Bye Bye Birdie

Bye Bye Birdie is the end of the B's, and in the month that's been the hardest to do this project (because I want to listen to Christmas music!), that's quite a relief.

I wouldn't say BBB is one of my favorite musicals of all time, but I do love it. I started loving it when I was in high school, myself. I never related to Kim, though. I was always looking for the day I could play Rose. I may never be able to actually play Rose, as she is a dancer, but maybe she doesn't HAVE to be a dancer? What? It's in the script? Oh, screw you.

I had the OBC recording on CD when I was younger, and when I was downloading it on Apple Music to listen to I THOUGHT I was downloading the same version (Chita Rivera has top billing and they both said Broadway cast), but I accidentally listened to the London cast several times through and was really confused. But, there were some interesting changes (and just a year or so apart).

So, on Broadway, Susan Watson played Kim and she's like your perfect human girl. I mean, even if we're talking ONLY about her singing voice (and let's assume we are), it's flawless. She has great control, her voice is crystal clear, it basically sounds like a Disney princess. So, she's singing "How Lovely to be a Women" -- which is a ridiculous song to everyone else, but completely NOT ridiculous to Kim. She believes the FUCK out of those lyrics. And with Susan Watson singing, you're like, "Wow. No wonder Kim is so popular. She sounds like the vocal embodiment of a Beauty Pageant Winner."

"How Lovely to be a Woman" includes the lyrics,

When you're a skinny child of fourteen
Wired with braces from ear to ear
You doubt that you could ever be appealing
Then hallelujah, you are fifteen and the braces disappear
And your skin is smooth and clear
And you have that happy grown up female feeling...

WHAT HUMAN FEMALE SUDDENLY HAS CLEAR SKIN AT AGE 15?!?!? If anything, my skin was WORSE from 14 to 15. It's not like she's turned 22. She's 15 and still a child. She's not even the age of the Little Mermaid, yet. BUT, she truly believes she is a "woman" now, and as a listener, because Susan Watson sounds amazing and perfect, you believe it, too.

Now, what's interesting is that in the London cast, the girl who plays Kim, Sylvia Tysick, does NOT sound like a perfect human girl. She sounds like a kid. A kid who really believes she is a "woman" now, but that we, the audience, definitely DO NOT. I mean, she can sing just fine, but her voice isn't special, it's not flawless. To me, this is the more believable Kim. Everyone is the worst in high school and has absolutely no idea that they are the worst. That's why American media is so dumb: they get 20-somethings, who are past all their terrible awkwardness, to play high schoolers. It's just not realistic.

I mean, I have heard Bye Bye Birdie hundreds of times, but it really took listening to Sylvia Tysick's Kim to be like, "Oh. I get it. I REALLY get it." AND I'M JUST TALKING ABOUT ONE SONG, FROM ONE CHARACTER!

The rest of BBB did not make me think so much. But, I do love it. I consider it the first Rock Musical. It's very true to life and completely unpretentious. It's funny and charming and joyous. Even though the music is pretty generic (except for Conrad Birdie's songs: the first rock songs in a musical), there is one SPECIFICALLY interesting part during the intro to "An English Teacher" (my favorite song from this show) that I have loved since I was 16 years old. Generic or not, this musical is a HIT. People still love it and even if you've never seen any musicals, you've probably heard "Put On a Happy Face" or "Kids" at least once in your life.

I love it, too. If I were grading these, Bye Bye Birdie would be a solid A.

Bye Bye Birdie
Music by Charles Strouse
Lyrics by Lee Adams
Book by Michael Stewart

PS - I barely mentioned Chita Rivera, but can we talk about her as a singer, not a dancer, for a moment? She is so wonderful. She is a fucking inspiration. I love her. Also, Dick Van Dyke, holy hell. So perfect. I think of Dick Van Dyke and instantly smile, because I think of his smile.

By Jupiter

I should have known that my composer crush on Rodgers and Hart would come crashing down, and it did with By Jupiter, and that makes me sad, because I really wanted to like it. I especially wanted to like it knowing loosely what the plot was based on (it's basically that gender roles are reversed in the world of the Amazon women). 

HOWEVER, the character of Sapiens (a male in the world of the Amazons), creates a problem. He is foppish and ridiculous, only caring about clothes, and he's like a whiney baby. And in a world where the gender roles are reversed, this is problematic. I don't believe that they think that all women act the way Sapiens acts. And granted, ANY character, male or female, in this position, is obviously being used for comedy. And I'm sure it IS funny (although maybe also annoying) on stage. But wouldn't it be better for HUMANITY if the men acted like men "normally" act, and the women were still in charge of everything? Why can't that be a thing? Because men would never let it happen? (Men wrote this show, and they had the chance to let that happen, and didn't, so obviously not.)

Plus, in the end, the invading army of "regular" men defeat the Amazon women because the foppish Sapiens screws the women over. So, no, I did not enjoy this musical.

It could be better musically, too. They ARE better than this.

By Jupiter

Music by Richard Rodgers

Lyrics by Lorenz Hart

Book by Rodgers and Hart

Bullets Over Broadway

The Christmas season is a hard time to be listening to musical theatre. I WANT to listen to Christmas music, plus, I'm still not over Bridges, so I wanted to listen to that, too. Unfortunately, I had to listen to Bullets Over Broadway, which is maybe better than it seems. It SEEMS like a cop-out. If you're Woody Allen, and you don't want to have your movie be made into a musical, then just DON'T let it happen. But, if you finally decide to let it happen, why on earth would you choose existing songs from the period with new lyrics? WHY?

I'm no fan of Woody Allen, but I feel like he could do better than that decision.

