Hurry up and get yourself to the Paramount, because no theater fan wants to miss their current show! Seattle has welcomed Harvey Fierstein and the rest of the touring cast of Fiddler on the Roof, and the show is running through this Sunday!

Fiddler is a classic musical and a favorite of many theater fans, and although I’m a modern musical girl, I knew I could not miss this. I attended the opening night performance on Tuesday, and although I was completely exhausted, I did like the show. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a favorite (my tastes more fit the most recent generation of musicals, from the last 30 years or so), but it was definitely a well-written show and since I already knew a lot of the music, I did have fun. (I was not happy about missing this week’s Glee episode while I was at the Paramount, but you can’t have everything, right?)

A quick recap for anyone who has never heard of Fiddler on the Roof (although I think that’s kind of like never hearing of The Sound of Music, but what do I know?): it is a musical, written by Joseph Stein, set in the very early 20th century, in a small town called Anatevka. Popular songs from the show include “If I Were a Rich Man,” and “Matchmaker, Matchmaker.” It is basically the story of Tevye, a hard-working Jewish family man, who is trying to live his life true to his faith, in a world where many Orthodox customs are being challenged. Throughout the course of the show, the three eldest of Tevye’s five daughters get married (all picking their own groom, which served as enough of a shock to the parents), each one straying just a little bit further out of the norm of Orthodox Jewish traditons and customs. The final scenes show the beginning of things getting very bad for the Jews in Russia, when the Jewish population of Anatevka are served with an order to sell their homes and leave the village. The story is concluded there, but please don’t let my weak synopsis stop you from seeing the show. I promise, it is much more interesting than I’m making it out to be. There just are too many small plotlines for me to elaborate on right now. The show accomplished incredible things, from being the first show ever to run past 3,000 performances on Broadway, to winning nine of the ten Tony awards the original production was nominated for. The most recent revival of Fiddler has closed on Broadway, and this is the “farewell tour,” so this is probably your last chance to see the show for quite a while.

And since I can’t not talk about him, if you haven’t seen the billboards all over Seattle, gay icon Harvey Fierstein (an original star of Hairspray, and librettist of the Tony-nominated show La Cage aux Folles) is playing the lead character of Tevye, a role he played for several years on Broadway as well. Personally, I found him to be very funny (since the character is supposed to be a bit crazy), although he was hard to understand. Harvey Fierstein made an unusual choice and chose to effect an Eastern European accent for the character, since the story is set in Russia, and on top of that, he has a very raspy speaking voice naturally, so it can be a bit hard to discern what he’s saying. If you can, I’d suggest you either bring a huge fan of the show who can translate for you, or go to the evening performance this Sunday, which has closed captioning provided for hard-of-hearing audience members. It will definitely enhance the experience!

Tickets range from $30.50-73.50, not including fees, which is on the pricey side. However, if you can afford it, it’s a great price to pay to watch a legend like Harvey Fierstein live. Regular tickets are sold at the STG website here. A better option would be to try for student/educator rush tickets, which are last minute tickets given at a discount to anyone with a valid school ID. Rush tickets, if they are available, are sold at the Paramount Theater box office on one hour prior to the curtain time (at every showing of Fiddler except those on Saturday, May 29th), and cost $25 each. You are limited to one ticket per ID, so if you bring friends, make sure they have a school ID too. And enjoy the show, fellow theater geeks!

In the next few weeks, the shows at our two wonderful local theaters are Rain: The Beatles Experience and Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town. And before I give you the information about these upcoming shows, I’d like to apologize to the approximately two people who follow my mini theater column for missing the opportunity to review Dreamgirls while it was at the Paramount earlier this month. It was an amazing production and I hope all theater geeks got to see it, but it’s now a past opportunity, so let’s look ahead for now!

First off, at the 5th Avenue Theater, a locally produced production of On the Town has been playing for the past week and will be continuing its run until May 2, so you still have a few weeks to check it out! The director and choreographer team that are bringing us this production were also behind the local productions of West Side Story and Cabaret in past theater seasons. The production is part of the “Seattle Celebrates Bernstein” festival that many major Seattle arts organizations have participated in. Leonard Bernstein is the genius composer behind the Broadway musicals Wonderful Town, Candide, and West Side Story, among others.

