What else could I write about this week other than the Dolly Parton musical 9 to 5. Based off the iconic 1980 film of the same name starring Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin. Patricia Resnick who co-wrote the film returned to write the book with a new original score by Dolly Parton.

The plot follows three women (Violet, Judy, and Doralee) as they deal with a male-dominated workspace and an extremely misogynistic boss (or as the musical describes him “a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot”). After “accidentally” tying him up in his house, hilarity ensues the women take over the firm with great success. I remember the first time watching the movie and it is up there for the most I’ve ever laughed watching any movie (currently filming for free on Philo for those wanting a rewatch! I know I’m going to!)

2. The History

Dolly Parton revealed in 2005 on an interview with Larry King that she was working a musical adapation of the film. Flashforward to 2008 the musical was having it’s out-of-town tryout in Los Angeles before transferring to Broadway soon after.

The Broadway production was directed by Joe Mantello (recent Tony Award winner for his work on Death of a Salesman this year) and featured an all-star cast of Broadway bigwigs and future bigwigs. Academy and Emmy Award winner Allison Janney took on the role of Violet, future Tony Award winner Stephanie J. Block took on the role of Judy, future two-time Tony nominee Megan Hilty, three-time Tony nominee Marc Kudish, and future three-time Tony nominee (and Olivier Award winner) Andy Karl.

It got decent reviews but critics seemingly agreed that it lost a little something in the transition to the stage but most agreeing the score had some bangers and the acting was phenomenal and overall a fun night. It got an oustanding 15 Drama Desk nominations (only winning Best Actress for Janney) but in a highly competitive 2009 Tony Award season (featuring Pulitzer Prize winning Next to Normal, Olivier winning Billy Elliot amongst others) it only got 4 nominations (Score, Actress for Janney, Featured Actor for Kudish, and Choreography for Andy Blankenbuehler of Hamilton fame) winning none.

I will say, the 2009 Tony Award opening is one of my favorites (featuring Elton John, Dolly Parton, Liza Minnelli, Poison, amongst other heavyhitters)

9 to 5 went on to tour the US and England and eventually got a revamped West End run in 2019 which also got a cast recording.

3. Favorite Fun Fact about the show

I actually don’t think I have much about a fun fact here. David Hasselhoff of Baywatch fame made his West End debut in the London production as Franklin Hart.

4. Favorite Lyric

Stating I don’t agree with these lyrics but I’ve always loved "Always A Woman” sung by Franklin Hart (again do NOT agree with these!)

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🎵Women just use us, they trick us and confuse us
Like Adam, and Sampson, and John! Poor John!
His head on a platter, no choice in the matter
Now I'm not Baptist, but I have been conned!🎵

and then more appropriate for 9 to 5, Violet singing about feeling fulfilled for the first time in years

---

🎵Hey, would you look at me
It's hard to believe I'm a star after all of this time
Others may glow
From the stardust I throw
On their path never thinking I'd shine
Like some hollywood queen
I've arrived on the scene
A sensation
The toast of the town

(Oh she's fabulous!)

I'm wallowing in it
I love every minute
So up, I may never come down!🎵

5. If you only have time for one song

I mean come on, you know it had to be the title song. Here’s the video of the West End cast performing it! (Also I have issue with on the Broadway cast recording a man getting the first line of the musical. What are we doing people)

6. Concluding thoughts

Cause I'm saying goodbye and I won't wait for your return. So get out and stay out, I've finally had enough

(don’t actually stay out! please come back next week!!)

Dolly Parton had such an incredible life and career and 9 to 5 the musical is such a small fraction of it (imagine writing a Broadway musical with original music and it’s just a footnote of your career and philanthropic efforts!). Happy to write about it and celebrate her and share her amazing work with others who might not have even known it existed! Stay tuned, the Dolly jukebox musical is set to be on Broadway pretty soon so you might be seeing double Dolly before you know it!

I do hope next time 9 to 5 gets revived on Broadway it has a bit more diversity. Would love to see a revival focused on minority, trans, lesbian women who have an even harder time in most workplaces.

If you asked me yesterday morning what musical I was going to write about today, School of Rock would not have been top two, but I found myself watching the 2003 Jack Black and Mike White film of the same name that inspired it and well here we are!

School of Rock follows down-on-his-luck rocker Dewey Finn in desperate need of some cash and a rock band after being kicked out of his own (Broadway’s own Adam Pascal plays his replacement in the movie!). He finds an opportunity for both by pretending to be his best friend, substitute teacher Ned Schneebly. What starts as a just a quick scam to make a few buck turns into a full scheme to convert his students into a new rock band and compete in the Battle of Bands. Wrapped up in the middle of all of this is Principal Mullins, uptight principal at the school who shows her wild side whenever Stevie Nicks comes on the jukebox.

Image Description: Stagedoor selfie with School of Rock (and Rent, Aida, Cabaret, and others) star Adam Pascal after a performance of Something Rotten on Broadway. Photo by Drew Alvarez.

It pretty closely follows the original movie with two minor exceptions both of which I have a little issue with. The children’s parents are more a focus in the stage musical (the kids get a powerful ballad “If Only You Would Listen” in the musical) and even extra villainizes them to make Dewey, a pretty unsympathetic character, more likable. I don’t know man, if I paid expensive private prep school tutition only to find out my kids weren’t learning anything for months and a random guy off the street cosplaying as a teacher committing identity theft was hanging out with them unbeknownst to the principal, I’d be pretty furious too (even if he made my kid into a total rock star).

Secondly, they take out the body positivity subplot of Tamika, a backup singer who in the movie is too shy to sing at first because she’s embarrased of the way she looks which Dewey heartwarmingly reassures her there are plenty of plus-sized rockers out there and you shouldn’t let others steal your light. In the stage-version, Tamika is shy because she is a new student and can’t seem to get a word in over her parents constant talking (more parent villainizing!). Still heartwarming when you get to hear her sing for the first time at Dewey’s encouragment, but not quite the same.

Also some of Glenn Slater’s lyrics feel very much like a 48 year old trying to write lyrics for a 10 year old. (“Had it with the hipsters?! Stick it to the man”)

2. The History

Okay enough ranting on what overall, is a really fun show. The best part by far is the kid ensemble. I’ve seen it twice: once on Broadway and once on tour, and seeing the kids get to rock out, actually playing their instruments, and have the time of their life live on stage just gives the entire room so much energy. That’s what live theater is all about!

Andrew Lloyd Webber purchased the stage rights to the film in 2013 and quickly got to work with Glenn Slater (long time Alan Menken collaborator with movies like Tangled as well as with Lloyd Webber in Love Never Dies). Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey, wrote the book. Due the movies success (and laxer child labor laws) School of Rock became the first Lloyd Webber musical since Jesus Christ Superstar in 1971 to open on Broadway before the West End. It opened in fall of 2015 starring Alex Brightman and Sierra Boggess where it got mostly positive reviews. It did have the unfortunate luck of opening the same year as Hamilton so whereas it did get nominated at the Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book, and Best Leading Actor it unsurprisingly did not win any. The West End transfer did go on to win “Outstanding Achievement in Music” Olivier Award to celebrate the kids playing live on stage every night.

Image Description: School of Rock pre-show curtain selfie on Broadway. Photo provided by Karla Coreil.

The day I saw it on Broadway was understudy-ageddon with 6 understudies on including 3 of the principle rolls (Dewey, Mullins, and actual Ned’s girlfriend Patty) and one of the band members! The Playbill insert was more like a CVS receipt! It’s so cool to get a chance to see understudies shine!

Image description: “At This Performance” Playbill inserts for School of Rock.

It was really cool because later when we saw the national tour in New Orleans I got to compare playbills and realize the Dewey we saw on Broadway was reprising the role on the tour! Just another reason to keep your playbills people!

Image description: School of Rock Broadway playbill.

3. Favorite Fun Fact about the show

First off, in the movie the band manager character, Summer, auditions to be a back-up singer by (badly) singing “Memory” from Cats, another Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. So Andrew Lloyd Webber gets listed in the credits of the original movie (where the band is jamming out to “Long Way to the Top” and breaking the 4th wall singing about the credits and the people sweeping up your popcorn).

Also Andrew Lloyd Webber used earlier material from his 1978 classical / rock fusion album Variations that he performed with his brother, a classical cellist.

Image description: Credit scene from School of Rock (2003) where Andrew Lloyd Webber is credited. Also peep Annie composers Charles Strouse & Martin Charnin.

4. Favorite Lyric

I love the imagery Glenn Slater creates in the opening song “When I Climb to the top of Mount Rock”. Love the reference to different mythologies/religions as well as classic rock stars.

---

🎵And I’ll climb to the top of Mount Rock
And be part of that heavenly scene
With Odin and Zeus on the bass and the drums
And Thor playing tamborine

And Elvis and Janis and Kurt will appear
And Jesus’ll toss me a beer
And we’ll jam ‘round the clock
At the top of Mount Rock🎵

5. If you only have time for one song

I think unironically the best song in the musical is the one written for the movie by Mike White so if you’re feeling nostaligic and want to watch that one I’ll link a performance to the Broadway company’s performance here but for the sake of sharing original stage material / Andrew Lloyd Webber I’ll go with “You’re in the Band” where the joy and energy of the young ensemble (and Alex Brightman) are on full display!

Shout out to the line “do you think we’re going to win? “we’re not here to win, we’re here to rock!” Very apt given this is from the Tony Awards where Hamilton swept (almost) everything!

6. Concluding thoughts

Rant and rave and scream and shout, get all of your aggression out

Despite some lyrics and plot changes that make you grimmace a little, it’s still a fun adapation with some fun music and I’m sure whatever production you see, all the kids and adults on stage will be having the times of their life and that makes any show worth the price of admission.

I’ll leave you with a performance of middle school Drew performing in a band (I see the stats! I know the only videos y’all click are me performing!). Hey, maybe I could’ve been in School of Rock if it just opened 6 years earlier!

The first official time I am writing about a musical a SECOND time (maybe I should write about this one SIX times, ba-dum-tis). Way back in 2022 the original West End cast of SIX (read my og post on it here) reunited at London’s Vaudeville Theatre to film a live capture of the show. Of course I could not miss my chance to see it when it finally released in movie theaters stateside this weekend!

What I liked:

Although Natalie Paris (Jane Seymour) and Aimie Atkinson (Katherine Howard) are featured in both, the other 4 original West End Queens (Jarnéia Richard-Noel, Millie O’Connell, Alexia McIntosh, Maiya Quansah-Breed) weren’t featured on the original studio album that was released so it’s nice that some of the trailblazers of SIX finally got to recognized and their performances perserved for future generations!

The movie starts with some interviews with all six queens and show creators Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss and chronicles the show humble begins as a university project at Edinburgh Fringe to global phenomenon with productions in Japan, Spain, Australia, Broadway, amongst others. Fun fact, the original Japanese cast was such a hit they recently brought them over to the West End to do a sold-out week-long run performed in Japanese (with English subtitles)!

I learned a lot of new things from this mini-doc, both of their backstage traditions but also that this cast did a performance at Hampton Court Palace, the home of King Henry VIII.

No surprise, but the acting and singing and dancing and costumes and lights and songs were all phenomenal. I like that they didn’t change or cut any songs or dialogue from the stage show.

What I did not quite like:

The camerawork did feel a little over produced / directed. They were definitely trying to make it very cinematic but it seems they couldn’t quite settle on one thing. Anne Boleyn’s intro song features a transition from full to wide screen aspect ratio but then they never use this again. They randomly switch to cell phone footage at one time mid-show which I get what they were trying to do but didn’t quite make sense to me when there’s a literal part near the end of the show where they encourage the audience to get out their phones (at least in the London version. Union rules prevent this part of the show on Broadway / the Equity US tour). There were also a lot of very quick shot changes instead of a more natural flow / seeing everything in one take.

I support them trying to do something different but I think if I was directing it I would’ve directed it more like a filmed concert a la Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road performance or Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The lack of audience shots in SIX The Musical Live is honestly kind of shocking given the nature of the show and the active part the audience plays. Like, the recent Hadestown pro-shot (I’ll write about it eventually, I promise!) had so many shots of the audience which I loved.

On that note, it felt so weird seeing SIX in a completely quiet (but full!) movie theater. Like the energy is so high you just want to be applauding and screaming and dancing along. Just made me want to go see it live again (hey, maybe on Broadway next month and/or when the tour comes to Madison in January!)

Final Thoughts

Overall, still an absolutely excellent time and totally recommend everyone go see SIX in theaters or if the tour stops by your city! I love the uptick in filmed stage shows from Hadestown, to Merrily We Roll Along, to Stranger Things: First Shadow, to Oh, Mary! which just got filmed in London as well to be released in the coming years. I love the point of making these shows more accessible especially as Broadway ticket prices continue to soar. Although there’s nothing like live theater, there’s so many people who can’t afford to experience that, especially at the level of West End and Broadway caliber.

I’ll leave y’all with the Hampton Court performance of the Mega-Six with the cast of this filmed production!

After seeing Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker at the (TONY AWARD WINNING) American Player’s Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin, I knew I had to write about Hello, Dolly!, the 1964 musical based off the play.

