newlinetheatre.blogspot.com
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre: Boom-Chicka-Chicka-Chicka
http://newlinetheatre.blogspot.com/2011/02/boom-chicka-chicka.html
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Random musings from a bad-ass culture warrior. Here's a glimpse inside the haze-filled labyrinth I call a mind. In case you get lost while we're in here, just remember,. Head for the nearest musical. Since we started work on. The partly fictionalized biography of George M. Cohan. I hope to watch. Tonight. I haven't seen it since I was a kid. (. And we all know how long ago that was. The night before that, I watched my video of. Watching great old shows like. Sincerely in m...
newlinetheatre.blogspot.com
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre: Welcome to the Renaissance
http://newlinetheatre.blogspot.com/2015/06/welcome-to-renaissance.html
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Random musings from a bad-ass culture warrior. Welcome to the Renaissance. I've been on something of a crusade. For a while now, a crusade to end comedy abuse in our lifetime. I find myself in an interesting spot in the theatrical space-time continuum right now, coming off the uber-dark, creepy-funny Threepenny. And thinking about its many descendants that we've produced, Chicago. Company, Sweeney, Floyd Collins. And so many others, and now moving on to Heathers. Shows tha...
newlinetheatre.blogspot.com
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre: Only by Attempting the Absurd Can You Achieve the Ridiculous
http://newlinetheatre.blogspot.com/2015/07/only-by-attempting-absurd-can-you.html
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Random musings from a bad-ass culture warrior. Only by Attempting the Absurd Can You Achieve the Ridiculous. I've written nine musicals, book, music, and lyrics. All but one have been produced, and New Line has produced four of them, Attempting the Absurd. 1992) , Breaking Out in Harmony. 1994) , In the Blood. 1995), and Johnny Appleweed. I recently interviewed Broadway composer-lyricist Bill Finn for my Stage Grok podcast. Affton High School, 1981. Was my high concept met...
newlinetheatre.blogspot.com
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre: Heathers
http://newlinetheatre.blogspot.com/2015/08/heathers.html
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Random musings from a bad-ass culture warrior. Is about selfishness, and the moral and emotional damage that come from it, the inevitable result of the 1980s Me-First Reagan Revolution, which was a reaction to the turmoil and cultural upheaval of the 1960s and 70s. If the hippies believed in community, community must be suspect. If the hippies condemned greed, greed must be good. And Into the Woods. And Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Can we blame the kids in Heathers. Look ...
newlinetheatre.blogspot.com
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre: Gonna Take Control and Rock Your Soul
http://newlinetheatre.blogspot.com/2012/06/gonna-take-control-and-rock-your-soul.html
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Random musings from a bad-ass culture warrior. Gonna Take Control and Rock Your Soul. It's been so amazing working on High Fidelity. Again, and seeing again up-clsoe the depth of artistry and seriousness of craft beneath what the original Broadway production team thought was just a standard musical comedy. And it's got me thinking again about the rock musical and the way our art form is changing. Nine years ago, when we were working on Bat Boy. The George M. Cohan. Is a ne...
newlinetheatre.blogspot.com
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre: Time and Music Make a Song
http://newlinetheatre.blogspot.com/2015/07/time-and-music-make-song.html
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Random musings from a bad-ass culture warrior. Time and Music Make a Song. These are the things a musical theatre freak does between shows for fun. With our big anniversary approaching, I organized all of New Line's shows, over our first twenty-five seasons, in the order in which they first debuted. In a few cases, that debut was the New Line production. People often use the phrase "a New Line show" ( as in "Bukowsical is such a New Line show! Meaning a musical that has th...
newlinetheatre.blogspot.com
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre: The Most Interesting Musicals Throughout History
http://newlinetheatre.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-most-interesting-musicals.html
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Random musings from a bad-ass culture warrior. The Most Interesting Musicals Throughout History. Back in 2005, a college theatre teacher emailed me and asked me to recommend a good musical theatre history book he could use for a musical theatre history class he would be teaching the next semester. He had read my books. All divided up into discrete essays. I realized I could approach a history book the same way, as a series of essays on the evolution of the musical thea...
newlinetheatre.blogspot.com
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre: Switchblades Laughin' at a Butter Knife
http://newlinetheatre.blogspot.com/2012/02/switchblades-laughin-at-butter-knife.html
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Random musings from a bad-ass culture warrior. Switchblades Laughin' at a Butter Knife. We're running the whole show at every rehearsal now. This is such a valuable part of the process, the editing, the repetition that leads to muscle memory, the working out of problems. It can get boring sometimes. But not with Cry-Baby. Is a neo musical comedy. The comedy rises to even greater heights. One of my pet peeves and most ferocious crusades. The worst offenders inject their fou...
newlinetheatre.blogspot.com
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre: Muny 101
http://newlinetheatre.blogspot.com/2015/07/muny-101.html
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Random musings from a bad-ass culture warrior. The Muny season I propose. I know, the 2015 season is already underway, but I'm playing the long game here. Okay, before I go any further, let me first sing the praises of Mike Isaacson and the New Muny. I've been going to the Muny since before I can remember. For my entire childhood, my family saw at least one Muny show every summer, and as an older kid, I spent many evenings in the free seats. I also ushered out ...Be The ar...
newlinetheatre.blogspot.com
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre: Crazy for the Red, Blue, and White
http://newlinetheatre.blogspot.com/2015/07/crazy-for-red-blue-and-white.html
The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Random musings from a bad-ass culture warrior. Crazy for the Red, Blue, and White. So what does the Fourth of July mean to me? Composer Leonard Bernstein described musical theatre as “an art that arises out of American roots, out of our speech, our tempo, our moral attitudes, our way of moving.”. Check out the Act I showstopper from Cohan's Little Johnny Jones. In this recreation of the original 1904 production. Notice how slangy it is – that was genuinely radical. As Amer...