On the Town is based on an idea conceived by Jerome Robbins, and the storyline is about three sailors who are on leave for 24 hours in New York City, determined to have as much fun as possible in that time. Need I say any more? Obviously this plot is bound to be a good time, so you may want to check out this show. All information about the production and tickets is available here at the 5th Avenue Theater’s site.

Over the Paramount Theater, Rain: The Beatles Experience will be doing an extremely brief, four show run on the May 7-9 weekend. (For anyone familiar with musical show schedules and wondering why it’s four shows and not five, it’s because there will be no Sunday evening show. The May 9th matinee will be the final show in Seattle.)

Rain is a tribute to the Beatles and all their music, although I would not call it a jukebox musical – or even a Broadway musical. It’s more of a tribute band performance, as the show is really just a concert of Beatles songs performed by people dressing, acting, and talking like the actual Beatles. I can’t vouch for how good the production or the cast may be, although critics have said that they are a wonderful portrayal of the Beatles and “the next best thing” to the real Beatles (via reviews at www.raintribute.com and the Paramount theater website). I don’t know. I have trouble believing any imitation could be quite as good, but if you’re interested in going to see the show, be my guest. All information about Rain, and opportunities for tickets (this was originally an “add-on” show that you had to buy a season package to attend, but individual tickets are now available) are here.

STG logo taken from BroadwayWorld.com.

Written by a reclusive woman living with her two fellow authors and sisters in a remote part of in the North of England, Wuthering Heights is a truly beautiful and troubling novel. The language is simple, rather bare from ornamental phrasing, and quite dignified, especially when considering the speaker of the story for most of the book. The choice of narrator is also very apt, for nearly the entire story is told from the perspective of a housemaid named Ellen or “Nelly,” and then relayed to the reader by a nondescript and nearly anonymous newcomer to the scene.

Emily Bronte, before writing Wuthering Heights, wrote mainly poetry, but had always aspired to be a writer since she was very young, along with her sisters. It was not until later in life when they all found themselves living together, and with very little company besides, that the Bronte sisters took seriously to novel writing. Two of them died, shortly after publishing their books, and it is interesting to note that had they not lived together as they did, giving each other advice and inspiration, none of them may have published anything at all before they passed away. Emily Bronte’s death also adds a certain eery validity to her tale, as the plot is based heavily on the deaths of the characters in it, and it could even be said that death, sometimes symbolic death, but much more often a literal death, is the primary component. Indeed, Heathcliff, in a sense the most important person in the book, wishes death for almost all of the people who do die, even going so far as to kill his young, sickly son through neglect emotional, and perhaps physical, abuse. Around this point in the story, I could not help feel somewhat sick and confused as to what Emily Bronte’s motives for painting Heathcliff as such an awfully inhuman creature were, although this feeling certainly melted away by the end.

Emily Bronte must have spent a great deal of time working beforehand on the structure of Wuthering Heights, as at some times during my reading the words were like a puzzle being fitted together with each paragraph another piece put in place. This intense focus on structure also attributed to the simple and sometimes concise style of writing, with all foreshadowing being explained either directly upon its issue or beforehand through the eyes of the man Ellen is telling her tale to. This is not to say that it is in anyway formulaic, as the story itself is very original, imaginative, and poetic in its grief.

As to the believability of Wuthering Heights, I am on the fence. The dialogue leans most often to melodrama, as do the motives of Heathcliff, but everything else appears so natural and mundane that it was hard to completely remove myself from what was happening, even if the motives and reasonings felt oftentimes alien to my own thoughts and feelings.

All together, I enjoyed the winding yet solid story immensely, and feel that that is its strong point, as opposed to style or concept. I would recommend it to anyone who wouldn’t find the writing drab or boring or too slow, which I fear might be too many people in this age of glitz, sex, fire, and Internet.

I bought two copies of this book by accident when I was book shopping, and decided to give one of them to my father’s wife, a woman named Lisa, for Christmas. She already had it, and told me that she loved it. I originally picked the book up because it is one of Barbara’s three favorite books, and I have a lot of respect for her tastes and ideas. Right around when I started reading the book, some time last month, a blond motherly middle-aged woman told me that it was an amazing book. Middle-aged women I do not know very rarely make contact with me, so she must have held the book in very great esteem indeed. I do not believe in using demographics as focus points for products or anything consumable, as everyone has their own likes and dislikes that may or may not be held in common with people in their own age or economic category, but there are certain things that tend to appeal to certain types of people.

