Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Mar 14, 2010, 8:00 pm
Every semester, my students are typically surprised to discover that, for much of musical-theater history, shows weren't very integrated or cohesive. In other words, the songs and dances often had...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Mar 5, 2010, 9:24 am
There are so many new musicals that I want to see this season, but when I was in New York last weekend, none of them had started previews yet. So, as I was headed down to see Yank (see my review below...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Mar 4, 2010, 8:51 am
I had been hearing some terrific word of mouth about the new musical Yank, which is currently playing its first fully staged engagement at the York Theatre Company. But when I saw some of ... . The s...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Feb 24, 2010, 6:53 am
I hope my readers will forgive that I haven't been posting as regularly of late, but I've been pretty gosh darn busy with classes and grading papers and otherwise being academical. Fortunately...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Feb 17, 2010, 9:21 am
It's been about 32 years that I've been almost exclusively obsessed with musical theater. Oh, there's been the odd diversion along the way: a college degree over here, a career in business...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Feb 10, 2010, 5:33 pm
[As a service to my Boston-area readers, I'm reprinting here my review of the Dreamgirls tour, which is now appearing at the Colonial Theater. I saw this production in New York at the historic Apo...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Feb 9, 2010, 6:55 pm
Prior to this past weekend, there was only one Broadway theater that I had never been in. My 30-plus years of attending shows in New York City had brought me to the interior of every single one of the...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Feb 9, 2010, 10:12 am
I'm getting the feeling that the "overrated musical" assignment that I charge my students with each semester is becoming less and less representative. In other words, the exercise is becoming less...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Feb 5, 2010, 10:10 am
For me, there's no greater pleasure than sitting down to listen to the cast recording of a beloved show. Of course, I'll buy practically anything, irrespective of whether I've seen the sho...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Jan 28, 2010, 11:51 am
Some musicals just stick with you. Of all the shows I've seen, performed in, read about, or lectured about, there are few that hold the emotional pull of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Whic...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Jan 26, 2010, 9:19 pm
Another semester, another spate of impressionable minds to indoctrinate into the...er...doctrine of musical theater. Regular readers eagerly anticipate my students' biannual lists of the "bestes...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Jan 17, 2010, 8:17 pm
Earlier today, the revival of Finian's Rainbow played its final performance at the St. James Theater, and I must admit that I'm experiencing mixed feelings about this. I'm certainly sad t...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Jan 16, 2010, 8:56 pm
In the very last session of my musical-theater history course, we do three things: my students hand in their take-home finals, we talk about what makes bad musicals bad, and then we launch into what I...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Jan 16, 2010, 4:18 pm
Easily the most anticipated musical of the season thus far has been the Broadway transfer of acclaimed London production of A Little Night Music. My schedule didn't allow me to see the show during...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Jan 14, 2010, 8:47 pm
At some point each semester, I posit to my students that there is no such thing as a perfect musical. I then challenge them to name one that they think is perfect, and we discuss. We can usually find ...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Jan 13, 2010, 1:40 pm
In my junior year in college, I heard that a classmate was going to be directing Ernest in Love, a musical version of The Importance of Being Earnest, the comic masterwork by Oscar Wilde. I had never ...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Jan 12, 2010, 8:54 am
I am so over Michael Riedel: Last Friday, the New York Post published a pointlessly cruel  column by Riedel, in which he practically snickered with glee over the closure this past weekend of the Ra...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Jan 6, 2010, 12:14 pm
Even in this economy, most Broadway theaters don't remain vacant for very long. (That's either a testament to the reinvigorated status of the Broadway musical, or the sheer idiocy on the part ...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Jan 5, 2010, 5:13 pm
As closing announcements proliferate, and the remaining Broadway shows face the prospect of a bleak midwinter, we're also hearing about new musicals to step in and fill the void. The new Twyla T...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Jan 3, 2010, 2:24 pm
It suddenly occurred to me that Shrek is closing today and that I hadn't really made much mention of it, other than a Twitter post when the closure announcement first came. Kinda tells you somethi...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Jan 1, 2010, 10:20 am
Another one bites the dust. No sooner had Ragtime posted its closing notice than Finian's Rainbow almost immediately followed suit. The show will end its run at the St. James Theater on January 17...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Dec 31, 2009, 3:46 pm
Che delusione. Come molto deprimente. Che disastro. I saw the movie "Nine" on Monday, and all this week I've had the hardest time bringing myself to write up this review. It was just such a d...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Dec 30, 2009, 8:54 am
That's the thing about rumors. Sometimes, they're actually true. Word came over the weekend that the financially ailing Broadway revival of Ragtime will close this coming Sunday. At that poi...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Dec 24, 2009, 11:45 pm
I recently rediscovered "The Homecoming," the television movie that gave rise to the hit TV series "The Waltons." I was surprised by how much of it I remembered, since I probably hadn't seen it in...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Dec 24, 2009, 12:40 pm
It appears that I may have been a tad premature in creating my list of The Worst Musicals of the 2000s. Another worthy addition rolled into town last night for a seven-performance run at Boston's ...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Dec 18, 2009, 4:05 pm