Usually I refrain from listening to cast recordings on the way to see a regional / community / national tour production of a show because I don’t want to set my expectations too high, but since this was the play version I had no qualms blasting the 2017 revival cast starring Bette Midler while Emma and I drove up toe Spring Green!

For those who don’t know, Hello, Dolly! follows professional matchmaker Dolly Levi as she puts her hands in the romantic affairs of multiple people she comes across in New York such as feedshop owner Horace Vandergalder, his clerks Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker, milliners Irene Molloy and Minnie Fay, and many more. It’s very farcical in nature with lots of mistaken identies and funny run-uns and comedy galore.

2. The History

As previously said, Hello, Dolly! is based off of (Wisconsin native!) Thornton Wilder’s 1954 play The Matchmaker which itself is based off Wilder’s earlier 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers. Jerry Herman (score) and Michael Stewart decided to adapt it into a musical in the 1960s (which Wilder enthusiastically supported!),

The first production opened in Detroit in 1963 directed and choreographed by Gower Champion starring Carol Channing and soon after transferred to Broadway. It went on to be a smash hit, winning ten Tony Awards, a record most, tied with South Pacific. It wouldn’t be until 37 years later that The Producers would surpass it with 12 wins. By the end of its run in 1970, Hello, Dolly! was the longest running Broadway musical.

It’s been revived multiple times in 1974, 1978, 1995, and most recently 2017. In both the 1978 and 1995 productions, Channing reprised her Tony Award winning role as Dolly for which she even won a Special Tony for Lifetime Achievement.

I was lucky enough to see the 2017 revival starring Bette Midler (I saw the alternate two-time Tony Award winner Donna Murphy who’d I’d rather see anyways!), David Hyde Pierce, Gavin Creel, Kate Baldwin, Beanie Feldstein, Taylor Trensch and just a lot more all-stars all around. So You Think You Can Dance season 8 winner Melanie Moore also in the cast (whom I saw in Fiddler on the Roof the year prior!). It won Tonys for Best Revival (over Falsettos controversially in my opinion), Best Actress for Midler and Best Feature Actor for the late great Gavin Creel.

Image Description: Hello, Dolly! 2017 revival Playbill and curtain. Photo by Drew Alvarez.

3. Favorite Fun Fact about the show

During the original run of the show, in 1967 during the height of the civil rights movement, Hello, Dolly! on Broadway featured an all black cast lead by Pearl Bailey!! They even performed at the Tony Awards. Quite a moment in history. I feel casting recently in revivals and tours has been more white though so I’d love to see more black actresses get to take on the iconic role.

Also Patti LuPone was supposed to be in a revival of it in 2011 but Jerry Herman did not give it the rights to proceed because he didn’t like the new staging!! Drama!!!

I also love that the big competition of Hello, Dolly! at the 1964 Tony Awards was Funny Girl starring Barbra Streisand who of course ended up starring in the 1969 movie adapation of Hello, Dolly!.

Okay, one more! The role of Dolly was vocally written for Ethel Merman who declined the role. Funnily enough, she ended up being the last person to play Dolly in the original run of the show in 1970.

4. Favorite Lyric

There are a lot of good, funny lyrics in Hello, Dolly! I think all of “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” is good but I’ll get to that later. I’ll go with a funny lyric from “Elegance” and a more heartfelt one from “It Only Takes a Moment”

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🎵Middle class
Don’t speak of it
Savoir faire
We reek of it
Some were born with rags and patches but
We use dollar bills for matches and
Vanderbilt Kowtows to us
J.P. Morgan scrapes and bows to us🎵

🎵I held her for an instant
But my arms felt sure and strong
It only takes a moment
To be loved a whole life long🎵

5. If you only have time for one song

It is hard not to put the title song on here but it has to be “Put On Your Sunday Clothes”. I mean if it is good enough for WALL-E it is good enough for me!

6. Concluding thoughts

Goodbye! Goodbye goodbye goobye. Don’t try to stop me Horace, please!

Apologize in the delays in posting! It has been a busy summer! I just got back from my 15th National Junior Classical League convention (woo!!!!) and had lots of lovely guests visiting me. Can’t believe I’ve officially done a whole year of this Substack and while it hasn’t truly been weekly, pretty proud with 39 posts and over 2800 views! Thanks so much for following along everyone! It means the world.

Hello, Dolly! is a timeless classic and will always be worth a good listen when you’re feeling down! And if you have time, I highly recommend going to see the Spring Green production of The Matchmaker before the end of the season! It’s worth the trip!

Image Description: Very blurry stagedoor photo with Tony Award winner Gavin Creel who complimented by cat tie!

Huge congrats to Schmigadoon! and Ragtime for winning the top awards of the night! Let me know your favorite performances! I was partial to Cats: The Jellicle Ball but think they were all winners!

1. The Pitch

After seeing my cousin in a production of The Producers this past weekend at Brightside Theatre (running through June 28th for any Chicagoans interested!) knew I had to write about Mel Brook’s iconic 2001 musical adapation of his own 1967 film. The Producers follows disgraced Broadway producer Max Bialystock and unhappy accountant Leo Bloom who come up with the scam of all scams. Intentionally produce a flop on Broadway, raising way more capital than needed (through questionable methods), then once the show fails on Broadway, take the extra money and leave the country.

They decide to produce Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden by Franz Liebkind, an ex-Nazi soldier trying to clear the name of Adolf Hitler. They bring in Roger De Bris, the very flamboyant, gay director claimed by Max to be “the worst director in town”. Despite the odds (and injuries and shenanigans) Springtime for Hitler is a success seen as a biting satire of Nazism and Leo and Max get carted off to jail.

2. The History

The 1967 film, starring Gene Wilder and Broadway legend two-time Tony Award winner Zero Mostel (Fiddler on the Roof, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) was a mixed success but gained popularity the further from release date it got. After being suggested to turn it into a stage musical, Mel Brooks approached Jerry Herman (Hello, Dolly!, Mame, La Cage Aux Folles) to write the music for it but Herman declined suggesting Brooks write it himself, which he proceeded to do along with co-writing the book with Thomas Meehan (Annie, Hairspray). After a quick out-of-town tryout with Nathan Lane as Max and Matthew Broderick as Leo (both already Tony Award winners by this point) it quickly transferred to Broadway were it became the most Tony nominated (15) and most Tony awarded show in Broadway history, winning 12 (to be fair to Hamilton which won 11, the Tony Award for Sound Design was not awarded their year, otherwise it probably would’ve tied). Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book, Best Leading Actor (Lane), Best Featured Actor (Gary Beach as Roger), Best Featured Actress (Cady Huffman as Ulla, the Swedish secretary), Best Director (Susan Stroman who also won for choreography), amongst a host of design awards as well. Opening right before 9/11, it became a desperate escape for the city in need of a laugh, went on to break all sorts of box office records and had a successful 6 year run and a movie adapation in 2005 with most of the leads reprising their roles.

Lots of stars have played the roles including Jason Alexander and Martin Short together in a celebrated Los Angeles run of the show.

3. Favorite Fun Fact about the show

Season 4 of the Larry David comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm sees Mel Brooks trying to use The Producers scheme himself. Tired of having to go to press events and answering questions about The Producers, he casts Larry David as Max in the Broadway production (along side Ben Stiller and eventually David Schwimmer) in hopes that Larry will (unknowningly) tank the production. Similarly to the plot of the show, despite not being a good dancer, not memorizing his lines, making most of the cast hate him, Larry is a surprise hit in the show.

4. Favorite Lyric

I love “Where Did We Go Right” after Springtime for Hitler is a surprise rousing success and Max and Leo are panicking in their office knowing their fate is sealed. They go through all their choices and wonder how this could have possibily happened. (N.B. the original lyrics use problematic language. I’ve chosen to use the new lyrics of the current West End revival even if they don’t exactly fit as well)

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🎵It was so crass and so crude
Even Goebbels would’ve booed
Where did we go right?🎵

🎵We searched Broadway on and off
For singers with a cough
We had try outs and audtions by the score
And to trip the light fantastic
We picked dancers who were drastic
If anyone jetéd, we jetéd them out the door🎵

🎵A show so easy to despise
Now it’s up for the Pulitzer Prizer
————
It’s the end of our careers
It’ll run for twenty years
Tell us where did we go right🎵

5. If you only have time for one song

It has to be the opening sequence of “Springtime for Hitler”. The spectical, the lyrics, the choreography, the campy Hitler. Makes you want to see the full production.

6. Concluding thoughts

If you liked the Substack tell everyone, but if you think it stinks keep your big mouth shut. We’re glad you came but we have to shout “adios, au revoir, wiedersehen, ta-ta-ta, goodbye, get lost, get out!

The Producers like any Mel Brooks comedy definitely has its moments where you’re like “wow that feels dated” but it is still laugh-out-loud funny and I’m glad the current West End production has updated some of those moments (which doesn’t change any of the plot at all). I’m so excited for future revivals and takes on the show and to see who is next to take up the mantle!

I’ve had a blast the past month getting to talk about some of this year’s Tony Award nominees and making my nomination predictions (Hey, let’s see if I can beat 30/37 for winners!)! Pink! herself will be hosting the award ceremonies (she does have a songs featured in & Juliet and Moulin Rouge so more Broadway connected than you might think!)

Without further ado, here are my predictions! Also going to put in some polls like the one below so feel free to vote along yourself and let me know who you got!

Best Featured Actor in a Musical

Nominees:
André De Shields, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Ali Louis Bourzgui, The Lost Boys
Ben Levi Ross, Ragtime
Bryce Pinkham, Chess
Layton Williams, Titanique

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I’ve been so wishy-washy on this one. Ben Levi Ross is the only one I’ve seen live and he’s won a lot of the awards but I’m not sure Tony Award voters can ignore awarding André De Shields (already a Tony Award winner for Hadestown) in what might be his last Broadway turn.

Winner: André De Shields, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
If there’s an upset: Ben Levi Ross, Ragtime

Best Featured Actress in a Musical

Nominations:
Nichelle Lewis, Ragtime
Rachel Dratch, Rocky Horror Show
Shoshana Bean, The Lost Boys
Ana Gasteyer, Schmigadoon!
Hannah Cruz, Chess

This is Shoshana Bean’s to lose. Maybe Nichelle Lewis gets the nod for a role that has previously won a Tony Award for Audra McDonald and holding her own against Joshua Henry, but I’d be shocked if Shoshana Bean wasn’t walking away with the Tony statue. Fun fact, Caissie Levy, herself a Tony Award nominee for Ragtime, was originally supposed to play Shoshana’s role in The Lost Boys before Ragtime extended and she decided to stay in it, but just think, she could’ve been nominated for TWO acting Tony Awards this year!

Winner: Shoshana Bean, The Lost Boys
If there’s an upset: Nichelle Lewis, Ragtime

Best Actor in a Musical

Nominees:
Joshua Henry, Ragtime
Sam Tutty, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Brandon Uranowitz, Ragtime
Luke Evans, Rocky Horror Show
Nicholas Christopher, Chess

This is Joshua Henry’s. Next.

Winner: Joshua Henry, Ragtime
If there’s an upset: There won’t be.

(Sam Tutty’s infectious puppy dog personality and creating a role from scratch could possibly snag a few votes but no, this is Joshua Henry’s.)

Best Actress in a Musical

Nominations:
Caissie Levy, Ragtime
Marla Mindelle, Titanique
Stephanie Hsu, Rocky Horror Show
Christiani Pitts, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Sara Chase, Schmigadoon!

This is a tougher one! I think this is a two way race between Caissie Levy and Marla Mindelle. I lean Levy just because historically for the Lead categories, voters have favored serious roles over comedic, but Mindelle who is also nominated for Best Book of a Musical for writing Titanique carries the show as Celine Dion and might be rewarded for her double duty.

Winner: Caissie Levy, Ragtime
If there’s an upset: Marla Mindelle, Titanique

Best Book of a Musical

Nominees:
David Hornsby & Chris Hoch, The Lost Boys
Cinco Paul, Schmigadoon!
Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli, & Tye Blue, Titanique
Jim Barne & Kit Buchan, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Oooh starting to cover things I didn’t predict!!! So exciting!!

I think this is where the voters will award the comedic genius of Titanique (I mean Celine Dion singing through the plot of the movie Titanic in campy brillance). But I could see this going to literally any one of the nominees.

Winner: Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli, & Tye Blue, Titanique
If there’s an upset: Cinco Paul, Schmigadoon!

Best Score of a Musical

Nominations:
Cinco Paul, Schmigadoon!
The Rescues, The Lost Boys
Jim Barne & Kit Buchan, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Caroline Shaw, Death of a Salesman
Steve Bargonetti, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone

Okay if one of the plays wins this one, I’ll eat my shoe (although serious shout out to both nominees! Caroline Shaw is an amazing and awesome individual, Pulitizer Prize and Grammy Award winner who I’m lucky enough to have gotten to hear perform live!

I love Paul’s score for Schmigadoon! but it is so direct parody of already existing songs + an overwhelming majority of it is straight from the Apple TV series and probably shouldn’t have been eligible for this award. I think voters will recognize that and choose to either recognize The Lost Boys or Two Strangers and my personal preference, Two Strangers.

