Please Tell Me That Not All Younger Musical Theatre Fans...- Page 4

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/27/10 at 11:32am

1. This thread makes me feel old.

2. So I didn't read all of it. I have a feeling it's a lot of defensiveness, as is typical when these threads get started. I'm not 17 anymore, but I know how you guys feel. Love what you love, by all means. It's sad to see people make others feel like that's not okay, particularly when it's solely based on your age. But it's important to know from whence it came. Learn your history. What you see will mean infinitely more to you.

3. I'm such a revival hugger that I should probably be like 70. I love old shows. Then again, if I had seen the originals, I might have ended up hating on the revivals.

Updated On: 7/27/10 at 11:32 AM

[Dsiggy15]

Posted: 7/27/10 at 12:44pm

I'm 16 and I MUCH prefer shows before I was born. Most of my itunes collection is of old shows such as Merilly We Roll Along, Into the Woods, Company, Pirates of Penzance, Original Promises, Promises, Hello Dolly, Original Charlie Brown, 1776. However I do have some more recent shows like Avenue Q, Seussical, Young Frankenstein, and Drowsy Chaperone (which is my favorite show).

Please Note: I am NOT one of those Glee fanatics, I can barely stand the show.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 7/27/10 at 12:52pm

I'm such a revival hugger that I should probably be like 70.

That makes me imagine you running around the theatre district hugging the marquees of revivals.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/27/10 at 12:55pm

I just might do that.

Updated On: 7/27/10 at 12:55 PM

[allofmylife]

Posted: 7/27/10 at 1:12pm

I keep getting PMs asking for links to some of my postings.. Here are a few. Most of the stuff is from my collection, intermixed with graphics I've accumulated. Hope you enjoy:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=972787#3631451

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=963561#3533883

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=955158#3440952

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=954269#3427915

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=955012#3441622

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=954344#342869

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 7/27/10 at 1:38pm

Hi, my name is Schmerg_The_Impaler, I am not old enough to drink, and I like recent musicals.

DONE.

[backwoodsbarbie]

Posted: 7/27/10 at 1:45pm

Variety is the spice of life kids

[twinbelters]

Posted: 7/27/10 at 3:08pm

allofmylife: WOW! Those threads are amazing. Do you have a photo collection spanning later decades, like the 1980s? I'm looking for things.

[myshikobit]

Posted: 7/27/10 at 3:17pm

Hey,

I'm seventeen, and I'm glad so many of my intelligent peers spoke out. Hey! I think a question like has a prerequisite of telling your musical-theatre-life story, so here I go.

When I grew up my mom loved "My Fair Lady" and "Fiddler", and although she sang beautifully (her voice is her pride and joy), she butchered the songs with her over-acting. I wasn't terribly fond of it, but I knew some music. At every family party, my mom's side of the family would all sing; my grandfather had an affinity for creaking out "Old Man River" in his severely broken voice, but everyone loved it (it was funny...). Everyone feigned humility as they got up to belt out a moment of glory; some better than others.

Eventually, my grandfather began to pay me to perform; I read poems and learned songs and every night as he left he slipped a twenty dollar bill into my hand (he was a very successful lawyer- that was nothing to him). I knew from then that I was truly good. I was good at most things as a kid, but I never really cared enough to try, and I was always somewhere in the middle of the pack.

I also, out of boredom, picked up Shakespeare in third grade. I'm not kidding. It was my first theatre fixation. It didn't really impact me dramatically though, only in literary value.

In fifth grade, I tried out for the hallowed school musical with the sole intention of being the best. I was; I played my first lead in my first show. I got the glory and walked out the door; from that moment on I was glory hungry. Theatre was something I won without a fight and I loved the power. In 6th grade we did "Into the Woods", and I was Cinderella's Prince. I couldn't wait for next year when I had the lead role clenched in my tiny fist... then the school cut the program.