I love bad musicals. Not necessarily when I'm sitting through them, of course, but I cherish having the chance to relate the gory details to my friends, students, and readers. I can't count th...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Dec 17, 2009, 11:46 am
Following up on yesterday's list, here are my remaining choices for the best musicals of the 2000s. Feel free to carp, snipe, and otherwise disagree. But, in my humble estimation, these ten musica...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Dec 16, 2009, 4:08 pm
I recently had a friend, in response to a negative review that I wrote, post on my Facebook page "Well, you hate everything." Even taking into account the obvious hyperbole there, I took significant u...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Dec 11, 2009, 3:46 pm
As my students discover every semester, the idea of a musical being "overrated" or "underrated" is ultimately subjective. Some people consider Wicked overrated. I don't. I find the show extremely ...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Dec 10, 2009, 1:30 pm
So, it's the end of the year, and also the end of a decade, and that means lists, lists, lists. Other media outlets have been focusing on the best entertainers, the best movies, the best music, et...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Dec 8, 2009, 10:31 pm
I apologize, dear reader, for my extended absence from blogging. I've recently added staged readings to my musical-theater history course at the Boston Conservatory, and for the past week or so I&...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Nov 27, 2009, 1:41 pm
Last week, I posted some of my notes from A Life in the Theater - An Evening With Stephen Sondheim, a conversation between Stephen Sondheim and Frank Rich at Sanders Theater in Cambridge, Mass. There ...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Nov 26, 2009, 10:38 pm
As I was waiting to be shown to my seat at Girl Crazy, the first of the Encores concerts at City Center this season, I overheard a conversation behind me. Man: "Oh, look at all the empty seats up in...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Nov 24, 2009, 9:08 pm
Can a production be greater than the sum of its parts? That's the question that my fellow blogger Isaac Butler of Parabasis asks regarding the touring production of Dreamgirls, which is currently ...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Nov 23, 2009, 11:01 pm
I wasn't a fan of the musical Fela when I saw it Off Broadway at the 37 Arts theater complex. Although I found the story captivating, the dance energetic, and the music vibrant, I thought the sto...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Nov 19, 2009, 8:15 am
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending A Life in the Theater - An Evening With Stephen Sondheim, which took place at the lovely Sanders Theater in Cambridge, Mass. The event comprised a convers...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Nov 15, 2009, 9:11 pm
What exactly is a "modern classic"? I mean, it's a contradiction in terms, right? An oxymoron if ever there was one. People who use this phrase tend to be either morons themselves or marketers, th...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Nov 12, 2009, 9:52 pm
  Forgive me, reader, if I tend to focus on musicals: I willingly accede that there’s a vast array of interesting theater out there to behold, it’s just that I personally don’t happen to be...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Nov 11, 2009, 7:30 am
... , although in retrospect it's strange that they even had those LPs since they never really listened to music at all. But I did, and I greedily devoured the cast recordings to Godspell, Mame, ...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Nov 8, 2009, 10:41 am
Like most people, when I heard that Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig were going to appear together on Broadway, I didn't really care about the show itself. I just wanted to see Hugh Jackman and Danie...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Nov 5, 2009, 4:46 pm
I just finished grading this semester's crop of "underrated musical" papers. I know how much my readers enjoy hearing about which shows my students have chosen to defend, so I always like to pass ...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Nov 4, 2009, 8:13 am
No sooner had the revival of Brighton Beach Memoirs died what many consider to be a premature death at the Nederlander Theater then a new show announced its tenancy. Million Dollar Quartet, which has ...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Oct 30, 2009, 8:08 am
... poster for the current Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow, which opened last night at the St. James Theater. Not only is it vibrant and colorful, but it also conveys a clear sense that this...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Oct 29, 2009, 10:22 am
As my regular readers will know, I teach at the Boston Conservatory of Music. In addition to indoctrinating young impressionable minds into the world of musical theater, I also serve as the faculty ad...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Oct 29, 2009, 8:27 am
When Avenue Q opened last week at its new Off-Broadway home, the New World Stages, a lot of people in the theatrical community were paying close attention. Of course, it's a much-beloved show, and...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Oct 27, 2009, 8:04 am
As a lifelong fan of musical theater, I support any and all efforts to cultivate new artistic voices within the form. So, when the I heard that the Roundabout Theater would be including the new tuner ...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Oct 19, 2009, 10:02 pm
In 1992, a bold new musical came to Broadway, a daring show with a lot more on its mind than mere diversion. That show was Jelly's Last Jam, and in addition to boasting an uncompromising performan...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Oct 16, 2009, 7:27 am
Something is broken at the Roundabout Theater. I'm not just referring to its current production of Bye Bye Birdie, although it is indeed atrocious. No, I'm talking about the organization's...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Oct 13, 2009, 8:18 am
Hey, guys and dolls. I betcha didn't know that bloggers are getting fat and rich from sponsor freebies and kickbacks. And with all the financial sturm und drang out there, there's no more effe...
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Christopher C. posted an article on Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals - Oct 8, 2009, 11:47 am
  I've never been one to reflexively bash Andrew Lloyd Webber. Some of his shows I genuinely like, particularly Evita, while other shows I find flawed but enjoyable, for instance Sunset Bouleva...
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