While I did enjoy Beloved, I would not say that it is one of my favorite books, and I would not push it on anybody unless they have never read anything about the Reconstruction, because I believe that this is a period in history, especially southern history, that seems largely ignored by many people today. I believe it was an extremely important period in American as well as international history, where the economic and political future of America was unclear and in turmoil. This book does a good job of showing some of the differences between freedom and slavery, as well as how an exslave’s past might affect them in their newfound freedoms, and does explore being a black person during Reconstruction, but the story focuses more on the home that the main characters in the story live in, detailing the history of before it was “rented” out to Baby Suggs, the first black person to live in the home after the end of legal slavery, to when her daughter and granddaughter live in it. The structure of Beloved is very loose, with some chapters from the viewpoints of different characters, or at different times in their lives, and I felt as if I could see it grow as I read it, as if I could look into Toni Morrison’s head and see her ideas develop. I don’t know how she set out writing the book, whether the story was heavily planned or not, but from the way in which it is written, it seems very stream-of-consciousness in a way, as the ends of stories or ideas are presented before any background story or explanation, as if Morrison built upon her writing in layers, going back and forth with an abstract rhythm. Maybe it is because I have not read very many books like this, surely none as lyrical and poetic, but it was oftentimes very hard for me to piece the story together, and I still feel that there are some small gaps in my understanding of it even after finishing the book, but as I think about it they close up, and I believe that this is quite a writing feat. This is not to say that the story is not graceful or interesting, as it is beautiful and poignant, but I wished that I was able to understand all of the ideas, metaphors, and plot points.

Beloved, at its heart, is very much intertwined with concepts of motherhood, and what that means for people who are not able or allowed to be mothers, as well as a mother’s love for her children through trials and tribulations. In this respect, I feel that people who have been, want to be, or are mothers would be able to relate to and/or understand this book better than I can, and my experiences with other people who have read this book seem to uphold that idea. While I am not a mother, I can think still appreciate what a mother might go through, so while I can sympathize with this novel, it is hard to truly relate to it, as it may be for many other people in my demographic.

Today, “that crazy theater-obsessed girl” is bringing you information about local summer programs available for teens in the area of theater arts. Specifically, a slew of amazing classes hosted at Broadway Bound Children’s Theater, a local non-profit that is known for producing amazing, high-quality musicals casting only students, and giving all youth the opportunity to study and perform theater with wonderful professionals. For anyone who is interested in developing theater-oriented skills over their summer break, without committing huge chunks of time, Broadway Bound’s one-week-long performance camps are ideal.

Each of the camps offered at Broadway Bound (all take place in the University Heights Community Center in the U-district) gives five days to learn songs and dances, and develop skills and make friends, and each camp ends with a performance on the final day. I’m speaking firsthand saying that the camps at Broadway Bound are the most fun thing I’ve ever done on a school break. Over my mid-winter break, I spent four days learning the music and story of a great song, and on the fifth I got to perform it as a solo. It was an amazing experience and it was a great use of my break.

Because the camps are six hours a day and five days a week, and you can sign up in one-week segments, it’s a good option for someone interested in doing an arts camp, but not wanting to sacrifice any other summer activities – like travel, long-running classes, etc.

There are nine five-day long camp sessions available at Broadway Bound, and each week has one class that is specifically for teens (ages 13-17). Classes are available for younger children (as young as 6) as well, if you have any younger siblings, etc. Some of the teen classes include classes on vocal technique, monologue delivery, and dance styles in musical theater. There are also classes that will be learning songs from a selected show and performing them in a musical revue at the end of the week. Teen classes include revues for the shows Rent, Spring Awakening, and the TV show Glee. I’m excited and I want you to be, too!

Full tuition for each week is $250, but there are full and partial need-based scholarships available, and I would advise you to not pass up this opportunity. Broadway Bound is all about bringing the chance to participate in theater arts to youth, and if you’re serious about wanting to spend your break working in theater arts, I suggest you don’t let a lack of funds stop you from signing up! Visit Broadway Bound’s website for more information on the program, and this page for the full run-down and descriptions of the 2010 summer break camps, as well as the link to the registration form. And I hope to see some Nova kids at Broadway Bound this summer!

Scholarship information is available from the Broadway Bound office manager, Lauren Williams. Email for additional information: lauren@broadwaybound.org.

