Great Obscure Musicals That Nobody Seems To Know — Page 2

The Pet Shop Boys' "Closer to Heaven." Great music, not so great show.

BroadwaySFGuy--I was one of the (few, it should be stated) defenders of Tales of the City when it ran. Yeah, it was incredibly flawed in the way it tried to squeeze elements of the first two books (I saw a preview so it could have been improved but people laughed for examples when Norman-the creepy child molestor, who maybe should have been cut even if he is a major figure in the first book, fell off the cliff--though it did lead into Mary Ann's great song "Paper Faces", and other plot points were literally wrapped up in one easily missed line of dialogue--I went with a good friend who really enjoyed it and could mostly follow it, not knowing the books or series, but the conclusion of key story points completely eluded him), but the performances, especially Judy Kaye and Betsy Wolfe were all spot on and I thought the Jake Shears score was pretty great and definitely deserves a repeat hearing. I have a slightly better live recording and the demo (which only has about half the same songs) and actually play them quite a bit... I was hoping at least some sort of studio recording would be made given Shears' cult following--there were talks of trying it in England (where Tales of the City is a HUGE hit--the tv series of course largely being funded there) but I've not heard anything in years.

Deena, I LOVE Closer than Heaven. Yeah, I always love the PSBoys anyway, and they have always mentioned how much they love musicals from R&H to Sondheim, but the score IMHO does show how they can meld their style and still write for characters. Unfortunately, you're right--only recently after a decade of loving the cast album did I find a live recording so I could hear Jonathan Harvey's book. I think he's an overrated playwright anyway (Beautiful Thing is a sweet show but it gets away with a lot because it's sweet) but the book really is pretty awful--aside from the fact that the story is all based on cliches anyway, which I knew, it is riddled with horrible "camp gay" one liners. He's disowned the musical, claiming writing it was one of his worst experiences ever (which goes against what he writes in, I believe, the liner notes about the wonderful weeks he spent out of town with Neil and Chris working on the piece,) so maybe someone could re-write it or...something. I mean cliche stories have worked on stage before--but Harvey's actual dialogue is just lazy. I've always hoped the Boys would try another musical. It didn't help that the original production was very budget but, worse, a pretty ugly staging (I've heard some of the recent London fringe revivals have been improvements here.)

Given the first review on here, I'll have to give My Life with Albertine another listen. I was excited by the prospect of a Proust musical (even if that sounds impossible--they do go the Great Comet of 1812 route and just use one episode of his novel,) but nothing of the score grabbed me, but I think I gave my CD only two listens.

I would mention some of LaChiusa's shows here, but I think he is well enough known on this board to not really be obscure--and seems to be in a nice place where his scores now always get recorded (I wish Lovers and Friends and a few of his unrecorded shows would get a recording.)

I have no idea how it played off-Broadway, but I picked up the cast album for February House because the subject matter interested me, and *love* it. Not sure how much of an afterlife it's had.

Updated On: 12/10/15 at 03:03 PM

illiniparkie said: "I also enjoyed a musical that ran forever in Chicago called "Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?". While I remember nothing about the music, it was a fun look at a group of kids growing up together at a Catholic school and was based on a popular book.

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I had a couple of friends in the Broadway production. I liked it, but it tended to get lost in a Broadway theater. Might have run a long time off-Broadway.

A Fine and Private Place was done by the York theater a few years ago (maybe more) and just had some lovely, lovely music. I don't remember if they had the CD for sale or I got it online but I had to have it.

And yea for Adding Machine... I saw that at Minetta Lane. I just looked at the Times review and have no memory of the scene they picture, but I loved that show.

"Some of my favorites include Is There Life After High School?, Chaplin, and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change."

Calling those three shows "obscure" makes me feel quite old. Heck, the last one was a huge (inexplicable) hit and ran for 12 years!