Winner: Jim Barne & Kit Buchan, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
If there’s an upset: The Rescues, The Lost Boys

Best Director of a Musical

Nominations:
Michael Arden, The Lost Boys
Lear deBessonet, Ragtime
Christopher Gattelli, Schmigadoon!
Tim Jackson, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, Cats: The Jellicle Ball

I mean how is that not going to Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch for completely reinventing and reimagining Cats. Michael Arden’s very cinematic / huge adapation of The Lost Boys might get an award, but he just won last year for Maybe Happy Ending and two years ago for Parade. Unfairly, voters might have a bit of Arden fatique so I think Lear deBessonet would be the next most likely to win for making Ragtime feel as modern and relevant as it ever has and getting crazy performances out of the cast that garnered FIVE acting nominations this year.

Winner: Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
If there’s an upset: Lear deBessonet, Ragtime

Rapid Fire!

Before I get to the big awards of the night, here are some rapid fire predictions that I don’t have enough information or bandwith to write a whole section on each on! My pick for a close second, if any, will be in parentheses after the winner.

Best Actor in a Play: John Lithgow, Giant (Nathan Lane, Death of a Salesman)
Best Choreography, Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Best Costume Design, Qween Jean, Cats: The Jellicle Ball (Linda Cho, Schmigadoon!)
Best Lighting Design (Musical): Jen Schriever and Michael Arden, The Lost Boys
Best Set Design (Musical): Dane Laffrey, The Lost Boys (Scott Pask, Schmigadoon!)
Best Orchestrations: The Lost Boys (Schmigadoon!)
Best Direction of a Play, Joe Mantello, Death of a Salesman
Best Revival of a Play, Death of a Salesman
Best Play, Liberation by Bess Wohl: already won the Pulitzer, just give her the Tony!

Best Revival of a Musical

Nominees:
Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Ragtime
Rocky Horror Show

This is a two horse race between Cats: The Jellicle Ball and Ragtime. It’ll come down to whether voters like a bigger put together, classic revival with out of this world acting performances or a completely fresh reinvention of an old show. I keep going back on forth on both what I think will win and what I want to win between the two. This is maybe the hardest one I have to pick tonight. I guess I struggle with Cats: The Jellicle Ball still not making the most sense (since they don’t change any lyrics) but it is just such an inventive take it’s hard not to reward it. Okay Cats: The Jellicle Ball, final answer. Plus Tony voters recently have been giving out the trophy to inventive takes / shows that were saved from the ashes of flops/irrelevency like Merrily We Roll Along and Sunset Boulevard.

Winner: Cats, The Jellicle Ball
If there’s an upset: Ragtime

Best Musical

Without further ado!

Nominees:
Schmigadoon!
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
The Lost Boys
Titanique

This was a weak year for new musicals but also it is an uber competitive won. Two small shows (Two Strangers and Titanique) versuses two large scale spectaculars (Schmigadoon! and The Lost Boys). I can easily see a world in which any of these wins (Titanique being the least likely but still not out of the realm of possibility.) Hey, maybe we’ll see our first tie since 1960 when The Sound of Music and Fiorello! tied (somehow meaning Gypsy came in no better than third place that year! Wild!). Ok, drum roll please:

Winner: Schmigadoon!
If there’s an upset: Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

I think a voting bloc full of theatre nerds won’t deny Schmigadoon! the big prize. It’s a funny show written specifically for the type of people who vote on Tony Awards that will tour well (theaters that host national tours make up a good chunk of Tony Award voters). The Lost Boys could be the upset but people seem so divided on it online that I think the very full of heart, little show that could Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) would be the next in line after Schmigadoon! very remaniscent of last year’s Maybe Happy Ending win for the small shows.

In Conclusion

What an exciting Tony Awards season! I’m so excited for the opening number and all the performances! I can’t wait for The Book of Mormon, Rent, and Chicago anniversary performances as well!

Please let me know how you think I did / who will win! I can’t wait to discuss it further, to learn more about these shows, and to get started talking about the 26-27 Tony Award season!

See my other posts about the 2026 Tony Award season!

Nomination Predictions:

Best Musical nominees:

Best Revival nominees:

Okay, who had ballroom culture inspired revival of Cats on your Bingo Cards? Cats: The Jellicle Ball feels so fresh and revolutionary and yeah, who thought that Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber based on T.S. Elliot could be more than just about cats, yet here we are, wrapping up the series of 2026 Tony Award Best Revival of a Musical contenders with it!

For those of you who don’t know much about ballroom culture, here’s a sketch from A Black Lady Sketch Show (catch Abbott Elementary creator/star Quinta Brunson!). It is a very queer, black/person of color event characterized by the high fasion / dazzling outfits, very unique dance moves. You might’ve picked up on some of the terms and moves from tv shows such as Pose , RuPaul’s Drag Race, Paris is Burning. An emcee will announce categories in which the competitors will compete and strut down the runway where they are judged and a winner is announced. In the sketch below, all the categories are “basic”.

Given that Cats is about a competition amongst the jellicle cats to see who gets to be reborn in the heavyside layer (don’t ask, we don’t get anymore information than that), a ballroom style competition seemed the perfect setting for a new take on the material.

Huge shout-out to Zhailon Levingston (Louisiana native!) and Bill Rauch for their co-direction and making something completely new and refreshing and celebrated out of a show that had become kind of a laughing stock / meme in the theater community and wider.

2. The History

I’m only going to talk about this iteration here because lumping this production in with Cats feels crazy. Like I could (and probably will at some point) easily do two whole articles on both versions of Cats.

Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, both ballroom culture veterans, were introduced and hatched this plan for a revival of Cats. They brought aboard both theatre royality (Tony Award winner Andre de Shields, Tony Nominated this time around for his role of Old Deuteronomy) and ballroom culture (Junior LaBeija as Gus the Theatre Cat and Tony nominated choreographers Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles). It opened Off-Broadway as part of the first season at Perelman Performing Arts Center (or PAC NYC) in 2024. PAC NYC is a new performing arts venue located at the World Trade Center. Cats: The Jellicle Ball was a huge success, extending twice. I was very close to going to trying to see it the final week of shows in 2024 but alas not the time or money to see it. After a season off, it found a Broadway home and announced it’s opening at the Broadhurst Theatre in April 2026 where it got rave reviews and nine Tony Award nominations including Best Revival, Best Director, and Best Choreography.

3. Favorite Fun Fact about the show

If you’re going to see the show, make sure you get there early! The first fans in line get fans that they are invited to clap / wave / hoot / holler with as the performers go down the runway!

Also, Andrew Lloyd Webber got a Tony Award nomination for Best Orchestrations with the new (yet still pretty traditional) orchestrations for Cats: The Jellicle Ball (shared with David Wilson, Beats Arranger/Producer Trevor Holder and Music Producer Doug Schadt).

4. Favorite Lyric

Always love my classics references. Shout out to T.S. Eliot for rhyming oratorical with Delphic-oracle.

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🎵Practical cats, dramatical cats

Pragmatical cats, fanatical cats

Oratorical cats, Delphic-oracle cats

Skeptical cats, dyspeptical cats

Romantical cats, pedantical cats

Critical cats, parasitical cats

Allegorical cats, metaphorical cats

Statistical cats and mystical cats

Political cats, hypocritical cats

Clerical cats, hysterical cats

Cynical cats, rabbinical cats🎵

Plus, I’ve seen a Delphic-oracle cat! Here’s a cat at the ruins of Delphi I met on my study abroad in Greece!

5. If you only have time for one song

“Memory”. It’s always “Memory”. But given the limited videos out yet for The Jellicle Ball, here’s just a bonus video of Shimbleshanks the Railway Cat. I love the reimanging of Shimbleshanks as an MTA worker.

6. Concluding thoughts

Oh well I never was there ever a Cats revival so clever. Tens across the board!

Okay, some of the lyrics still don’t make sense even in the context of ballroom, but it is so imaginative and fresh and I think this is what revivals should be about. Just completely new takes that make you see a show you’ve listened to hundreds of times in a completely new light. The battle for Best Revival between this and Ragtime is going to be intense!!! Can’t wait to see how it plays out!

See my other posts about the 2026 Tony Award season!

Nomination Predictions:

Best Musical nominees:

Best Revival nominees:

1. The Pitch

Who wants corn puddin’?

Emma here, taking over for Drew as a guest writer for this favorite musical of the week!

I love a good musical from the Golden Age of Broadway. Defined by their classic scores, high production value, and widespread renown and timelessness, some great shows that come to mind are Oklahoma!, The Music Man, and Brigadoon, the show which our musical of the week is based on. Schmigadoon! The Musical is a spoof of several of these Golden Age shows, and takes great inspiration from them.

The comedic musical follows struggling couple, Josh and Melissa, two city doctors who are magically trapped in the magical, musical town of Schmigadoon, where everyone really sings out loud about their emotions and knows all those dance numbers. To escape Schmigadoon, the two must find their true love, either by mending their relationship, or finding a new lover in Schmigadoon, of which they find several options - the ambiguously young (woman? girl?) Betsy, the scoundrel Danny, the kindhearted teacher Emma (wow, same name!), and the prideful doctor, Doc.

2. The History

I sort of lied- while I said that Schmigadoon! The Musical is based on Brigadoon and other related golden age musicals, it is more directly based on the first season of Schmigadoon, the Apple TV series, written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, with music by Ken Daurio. The show aired from 2021 until 2023, ending at the second season, Schmicago! It starred Keegan-Michael Key (of Key and Peele) and SNL alum Cecily Strong as Josh and Melissa, with Dove Cameron, Aaron Tveit, Jane Krakowski, Ariana DeBose, Jim Cummings, Kristin Chenoweth (need I say more about how STACKED this cast was). It was unfortunately canceled after season two due to high production costs, with high ratings and an already written season three.

However, this provided an opportunity for Cinco Paul to bring the successful Apple TV show to Broadway. When I saw it was going to become a Broadway musical, I had no doubt it would translate well from screen to stage. Schmigadoon! The Musical boasts many glowing reviews and 12 Tony nominations under its belt. It premiered at the Nederlander Theatre on April 20, 2026, with a current run until January 2027. It stars Alex Brightman as Josh, and Sara Chase as Melissa, with Cinco Paul as writer and lyricist. Other stars include Ana Gasteyer as the villainous Mildred Layton, Brad Oscar as the closeted Mayor Menlove (get it?), Ann Harada as wife Florence Menlove, Isabelle McCalla as Emma, Ivan Hernadez as Doc, Max Clayton as Danny, and McKenzie Curtz as Betsy. Tony Nominations include Best Musical, Best Book, Best Actress (Chase), Best Score, Best Scenic Design, and more. A cast album is set to come out sometime soon, so I’ll have to keep my eyes (and ears) peeled.

3. Favorite Fun Fact about the show

Did you know that Cinco Paul had the original idea for the show over 20 years before it aired? His original idea was based on the 1981 horror movie, An American Werewolf in London, but if travelers passed along a musical in the woods, rather than a horror story. Personally, I’d rather find a real life musical in the woods than a horror story.

I love how we can see that a lot of songs from the musical have direct inspiration from certain songs in other musicals. For example, the song “Tribulation,” in which Mildred rallies the town against outsiders Josh and Melissa, is based on the song “Trouble” in The Music Man. It’s in a similar setting, around the middle of the small town, and has the same general cadence and a similar and catchy tune. It’s even structurally similar, with Mildred singing more quietly on her own in the beginning, like Harold Hill does, and once the crowd has been rallied, they sing along too in a call and response, and with hands in the air, like in The Music Man. Tribulation even features the same iconic “air trumpet” choreography from The Music Man.

4. Favorite Lyric

I love when Melissa begins to sing along with the townspeople of Schmigadoon during “Corn Puddin,” a song toward the beginning of the musical, much to her husband Josh’s chagrin. She ad libs the verse while Josh openly interjects, and she is starting to accept that she likes the musical ways of Schmigadoon, joining in on the fun of singing about corn puddin’.

Never had corn puddin’ (why?)

And it may be a waste

But if you got some extr’y (extr’y!)

I sure would like a taste!

We can see how different Melissa and Josh are, with Melissa being a more open and fun person who is willing to try new things, and Josh a more serious and reserved person, and this scene highlights that struggle in their relationship in a silly way. I think Sara Chase’s movements and dancing here are pretty fun as well.

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5. If you only have time for one song

If you have more time to listen to more songs, please check out “Tribulation,” or the funny and medically informative lyrics of “Va-Gi-Na,” to the tune of “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music (I would have put it in favorite lyrics but I think you should just see for yourself), the flirtatious song “Enjoy the Ride” (in which Josh and Melissa begin looking for other lovers in Schmigadoon), the fun schoolhouse song “With All Of Your Heart,” or “You Make Me Wanna Sing” (the song where Josh finally decides to sing to win back his love Melissa).

However, if you really only have time for ONE song, I’d recommend “Corn Puddin.” I feel like it encapsulates the heart of Schmigadoon! The Musical with its silly lyrics, old-timey-speak, colorful costumes, and dancing. It feels like it hopped straight out of a Golden Age Musical. It always gets stuck in my head, and has been stuck in my head the entirety of me writing this substack. And besides, who could say no to some corn puddin’? Certainly not me, I sure would like a taste.

“Corn Puddin” also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for Paul in 2022 after season one of the TV show aired!

