Profile for Josh Freilich

Why is everyone suddenly going to bat for Atlantic City? Yall know the song gets interrupted in the show, right?

And also, adding orchestrations to the mix, the only other person to have written book, music, lyrics, and orchestrations to the same Broadway show is Dave Malloy, who wrote (and also starred in at various points) Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812.

Goodbye, Mary Poppins. Don't stay away too long.

No. Just... no. No plus no equals no. This is just... so much no I can't take it!

I think Tovah Feldshuh has a song on one of the "Carols for a Cure" albums called "Shalom Santa," about the character's mother being a lapsed Catholic and her father being a cultural Jew. The song was co-written by Douglas J. Cohen of "No Way To Treat a Lady" and "The Opposite of Sex" fame.

So what you're saying is, the only way to improve the show is to drive it out entirely...

I have everything they've ever recorded. They're THAT band for me. lol I mean, I admit that some of their songs tend to blend, but when you have 12 albums - not including the live albums, demos, eps, etc. - and you've been performing them for over 20 years, it's gonna blend a bit. But I've never had so much fun at a concert than I have at BNL concerts. Free food, fun banter, dancing, catchy songs you can dance to and sing along with, and then some really great heartfelt stuff - the guys know ...

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG.

Sorry. Still not satisfied. Still not coming to see it.

HAIR (like the 2005 and 2009 versions much better) SOUTH PACIFIC (the 2008 revival outshines the others) HELLO, DOLLY (I like the Mary Martin and Pearl Bailey versions) MISS SAIGON (1995 symphonic version is the best, although that Kim and Chris are not my faves) OLIVER (1994 and 2009 versions are much more listenable)

The hilarious bit where the backdrop falls has a lot of dialogue, and a tiny bit of singing. Probably unnecessary for a cast album.

And, can we assume that the spoken patter bits of "All-American Prophet" are a la THE MUSIC MAN? Although the music, too, does seem to ring a bell for me. I did hear similarities to MUSIC MAN in that song! I guess that must have been "what they were going for." And by the way, was I the only one who heard a bit of "Hell Isn't Good" from SP:BL&U in "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream" or was that a musical shout-out to "Number 918" from Altar Boyz (friends and coworkers of Lopez and Marx wrote the music...

Thinking about it after listening to the entire thing... You're right; it IS a mess. And the '80s synth-orchestrations do NOT help things... A little too much power ballads in this, you're right. And "Nothing Really Matters" needs the pop stripped out of it. That way it sounds like CARRIE. Sounds better as a kind of baroque-ish gavotte, so that matches the elitists' nonchalance.

A slam from Ouzounian. Maybe this is his revenge for still not getting over "Blame Canada."

You do mean their character personae, not the real actors playing these characters, right?

Both comic songs: "I Could Always Go To You" from PERSONALS - music by Alan Menken; lyrics by David Crane, Marta Kauffman, and Seth Friedman "Moving Right Along" by Jeff Blumenkrantz was written for two men, but I have heard it work with two girls as well! Both dramatic songs: Peas in a Pod and (if you want to use the other part) Another Winter in a Summer Town Both from Grey Gardens!

I agree with best12bars about everything he said.

Whoops. Never mind.

I know the dance arrangements are different (new orchestrations by Bill Elliott), but I heard these orchestrations would be almost identical to the original from 1987. How identical were they? And can you also recall the musicians in this band? EDIT: And please forgive the error in editing the subject. It won't let me insert the "are" between the "different" and the "The".

Have they changed or expanded from the original Seattle books? If so, can you post what you remember of the orchestra members in Seattle, and in New York currently.