I begged my parents to pay for a program, but no matter how I pleaded (and I'm a good pleader), they didn't care. I realized from that point I had to work hard to be able to live with theatre for the rest of my life. I started on my quest to know every musical ever. I went to the library and picked out "A Little Night Music", "Hair" and "Funny Girl" (eclectic).

Five years later, I own almost every cast recording ever released. I had moved methodically and with great vigor. I also took time to obsess over modern drama, sketch comedy, improv and abstract theatre (and as my good friend puts it, many a flop. "Shelter", anyone?).

Now I'm here. I'm entering the great wide theatre world, I've met success in my tiny small town venues and I'm busting loose. I've met a third of my closest friends right here on Broadwayworld.com and most of my favorites are very, very old. I am so grateful for all of the people on this site who took time to help me access old, often neglected musicals and who shared anecdotes and opinions that helped to shape me as an artist.

What angers me about the majority of theatre students I've come across is that they have the balls to apply to theatre programs with their slightly superior GPA and rich parents without knowing a thing about theatre history! It's insane how many technically "talented and promising" peers of mine are entering into theatre colleges without knowing a single iota of theatre history.

If you don't know your past, you will probably not have a future. Young and old; it doesn't change. Knowledge and beauty are the two greatest sources of power in this world. If you aren't the prettiest kid on the block and you want to succeed in theatre, hit the books or go to hell.

On a lighter note, I didn't know so many people on here are so young and intelligent. Sometimes, kids like the ones Mildred describe make me really ashamed to say that I study theatre history. Let's start a Facebook group for intelligent minors on Broadwayworld, hahah :).

[twinbelters]

Posted: 7/27/10 at 3:31pm

"very, very old."

Hey... I'm right here.

Seriously, I'm impressed with the amount of intelligence that has emerged through this thread.

Love "Shelter"!

[boylikethat]

Posted: 7/27/10 at 4:04pm

What I meant about exposure to the classic musicals is that it can work as a gateway. It’s true that exposure is not necessarily needed to research the history of musical theater or discover the treasures of the past. If one has a passion, as theater is for many of us, then why wouldn’t you want to know its history? Discover great musicals? Find how the past has helped to shape the present state of musicals? Heaven knows, film buffs do similar things with classic movies, praising the ‘Godfather’ or currently breaking down how a film like ‘Inception’ has been influenced by Blade Runner, etc. I just feel that exposure can help build interest in the musicals of the past (as it did for me)and can lead to wanting to know more about other older musicals. But I concede that it is not needed or even necessarily relevant.

[Katarina2]

Posted: 7/27/10 at 5:35pm

I'm under the age of 21, and have been a musical theatre fan for as long as I can remember. Sure, I enjoy newer shows like "In the Heights" and "Legally Blonde", but I also love the more classic shows such as "West Side Story," "Les Misérables," and "Evita." In fact, my 12 year-old niece adores Broadway, and has cast recordings of both "Gypsy" and "Wicked" on her iPod. Her favorite birthday gift was a pair of tickets to see Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin in concert. Also, her love of Broadway was established before Glee was aired...

[onedaymore]

Posted: 7/27/10 at 11:03pm

Was 15 when I first started getting heavily into musicals, and it was, and still is, mostly Sondheim and the like.

Most of my friends who are true theatregoers are the same way.

[Radioactiveduck]

Posted: 7/28/10 at 4:58am

A lot of people have made some really great points. Here's another possible angle.

Acting and singing styles have changed DRASTICALLY in just the last 20 years, and when kids (myself, 21, included) look back at some of the classics, especially the ones made into films, there's a pretty major musical and dramatic disconnection that happens.

As much as I love legit voices, every time I hear someone sing "Some Enchanted Evening" from any major production, all I can think is..."Will you just stop this ridiculous bellowing and sing like a real person, please!?" How can you emotionally invest in a character or a story when the music sounds so fake, so far away from the heart?

