone on the planet.
- Bo Burnham: Inside is the only perfect thing made during the pandemic. It’s not easy to watch… even when it’s fun, it’s not. But the kid’s gifts are just off-the-charts, and he perfectly captures the vibe of 2020 in a series of catchy, depressing, hilarious songs.
- I ignored Lin Manuel Miranda for a long time, and when I watched Moana, I felt justified in ignoring him… I almost snoozed through it. But when Disney+ released the recording of Hamilton and everyone else was watching it, I figured “what the fuck, join the herd.” So I did. And I was extremely disappointed for about thirty minutes. This oily little twerp can’t sing! What is this shit?! Then Renee Goldsberry raises her glass, the turntable spins backward, the narrative breaks free, and thirty minutes later, the oily little twerp with the thin voice had me crying. Sure, Jonathan Groff and Daveed Diggs steal the show over and over, but how could they not? LMM gave them gold, and they ran with it.
- Jewison’s Jesus Christ Superstar is so fucking ‘70s, I almost feel slapped by all the bell-bottoms. And that fruity, goofy opening on the bus tested my twenty year old patience when I first saw it. But when Carl Anderson’s Judas came roaring on to the screen, I was hooked. Then I realized Yvonne Elliman —whose “If I Can’t Have You” is probably my favorite disco song of all time— was Mary Magdalene and “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” hit, so I was taken from “hooked” to “mesmerized”. I wasn’t instantly in love with Ted Neeley’s Jesus for much of that first viewing, but when he lets loose in Gethsemane… well… Jesus.
- The Little Mermaid wasn’t the first musical I loved, but it was the first one I bought. I grew up in a time when Disney animation was basically garbage, with nothing meaningful being produced for decades… and then along came Ariel with her collection of forks, and that sonorous crab. When Disney released it at a then-unheard-of price of twentysomething bucks, I gave it a shot… over and over and over again.
- My relationship with The Nightmare Before Christmas is trickier. I don’t deny that it’s good, and I grasp that it has dug its claws deep into the culture, but the music… it’s okay. It’s fun. But I seldom find myself humming a tune.
- I’m not going to get all detailed about The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, or Aladdin. They were good. Ashman and Menken kicked ass. I’m not in love with any of them —“Hakuna Matata” was kinda run into the ground at the time— but I acknowledge their value.
- I’m running out of steam here, and I’ve already raved about Encanto on the blog, so I’ll close with the thought that “Surface Pressure” is the best Disney song that isn’t about loving something, and it is perfect.