6. Concluding thoughts

Oh there’s hope for all and we call it Schmiga…

I loved watching Schmigadoon! not too long after it came out on Apple TV, and I was excited to hear that it would be getting its own stage musical. I’m impressed but still not surprised with how well it’s doing. I think everyone should check out both the show and the musical, or just the show and the cast album if you can’t make it to New York- I really hope the musical is still running and I can see it either when I’m next in New York, or that its run extends, or that it gets a revival in the future. It’s a feel good show, and much like a lot of Golden Age musicals, has a lot of themes of love in it. I can’t wait to see how it does at the Tonys!

Thank you for having me this week! The next Favorite Musical of the Week will resume with Drew’s regular programming.

See my other posts about the 2026 Tony Award season!

Nomination Predictions:

Best Musical nominees:

Best Revival nominees:

How d’you do?

I mean who doesn’t know about Rocky Horror at this point? I feel people will call it a cult musical/movie but it has been in the mainstream for so long now I think it might have lost its cult status (although the real fans are definitely rabid).

Newly engaged couple cookie cutter normie couple Brad and Janet find their car broken down and stuck on a dark and stormy night in the sexually fluid and promiscuous alien, Dr. Frank N. Furter’s castle/lab/mansion where he is creating a man, Rocky. A wild, unforgettable night ensues (with pretty unforgettable songs and humor).

2. The History

Written by actor Richard O’Brien as an homage to the cheesiness of B slasher films, it opened in London in 1973 where it ran successfully across multiple theaters until 1979. It quickly made it’s North American debut in Los Angeles at the Roxy Theatre. Original cast member, now synonymous with the show, Tim Curry as Dr. Frank N Furter, transferred with it. Singer Meat Loaf, who was a stage actor in shows like Hair and Rocky Horror before he made it big with Bat Out of Hell also starred as Eddie / Dr. Scott. It had a successful 10 month run before taking a break to film the movie version (which Curry, Meat Loaf, and O’Brien would star in) before transferring to Broadway with most of the Los Angeles cast (including O’Brien as handyman Riff Raff). The plan was for the movie to come out and create excitement for the Broadway run but alas that did not happen. It was a flop, closing after only 45 performances and only garnering one Tony Award nomination for Best Lighting Design. The movie of course went on to be a rousing success though becoming the longest consecutive running movie in history.

It was revived in 2000 (my personal cast recording of choice) with Tom Hewitt, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Joan Jett, Alice Ripley, Raul Esparza, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Lea DeLaria. Dick Cavett played The Narrator before it became a rotating cast of celebrity cameos including Gilbert Gottfried, Penn & Teller, and Jerry Springer. Was nominated for Best Actor, Best Director, Best Costume Design, and Best Actor for Hewitt.

And now the reason I’m writing about it! The 2026 Tony Award nominated revival that just opened starring 2026 Tony Awards nominees Luke Evans (Lead Actor) as Frank, Stephanie Hsu (Lead Actress and Oscar Nominee for Everything Everywhere All At Once) as Janet, Rachel Dratch (Featured Actress and Saturday Night Live alum) as The Narrator. Other stars include Amber Gray as Riff Raff, Josh Rivera as Rocky, Andrew Durand as Brad. By nominations, this is the most successful production of it receiving a total of nine (also scored noms for choreography, sound design, lighting design, scenic design, and costume design). It got middling reviews but in a weak year for revivals, that was enough to score a nomination! It is not expected to win Best Revival and I’m not sure it’ll be the favorite in any category, but I can’t wait to see them perform at the Tonys! It was just extended through November so maybe I’ll get to see it on a New York trip myself!

3. Favorite Fun Fact about the show

First off, I love that they added the word “picture” for the movie so that the movie version is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, very fitting of the old school movies it is trying to parody, and the stage version is The Rocky Horror Show (although I imagine it might get a little old for box office employees having to listen to customers call it the wrong name).

I also love that probably many people didn’t know that Meat Loaf played both Eddie and Dr. Scott in the stage version (since he only does Eddie in the movie). Here’s him doing Dr. Scott’s song “Eddie’s Teddy” (one of my favorites, super catchy) although funny he doesn’t do the German accent that most productions have now.

Also speaking of Dr. Scott and Eddie, Russell Crowe played the roll in an Australian production of the show.

4. Favorite Lyric

I love the final narration from “Super Heros”. Reminds me a lot of A Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy

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🎵And crawling on the planet's face
Some insects called the human race
Lost in time, and lost in space
And meaning🎵

and here’s Hitchhiker’s quote by Douglas Adams:

“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this, at a distance of roughly ninety million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet, whose ape descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.”

I also love the simplicity of the line “Planet Schmanet Janet”. So good.

5. If you only have time for one song

-pation

“Time Warp” and “Sweet Transvestite” are no doubt the most famous numbers from the musical (and wow, happen back to back in the show) since I linked the 2000 revival’s “Time Warp” I’ll link this current productions “Sweet Transvesite”

6. Concluding thoughts

Cause I’ve seen blue skies through the tears in my eyes and I realized... I’m coming home

Fitting that I am in fact writing this in the airport and am coming home to Baton Rouge for the week.

I love Rocky Horror and often find myself listening to the 2000 revival cast recording especially around Halloween. It is so fun and creative and original and there’s nothing like it. Although I don’t think the 2026 production will clean up at the Tonys, I hope it has a successful run and releases a cast recording of its star-studded class so I can maybe find a new favorite recording of it!

See my other posts about the 2026 Tony Award season!

Nomination Predictions:

Best Musical nominees:

Best Revival nominees:

First off, thank you everyone for making my Tony Award nomination predictions post my most read Substack. Got 30/37 right, so pretty happy! Following up on my promise in there, I’m going to work on covering every musical up for awards (revival and new) that I can! Which brings us to this week’s topic Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)! A lot of the new musicals this season don’t have cast recordings out yet but luckily for us, Two Strangers has TWO already!

Two Strangers is a two person musical (go figure) that follows the Britishman Dougal who has just arrived in New York City to attend the wedding of his father, a man he has never met. Dougal’s guide for the weekend is Robin, local NYC waitress who is the sister of Dougal’s father’s much younger bride-to-be (making Robin and Dougal roughly the same age).

Dougal has never been to New York but has this grand romantization of it from the movies he has seen set in New York. I was immediately endeared to Dougal in song one when he throws out this line, because like, that was literally the young Drew experience watching his favorite Christmas movie and wanting to visit New York more than anything because of it.

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Robin: But you’ve actually been to New York before?
Dougal: No, but I have seen Home Alone 2 quite a few times.

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Robin is a bit more cynical, having had her dreams crushed a little by the city. As you guess from the title of the play, they are tasked with picking up the wedding cake and bringing it across town to the wedding and get to learn from each other’s point of view along the way.

2. The History

Written by Kit Buchan (Book and Lyrics) and Jim Barne (Music) and directed by Tim Jackson, it first opened under the name The Season in the small town of Ipswich in the UK before moving to Northampton to finish the run. Revamped it opened in 2023 off-West End starring Sam Tutty (Olivier Award winner for Dear Evan Hansen) and Dujonna Gift. Despite being so popular it extended, transferred to the West End, and extended again, it got nominated for a whopping 0 Olivier Awards quite shockingly. It made it’s US debut with Sam Tutty reprising his role, now joined with Christiani Pitts, also under direction of Tim Jackson, at the American Repetory Theater in 2025 which has since transferred to Broadway.

Much more critically successful on Broadway, it has been nominated for 8 Tony Awards including Best Musical; one each for Sam Tutty and Christiani Pitts for their leading roles; Tim Jackson for Best Director, which is nice since he’s been with the production from the very beginning in Ipswich; Buchan and Barne for their Book and Score, Lux Pyramid (awesome name) for Orchestrations, and Soutra Gilmour for her amazing, creative set designs of a world built out of suitcases (which you can see in the video embedded above!).

3. Favorite Fun Fact about the show

It’s always hard with these new musicals to come up with fun facts, but at the end of Act 1 during the song “American Express” where Dougal and Robin use Dougal’s dad’s credit card to go on a drunken spending spree, Robin suggests they book the most expensive room at the Plaza Hotel, which is of course a very nice nod to Kevin McCallister using his dad’s stolen credit card to book the same in Home Alone 2 (Two Strangers is also set over the holiday season). In the cast recording, Dougal doesn’t acknowledge this, but I hope he does in the script of the show. If not, it’s still a nice nod!

4. Favorite Lyric

There are a lot of really great lyrics in this show. I do always love the references to Rome/the classics (see The Violet Hour post for another). This comes from “Under the Mistletoe” which is Robin and Dougal singing a parody of the cheesy old romantic Christmas carols a la “Let it Snow” or “Winter Wonderland”

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🎵It’s after 11, too late to go home
So let’s do what the Roman’s would do back in Rome
It’s too cold to go walking believe me I tried
So let’s open the stockings and see what’s inside🎵

I very nearly wrote about Two Strangers in December just given the holiday feel of it. This song is definitely one I’ll be adding to my holiday playlist (and hey maybe it’ll become a holiday classic from a musical that ends up standing by itself like “Need a Little Christmas” from Mame or “White Christmas” from Holiday Inn (and later White Christmas)).

From the previous mentioned “American Express” there are a lot of great ones too.

Spoken
Dougal: I pity the rich.
Robin: You pity the rich?
Dougal: They’ll never know what it’s like-
Robin: To go to a laundromat?
Dougal: To only be rich
Robin: To only be rich
Sung Both: for one one magical night
🎵Robin: I’m buying those stars
Dougal: I’m buying that moon
Robin: I’m buying these cars
Dougal: I’ve stolen this spoon
Robin: I’m selling my soul, and buying this whole impossible night🎵

5. If you only have time for one song

The opening song “New York” where Dougal sings about how much he loves the city he’s never been too (humorously referring to it by the nicknames of other cities like Tinseltown, City of Sin, City of Angels). If I wasn’t putting it here, I’d also have put lyrics from here in the best lyrics. It’s hard to listen to the rest of the cast recording because I keep wanting to have this one on repeat.

6. Concluding thoughts

Just take this tiny step before you go, do it now before the Substack disappears into the snow.

I really love the score of Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York). It’s charming, sweet, equally funny and heartfelt. It hasn’t been doing that well in the box office, but hopefully these Tony Award nominations will give it a bump and keep it open for awhile so I can see it the next time I’m in New York (similar thing happened with last year’s Maybe Happy Ending that went from struggling to fill the balcony to being the hottest show in New York after Tony Award season).

See my other posts about the 2026 Tony Award season!

Nomination Predictions:

Best Musical nominees:

Best Revival nominees:

My first time getting to cover awards season as a theatre blogger/substacker!! I always love waking up early on Tony Awards nomination morning and seeing all the reactions from nominees and fans alike! I’m excited to get up tomorrow to watch Darren Criss (Tony Award winner last year for Maybe Happy Ending) and Uzo Aduba announce the nominations! Nominations are going to be revealed Tuesday, May 5th shockingly early in the morning. I have this scheduled to go out right before but am writing this morning of May the 4th! I’m not going to cover every category because with things like design, it’s hard to judge based on just production photos, and also the obvious fact is I haven’t seen everything so a lot of this is based off of reviews, vibes, social media mutuals, family who have seen the show!

Best Musical

It was a really light year for new musicals opening on Broadway with only 6. For comparison, there was over 14 each of the last two years. With only 6 eligible, that means more than likely there’ll only be four nominations (could be a fifth if there is a tie between the last two). I think most people agree there are 4 musicals worthy of a nomination and maybe 2 that weren’t as (but might get love elsewhere!)

Prediction:
The Lost Boys
Schmigadoon!
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Titanique

Sorry to Queen of Versailles and Beaches! If one was to sneak in, it’d be Beaches just for recency bias and hasn’t had quite as bad a showing as the Kristin Chenoweth vehicle Queen of Versailles did.

Whatever the best musical/best score nominations are, I will try to cover in the weeks leading up to the Tony Awards in June!

Best Revival of a Musical

With only five revivals opening this year, only three will be nominated (again barring a tie for the third spot). Ragtime and Cats: The Jellicle Ball seem universal locks for the first two spots, with Chess and Rocky Horror Show battling it out for the last one. Mamma Mia! I’m sure was fantastic and a great time as always, but I think since it was basically a remounting of the original instead of a reimagining it’ll get left off.

Prediction:
Ragtime
Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Rocky Horror Show

I think recency bias will come into play getting Rocky the nom over Chess, which despite crazy vocal performances, is not the strongest source material.

Best Score

Because plays are technically eligible for Best Score (Christopher Nightingale won in the weird 2020 season for his music for the stage version of A Christmas Carol) that means there’ll be five nominees for Best Score. Honestly, a play might sneak in here too just because of the six new musicals, only five are eligible for best score and I’m not sure the nominators will view all four as worthy.

Prediction:
The Rescues, The Lost Boys
Jim Barne & Kit Buchan, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Cinco Paul, Schmigadoon!
Stephen Schwartz, Queen of Versaille

I really don’t know about that last spot. Either Beaches or a play sneaks in (Fear of 13 got a Drama Desk nomination for Best Orchestrations so maybe it?). I feel like I can’t do Best Book honestly so I’m going to skip that one, but David Hornsby of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” fame co-wrote The Lost Boys so I hope that gets a nomination! Looks like it should!