Look back at some acting performances that were considered great in their time, and because of the shift in styles (especially in America), they seem almost laughably false and indicated by today's standards.

And to switch it up...Idina Menzel's voice (even at her absolute best) would have been considered almost vulgar in the 40s and 50s...Alice Ripley's performance in N2N would have made people walk out of the theater. The BRILLIANCE of In The Heights would have been laughed at by people saying "He's talking so quickly, how on earth are we supposed to understand this?"
Updated On: 7/28/10 at 04:58 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/28/10 at 8:21am

Just to flip the coin a bit on singing styles ... I often (not always) have the same problem in reverse now, Radioactiveduck. If the older, legit style of theatre singing sounds like "bellowing" to you, whenever I hear a current pop singer opening his/her mouth, it's usually with a whiny, nasal tone, slurred consonants, questionable pitch (unless it's auto-tuned) and with an agitated thin vibrato and so many riffs you can't find the melody.

I, too, say, "will you just sing like a real person, please?"

I don't think today's pop singing is more realistic than 40 years ago. It's just different.

Very different, as you pointed out. But not "truer."

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 7/28/10 at 11:23am

Great post, Besty.

I like to listen to cast recordings instead of most pop music because I like singers who can actually sing. But I don't like how SO many people on Broadway now have to nasally belt or scream everything, even roles that are traditionally sung in a legit voice.

However, I feel like most singers from old musicals DO sing more 'like real people,' because in many cases, their voices weren't nearly as polished. Listening to the OBC of Hello Dolly, it was obvious that most of the singers weren't picked because of their pipes. I actually like that better-- characters singing like they talk makes character roles feel more relatable than the overproduced sound you usually get from a lot of actors today.

[maggiemar142]

Posted: 7/28/10 at 11:25am

(this kind of feels like an AA meeting with everyone starting out with their age, haha.)
i'm 14 (there i go) and i think the reason i like older shows so much more is because those are the ones i've always been watching at home. what i watched was not influenced by what had a current production so much as which library VHS was next in line on the shelf.

what i noticed in this thread is: all the younger fans standing up for their tastes announce Sondheim as old. he may have written the shows long ago, but they're still getting major productions all the time. saying you like Sondheim you might as well be saying you like a new show because the most likely reason you like his work is because it is currently being produced. i don't think Sondheim should be considered old because all of it is produced constantly, keeping it alive for the younger fans to consume just like it were new. (that got a little redundant, sorry.)


Updated On: 7/29/10 at 11:25 AM

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 7/28/10 at 12:11pm

Very well said, Best. I hope you don't mind if I start to use the term "agitated thin vibrato"--describes it perfectly!

There are a some modern Broadway singers where I hear them shriek out a song and it sounds like they're just trying to sing as loudly as they can with no real rhyme or reason to it.

I've noticed that a lot of my generation is very resistant to classical styles of singing. I think that's why movie versions of shows tend to cast sopranos with weaker voices. People seem to think that their straight-toned, thin high notes are "pure" and "angelic." I mean, look at the success of Charlotte Church back in the day. Of course, that may not be my generation so much as mainstream opinion in general.

[Elphaba43]

Posted: 7/29/10 at 4:08am

I'm only 20 and one of my favorite musicals that I always turn to when I'm blue is Merrily We Roll Along.....also Hello Dolly is one of my all time faves. I also love Kander and Ebb, Cole Porter, Gershwin, and Sondheim, I also love Stephen Schwartz, Adam Guettel and Lin Manuel Miranda.

[binau]

Posted: 7/29/10 at 5:10am

I find it interesting that you would listen to "Merrily we Roll Along" of all musical swhen you are 'blue' :P.

