Kevin McHale (Glee) to make UK stage debut in revival of Sondheim's THE FROGS
Posted: 12/5/24 at 9:43am
Finally, the very last Sondheim I haven’t seen!
Posted: 12/5/24 at 9:48am
He was talented as a "kid" on "Glee", wish him success.
Posted: 12/5/24 at 10:05am
oh, I was think of the other McHale.
Posted: 12/5/24 at 10:48am
He was the absolute highlight of Spelling Bee at the Kennedy Center for me. This is the only Sondheim I haven’t seen so may have to catch this.
Posted: 12/5/24 at 11:55am
I really liked the version of The Frogs done by the Master Voices last year (having not seen the original).
Posted: 12/5/24 at 5:17pm
He was on the Glee arena tour over there, so it’s not really his debut.
Posted: 12/5/24 at 6:28pm
Jay Lerner-Z said: "He was on the Glee arena tour over there, so it’s not really his debut."
They mean, like…actual theatre.
Posted: 12/5/24 at 6:34pm
Which is… ?
He performed that show in a wheelchair. He was in character.
I don’t even care if it is his debut or not, I just want news headlines to be accurate.
Posted: 12/6/24 at 1:40am
I think this show is an underappreciated gem. I doubt I'll be able to make it over, but I might have to try!
Posted: 12/6/24 at 3:26am
I've seen The Frogs in both its 1970s version (I guess the late 70s minor revision which added Fear No More which wasn't in the Yale swimming pool original) and the Broadway iteration, both in solid university productions, and the original just plays much better to me. I *love* the music written for the original--the chorale work in songs like Evoe/Dionysus especially--whereas the additions to the score are perfectly fine, but are in that post Sondheim style where he always sounds a bit too self-referential. And there is just a lot of padding when it's stretched to two acts in general, even if both acts only run an hour each.
Posted: 12/6/24 at 12:26pm
^Agree with your dismissal of most of the new songs in the 2003 edition, but I hold a special place in my heart for "Ariadne", perhaps the most beautiful song SS wrote in. the 21st century.
Posted: 12/6/24 at 12:31pm
Someone in a Tree2 said: "^Agree with your dismissal of most of the new songs in the 2003 edition, but I hold a special place in my heart for "Ariadne", perhaps the most beautiful song SS wrote in. the 21st century."
“Ariadne” is in my top five Sondheim songs of all time. Haunting, aching, tender, and very heartbreaking.
Posted: 12/6/24 at 2:44pm
Someone in a Tree2 said: "^Agree with your dismissal of most of the new songs in the 2003 edition, but I hold a special place in my heart for "Ariadne", perhaps the most beautiful song SS wrote in. the 21st century."
Oh, you got me there, and I agree. That's the one song that doesn't feel more or less like pleasant enough place holding and, while I wouldn't place it as high in the canon as you or TotallyEffed do, I sure do wish more people would perform it (in Sondheim concerts, revues, etc (castalbums.org tells me the only other recording it has is on one of the Sondheim Unplugged collections...)
Posted: 12/6/24 at 4:12pm
Hopefully we will see more of him onstage. I love his voice.
A shame his music career didn't really take off as I love the EP "Boy" he put out 5 years ago. I still listen to it. And the videos for the EP are also good.
Posted: 6/24/25 at 8:46am
Watch: Glee Star Kevin McHale Brings Sondheim's The Frogs to West End Live 2025 | Playbill
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