Profile for Bluelark

Thanks for your suggestions! I love the score of Dogfight and didn't know Pasek and Paul had a new musical opening, so I'll definitely take a look at Dear Evan Hansen. I like a dark musical if it's well-written. I'm also intrigued by the idea of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. These two will be top of my list.I'll keep in mind Something Rotten and An American in Paris too, in case my relatives prefer something tried and tested. I didn't know Falsettos was being revived! I just lo...

I’m planning a trip to New York around Thanksgiving and I’d love to see a show while I’m there. Can anyone help with recommendations?I really want to see a new musical. I see them whenever I can in London and will enjoy pretty much anything, except I’m not interested in jukebox musicals. I'd also try Off-Broadway. I’m assuming there's no chance of tickets to Hamilton, and as luck would have it I saw Waitress in Boston with the same people I’m visiting in November. With Fun Home and Shuffle Al...

I remember hearing that a couple years ago the West End production used "your bank". I saw the West End show three days before Obama's inauguration. When they sang "George Bush is only for now" the applause almost stopped the song.

Okay, I've seen that this was posted on the West End board, but I haven't seen a topic here so I thought I'd mention it. From Up Here is a new musical that's getting a live streaming on whatsonstage in a couple minutes (7:30 UK time). I've heard a few songs from it that I've really enjoyed, and I've been hoping for a production for a couple years, and I thought a few people here might be interested in watching the performance.

I prefer seeing shows knowing as little as possible about them. The way I see it, even if it's a long-runner or a revival, stage musicals are always written for their first audiences who know nothing about what they're seeing. You might miss nuances seeing them cold, but that's the way the writers initially intended them to be experienced. And of course, you can always see shows again after you've familiarised yourself with the material, but your first time happens only once.

The Prologue from the original West End version of Martin Guerre is stunning. The Entr'acte is also very evocative, overwhelming almost. And I couldn't not mention the original Overture from Show Boat, which consists largely of Mis'ry's Comin' Round and feels more like a complete piece in itself than a medley of songs. The version on the McGlinn studio recording is definitive.

If it's a new song for Valjean and no other character, my first thought was of the unwritten "night thoughts" in which Valjean was supposed to express his fears about giving up Cosette to Marius. That song idea was dropped when Schönberg wrote "Bring Him Home" to go in that spot instead. But seeing as they'd never touch "Bring Him Home", I guess it's unlikely that they'd add a new song that close to it in the show.

Anything is an improvement after Swift. Even if negotiations with her fell through, it's starting to look like a genius publicity move. Now everyone's looking at the unknown actress who's taking her place. I don't think Samantha Barks is an exceptional talent, or even the best recent West End Eponine they could have chosen, but she can certainly play the part satisfactorily. And who knows what sort of performance Tom Hooper may get out of her? I don't expect her to give an Oscar-worthy perfor...

What are the odds that they try to make some of the characters (Cinderella, Rapunzel, the Princes) look like the Disney versions? And while people are debating whether it would have a voice-over narrator or an on-screen one, I wonder whether it's possible that they could use a combination of both? In 'The NeverEnding Story' they managed to have an outside narrator character who gets pulled into the story at the end. Anyone in the audience who remembers that might find this more unsettling whe...