Best Actor in a Musical

Like I said in my Ragtime post, just go ahead and give this to Joshua Henry from Ragtime. I think his co-star Brandon Uranowitz, already a Tony winner, will get a nod for his portrayal as Tateh as well, although I’ll argue to the cows come home that Tateh is more of a featured role, especially by Act II. Sam Tutty won the Olivier for his role in Two Strangers, which being only a two person musical requires a lot of effort on his part and I think he’ll be rewarded for it. (edited in post to say I was confused. He won for Dear Evan Hansen not Two Strangers). Luke Evans got universal acclaim for Rocky Horror Show in such a nice new turn for his career. And Nicholas Christopher was/is largely the one bright spot of Chess.

Predictions:
Joshua Henry, Ragtime
Sam Tutty, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Brandon Uranowitz, Ragtime
Luke Evans, Rocky Horror Show
Nicholas Christopher, Chess

I won’t cover plays too much in this post but since I did see John Lithgow in Giant in the West End in his (Olivier Award winning) performance as Roald Dahl, I’ll go ahead and give a quick prediction that the nominees for Best Lead Actor in a Play will be Lithgow, Daniel Radcliffe for Every Brilliant Thing (after winning Featured Actor in a Musical two years ago for Merrily We Roll Along), Nathan Lane for Death of a Salesman. Mark Strong for Oedipus also seems likely. No one else got outstanding reviews or consistent nominations. They might go with Adrian Brody for Fear of 13 which would be a very starstudded line-up of nominees. James Cordon got phenominal reviews for Art but being bumped up as Lead Actor for that role probably hurts his chances here since his character has the least to do in that show, but he could slide into that fifth spot!

Best Actress in a Musical

This is the one where I’ve seen the most disagreement amongst reviewers/predictors/YouTubers/et cetera so let’s see what happens! Caissie Levy is assuredly a lock for playing Mother in Ragtime. I think Marla Mindelle will get a nod as co-creator and star of Titanique for playing Celine Dion. After that it seems kind of wide open. Jessica Vosk has been on Broadway for a long time, has been nominated for a lot of the other awards this season, and sings the iconic song for Beaches (and got outstanding reviews) so I think she gets the nod although that seems to be a controversial take reading other predictions today. I think Christiani Pitts gets nominated for being the second half of Two Strangers and then I think they give Sara Chase a nod for her role in Schmigadoon! Lea Michele would be the other option between those three and seems to be picking up steam but man that feels like it’d be some revisionist history based on how poorly Chess was reviewed (although no doubt she kills it vocally).

Predictions:
Caissie Levy, Ragtime
Marla Mindelle, Titanique
Jessica Vosk, Beaches
Christiani Pitts, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Sara Chase, Schmigadoon!

Best Featured Actor in a Musical

It’s always tough when you get into the featured categories because there are just so many amazing performances to choose from! André De Shields (hey, a University of Wisconsin alum!) no doubt gets nominated for playing Old Deuteronomy in Cats: The Jellicle Ball. Ali Louis Bourzgui in The Lost Boys seems like a lock as well. Ben Levi Ross for Younger Brother in Ragtime is also trending in the right direction, and I loved his performance so I hope he gets the nod! There are like four featured actors in Titanique that all might sneak in, but I think they might self-cannibalize the votes a bit leaving room for more love for Cats and Schmigadoon!

Prediction:
André De Shields, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Ali Louis Bourzgui, The Lost Boys
Ben Levi Ross, Ragtime
Sydney James Harcourt, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Max Clayton, Schmigadoon!

Best Featured Actress in a Musical

Other than Nichelle Lewis for Ragtime and Shoshana Bean from The Lost Boys (wow, between her and Jessica Vosk, what a season for former Elphabas!) this seems wide open! Hard to imagine the role of Grizabella not getting nominated for Cats: The Jellicle Ball, especially in this drastic reimagining. I imagine someone from Schmigadoon! gets nominated (or maybe two). Shaina Tuab might also get a nomination for Emma Goldman in Ragtime. My mind will probably change by later tonight but I got to go with my gut!

Predictions:
Nichelle Lewis, Ragtime
“Temptress” Chasity Moore, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Shoshana Bean, The Lost Boys
Ana Gasteyer (oh my gosh another Elphaba), Schmigadoon!
Makenzie Kurts, Schmigadoon!

Best Director

I think I’ll wrap up with Best Director! I think this award is probably a lock for Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch for Cats: The Jellicle Ball for making a proverbial something out of a musical that had kind of become the laughing stock of even the Broadway community. Lear DeBessonet should get one for Ragtime and Michael Arden, who directed both Queen of Versailles and The Lost Boys will get a nom for The Lost Boys.

Predictions:
Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Lear DeBessonet, Ragtime
Michael Arden, The Lost Boys
Christopher Gattelli, Schmigadoon!
Tim Jackson, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Wrapping Up

That is probably where I’ll end! Hopefully one day I’ll have seen enough shows in a season to give better thoughts on Book, Orchestrations, Choreography, design categories, et cetera!

I do think somethings are a lock like costumes and choreo for Cats: The Jellicle Ball, choreo for Schmigadoon! , Book for Titanique.

Can’t wait to see how I did with these and to follow along all awards season! Let me know your thoughts too or what you’re hearing!

It’s been awhile since I did my first (and only) live listen / reaction to a musical! Did it for Floyd Collins back in August when that cast recording came out. After a super fun Olivier Awards (yay, Rachel Zegler won for Evita! She was so good in that production! Iconic balcony scene linked here! I can’t wait for it to transfer to Broadway next year!) I thought it’d be nice to listen to this year’s Best Musical winner, Paddington the Musical!

Paddington is the bear from children’s literature that is a superstar in London (even had tea with Queen Elizabeth II a few years ago). After successful books and a film franschise, it seemed only natural that a stage musical was next. It officially opened November 1st, 2025!

I was pretty late on the Paddington bandwagon but did eventually watch the first movie within the last year. I still have not seen the second one yet which is on my to-do list because it is considered even more charming than the first! I don’t remember the plot of the movie exactly so it’ll be fun to revisit.

Something I do know going into this listen is that the way they bring the bear to life is truly spectactular! It is a two-team effort of person inside the bear suit Arti Shah and voice acting from James Hameed who both puppeteer the furry creature (and rightfully were jointly nominated and won Best Actor in a Musical at the Oliviers!)

Overture / Mr. Gruber’s Curiousities

Love a song attached to an overture! This kind of reminds me of the opening of Aladdin with the shopkeeper setting up the story. I feel his curiousities are maybe stuffed animal related which I don’t love. But maybe I am very wrong. This is where not remembering the movie is hurting me. Gotta brush up on my Paddington Lore. Okay he’s already on his boatride to London!

I’ve Arrived

Ooh I love the use of the train station sounds to complement the song. Wow what a good singing voice. from James Hameed. Sounds just like Paddington. Also there are so many songs on this album. Man people at Paddington Station so rude. Love the lyric “Here in London every street you walk on is paved with Golden Marmalade”.

Ohhhh the family is here now. Very the Banks family from Mary Poppins feeling (although maybe that is just me stereotyping London families). Ah, the Browns is there name.

The Taxi Driver’s Code

Oh no, stereotyping against bears T_T just let Paddington in the cab! Oh that is a very quick song!

Don’t Touch That

Aw man, Paddington overstimulated by being inside a house for the first time! What a curious bear! Hope it works out better for him than cats. Oh man does Paddington play guitar right here??? I’d love to see that. Oh man bath overflowing. I bet the set / prop design is very good during this song.

One Page at a Time

Gravity defying? What is this, Wicked? I assume this is the mom (singing that she’s a superhero). Yes, mom’s are superheroes!!! Happy early Mother’s Day everyone!!! Love the patter here. Also the lyric “Obi-Mom Kenobi” pun so good. Happy May the Fourth everyone! Oh man, was not expecting a Doctor Strange reference either. Crazy!

Pretty Little Dead Things

Okay this song I’ve heard a lot about but have not heard. Victoria Hamilton-Barritt won the Olivier for Best Supporting Actress Olivier for playing this villain! Oh man love her acting / line delivery and the music here. “If you want to see ‘em / swap the mausoleum for museum”. Oh man listening animals in alphabetical order that she’d stuff. So good (but also gross).

The Rhythm of London

I’ve been to London and you know what, I don’t think the rhythm of London sounds like this. But it’s a fun song! Baha Men should cover this. Haha, they tell Paddington to see a West End Show. Meta.

Mr. Gruber’s Shop

Love Mr. Gruber is encouraging him to touch things. Paddington enrichment time. Nice constrast to “Don’t Touch That”.

Hard Stare

Oooh rock song sounding. You know, I don’t think a hard stare from Paddington would make me be very intimidating. In fact, I think I’d like it quite a lot. Oh we get to learn bear language! This songs feels a little out of place. I don’t know if that situation warranted a song.

The Explorer & The Bear

Paddington does not get much of a vocal break this full first act. This is a good “I want” song. I love the orchestrations at the end. Very full sounding.

Risky Business

Oh man, Mr. Brown already having a fun number. Guess he got his guitar down. This sounds like a lot of different songs from the 70s/80s all thrown into one. Glad the dad is already having his “aw beans I was wrong” moment and being fun with his family again.

One of Us

Oh maybe I spoke too soon. Sounds like this is him being berated for not including Paddington / letting Paddington go. Oh man, Paddington’s last note WOW. Love an act one finale that ends with all the act one songs mashed together.

Marmalade

I know they performed this one at the Oliviers! Love a number that also has a recipe included in it! Might have to make the marmalade Paddington is singing about here. I should’ve have prepared marmalade sandwiches for this listen. Oh man, who is this guy saying he’d take a shower in marmalade? I love it but probably not that much. Probably.

Worth the Work (Pt. 1)

Aw, love is worth the work!

Where’s Paddington

Love the franctic looking around energy! Find Paddington!! Reminds me a little of the “where is Betty?” from Boop! last year!

Everything You Never Were

Daddy Issues the Musical Number.

It’s Never Too Late Pt. 1 & 2

I love a henchman having a change in heart. Very catchy and fun.

Aunt Lucy’s Prayer

Simple but nice!

The Geographer’s Guild

Oh no not a song about Londoners taking artifacts from all over the world for their own displays/museums T_T

Unstoppable

“There is no I in bear but with the eye of the bear we’ll show him how much we care” love everyone gathering together to rescue Paddington!

Everything You Never Were (Reprise)

Fun twist to sing this back to the villain.

Worth the Work (Reprise) / Mr. Gruber’s Shop (Reprise)

Okay Mr. Gruber’s shop is a good shop and not a bad shop, but no, why is it closing??? Surely there are more bears out there it can help!

Missing Beat

Fun, perfect uplifting number. Love the way the pause before saying “Beat”.

Dear Family

Okay this is really just a carve out of “Missing Beat” because it ends with more “Missing Beat” but nice full circle moment. Love a happy ending.

Final Thoughts:

It’s a fun musical! Shout otu to Tom Fletcher who wrote it! Parts of it definitely feel more “children’s musical” -y. I think it could probably stand to trim a few songs. By like the 20th song I was zoning out a bit, not because they weren’t good, just because it’s a lot. I definitely think “Pretty Little Dead Things” / Act 1 is slightly stronger.

I feel the puppetry alone is probably worth the price of admission. And it feels very heartfelt and feel good which we can all use. Rumors are it is planning for a 2027 Broadway bow. I don’t know if it’ll be as wildly successful as it is in London since Paddington isn’t as quite the cultural icon here, but I’d be interested to check it out!

Sorry for the delay in posts! My laptop broke and was not about to write out a substack on my phone! Was hoping to get this out on April 12th, the 114th anniversary of the Titanic sinking (and coincidentally, the same day that Titanique the Celine Dion jukebox musical / Titanic parody musical opened on Broadway!) but here we are!

Every year around the anniversary of the Titanic sinking I find myself listening to the musical Titanic by Peter Stone and Maurey Yeston. It tells the stories of the real life 1st, 2nd, 3rd class passengers on the ship as well as the captains and crew of the ship. I often get a little existential listening to it because these are 90% all real characters some of whom were like the biggest heroes of the Titanic crisis (while only being like 20-22) and I stop to think “wow would I do something like that if a ship was sinking”.

Anyways! It’s a beauitful score and story with a huge orchestra and great orchestrations!

2. The History

Titanic became a craze when the wreckage was found in 1985 by Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel (that is the most French name ever). In 1997, the same year Titanic the musical opened on Broadway and won Best Musical (and Best Score, Best Book, Best Orchestrations, and Best Scenic Design) at the Tonys, the largely unrelated James Cameron film Titanic opened in movie theaters and won Best Picture at the Oscars. So if you are wondering how long it takes to develope a successful piece of media based on a shipwreck, I guess the answer is 12 years! This would’ve normally been the fun fact but I have another special one for that!

Because the show was already so expensive to produce (featuring a set that starts to tilt and sink halfway through the show. Oh spoiler I guess for those who don’t know anything about hte Titanic. It sunk in April of 1912.) it went straight to Broadway instead of having an out-of-town tryout! Like I said it won all five Tonys it was nominated for including Best Musical (hey! I've doubled the amount of times I’ve written about a Best Musical winner the last two weeks between this and Fiddler! Before that it’d been since A Chorus Line in August since I wrote about a Best Musical winner!)

It had a lineup of future Broadway all-stars either in the Broadway debuts or very early on in their careers. Future two-time Tony Award winner Michael Cerveris played Thomas Andrews, the ship designer. Future two-time Tony Award winner Victoria Clark played Alice Beane, the second-class gossip longing to rub elbows with the first-class passengers. Brian D’arcy James, a future five-time Tony Award nominee played Frederick Barrett, one of the stokers on the ship.

It has yet to be revived on Broadway although there have been planned revivals twice recently. One had to cancel plans when a producer pulled out and the other COVID derailed (or… de…sea-ed?). The first London production opened off-West End in a more intimate setting (Southwark Playhouse!!! Remember them from The Last Five Years and Operation Mincemeat!) and a ten year anniversary of that production later toured the UK which was professionally filmed and released in movie theaters and is available to watch on BroadwayHD!

I probably first became aware of it around 2014 when they did a concert production at Lincoln Center with most of the original Broadway cast and I really loved the few songs I heard. Probably took another couple of months/years before I listened to it in full but now it is one of my most often played albums. I really love the full 38 piece orchestra / orchestrations on the cast album (although the sound mixing on the album is not ideal).

3. Favorite Fun Fact about the show

Okay, the thing about Titanic the musical and Titanic the movie both winning the top awards and opening the same year is like one of my GO TO theatre/Broadway fun facts but here is another!

The act one finale “Autumn” is based off the song of the same name largely thought to be the final song played on the Titanic as it was going down (famous scene from the movie of the band playing as the ship sank). The Yeston version of the song, featuring lyrics, is a lot more optimistic and in a happier key than the original, but I’ve linked both below!

4. Favorite Lyric

The first one that came straight to mind was from “The Blame” were Andrews, Smith (Titanic’s captain), and Ismay (Chairman of the White Star Line which owned and operated Titanic) argue about who is to blame while the ship is starting to sink.

---

🎵Ismay: Couldn’t you design it right?
Whoever heard of steel that rips?

Andrew: Ismay, I’m just in the business of building
It’s God who sinks ships🎵

5. If you only have time for one song

I think the intro / prologue linked in the top is definitely one of the best songs / best orchestrations, but the song that got me hooked on it was “The Proposal / The Night Was Alive” where Barrett and the telegraph operator Harold Bride have a lovely duet about connection. Barret is trying to send a telegraph proposing to his girlfriend. Bonus fun fact! The real Harold Bride / The Titanic were some of the first people to use the code “SOS” via telegraph! There used to be a code called CQD and as the Titanic was sinking Bride reportedly joked “make sure to use the new code, SOS. Might be your only chance to send it!” (Bride is one of the heros I talked about who stayed on the ship until the very last second sending distress calls and was one of the few people who fell into the freezing cold water that survived!)

Here’s the video from the rehearsal from that 2014 concert version with Brian D’arcy James and Martin Moran. Such great emotions (and the original cast recording has amazing orchestrations when the songs come together near the end).

and a bonus short with Ramin Karimloo and Alex Joseph Grayson with the fuller orchestrations from a 2024 off-Broadway encores production!

6. Concluding thoughts

Pray the journey’s sound, ‘til your port be found. Fortune’s winds, sing Godspeed to thee.

I absoltely love the score to Titanic and can’t wait until it finally hits Broadway (or off-Broadway) again so I can get a chance to see it live! There’s so many great songs and characters I didn’t even cover in this. It’s cast of over 35 typically with each character having so many dreams and hopes (which is ultimately what Titanic is all about, the ship of dreams).

Thanks for reading! Wish my old laptop Godspeed as well!

A substack from Drew solely about an actual musical? Sounds crazy no? Almost as crazy as a Fiddler on the Roof.

Last weekend was the annual Louisiana Junior Classical League (Latin & Greek club) convention and while I couldn’t attend in person, I was happy to help judge some things virtually. At the convention’s talent show, That’s Entertainment!, I heard there were two performances from Fiddler on the Roof that blew the roof of the hotel from the upcoming production at Dunham High School (so good that multiple convention attendees went to check it out this weekend). Had insane FOMO and started listening to some of my favorite Fiddler songs and here we are (still had some caught in my head from my Leaving Home post too so glad I finally get to do a deep dive!).

Image Description: Got out my Fiddler on the Roof mug, souveneir from the 2016 Broadway revival, for my coffee this morning!

I remember listening to an interivew (might have been the same one I mentioned in She Loves Me) of the original creators (Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick I think recalling a conversation with Hal Prince, original producer) where they talk about what Fiddler is about and originally they say “oh it’s about a Jewish milkman and his three eldest daughters who each goes off to get married” and Prince says something like, no that’s what happens in the story, what is it about, and after a while they think and say “it’s about a man whose whole world and belief system is getting uprooted all around him and how he learns to come to terms with it” and that quote has always stuck with me and reinterpreted how I listen and think about Fiddler.

Fiddler on the Roof follows Tevye, the aforementioned Jewish milkman, his wife Golde, and three of their five daughters (Tzeitel, Hodel, and Chava) as they fall in love and get married, each testing Tevye’s faith a little more before he finally breaks. At the backfront of this is the procescution and exile of Jewish people out of Russia in the early 1900s, their lives literally being uprooted.

2. The History

Fiddler on the Roof is based on the Sholem Aleichem series of stories called Tevye the Dairyman that he wrote based off of his own experiences in Imperial Russia between 1894 and 1914. It was adapted into films, plays, and even another off-Broadway musical called Tevye and his Daughters. Rodgers and Hammerstein themselves even considered adapting it for Broadway as well.

Eventually Bock, Harnick, as well as book writer Joseph Stein with Hal Prince and Jerome Robbins (choreographer/director) brought it to Broadway in 1964. Star Zero Mostel and Robbins had a lot of arguments and fought during rehearsals (mostly over Robbins agreeing to participate with Joseph McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee) but despite the in-fighting, Fiddler still was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and won 9 including Best Musical and one each for Mostel, Harnick and Bock, Stein, and two for Robbins for his direction and choreography. The original production ended up being the longest running Broadway show by the end of its run.

It has been revived a handful of times including 1976, where Mostel and Robbins must have put aside their beef and reuinted to bring it back, 1981, 1990, 2004 (starring Alfred Molina), and then 2015-16 with Danny Burstein as the lead which I was lucky enough to see. I’ll stand by my take that Burstein should’ve won the Tony Award for Best Actor that year even over Leslie Odom Jr’s amazing take on Aaron Burr in Hamilton.

Here’s a clip below of Alfred Molina in his Doc Ock gear during filming of Spider-Man 2 as he was getting ready for Fiddler in 2004.

3. Favorite Fun Fact about the show

Josh Groban performed as Tevye in his high school production of Fiddler and luckily a lot of it is sitll on Youtube! Insane how deep and wonderful and full his voice sounds even during high school.

4. Favorite Lyric

Favorite Lyric and One Song are both so hard to pick. So many classic songs in Fiddler on the Roof between “Tradition”, “Matchmaker”, “If I Were A Rich Man”, “To Life” alone and those are just the first four songs in the show.

I’ll go the witty and double meaning of matches in Matchmaker when the three daughters sing about Yentle, the matchmaker and her sometimes misfit matching.

---

🎵Matchmaker, matchmaker
plan me no plans, I’m in no rush
Maybe I’ve learned,
playing with matches a girl can get burned

So bring me no ring
Groom me no groom
Find me no find
Catch my no catch
Unless he’s a matchless match🎵

5. If you only have time for one song

Again, super hard but I’m just going to go back to the crux of the show which is “Tradition”

6. Concluding thoughts

To our prosperity! To our good health and happiness! and most importantly to life!

Well that’s another sunrise / sunset on a post about an actual musical! It’s hard to believe how remarkable the score / story of Fiddler on the Roof is. It is hit after hit, both really funny and deeply heartfelt. Just a winner of a musical and if you ever get a chance to see it whether it be at a high school, community theater, national tour, or Broadway itself, go out and do it!

L’Chaim!

Image description: Selfie before seeing Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway in summer of 2016! Coincidentally enough I had a high school classmate attend the same performance we found out after the fact! Photo provided by Karla Coreil.

So before I knew I’d be transitioning jobs, I knew that Mardi Gras break would be right around the time of this trip. Ragtime had just extended and I didn’t want the chance to miss it and one of my favorites (will write about soon I promise) musical 25th Putnam County Spelling Bee had just opened off-Broadway. I firmly believe that if your favorite musical is getting revived on / off-Broadway that you should try to see it, because who knows the next time it’ll be back! Oliver! hasn’t been revived on Broadway since NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR (1984!!!!!). Kismet and Fiorello!, two Best Musical winners from pre-1960 have NEVER been revived on Broadway. So it was a good chance to see both of Ragtime and Spelling Bee! When I found out that my mom and stepfather were considering going the same weekend (had not been to New York with my mom since January 2019) it felt like a great opportunity!

Image Description: Selfie taken in NYC! Please excuse the wild hair (or lack thereof); it was a windy weekend! You can see where I get the genes from. Photo provided by Karla Coreil

Night One!

I flew in early afternoon into JFK! Had enough time to get to the hotel and grab a bite to eat with the family at one of those Times Square Irish pubs (hey, Happy early St. Patrick’s Day everyone!) that was right across the street from our first show: Oh, Mary! the laugh out loud one-act comedy about Mary Todd Lincoln and her dreams of returning to the stage as a cabaret star (the play stretches historical fiction to the farthest grasps of the word).

I had already seen Oh! Mary back in July with the incredible Hannah Solow as Mary Todd Lincoln who was understudying for Titus Burgess. Hannah Solow as been the understudy for the entire run of the show (it opened in July 2024) for a slew of famous stars (Titus Burgess, Jane Krakowski, Jynx Monsoon, amongst many others). Through no fault of the play or Hannah Solow, I left a little underwhelmed the first time. I was kind of expecting it to be really funny but also like deep at times (see: Spelling Bee) but it is really just surface level, straight up hilarious comedy. I mean, the first scene with Mary is her sniffing around the Oval Office like a bloodhound for some alcohol and looking up at a portrait of George Washington and saying “oh mother, we are really in it now”.

At first Oh, Mary! was on my list to see again because I was like okay first off, I should give it a second chance going into it now, because even though I was underwhelmed, I did really enjoy my July showing. Also, I love the current Mary (John Cameron Mitchell of Hedwig and the Angry Inch fame) and Mary’s Teacher (Simu Liu, of Shang-Chi fame in his Broadway debut). Also, it is short and relatively cheap with some “partial view seats” that really aren’t that bad. (They even gave the whole first row of the balcony booster seats!!!)

Image Description: Row of booster seats and my view/Playbill from he first row of the balcony!

I’m really glad I saw it again with a new mindset / perspective! It is just so funny and they keep casting all stars (Maya Rudolph just announced as the next Mary on Broadway, Catherine Tate as the next one in London!). I feel it is a roll where ever Mary can truly make it their own and be worth the price of another ticket. John Cameron Mitchell was so funny (and, a NOLA local now even threw in a Mardi Gras reference during the final scene, “the madcap medly”). Also, again, nothing against Hannah Solow who was amazing and hilarious too, but I do think seeing Mary be played in drag just adds another level to the show which is such a queer piece.

I did stage door and get an autograph from Simu Liu! John Cameron Mitchell came out but was not signing autographs, but did hand out custom election buttons that he had already signed (which honestly, I think is cooler anyways!)

Image Description: Collage of John Cameron Mitchell autographed Oh, Mary! pin and picture of me with Simu Liu. Bottom photo by Kevin Kuperman.

Day Two!

Woke up for breakfast at a diner the next morning and then walked through Central Park! I was carrying around a headband that had been left in my car for some five months and wanted to show it all the famous sights! Met friends Chandler and Stephanie for lunch before heading down to see 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at New World Stages!

Image Description: Headband seeing Central Park.

I did get to Spelling Bee early to try to enter and be a speller on stage (they pick four audience members, sometimes a celebrity to go up and compete in the bee). Unfortunately, I didn’t get picked. Note to future attendees, I have since learned they like to pick people who have no experience with Spelling Bee, so just lie and say you’ve never heard of the show if you want to be on stage (and learn how to spell intolerant because that’s one of the first words they like to throw out).

Image description: Signing up for the bee! Didn’t get picked this time but glad I tried! Photo by Karla Coreil.

Spelling Bee was so funny and I’m so happy I finally got to see it live instead of just listening to the album on repeat. The cast was phenomenal and the script (including the improv in the first half of the show) remains to funny and heartfelt. I always say, you wouldn’t expect a musical called the 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee to make you cry, but there I was, once again, crying to the I Love You Song where the character Olive gets the word chimerical (highly unrealistic / wildly fanciful) and sings about how she imagines her parents loving her (highly unrealistic / wildly fanciful). Just heartbreaking. There were some interesting updates to it to make it set modern day (references to COVID and the Bad Bunny halftime show) which was interesting to see and I think for the most part landed. There was one or two acting or maybe directing choices that I wish had been closer to the original, but I can’t complain too much! I had a really good time!)

We had a brief break and then grabbed dinner with my cousin Christopher who’s studying for a graduate degree in piano in the city and then headed to Lincoln Center for Ragtime!

Image description: Family dinner before going to see Ragtime! Photo provided by Karla Coreil.

Ragtime was amazing! It was very long and very dense (which is funny because they cut out so much from the book. It’s a lot like Les Miserables in that way I feel) but felt so modern and timely and the cast was just amazing. Joshua Henry was phenomal and I mean, barring something crazy, just give him that Tony Award now. I had never seen a show stop mid act for a standing ovation before until him and Nichelle Lewis finished belting out “Wheels of a Dream” .

I feel I’ve said enough about Ragtime and it’s timeliness enough over the past 5 months so I won’t say much more (other than seriously, “Til We Reach That Day” sung after the unarmed, black character Sarah gets killed by police officers, proves to be as timely now as it was in 1998. “It will happen again and again and again”).

My one gripe, I really wish Joshua Henry actually learned to play piano, but I know that would’ve been a big ask on top of all the emotional and vocal work he has to do in the show.

Day Three

Had brunch at Maison Pickle as the snow started to fall! The whole city was under a blizzard warning starting later that day so all I could do was just keep checking my flight status!

In the meantime, watched the US Men’s Hockey Team win gold and walked around town a little to get a few more pictures with the headband including the Nintendo Store.

Image Description: Headband wonders how it would fit on Pikachu.

Despite all the Broadway shows that night being cancelled, I started my trek back to JFK. On the way there I walked past two of the original stars and creators of Operation Mincemeat who looked particular upset (more so than just the cold) and when I finally got to the airport I saw an article about how that evening show that was cancelled was supposed to be the last performance of the entire original cast, so I’m sure that is why they were emotional! They did end up doing a live stream concert of some of their songs that night instead which was a good alternate! Linked below!

Anyways, of the 10 flights out of my gate at JFK, 7 of them were cancelled! I was lucky to be one of the three that wasn’t! Made it home safetly (a little behind schedule but nothing drastic given the circumstances) and already started planning the next trip!

The Recap Recap!

Was this a good read? I hope so! I kind of just flowed instead of planning out anything specific so hopefully it didn’t ramble too much! It was a really fun and successful trip to New York. Love getting to see family and friends and all the great Broadway / off Broadway shows! Can’t wait to write about my next trip to NYC (September, I have you circled!)

Sorry for the delay, but as most of you know, I’ve recently taken a job at the University of Wisconsin which has required multiple weeks of moving across the country + a trip to NYC in the middle (think next week I’ll do my first ever NYC trip recap blog post!)

Thought I’d take this moment to share some of my favorite blog posts about home / leaving home.

Mamma Mia: Here I Go Again (2018)

I was definitely listening to this one when I made the final decision to leave. Took a walk around the neighborhood and was like, Donna (and ABBA) is right. “I wonder. It’s frightening. Leaving now, is that the right thing? I wonder, it scares me. But who the hell am I if I don’t even try.”

🎵“I’m not a coward, oh no I’ll be strong. One chance in a lifetime, yes I will take it, it can’t go wrong”🎵

Anatasia (2017)

In my head I always replace “Petersburg” with “Baton Rouge”.

“I grew up on the sly, in the gutters and the streets of Baton Rouge. Just a kid, on the fly, getting good at getting by in Baton Rouge! I bartered for a blanket, stolen for my bread. learned to take my chances and use my head. A Cajun rat is clever, clever or he ends up dead”

🎵The Palace is above and alleyways below
Funny when a city is all you know
How even when you hate it
Something in you loves it so
———
Nothing here to hold me
No one that I owe
Funny how a boy can grow
Funny when a city tells you when its time to go🎵

Maybe Happy Ending (2024)

Maybe Happy Ending was on my mind a lot between this and “Hitting the Road (1, 2, and 3). “I think we’re ready. I’m feeling not at all scared. I’ve got the charger. I’ve got the playlist prepared. And I know now there’s no turning back. How much shit did you pack? We’re finally hitting the road!”

(yes I linked the Korean version!)

🎵Goodbye, my room
If I don’t return to you
It’s now au revoir

While I’m gone, please stay the way you are
On some distant highway
I’ll think back to you as the evening falls
These four walls

My faithful room
Goodbye, my room🎵

Ragtime (1998)

Might as well. Journey On! Again!

🎵Well perhaps you’re a man who’s in search of his heart! Journey on!🎵

Fiddler on the Roof (1964)

Leaving Anatevka also on the list but this to me is the most underrated song in Fiddler on the Roof. I was tearing up when I heard it in the 2016 revival.

🎵How can I hope to make you understand
Why I do
What I do
Why I must travel to a distant land
Far from the home I love🎵

Goodbye Louisiana!

I’m sure I’ll probably come back and add more later so check back often dear readers. Heck I added like three more songs to the baseball article all through the next week. Louisiana will always be my home and I’ll be back to visit often, but I’m so excited at the future opportunities!

I hope you are ready for regularly scheduled posts again now that I am getting settled again in Wisconsin! Lots of musicals on my brain to share with you all!

This Friday (February 13th) starts my favorite season of the year (even more than award season), LSU baseball! I am a sucker for a good baseball game. Luckily it is an American Theatre tradition to throw a song about baseball into a musical to prove just how American the show is.

Like Michael Scott from The Office, I’m not superstitious, but I am a little stitious and driving to LSU baseball games at Alex Box Stadium I do often find myself listening to the same musical songs about baseball over and over again, so I’d thought I’d share a few of them + my favorite lyrics from each!

Also, I think if I had a walkup song in baseball it’d be the Phantom of the Opera overture. Intimidating and can get you pumped up for your at bat.

Damn Yankees (1955)

Starting with the musical that is just about baseball, the two songs I listen to a lot are “Heart” and “Who’s Got The Pain”. I’m sure I’ll do a full post on Damn Yankees sooner rather than later but here’s a teaser!

And then “Who’s Got The Pain” doesn’t have anything to do with baseball, but I love the choreography + it is always a treat to get to watch Bob Fosse dance, especially with his at the time partner Gwen Verdon. They’re so good together.

A recent out-of-town, revamped revival in Washington D.C. with an all star cast / design team, produced by the granddaughter (Haley Swindal) of longtime Yankee’s owner George Steinbrenner is despreately trying to find investors to bring it to Broadway. Here’s hoping!

Favorite Damn Yankees lyric, 🎵 “So what the heck’s the use of cryin’? Why should we curse? We gotta get better, ‘cause we can’t get worse! And to add to it: we’ve got heart 🎵

You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown (1967)

Love “TEAM” from You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown. Man, these songs so far are about some bad baseball teams. I usually listen to the 1997 revival version with Anthony Rapp, Kristin Chenoweth and co!

🎵“Lucy,” I hollered, “It’s comin’ right to you—”
She caught it as easy as pie—then dropped it
I don’t think it’s good for a team’s morale
To see their manager cry

Snoopy helped out by biting a runner
And catching the ball in his teeth;
Linus caught flies from a third-story window
By holding his blanket beneath

Yes, we had fortitude
No one could argue with that
And one run would win us the game
As I came up to bat🎵

Falsettos (1992)

“The Baseball Game” where Jason’s parents and their friends get to watch some really bad Jewish recreational league youth baseball (“we’re watching Jewish boys who cannot play baseball play baseball”) when Marvin’s ex Whizzer shows up unexpectedly to also root for Jason. Hard to beat the 2016 revival!

🎵We’re watching Jewish boys
Who almost read Latin
Up, battin’
And battin’ bad🎵

Ragtime (1998)

“What A Game” from Ragtime where Father takes Edgar out to a baseball game to try to forget about the ever changing world around them only to find the game he remembered playing at Harvard is not the same as it used to be. The players they name drop are the actual names of MLB players from the early 20th century!

🎵Ain’t this the kind of weather
To get together and
Bash his teeth in!

The kind o’ weather makes a man
Hit like hell!

A fine, upliftin’ atmosphere
Bring yer children here
Teach them baseball
The game all true Americans
Do damn well!

It’s like the Constitution
The institution
Of dear ol’ baseball
Where every man is treated the same🎵

High School Musical 2 (2007)

“I’ll show you that it’s one and the same: baseball, dancing? Same game.”

🎵Lean back, tuck it in, take a chance
Swing it out, spin around, do the dance

I wanna play ball, not dancehall
I'm makin' a triple, not a curtain call🎵

Smash (2012)

Love the mess that is the tv series Smash about the creation of a Marilyn Monroe musical. Of course it covers Marilyn’s relationship with famous baseball slugger Joe DiMaggio!

🎵Who’s that man? (That’s the first base coach!)
Have you noticed that he signals every time I approach?

(Kill the ump!) Throw him out!
(Because there isn’t a doubt) That all men like to play at
The national pastime!

When the season’s over
The play won’t end
Because a baseball diamond
is a girl’s best friend

Yes my style and my fashion
Will elevate the national pastime🎵

Honorable Mentions!

Here are a few lyrics in shows that reference baseball that I like but maybe are not baseball enough to be on my baseball pre-show playlist!

Gypsy - “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”

🎵Now's your inning
Stand the world on its ear!
Set it spinning
That'll be just the beginning!🎵

Merrily We Roll Along - “Now You Know”

🎵So you’ll sit in the sun
You’ll come back with a tan
Then we’ll do that show you’ve always been talking

The side is retired
So we start another inning—
Right?🎵

Medea Re-Versed - “The Plot”

🎵Time now for me to leave?
Is the strike count now two or three?
For you I mean, you say you’ve got my back
But when I’m up to bat
You want to switch teams and intervene

(No that’s not what I mean)
Then why you begging me to flee the scene?
Trying to make a runaway out of a queen?
Don’t want to see what happens when you get to strike three 🎵

And then one more!

I promise I won’t be as annoying about LSU baseball here as I am in real life but I don’t know where else I’d shared this fun fact! LSU’s unofficial fight song “Hey Fightin’ Tigers” is based off of a showtune! “Hey Look Me Over” from Wildcat which starred Lucille Ball in the title role in her only Broadway credit! I think I’ll have to be scrapping the barrel to ever do a full post on Wildcat but you really never know, it might end up being a new favorite sooner than later!

That’s right woodchuck chuckers! It’s Groundhog Day! Okay okay it is not really Groundhog Day. You are not in a Groundhog Day situation. It’s just hard not to have Groundhog Day the Musical stuck in your head on February 2nd (and 3rd and 4th and et cetera).

Based on the 1993 movie of the same name, it follows weatherman Phil Connors who finds himself in a timeloop, reliving Groundhog Day over and over again. Danny Rubin who co-wrote the movie with Harold Ramis returned as the book writer for the musical. He’s joined by Tim Minchin (composer/lyricist) and Matthew Warchus (director) who had previously worked together on Matilda the Musical.

Image Description: Groundhog Day Broadway marquee at the August Wilson Theatre circa August 2017.

2. The History

Danny Rubin had the idea of Groundhog Day musical for a while and finally was able to get it off the ground in 2016 in London at the Old Vic. It did exceedingly well in London, winning Best Musical and Best Leading Actor for Broadway Hunk Andy Karl at the Olivier Awards (amongst a slew of others). It transferred to Broadway with Andy Karl reprising his role. It got nominated for seven Tony Awards including Best Musical, Score, Book, Leading Actor, Director, Set Design, and Choreography but unfortunately got lost in the shuffle of a very competitive season (Dear Evan Hansen, Great Comet of 1812, and Come From Away all opened that same year), winning none and quickly closing after 176 performances. It has since been revived in London with Andy Karl once again reprising his role as Phil Connors and became the Old Vic’s most successful production ever.

I saw it in August 2017 when I was working at a conference for an internship and was using my daily per diem to see Broadway shows. I entered the lottery for just about every show and for one night, Groundhog Day was the only one I won. It was pretty low on my list, I mean, surely the music must get pretty repetitive if they’re just repeating the same day over and over again. But I figured seeing one show was better than seeing none and boy howdy was I right. The acting, choreography/stage movement, stage magic/directing were all phenomenal but I was particularly blown away by the lyrics which I think are some of the best lyrics this century on Broadway.

3. Favorite Fun Fact about the show

I don’t have much here but just an interesting insight to producer’s mindsets. By the time I saw Groundhog Day it had already announced they were closing the next month. After I saw it, they emailed me (and I assumed everyone who saw it) a survey asking what we liked about the show and what we didn’t. What scenes were too slow, what scenes were the funniest or most intriguing to watch. I guess they took all that feedback and put it into the smash hit London revival. I’d be really curious to see the show again to see if it in fact changed that much. I thought it was pretty solid in its curent form, but again, I like pretty much every show so who am I to say.

Image Description: Autographed Groundhog Day Playbill by most of the entire case. Barrett Doss who plays Rita, Phil’s love interest, told me she always signs her autograph over herself, so that it’s easy to find! I hope she is back on Broadway soon.

4. Favorite Lyric

Like I said, I think there are so many great lyrics in this show. Tim Minchin does a great job as always of being so witty in such little space. I’ll do a couple of lyrics below! First off, “Day One” where Phil is waging his war against small towns like Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

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🎵I mean what’s not to like in a quaint little place like this?
Who doesn’t dig a crochet pillow case like this?
Water colors of bucolic vistas
Painted by octagenarian spinsters🎵

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From “One Day” (not to be confused with “Day One”) where Rita sings about her unrealistic ideas of a perfect man. I like the double use of shining as an adjective and as verb.

🎵In that fairy tale world all the girls end up "happy ever after"
Wooing their knights in shining armor
But some nights down the track
You can bet they'll be trapped
Spending nights in, shining armor
While their knights spend their nights at a bar
Or at a ball with some harlot
I'm not bitter
It's just better that I don't fall for all that
Romantic bullshit now that I'm older🎵

And then maybe my favorite lyrics (and bit of music) from “Playing Nancy” where Nancy, the attractive girl in town whom Phil as taken advantage of / gaslighted / and manipulated through multiple Groundhog Days kind of has her Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead moment where she realizes she’s just a character in someone else’s play and wants to break free and be something more. There are definitely some lyrics in it that are like, okay, you can tell this was written by a man, but I do love the overall song still.

🎵One day I will be
Something more than just collateral
In someone else’s battle, I will
be free of playing Nancy🎵

5. If you only have time for one song

“One Day” is my favorite song from the musical. You only have to listen to the first 4 minutes (Rita’s parts) although there is a fun Ghostbusters 2 reference later on (famously starring Bill Murray who also starred in the movie version of Groundhog Day). I wish there were more videos of live performances, but Groundhog Day didn’t get to do a lot of those and the ones they did are not my favorite choices.

6. Concluding thoughts

Tomorrow spring will come. There’ll be blue skies, my friend, bright eyes and laughter. Tomorrow there’ll be sun. But if not tomorrow, then perhaps the day after

Well I hope y’all are ready for six more weeks of winter! Or six more weeks of listening to Groundhog Day! It is a really charming, witty, and funny score that is worth a listen to every year. I’m glad I won the lottery to see it or else I’d have missed out.

Image description: Stage door selfie with Andy Karl after a performance of Groundhog Day. Fun fact, we share the same birthday!

After talking about Midnight in Paris in my Anastasia post, I decided to check it out from the library and watch it last Sunday, and what do you know, in the movie there was Cole Porter was playing “You Got That Thing” which I referred to in my The Violet Hour post which got me on a full Cole Porter kick (I guess you can say “I get a kick out of him” ba dum tis).

Maybe it was because I had to wear a tux this week for the Artemis Mardi Gras Ball, but High Society was the Cole Porter musical I landed on. Now, with a lot of older musicals, the songs aren’t really plot relevant, so most times High Society gets revived it’ll have a new set of Cole Porter songs attached to it. I’ll be talking specifically about the 1956 movie and the 1998 original Broadway cast recording.

High Society is a musical based on a movie musical (1956 film version starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong) based on a movie (1940’s The Philadelphia Story starring Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburne, and James Stewart) based on a play (1939’s The Philadelphia Story). Each follows the same basic plot. On the eve of wealthy Tracy Lord’s wedding to straightlace George, her ex-husband Dexter shows up. Complicating matters further, tabloid reporter Mike Connors is sneaking around to cover the wedding. Other characters involved include Tracy’s eccentric and alcoholic Uncle Willie, Tracy’s younger sister Dinah who prefers Dexter to George, and Liz, Mike’s photographer in love with him.

It’s basically a love triangle between Tracy, Dexter, and Mike (poor George, the fiancee who has the least likely odds to marry her).

Image Description: High Society 1998 Broadway playbill.

2. The History

It is funny that people complain about movies being turned into musicals today and equate it with being a problem with this generation of musical theatre when literally people have been turning movies into musicals since movies became a thing.

I’m sure I first watched the movie at my grandmother’s house. I’m a sucker for those old Hollywood musicals. At some point afterwards I found out an expanded score had made it to Broadway so I had to check it out. I love all the additions it made and adding a little more dimension to some of the characters. Shout out to Arthur Kopit for writing the new book.

It got nominated for just two acting Tony Awards winning neither. Best Featured Actor for John McMartin as Uncle Willie and Best Featured Actress for a 13 year old Anna Kendrick in her Broadway debut as Dinah. She lost to Audra McDonald for Ragtime (man Ragtime just keeps popping up) so absolutely no shame in that.

Despite being a musical about American upperclass, it has done a lot better in London, having multiple revivals and tours over there. None has opened on Broadway since the 1998 production closed after just 144 performances.

3. Favorite Fun Fact about the show

Is the Anna Kendrick tidbit not enough for you? Personal fun fact is I have a Playbill from the show! I bought it with an Amazon giftcard from my stepsister because I was like idk what to do with this and I thought it’d be cool to have a Playbill with pre-fame Anna Kendrick in it. I later found out that this Playbill happens to actually be an Opening Night playbill to boot! What a steal. You can tell an opening night because on the title page of the Playbill (once you get past the ads and articles), it’ll say “Opening Night” at the top line and have the date on it.

Image Description: High Society 1998 playbill page.

4. Favorite Lyric

I love all Cole Porter lyrics equally. I especially love the Kopit asides that make it into the recording and some of the addition lyrics by Susan Birkenhead to make the songs more plot relevant.

I like sassy Dinah talking about Uncle Willie’s mind slipping in “Throwing A Ball Tonight”

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🎵Though his mind may sometimes wander
It’ll make its way safely back!

Yes but as he nips
His trolly slips
Another inch of track🎵

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Some of the asides I like:

From “Let’s Misbehave” about a side plot of Uncle Willie pretending to be Tracy’s father in front of the reporters as her real father is absent (before later showing up and having to pretend to be Tracy’s uncle as to not reveal the lie to the journalists).

Liz: Do you not find it odd that the bride’s mother is having a shamefully wonderful time with her brother-in-law while her own husband is off pinching bottoms?

Mike: It’s just the priveleged class my dear.

Both: Enjoying its priveleges!

And from “Little One” where Dinah is trying to convince Dexter to win back Tracy and he’s telling her it probably isn’t realistic.

Dexter: And by the way, I am trying to grow up. And it’s damn hard. And don’t ever let anyone tell you it isn’t.

Dinah: embarrased at being sung to This is mortifying
Dexter: Tracy used to love it when I sang to her. In fact this is how I won her heart
Dinah: No wonder the marriage didn’t last.

5. If you only have time for one song

It is hard to go wrong with any of the songs. I’ll go with one of the movie versions and one of the play versions. Honorable mentions to “Well Did You Evah” (but more so the movie version than the stage or the 1990 Iggy Pop version) and movie exclusive “Now You Has Jazz” (featuring Louis Armstrong).

“Who Wants To Be a Millionaire”

Liz and Mike while snooping around the expensive estate sing sarcastically about not wanting to be rich.

"Let’s Misbehave”

At the pre-wedding ball, Tracy feeling the stress of the wedding and her feelings for Dexter and Mike has a little too much to drink. She and the rest of the household staff and visitors have a great time (other than maybe Liz who is getting pursued by Uncle Willie).

6. Concluding thoughts

So goodbye dear and amen. Here’s hoping we meet now and then. It was great fun, but it was just one of those things.

“Just One Of Those Things” quoted above might actually be my favorite song from the Broadway recording. Cole Porter just put out banger after banger. Also Cole Porter, an Indiana native, shout out to the Hoosiers!

Anna Kendrick once said in an interview that she’ll get like 3 cent residual checks from the High Society cast recording. I’d like to think I’m the reason for at least 2 of the cents. Hey, maybe collectively we can get her 6 cents next year. Or heck, a whole dime. I would hate to think we’re keeping her from being part of high society. It’s an album that’s definitely worth a listen / movie that’s definitely worth a watch. Maybe I’ll grab it from the library for my next watch a la Midnight in Paris last week.

Man, I hope that one day I have a meet cute with someone listening to Cole Porter and bonding over it, just like in Midnight in Paris. Preferably in Paris but I’d take Baton Rouge too.

Image Description: Dressed up in a tux with my mom feeling like I’m a part of high society.

I had a shower thought this week “wow, you know, I think I’ve only written about two musicals that have won Best Musical, in 23 posts and not about one since post #4 about A Chorus Line on August 1st.” That streak will continue because this week I’m talking about The Violet Hour which hasn’t even been performed on a stage yet, but man, that means I have like at least 76 more musicals I can write about. Guess this series has a long life ahead of it yet!

Okay, okay, The Violet Hour is a musical based on the 2003 play of the stage name by Richard Greenberg. It is simultaneously a simple but convulated plot. After World War I, John Pace Seavering has started a publishing company. Despite being from a wealthy family, he has only been given enough money to publish a single book. The story opens with him surrounded by manuscripts as he tries to find the best one. Ultimately, he has to decide between publishing the novel (named “The Violet Hour”) by Denny, one of his best friends from college, or a memoir from his lover, Jessie, a famous singer. Easy enough. The convulated part is during act one, a mysterious machine arrives at the publishing company which we learn right before intermission is a printing press that prints books / news / et cetera from the future. John takes the second act to use said machine to see what would happen to both his friend and lover depending on which book he decides to publish. Ultimately, he lets this inform his decision.

2. The History

So yeah, not much history. The play it is based on opened on Broadway in 2003. Doesn’t seem like it got great reviews, it only ran for 54 performances, a little more than a month. Didn’t get nominated for any Tony Awards.

Will Reynolds wrote the music and Eric Price did the lyrics and book for the musical version which released a studio cast recording in 2022 with an all-star cast. Good thing about studio cast recordings is you can get a lot of great talent. It is easier to commit for a one day recording session than a huge Broadway production.

The Violet Hour studio cast includes Tony Award winner Santino Fontana (Tootsie, Cinderella on Broadway, voice of Prince Hans in Frozen) as John, Tony Award nominee Jeremy Jordan (Newsies, Floyd Collins) as Denny, Tony Award winner Brandon Uranowitz (Ragtime, Falsettos) as Gidger (John’s assistant), Solea Pfeiffer (Hadestown, Hamilton) as Jessie and finally Erika Henningsen (Mean Girls, Just in Time, Hazbin Hotel) as Rosamund, Denny’s girlfriend.

I first came across it because the song “Ease” (where John and Rosamund sing about how great it is to be rich) started autoplaying on YouTube sometime around when it released. I was like “oh I love Erika Henningsen and Santino Fontana, what is this?”. It’s very catchy and reminds me a lot of Cole Porter in both music and lyrics. It’s actually in my Top 100 all time listened to songs on Apple Music now.

Eventually, loving the rest of the cast too, I expanded to listening to the whole album which also sounds a bit like Jule Styne of Gypsy in part as well, especially the overture. Kind of sounds like one of those songs you’d hear over the opening credits in an old school movie musical

I definitely think the book needs some work if it ever makes it to the stage. There are multiple times where the same two characters sing like 3-4 songs in a row in one scene which for an album is fine, but if it was on stage would slow the pace to a screeching halt, so I think there are few songs they’d have to cut. Also there’s a song called “Bright” that opens the second act where Gidger (sarcastically) and John (optimistically) sing about how the future looks bright while reading news articles from the next 100 years. The song opens with them discovering there’s a second World War on the horizon which, I don’t think even sarcastically you can say “the future looks bright” after that.

So the music and lyrics all sound really good, but the book I think would need to tighten up if it ever wants to have a life beyond the Studio Cast Recording.

3. Favorite Fun Fact about the show

I got nothing other than the play debuted in 2002 at South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa, California. The year prior, another play that was turned into a musical debuted there as well: Kimberly Akimbo which the musical version of won all the 2023 Tony Awards (Musical, Score, Book, Actress, Featured Actress, probably more). Maybe the success of Kimberly Akimbo will inspire producers to invest in The Violet Hour as well.

4. Favorite Lyric

Firstly, from the aforementioned “Ease”. Love an Ancient Rome reference, and hey look, Anastasia! Maybe that’s why I transitioned to this album after last week.

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🎵Ancient Rome had Western Asia
The Romanovs had Anastasia
And that’s all well
but they all fell to their knees🎵

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And then continuing on with the classics theme, here’s “Rosamund (Reprise)” where Denny describes Rosamund, likening her to Helen of Troy.

🎵Here’s a face that could launch
not just a thousand ships but
Trains, aeroplanes.
Darling I can’t keep my lips shut 🎵

Speaking of Cole Porter, reminds me of “She’s Got That Thing” below!

🎵They tell us Trojan Helen’s lips
Made every man her slavey.
If Helen’s face launched a thousand ships
Well hers could launch a navy! 🎵

5. If you only have time for one song

I don’t think I’ve given Jeremy Jordan enough love yet this post, so here he is singing the title song (double title song since it is also the title of his book).

6. Concluding thoughts

I know how it ends. I know I’ll succeed. I feel it so near, it could be right here, the next thing I read.

Like the manuscripts John reads at the opening of the score, I think The Violet Hour has a lot of potential, just maybe not in its current form. But the Studio Cast Recording is great and features an excellent score and phenominal acting and vocal talent, and that alone is enough to give it a listen!

Maybe I’ll write about a Best Musical winner next week… Or maybe The Violet Hour will eventually win a Tony Award for Best Musical! If only I had a machine that could tell me the future…