Now, I’d hate to be seen as a wimpy reviewer afraid to give out bad marks, so today I’m reviewing the musical playing for the rest of the weekend at the 5th Avenue Theater, Legally Blonde. Usually I have very little negative say about a musical, because I can find the good in almost any show. So I suppose my review of Legally Blonde will be more “mediocre” than bad. But nevertheless, I was getting sick of raving about every show in town all the time.

I have never seen the movie Legally Blonde, because frankly, I didn’t think I’d want to. So I have nothing to compare the musical version against, but here’s my take on it: the show is humorous. Ditzy. Fun. But it seems to me to be more of the type of musical that 11-year-old High School Musical fans like to attend, rather than a serious musical. I’m never against a funny musical, but this particular one wasn’t side-splittingly funny, and I couldn’t find any huge redeeming qualities in the music or the humor that made up for the tween-oriented storyline.

Really, I’m right on a  fence concerning Legally Blonde. To be upfront with my readers, I didn’t particularly want to see the show to begin with. A friend that went to see my favorite musical, Wicked, at my request, guilt-tripped me into going to her favorite musical in return. (She’s lucky I was able to find a $20 ticket to a weekday matinee, or the deal would’ve been off.) I went to the show trying to keep an open mind for my friend’s sake, which is probably why I’m not flaming the show altogether. The music is admittedly catchy and the plot is a cute, light story. And even though the music isn’t particularly complex and doesn’t really showcase any particular singers, the cast that’s performing at the 5th Avenue Theater is ridiculously talented and I was definitely glad to be able to see them all. The cast includes Becky Gulsvig as Elle Woods, who is a cute actress direct from Broadway who was the understudy for Elle in the original cast; and Coleen Sexton as Brooke Wyndham (a minor character, but Coleen majorly impressed me!).

On the flipside of the coin – Legally Blonde is a light kind of show for kids. If you quiz a group of middle school-aged girls (and possibly queer middle-school aged boys), the most popular musicals among them would almost undoubtedly be High School Musical, Hairspray, and Legally Blonde. (And if you can’t tell, my opinions of the first two are very low.) I consider it to be one of the watered-down, pop-style musicals that aren’t really designed for musical fans. The music is simple and the show overall is cheesy.

And yet, after saying all this, I have to admit that the opening number for Legally Blonde, also a big hit with young girls, “Omigod, You Guys!” has been running through my head since seeing the show, and I downloaded the soundtrack. So I guess I’m undecided. Here’s the short, condensed review for anyone considering seeing the show:

Rating on a scale of 1-10: 6.5

Appropriate for: ages 8+ (official rating is PG)

Best for: young children, people who haven’t seen many musicals, fans of the movie, or theatergoers in search of a lighthearted show

You can buy tickets to the four weekend shows at the end of Legally Blonde’s Seattle run here at the 5th Avenue Theater’s website. Tickets are rather reasonably priced for theater, starting at $29 for weekend matinees. And I’m going to plug the 5th Avenue’s 2010-2011 season here, because it’s recently been announced, and I’m very excited! The 5th Avenue is going to be hosting fresh-from-Broadway shows such as 9 to 5, Next to Normal, and In the Heights, as well as classic shows like Oklahoma! and Guys & Dolls!

images from BroadwayWorld.com and Playbill.com

The musical and choreographic sensation Chicago is playing at the Paramount Theater this weekend! Chicago is a classic Kander & Ebb musical set in the 1920s, and is packed with some of the best choreography and most memorable music I’ve ever seen on a stage.

I saw Chicago and enjoyed it very much, which was a bit of shock to me, since I’m a modern musical type of gal. It’s one of those pieces that continues to be great long after it’s written (Chicago first hit Broadway in 1975, making it three and a half decades old by now!). Most theater fans who have never even seen the show will recognize numbers from it, such as the standard “All That Jazz.” Chicago is full of numbers that are exactly like what the title “All That Jazz” conjures in the mind – pure vaudeville, with bright and shiny choreography and snazzy staging.

The plot of Chicago is definitely PG-13, as it revolves mainly around a woman named Roxie Hart, who has been accused of the murder of her lover. The story follows Roxie as she goes to prison and encounters several other “murderesses,” all of whom killed a male lover in various crimes of passion and are trying to get off the hook for them. The story has a very clear political message, because as the plot develops, Roxie hires a very expensive, fast-talking lawyer to get her off the hook; a man whose strategy is to “give them the old razzle dazzle.” That is, create flashy stories meant to emotionally manipulate jury members and the public to get a favorable outcome. The message is very clear: if you win the hearts of the right people, it doesn’t matter whether you’re guilty or not.

