Broadway Shows
Today, I was moved by a piece of music from Phantom of the Opera, so I decided to write an article to review the Broadway shows I have seen. Well, here is how I describe how I like the Broadway shows: I can sit in a Broadway show or a classical music concert for hours and never feel bored, but not others. Jazz and Irish music sometimes are quite pleasant, but I don’t know if I can go crazy when I just sit there and purely listen to the music in hours. Maybe plus some sort of martini, it can work out 🙂
I started watching Broadway shows since 2002. I remembered that we four girls arrived in the time square in a cold winter evening. We waited in line for buying tickets. There were some clumsy luggage behind us so everybody stares at us, but we just laughed loud and don’t care. At that time, one of the only available shows is called “Dance of the Vampire“. None of us had heard that show before, but we decided to spend $45 anyway, which is about 1/30 of our monthly salary at that time. It turns out that after watching the show, we still did not understand the story. But we all agree that the music sounds very pleasant and it is very relaxing. Broadway shows are so relaxing, sometimes I fall asleep in the shows 😛 I consider that is wonderful!
Since then, almost every time, I go to NYC, I will find a show, some are on-broadway and some are off broadway, but all the shows are performed in the theaters near time square. The Broadway show tickets are very expensive, it can go up $100-200. But if you order from TKTS, you can get a ticket using $50 or around for today’s show. You can also go to the theater directly to get some rush tickets with discount, but Broadway shows are very popular, no guarantee you will get tickets for the show you wanted that way. I have also watched a few shows in the local theaters such as NC Triangle area, Rochester, Kennedy Center, Ames, Des Moines via Broadway show tours. The quality is quite good, though none of the theaters are comparable to the authentic Broadway theaters, in my opinion.
The movies are ranked through Oscar, and Broadways are ranked through Tony Award. Although probably nobody cares about my ranking, I still decided to seriously rank the musicals I have seen:
Best music: of course, I will vote for Phantom of the Opera. The music is very powerful, and you will feel surrounded by it, and nothing else left in the world at this moment.
Best story: I will choose Miss Saigon. The Broadway shows often have some simple storyline, but not this one. It talked about an American solider follows in love with a Viennese girl but have to leave Vienna (actually I mean Vietnam) after the war. This story has some unspoken Asian resonance to me, is touching and tear-breaking.
Another best story: guest what? I will give Les Miserables. I think I will need a special blog post for this book and story.
Best costume: the Lion King. Probably you still remember: hakumatata — it is the word from Tunisia; it means “no worry”. This is the most popular Broadway show ever. Since 2002, every time I go to NYC, it is ON. Besides the classical songs such as “circle of life” “can you feel the love tonight”, this Broadway show stars its creative costume. To understand the intelligence behind it, ask yourself: how would you put up an adult to a lion or a coyote but not look stupid?
Best dance: Pippin. It is in general a great show, but I cannot remember the details. Good things can be too boring to remember?!
Best comedy: Anything goes 😀
Best action: this is a very visual, high-tech, modern Broadway show Spiderman, the actors show off acrobats and various types of body movement.
Besides the above ranked shows, I have also watched:
Chicago: People said the dance is great in this show, but I don’t recall that.
Grinch: One year, Broadway is on strike during Thanksgiving. Oh well, only this show is going on, no choice. It is short and hateful.
Evita: The famous “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” is from this show
West Side Story: very good dance as well
Sound of Music: classical. The movie is good so I decided to not rank the Broadway show. I have visited a few places in Austria where they filmed the movie. It makes Broadway shows fake and not appealing
South Pacific: no particular impression
Mary Poppins: in this show, the actress flies in the theater seating area with an umbrella
Jersey Boy: this is the show contains many American pop cultures and I fell asleep because I really cannot understand what is going on.
In addition, I am also quite familiar with Rent, Wicked, Avenue Q through CDs. Hope to see them sometimes on Broadway.
This is a super long blog without any visual entertainment. I hope you are still alive at this moment 😀