| Weird things in that talk | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 04:28 pm EDT 09/02/18 | |
| In reply to: Ain't Misbehavin isn't a jukebox musical - KingSpeed 08:09 pm EDT 08/30/18 | |
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| Well, it's Smokey's Joe's that starts the discussion, although Jesse Green then says that it's "only a jukebox in the most rudimentary sense." Which I think is not a good way of putting it. SCOTT HELLER Jesse, it was nice seeing “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” with you the other night. Am I right that we both left with our heads spinning? I almost think you became a convert to the joys of the jukebox musical! JESSE GREEN Nothing could cause that conversion, but then “Smokey Joe’s” is only a jukebox in the most rudimentary sense. It is not, like many of these shows, biographical; it does not apply an invented story to an existing song catalog; it does not pour sanctimony and Brylcreem over the top. It’s a revue — and, as I was surprised to find — a good one. The singers were sensational and were allowed to do what sensational singers can: Make drama out of their voices. And then we soon have this: ELISABETH VINCENTELLI Is it worth starting with how we define the jukebox musical? You could argue that there are lots of Sondheim jukebox musicals, but they are usually called “revues,” which is a way to avoid a certain stigma. GREEN Note, though, that those are jukeboxes of songs written for the theater. It's puzzling that Green doesn't then say, "Right. Those are revues." And that Vincentelli perhaps doesn't even truly get the difference. She seems to be suggesting that the word revues is used at least partly to avoid a certain stigma. Which is kind of ignorant as they were being called revues before anyone seems to have used the term jukebox musical. Isn't there another term that's occasionally used for such shows? Something like "catalog shows?" I do think there should be a term to differentiate shows like Side by Side by Sondheim and Ain't Misbehavin' from the old-fashioned type of revues that we almost never see nowadays (e.g., The Band Wagon, As Thousands Cheer, all those Ziegfeld Follies, New Faces and Scandals)? |
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| Next: | re: Weird things in that talk - Chromolume 05:07 pm EDT 09/02/18 |
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