[Elphaba43]

Posted: 7/29/10 at 5:15am

It always reminds me that things can always be worse..... :)

[My Oh My]

Posted: 7/29/10 at 6:41am

I'm 32 years old. Although I'm repeatedly mistaken for someone in his early to mid 20's. It's flattering but I personally don't see it, I'm always self-conscious about the awful crows feet and smile lines, lol. Not that 32 is old. I don't even consider 42 to be "old.' Sad that most youngsters nowadays consider 25 to be over the hill. Sad but true. Anyway, I think my height (a mere 5'4") and my generally small body frame makes me seem younger.

My first ever musical was the Mary Poppins film starring Julie Andrews. I was only 5 years old but was fascinated by the concept of singing what you feel, what you want to say, and what you mean. It was like, a revelation and integrated every good aspect of various art forms into one.

Next was Jesus Christ Superstar. I was mostly into the music. It was addicting and I played it day and night for about a year.

The musical that changed everything was Les Miserables. First listened to it at age 6 and loved the double London cast album and never tired of it until I got to see the show live at L.A.'s Shubert in 1989 at age 11. Let's just say I left the theatre speechless. Literally.

Phantom soon followed, then Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, Evita, Sunset Blvd., Blood Brothers. Yes, in that order.

I did not see anything that really moved me as much as Les Mis did until I attended a performance of the Hal Prince revival of Show Boat. This was to be and remain my 2nd favorite musical of all time.

A year later, I saw a touring production of A Chorus Line. Again, it was one of those rare experiences where you are left vibrating with emotion and excitement at the end. It is my 3rd favorite musical.

And then there's everything else. Lately though, I've been terribly unimpressed by what Broadway has had to offer. Recent shows that have given me hope that Broadway isn't turning into a shallow theme park include Avenue Q, In the Heights, and...I'm sure there's more.

The only other good thing I've seen in recent years was a touring production of My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins but those are classics. I doubt we'll ever see anything of that quality written today.

And, of course, as y'all probably know, Les Mis has gone to **** nowadays with the constant alterations to its orchestration and cheapo projection staging. I'm just glad I got to see the remarkable original production 26 times and will be attending my 27th and 28th performances come this September when I fly to London just to catch it before the awful new tour takes its place and it's offcially labelled "old" and said to be in need of an update. No thank you. They can take their updates and shove 'em. *wink*

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 7/29/10 at 1:15pm

It's been really nice to read all of your posts, likes and dislikes. I hadn't realized how really young some of you are!*






*I'm coming from a positive place with that statement. Not a negative one.

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 7/29/10 at 6:47pm

Well, I guess we have proven that not all young theater fans are only interested in new musicals, but we all know that there are so many people who do not care about anything from before the '90s. For a while, I refused to watch older musicals because I thought that they followed the stereotype of pointless singing and dancing to old songs with poor acting. I started watching older musicals by slowly working my way back from the '90s into shows like Les Miz and Into the Woods in the '80s, which got me into Sondheim, which eventually took me back to the '50s with West Side Story and Gypsy without realizing that those shows were that old. That's what made me realize that old musicals weren't just cheesy acting and annoying scores. It took me a while to realize that, but I'm so glad that I did before I joined this board.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/29/10 at 7:04pm

I'd like to add that, while I described a current singing style in less-than-favorable terms, I don't mean to imply that today's singers are talent-deprived. Not remotely! They are embracing a current trend in pop music that I happen to find crappy. It emphasizes style over content and technique (if you can call it that) over artistry.

I don't think they all come out of the womb with nervous, thin vibratos and nasal tones. No, that has to be learned. They've "got to be carefully taught," by listening and mimicking what they hear in music that passes for "modern, popular singing."

It's no different than it ever was. Back in the '40s, everyone wanted to sound like Ella Fitzgerald or Doris Day. Hell, even Doris (by her own words) wanted to sound like Ella. And I can't even begin to count the Sinatra-soundalikes.

In the '70s, we had a slew of Streisand wannabes. In the '80s, so many of the "new wave" guys imitated David Bowie (among others).

So today's trend in pop music bleeds over into theatre music. Not entirely, thank God, but it's definitely effected and "affected."

Same as it ever was.