Musicals staged as concerts
Musicals staged as concerts
Broadway Star Joined: 7/14/06
Musicals staged as concerts#1
Posted: 2/27/17 at 3:41pm
Not concert versions of shows.
The last 3 musicals I saw just happen to be "Hedwig and the Angry Inch", "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill", and "Altar Boyz". This style is fairly rare and found it interesting to see them all in the same week. The previous week I saw "The Scottsboro Boys" which is similarly staged as a minstrel show that also broke the 4th wall. So, 3 in a row and 4 out of the last 6.
What other shows are staged in this style?
Isn't Liza at the Palace?
Would you consider "Will Roger's Follies" in this genre?
What about one man shows like Anthony Rapp's "Without You"?
EDIT: I think "Passing Strange" fits.
I think I would put "Forever Plaid" in this category.
Musicals staged as concerts#2
Posted: 2/27/17 at 3:45pm
Liza at the Palace is a revue/one-woman show, not a musical. Will Rogers Follies absolutely does not fit this definition.
Pump Boys and Dinettes and Oil City Symphony are both pretty close to what you are describing. I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It On The Road is staged as a rehearsal for a concert/nightclub performance.
Musicals staged as concerts#3
Posted: 2/27/17 at 6:06pm
While it's not a concert, The Will Rogers Follies is structured entirely as a Ziegfeld Follies revue of Will's life. Everything is taking place in that follies show, with Will constantly breaking the fourth wall both to talk to the audience as well as to Mr. Ziegfeld himself, and at several points Ziegfeld intervenes to shape the course of the show to fit his vision of the follies (such as Will and Betty meeting on the moon to make it more romantic and theatrical than their real life meeting in a train station, or moving the time of their wedding from the middle of Act 1 to the Act 1 finale).
Musicals staged as concerts#4
Posted: 2/27/17 at 6:12pm
I think A Night With Janis Joplin fits the bill.
Musicals staged as concerts#5
Posted: 2/27/17 at 6:14pm
Wasn't lady day technically a play?
Broadway Star Joined: 7/14/06
Musicals staged as concerts#6
Posted: 2/28/17 at 1:06pm
"Will Roger's Follies" is not a concert, but was suggesting it fits into a similar performance style, probably more like "The Scottsboro Boys" than a concert. But, on a continum that is close in that it is a revue (Ziegfeld Follies) that conveys a story. It breaks the 4th wall.
Updated On: 2/28/17 at 01:06 PM
Broadway Star Joined: 7/14/06
Musicals staged as concerts#7
Posted: 2/28/17 at 1:11pm
I guess you could call "Lady Day" a play with music. But, she explains how the songs fit in her life, so singing the songs move "the plot" along. But, if you are going to argue that point, you would have to say the same thing for Hedwig and Altar Boyz.
Musicals staged as concerts#8
Posted: 2/28/17 at 1:18pm
Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill is a play with music, and it's structured as Billie Holliday giving a performance at a jazz club. I would say that it fits with the OP's question.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
Musicals staged as concerts#9
Posted: 2/28/17 at 2:18pm
Ring of Fire
Million Dollar Quartet (ok, a recording session, not an actual concert)
End of the Rainbow (or is this play with music?)
Every Kiki and Herb show
Rain (does this count?)
Musicals staged as concerts#10
Posted: 2/28/17 at 2:33pm
What about Pippin? Not a concert, but at least with the leading player, it is very aware that it is a show with an audience.
Musicals staged as concerts#11
Posted: 2/28/17 at 2:38pm
Pippin is more of a show-within-a-show concept, no?
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Musicals staged as concerts#14
Posted: 3/1/17 at 9:10am
Fela! The show is one of Fela Kuti's concerts telling the story of his life.
Musicals staged as concerts#15
Posted: 3/1/17 at 9:30am
The Last Session is a musical staged as a recording session....
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/05
Musicals staged as concerts#16
Posted: 3/1/17 at 11:27am
ErinDillyFan said: "I guess you could call "Lady Day" a play with music. But, she explains how the songs fit in her life, so singing the songs move "the plot" along. But, if you are going to argue that point, you would have to say the same thing for Hedwig and Altar Boyz.
"
unless you are the Tony Awards nominating committee. In which case, Lady Day is a play with music and Hedwig is a musical.
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