So, there was nothing interesting in the music to this show, except for some good performances (especially Betsy Wolfe). Also, as my BFF from college would say, "there are many plots." SO much is going on. 

My friend Sheffield said the show was a lot of fun. It might be if you're actually watching it. Maybe. It's not fun taken out of context, though.

Bullets Over Broadway

Music and Lyrics by VARIOUS

Book by Woody Allen

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story

I listened to this... but what's the point? You can't learn anything about a musical from a jukebox musical. I'll just listen to Buddy Holly's recordings if I want to listen to Buddy Holly.

Brooklyn (BKLYN)

I hated this show so much that I didn't even want to finish listening to it. Yes, the singing was great, but that was the only thing that was even GOOD. The story was dumb, the music was dumb, I felt like it pandered to the audience, AND it was wildly out-dated. A show with homeless people under the Brooklyn Bridge?? Puh-lease. If you live near the Brooklyn Bridge, you're paying $5000 a month for a one-bedroom.

My friend Allison sung "Once Upon a Time" for our senior showcase in 2007 and she was great. That was my only interaction with this show until this past weekend. I didn't like the song then (although Allison sang it amazingly), but I HATED how they used it in context to this show. It was the "Achy-Breaky Heart" of Brooklyn* ("oooooooh, this song is a HIT! Let's have it reprised and have the melody and/or lyrics added into several other songs!"). Meanwhile, every other song, even if it was sung just as well, was forgettable.

*I say it was the "'Achy-Breaky Heart' of Brooklyn" because from what I understand, Billy Ray Cyrus would perform that song a minimum of 3 times during his concerts because no one cared about any of his other songs

Bring it On

I really liked Bring it On, which I expected. I've never seen the movie that it's based on, nor did I know Lin-Manuel Miranda was one of the writers, but I remember hearing such good things about it. I was hoping I'd get to see a bootleg of it online (even though if I was an usher in a theater, I would SLAP that camera out of their hands so fast -- no one would record anything if *I* were an usher!! But... even though I don't support people recording, I do appreciate it once it's already been done) so I could see the cheerleading and dancing, but they had all been taken down, so I had to settle for promo clips, the Tony award performance and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade performance.

The score is SO HIGH for women and I was like, "There is no way these people are incredible singers AND rappers, incredible actors, the best dancers on earth AND, like, award-winning cheerleaders. Something will have to give on the actual stage." And, from what I saw, it did, but they were still fantastic, and then I panicked a little, thinking, "OH GOD, I WILL NEVER BE TALENTED ENOUGH FOR BRING IT ON!!!" And then I remembered I am 33 and even if I were 18, I would never have been right for this show.

My favorite music from this show is anything sung at the Jackson school... which is most of the show, I guess. It's darker and deeper... in "Friday Night, Jackson", it's very similar to the strange chord progressions in Beyonce's "Single Ladies"... which are awesome. The lyrics are GENERALLY good, too. The rapping is always good.

It was really interesting to listen to this directly after Bridges because I LOVED Bridges and I really liked this, but in a completely different way. This was like a perfect FLUFF piece. I am so, so happy that it mainly focused on female friendships and strong women who are going after their dreams and aren't afraid of anything. I didn't finish it thinking, "I have so many thoughts and feelings about this!"I finished it thinking "That was great."

Bring it On
Music by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Kitt
Lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Amanda Green
Book by Jeff Whitty

Brigadoon

My husband hates Brigadoon so much. He says it takes itself way too seriously... which it does. But, to Brigadoon's credit, I think if THAT is the story you're going to tell, you BETTER take yourself seriously.

If you've never seen Brigadoon, don't worry about it. It's the story of a mystical Scottish village where, to "protect" the people, a priest asked God to put a spell (?) on it, so the village only appears once every 100 years. In their life, this must have happened just 3 days ago, so they SHOULD be pretty well-versed on what happened. Tommy and Jeff, two New Yorkers on a hunting trip, stumble upon the village on it's one day this century of being there, and Tommy falls in love with Fiona, a woman from the village. He is told the people of Brigadoon can't leave, otherwise the village will disappear forever, but that if an outsider loves someone enough, they are able to stay there. HOW they know this is anyone's guess. Did God tell the evil witch-priest?? Did this REALLY happen or are they living like in that movie "The Village"??

So, Tommy has to decide what to do. I mean, in all reality, they basically disappear every evening, so if the entire town just disappeared forever, I don't think it would be that bad for them. If Fiona left, she wouldn't see them ever again ANYWAY, so who cares? If Tommy stays in Brigadoon, he's giving up his cosmopolitan NYC life anyway, so, again, who cares? Tommy ends up leaving... but then regrets it and goes back to where the Brigadoon was... and suddenly it appears! The priest guy or schoolteacher or whoever the hell he is says that Tommy's love for Fiona brought forth the "miracle" once more! Tommy can stay with Fiona! Woo hoo. Way to go, Tommy!

This, to me, makes it seem like Tommy is a total sucker, and that this village is ALWAYS there. Good on you, Jeff, for leaving him behind.

I don't care about the music to Brigadoon... it's FINE, I guess. It really seems like Lerner and Loewe really wanted to copy a Rodgers and Hammerstein show, which they did, but they weren't as good, so it's not as good. It's not even as deep as Oklahoma! so... that's saying something. My favorite character in Brigadoon is Jane Ashton, Tommy's fiancee that he doesn't love and leaves to go back to this weird town. She's in one scene. Oh, also, Jeff murders a townsperson while he's there. Granted, the guy was trying to leave the town, making them all "disappear" forever, but still. Do you believe that would actually happen to this town? If yes, then Jeff saved the day. If no, Jeff just straight out murdered a guy and has to live with that forever.

Brigadoon
Music by Fredeick Loewe
Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner