Broadway Backwards

[GetBackUp25]

Posted: 12/28/12 at 3:01pm

For those who don't know (with no offense to those who do), Broadway Backwards is a yearly benefit concert benefitting the National GLBTQ Alliance. The thing that makes this concert unique is male Broadway stars perform show tunes traditionally sung by women and vice versa. The lyrics aren't changed with respect to describing significant others which provides the GLBTQ aspect (for example, last year's had 6 guys singing Cell Block Tango and they still sang "He had it comin'..") but changed with respect to describing the person singing e.g. "A trip to the library/has made a new man of me/'Cause suddenly I can see/the magic of books".

Here's a few songs from previous productions to give you the idea

Clay Aiken singing Home from The Wiz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmo7f-9QCxo

Alan Cumming putting a military spin on Don't Tell Mama from Cabaret
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dxxlXufFkY

Andrew Rannells performing The Music That Makes Me Dance from Funny Girl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGqQAmvHqBs

Nick Adams singing There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This from Sweet Charity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFxaJjLdtj4


Now that you get the idea of what this is, feel free to share ideas of which songs you think deserve the backwards treatment in a future show.
This is my list of the songs I'd want to see

Guys' songs to be sung by girls
King Of New York from Newsies
Sit Down, You're Rockin' The Boat from Guys And Dolls
Agony from Into The Woods
When I Get My Name In Lights from The Boy From Oz (I chose this because I imagined, if it was done while she was still young enough, Carly Rose Sonenclar singing this)
Brush Up Your Shakespeare from Kiss Me, Kate
Damned For All Time/Blood Money from Jesus Christ Superstar (to really change things up by having a girl sing the part of one of the most infamous Biblical figures)

Only partial difference
I Do, I Do, I Do from Mamma Mia (Only Sam's part would be changed to female to add a little queer spin)

Girls' songs to be sung by guys
And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going from Dreamgirls
Spread A Little Sunshine from Pippin (This song is just so girly that I'd love to see what a guy could do with it)
Nobody's Side from Chess (Having it sung by guys adds a bit more relevance to the lyrics although you'd need some serious talent to nail some of those notes)
A Trip To The Library from She Loves Me
Somebody's Eyes from Footloose (This also would have more of a gay rights meaning and I'd love to hear the three-part harmony sung by a tenor, baritone and bass because it was written for a soprano, mezzo and alto)

[faithzilla]

Posted: 12/30/12 at 5:58pm

Female to male:
Maybe This Time from Cabaret (I know it's from the movie, but people add it to the show a lot)
Easy to be Hard from Hair
Only in New York from Thoroughly Modern Mille

Male to female:
Shiksa Goddess from The Last Five Years
Maria from West Side Story