My Musical

Bass Concert Hall re-opened back in late January after closed down for renovation for about an year and a half and I've been dying to go check it out for myself. So far John Legend and Broken Social Scene played, even Ghostland Observatory made a guest appearance for the UT Ensemble.

During the short time that I lived in New York, I used to see almost a show every week. A good chunk of my paycheck went to rent, taxes, and then Broadway. Since most of the shows touring through Austin I have already seen, it left me with Legally Blonde and Mama Mia. Given the fact that I wasn't really big fan of either movies, I was quite conflicted. But since it gives me a chance to spend some quality time with Cancer Girl I decided to go.

When I say I wasn't a big fan of the movie is a nice way to put it. I hated it. It is everything I hate about L.A. in cinematic form. Every time it is on TV it triggers my gag reflects and makes me want to throw up. It is against everything I stand for as a man. Yeah, there's a self-confidence message in there, but it is almost as real and believable as those size 38DD breasts you see on the beach. As for Mama Mia? Well, I have not been able to sit through the first 30 minutes of it yet. It was one of the in-flight movies while I was flying to and back from Spain. On multiple occasions I would start watching it and quickly get very nauseated and let's just say it's because of the turbulence. I've never been that big of an ABBA fan anyway.

I'll admit, the musical is different. At least I didn't throw up or start bleeding from the nose. It was fun, I liked it but far from loving it. There, I said it. I refused to say anything positive about the show for the longest time. Once I stop judging it by what I believe what a musical should be I was at least able to accept it other than some lame excuse to make women and homosexuals withdraw money from their bank accounts. When I think of musical I think of Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Chicago, and the likes. Of course, lately there's been more a trend toward trivial pop culture. There's just no talent like Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Sondheim or Jonathan Laron anymore. I mean, c'mon... Seussical The Musical, The Wedding Singer, and of course now Legally Blonde? Even Spamalot, which I liked a lot was based on a Monty Python movie. Wicked was based on a novel that's a spin off from a classic. In both cases the musical component was lacking. The two biggest component of a musical is its story and its music. In this case, a double negative does not make it a positive for Legally Blonde.

There were some nice jokes in the show with brilliant setup and punch line combination. It's just sad that they were pretty much all gay, blonde, or fashion/shopping jokes and lacking a bit in originality and intelligence. Even if was fun the fact is we're watching bunch of under studies. If Laura Bell Bundy was playing Elle it would be a total different show. The lead for this tour was injured so we were watching the understudy of the understudy... basically it's like the third string quarterback trying to lead a mediocre team and let's face it, unless the tour director is Bill Belichick and the understudy is related to Tom Brady there's no way it can achieve greatness. At least Bundy played Glinda in Wicked and have the vocal chops. The girl that played Elle we saw was just too whiny, nasally and throaty. For a show about a blonde sorority girl, they totally let the men steal the show, like Emmett and the UPS Guy. Especially the UPS Guy.

I do have to compliment the staging though. First they had two vertical and one horizontal bars lit that would frame the stage. In different scene they would move the horizontal bar lower or one of the vertical bars in to shrink the frame. At first I thought there was some kind of wheel or pulley system but I later realized that they just had the two vertical behind the horizontal one to create the optical illusion that they were connected. Just subtle things like that adds a lot to the show. Like the fact for the song Ireland, the girl playing Paulette actually had on green shoes which you didn't realize before that blends in and accentuate w/ the rest of the set.

So there, it was entertaining and for $38 you get what you paid for, but I refuse to admit that I even remotely liked the show for that it's an insult to the magic of Broadway.