I really liked those clearly political themes in Chicago, because the writers make very good points and observations. The show is also a bit satirical, poking fun at lawyers similar to the fictitious Billy Flynn character, as well as the justice system as a whole.

It’s humorous and fun and flashy all at the same time. It’s a great experience of classic musical theater, and for anyone who is a fan of the classic, 30s- and 40s-style Broadway musicals, you can’t go wrong with Chicago. This particular production that is at the Paramount is excellent, and filled with extremely talented people, including Seinfeld’s John O’Hurley, and the Chicago veteran Brenda Braxton. If you’re looking for something to do over the weekend, I suggest you stop by the Paramount Theater box office, or click the link below and look into getting tickets for Chicago!

Tickets can still be purchased for all four weekend performances of Chicago here at the STG website. You can visit the official site for Chicago for more information about the show.

If you see Chicago this weekend, or attended one of the earlier performances, let me know what you thought in the comments section! I want to know!

#2 Discovery by Daft Punk

After releasing what is considered to be one of the most influential dance albums of the Nineties, Daft Punk was kidnapped and replaced by robots, and in 2000 the robots, under the name Daft Punk, released one of the greatest albums of all time. The album works perfectly from start to finish, each song running congruently with the next. The album was a step away from Daft Punk’s earlier established sound, using synth-based music, guitars and vocals, creating something new yet again in the dance music world.

1. “One More Time”- From start to finish the song is catchy, the chopped up sample sounds awesome, and works perfectly alongside the four on the floor beat. House music legend Romanthony is featured on vocals, which have been auto tuned to greatness. The vocals repeat for five minutes, yet everything keeps rolling till the end.

2. “Aerodynamic”- Starts right off of “One More Time”, with a funk/rock beat, with guitar tapping that could trump even the best guitarists, it pushes the song to the next level. When the bell strikes for the last time synth floats in, sweeping over everything, flying around the remains of the previous noises, carrying the song to it’s end.

3. “Digital Love”- A truly romantic love song, that fuses together elements of classic rock, eighties synth music, and house. The lyrics are very personal, whispering through the vocoder beautiful messages, it seems as if Daft Punk is pouring their hearts on the listener with this song. The synth sounds are graceful and work with the chopped up samples of the song “I Love You More” by George Duke. It contains a guitar solo (something not a lot of electronic artists have), which is pumped full of emotion. The solo helps the song ground before it’s end.

4. “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”- The song kicks in with a sample of the Edwin Birdsong song “Cola Bottle Baby”. This is one of the best produced songs I have honestly ever heard, everything is mixed perfectly. The vocoded voice repeats “Work it/Harder/Make it/ Better/Do it/Faster/Makes us/Stronger/More than/Ever/Hour after/Our work is/Never/Over” imprinting it on your brain so you know every word and want to sing along right away. This is a song everybody has probably heard and remembered, it bounces straight to the finish with everything tightly working together.

5. “Crescendolls”- Starts with a very heavy drum beat, leaving the synth that fades in a surprise, pleasantly blipping around the soundscape, funny thing is the song hasn’t even started yet. It hits off with a looped sample of Anthony and the Imperials song “Can You Imagine.” The song is very danceable, it is awesome all the way to its finish.

6. “Nightvision”- The cool down track, the synth overlays itself with pretty melodies shaping the album in a new direction.

7. “Superheros”- Starts with a drum roll, which is perfect for what’s about to come. The beat is straight four on the floor with a sample of Barry Manilow’s “Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed?” fading in to the mix. The couple of synths that layer themselves over the rest of the song set a new standard in the arrangement on the album, each working with the other to shove this song in your memories forever.

8. “High Life”- The chopped and pitch-shifted sample of Tavare’s “Breakdown For Love” bounces up and down up to kick of the song. After a few bars the bass punches right in heartbeat style, beating hard. This is one of my favorite songs on the record if not favorite, The repetition of the vocals produces a lovely atmosphere, with all the sounds flowing around so wonderfully. The song is very straight forward, yet there is a lot of listening room for all the sounds taking place at one time.

9. “Something About Us”- A love song for the ages, the synth is fantastic, the bass is fantastic, everything is fantastic. The lyrics are very quiet yet they scream so much love and passion, “I need you more than anything in my life.” Everything eventually leads into the equally beautiful guitar solo which drags the song to its finish.

10. “Voyager”- Some of the coolest loops, great to take a walk to. It makes everything around me feel urgent and important. The bass is the highlight of the song as it keeps the main melody. The guitar loop has ravishing tone that echos around and sinks in perfectly to the mix. The song is very minimalist, ye all the parts work well enough that it doesn’t matter, another example of the genius of Daft Punk.

11. “Verdis Quo”- A very beautiful composition, the instruments are very soft and comforting, as the beat fades in, the song works within itself to repeat all the beauty over and over until it has done itself enough, where it safely lands leaving the next song ready to take off.

12. “Short Circuit”- An awesome beat, an awesome synth noise, fast and loud, runs right past.

13. “Face to Face”-The beats are incredible with the lyrics. Vocals are by Todd Edwards, whose voice sounds fantastic, there is a uncredited sample that works as a chorus. Tons of background noises, each well worth listening to.

14. “Too Long”- My favorite song on the record. The beginning percussion is incredible, keeping everything on the ride, Romanthony is featured once again (this time not autotuned), and like before, he delivers. When the bass and the keyboard kick in the song is really moving. As the song pushes in to a new direction it acquires one of the coolest sounds I have ever heard (most likely another uncredited sample). The vocals fade back in so well, and goes great with the new direction of the song. This song is absolute genius, a climactic ending to what I believe to be one of the best albums of all time.

One of my favorite bands, one of my favorite records. Daft Punk is incredible and I recommend buying anything they put their name on.

Picture taken from www.discogs.com.

6. Avenue Q

Opened July 31, 2003 – closed September 13, 2009

Winner of the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical, Avenue Q is one of those shows that you would expect to be confined to a tiny theater in a dark alley somewhere off Broadway. The only word to describe this show is eccentric. Perhaps obscene and distasteful would also apply. Allow me to elaborate.

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Avenue Q three times, twice on Broadway, and once during its stint at the Paramount in summer of 2008. Knowing exactly the contents of the show, which can be best summarized as a rude parody of Sesame Street, going into it, I had the great fun of observing audience reactions each time. I did notice that as the run extended, and people became more aware of the show, less people who were likely to be offended were attending. However, the first time I saw Avenue Q, in early 2007 (after it had won the Tony, but before it toured the country), at least three elderly couples were rushing out of the theater, muttering comments like, “So distasteful!” and “…just no need for things like…” by the end of Act I, which includes songs like”If You Were Gay,” “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist,” and “The Internet is for Porn.”

Avenue Q is set in Manhattan, on the non-existent street, Avenue Q. The joke is that Manhattan has a set of consecutive streets named Avenue A, Avenue B, and Avenue C, commonly referred to as “Alphabet City.” The lettered streets stop after C, so Avenue Q is far out of existence. The story mainly focuses on Princeton, a young, orange puppet (true to the appearance of Sesame Street, the creative team’s inspiration, Avenue Q is comprised of puppets, “monster” puppets, and humans alike) who recently graduated college, and is still unsure of what to do with his life, and trying to figure it all out.

Princeton and other characters–Kate monster, his love interest; Trekkie monster, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Cookie Monster, but instead has a fixation with Internet porn; Rod, a Republican investment banker who is a self-closeted homosexual secretly in love with his roommate, Nicky (Rod and Nicky are a parody on Bert and Ernie, who were pretty queer when you think about it, but not quite willing to admit it to their audience of three-year-olds); and my personal favorite, the “Bad Idea Bears,” who just love popping up and offering their advice to others–all experience a journey that deals with what life is like for young adults almost universally. They’re still figuring things out: what they want to do with their life, how to survive on their own, who they want to be spending their lives with. The cast is relatively small, with no real ensemble, and each cast member, down to smallest roles, is unbelievably talented. (You try acting, singing, and maneuvering a puppet onstage sometime!)

The real joy of Avenue Q is seeing something that almost everyone recognizes from their childhood be turned into a hilariously obscene R-rated musical by–let’s a face it–two composers/playwrights who were not completely in their right minds. The show is not intended for anyone under high school age, although I first saw it at age 12. (I was the youngest person in the theater, and got a lot of stares.) Nothing beats Avenue Q in theater for comedy, although it closed recently on Broadway and had to move to off-Broadway for financial reasons. For anyone with a twisted, sick sense of humor and a love of puppets (I mean, really–they’re just so cute!), do everything you can to see Avenue Q. Really. Just be warned, however, as certain promotional posters say: “This show contains full puppet nudity.”

Picture from http://www.easynewyorkcity.com and http://www.theseattletraveler.com

I know, you’re probably sick of “best of the decade” and “best of the year” lists. But, I must bring you today…The Top 7 Musicals of the Decade. Well, someone had to do it – apparently I’ve been appointed. (Note that this is limited to original musicals – not revivals of old shows – that either opened or closed on Broadway in the past decade.) Almost all of these were in the Paramount Theater in this past decade, and I was intrigued by all of them. So, these are the musicals that were the most commercially successful and impacted audiences the most…according to me.

7. Mamma Mia!

Opened October 18, 2001 – still running

I’ll probably get flamed by theater lovers for including this on the list, but it is on here nonetheless. Really, the success of Mamma Mia! is undeniable. The show has accomplished several Tony nominations, a spot in the 10 longest-running Broadway shows of all time, and a huge blockbuster movie, starring Meryl Streep. This particular style of musical is relatively common nowadays (probably because people get inspired by Mamma Mia!’s success): the jukebox musical. A “jukebox musical” takes songs from already existing catalogs of an artist — such as Bob Dylan, Abba, and most recently, Green Day– and creates the plot for the musical around them. Lots of theatergoers, myself included, take issue with this style of musical. What good is in an original musical that no one had to bother writing? Nevertheless, Mamma Mia! is probably the leader of guilty pleasure musicals, having been a huge hit with audiences of all ages, and simultaneously called the “death of musical theater” by critics and theater buffs alike.

Where do I stand? Good question. This is my review, after all. I love Mamma Mia! Plain and simple. If I ever got drunk (which I don’t recommend, kids!), I would probably end up on a table, belting out “Dancing Queen.” At the same time, I feel rather ashamed to tell you this. It’s hard to be taken seriously as a theater fan/reviewer when you admit you like a cheesy jukebox musical based on the music of a pop band like Abba. But I’m coming clean with you all: I’ve been hooked on Mamma Mia! since I first saw it.

I believe I was in the third grade. I was definitely 8 or 9, the first time I was dragged (literally) to see Mamma Mia! I did not want to go, at all. I don’t exactly remember why, but it was probably some ridiculous 8-year-old reasoning. My parents, who probably paid $50 for my ticket, weren’t having any of it, and I went to the show, pouting. I’m not sure at what point in the show I fell in love, but as soon as we were out of the theater, I was begging my parents for Abba CDs, and saying, “I want to see it again! I want to see it again!”

It’s rather impressive that Catherine Johnson, the playwright who decided that it might be keen to bring the biggest pop band of the 70s to Broadway, was able to include 22 of Abba’s #1 hits in her storyline and have it all make sense. Certain jukebox musicals (like the soon-to-hit-Broadway American Idiot, comprised of Green Day hits) make no sense with the story that has been placed around them. But with Mamma Mia!, it works. The success is probably due in part to the original songwriters, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (the two B’s in Abba), whose music carries a very theatrical quality. In fact, Mamma Mia! was not Andersson and Ulvaeus’s first musical–the two also worked with Tim Rice to produce to the 80s West End musical Chess.

Although I feel the story isn’t as significant when talking about why Mamma Mia! is a good time (because really, the music is so energetic and fun that it makes you want to dance in a theater no matter what plot is being woven into it), it is definitely significant to why the show has had more than a decade of success. The story and how well it fits the music is what makes or breaks a jukebox musical.

The show takes place on a small Greek island, where Sophie, age 20, is about to be married. All she wants is for her father, who she never knew, to give her away on her big day. In a somewhat desperate attempt, Sophie steals her mother’s diary from the year she was born, and reads it, searching for clues to who her father might be. In an even more desperate and foolish move, after finding out that her mother was with three men at the time, she poses as her mother and invites all three men to the island for the wedding. Nobody knows what Sophie is up to–not her mom, not her fiance, and not her three potential fathers. Obviously, she gets more than she bargained for, and can’t figure out which man is her father before her wedding day–and when her mom, Donna, is confronted by all three of her former lovers at once, drama and hilarity ensues.

I’d call Mamma Mia! the theater equivalent of a sugary candy bar. It’s so sweet and non-substantial, when there are so many more filling shows you could choose to take in, and yet you can’t resist it.

Pictures from http://library.thinkquest.org/ and http://nevadamagazine.com/