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A bat, a jazzy dyke, and a trio.

Hit or Miss

22 Jul 2001

A bat, a jazzy dyke, and a trio.

Mini-reviews of three recent purchases from Amazon…

Bat Boy: an upbeat, belter rock musical in the vein of Side Show or Rent (i.e. Broadway’s version of rock). Silly story, but some kickass, rousing numbers (like “Comfort and Joy”).

Play it Cool: Lesbian commedianne Lea Delaria proves she can heat up the joint with sizzling jazz renditions of showtunes, including “Welcome to My Party” (which is the sole reason I ever listen to the LaChiusa version of The Wild Party).

3hree: three mini-one act musicals. The critics seem to favor the third one (“Flight of the Lawnchair Man”), but I found it trite and silly (If I want to hear a show about flying, I’ll listen to Wings). But the first two acts both have some bouncy and haunting tunes.

Why aren’t there more one-act musicals (like “Weird Romance” or “Romance, Romance,” both sadly out of print)?

6 responses so far (Respond)

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You mean like one-act musicals like Assassins, Once On This Island, Passion, In Trousers, March of the Falsettos, Falsettoland, The Wild Party (and, if done properly, Follies, 1776, A Chorus Line, etc)….

…or do you mean anthology musicals?

dlevy | 23 Jul 2001
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There’s nowhere else to really post this… so this is as good as any: really like the sprucing up you’ve done around here, Matt. I especially like new page header with the practice target.

Vis10n | 23 Jul 2001
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I didn’t know that Once On This Island is a one-acter. ( “Why We Tell The Story” is one of my all-time favorite theater songs. “YOU are whyyyyy we tell the story….”)

And if you’re talking about anthologies of one-act musicals, you shouldn’t forget about FALSETTOS (does it count?) or APPLE TREE (definitely counts).

PS to Vis10n — go hijack your own thread. 🙂

Bill | 23 Jul 2001
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I meant “short” musicals, presented with other short musicals, like THE APPLE TREE. I don’t really count FALSETTOS because they share the same characters and really now just form Act 1 and Act 2 of the same show. I think it’s fun to get to switch gears and sample some different styles of music or presentation in the same evening. It’s also nice to be able to just preform part of a show. I once directed just the first act of WEIRD ROMANCE for Little Sibs weekend in college — it was around an hour long and I got a nice price break from the rental company.

Matt | 23 Jul 2001
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Hey Matt… would you please post a thread about how great you are, and how nice your web site is, so I can concur? I don’t want the MerMANIAC after me for hijacking an otherwise unsullied thread ; )

Vis10n | 24 Jul 2001
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This is not a comment but a question. I have been trying to track down a copy of 3hree. Unfortunately, I have had no luck. Any ideas where i could get a copy of the script?

john | 3 Dec 2003