You dumdums haven't polled the delight cast recording of Hamilton yet; let me help

and yeah they like way more musicals than i do.

like shakey tho i share their values.

musicals are gr8 for many reasons. i highly recommend d.a. miller's place for us as an exploration of one of the dimensions of why.

i am not a theater kid, really. too prudish, too judgmental, but i do love the american musical.

I like musicals, but I'm always creeped out by the tacit breaking of the 4th wall, when they perform with that dead-eyed focus at the back of the house or when they freeze and stare after each number, waiting for the applause.

jeez louise you musical haters need your own thread lol

we really need a poll about whether or not ILXors like musicals because it's a very interesting topic

then I'd like to hear everyone's opinions on contemporary poetry

I had two coworkers spontaneously perform a duet from RENT at a work retreat thing once. the horror.

SIDDOWN JOHN! YOU! FAT! MOTHERF-!

okay, i mean, rent is terrible. i'm talking about the good ones.

breaking of the fourth wall is part of what's interesting about broadway musicals, when they're interesting!

I am really into earnestness and aspiration and emotion & musicals deliver all of that to me in songs that I can loudly & tearfully in my car or when I'm doing the dishes <3

tbh it's why I love Springsteen & Meatloaf too lol

*loudly & tearfully sing in my car

VG otm; Springsteen is basically a one-man Broadway musical

Just was talking to a really smart guy I know asking his opinion of Springsteen and he just can't get past the themes and presumably the earnestness. I was going to try to make the case that he is more of an "earnest formalist" but then I decided not to bother.

Anyway, came to post that one time I saw Lin-Manuel Miranda in Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along and he was awesome.

VG otm; Springsteen is basically a one-man Broadway musical

huh maybe that explains why I don't like Springsteen either

Born to Run, the album, sometimes sounds like West Side Story to me tbrr

Easy, Action!

earnestness really bugs ppl apparently

imo these ppl also hate fun :D

Bat Out of Hell is one-third as long and at least three times better than 99% of musicals

you are both otm and not otm

Ok, so, yeah, this was some sort of virtuoso masterpiece. Good for you, "Hamilton."

Born to Run, the album, sometimes sounds like West Side Story to me tbrr

John Sinclair said the same thing in 1975, at least in part to get a dig in at his former protege Dave Marsh. But all it said to me was that John Sinclair must've never heard anything produced by Phil Spector.

Yeah, that seems sort of a lazy reduction of the album. In the making-of doc Bruce makes a point that the opening fanfare of each of the songs was supposed to set the stage like a movie score more than a musical. And it really only sticks around for that one album, too. Before that he was all hyper-lyrical Dylan, after that he transforms into the Bruce he's more or less remained since. Simpler, tougher, more working man stuff than dramatic backstreets mythology.

(Incidentally, I sometimes think of "Darkness" as emo-bruce. Years ago my friends and I almost recorded a cover of "Streets of Fire" as Rites of Springsteen.)

lol

okay, i mean, rent is terrible. i'm talking about the good ones.

― horseshoe, Friday, September 30, 2016 9:17 AM (four weeks ago)

same but I will still sing seasons of love at any time

the PBS special was v good & i cried like a dumb baby at the end

I cried like a baby when that dude called LMM the greatest voice of the people since Shakespeare.

that was Oskar Eustis! artistic director at the public theater.

imo he can say whatever the hell he wants, his support was half the reason Hamilton got off the ground

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2016/10/21/my-non-verbal-son-communicates-through-hamilton/

that is so great! (I love that line too, kid is otm)

http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/11/mike-pence-attends-hamilton-immediately-regrets-it/

<3 i love them for making the speech afterwards

i ordered Leslie Odom Jr's Christmas album bcz I am a huge dork and I heart him

Maybe things have changed since 1985 - hard for me to imagine Biff Tannen-style jocks stuffing Lin-Manuel Miranda into a locker. But what do I know, I'm like a thousand years old.

― wookin pa nub (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, September 29, 2016 5:38 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://www.vice.com/read/chris-hayes-confirmed-the-story-about-immortal-technique-bullying-lin-manuel-miranda

Yeah in the 80s you were more likely to be bullied by conscious rappers

i never had any interest in this whatsoever but finally heard some songs and bg on a podcast yesterday and frankly it was upsetting as fuck. this is a musical about the founding fathers where the topic of slavery is given little attention and Sally Hemmings (Jefferon's slave who irl was basically raped for 40 years resulting in 6 Jefferson-Hemmings children) is featured in a non-speaking role doing a little sexy-funny dance solo? for fucking real?

also the rapping is awful

i bet the musicals you like are super fun

Someone should adapt "Hamilton" into a book, like a biography or something, with all the details put back in.

The rapping stays--Kids love it!

Slavery is mentioned in the very first verse, and repeatedly throughout, and I doubt any retelling of the revolution has ever foregrounded race and class to the extent this musical has. Have you ever even seen a cast photo, Adam? Or are you just white-splaining the show based on a couple of excerpts and what some pod-people has told you?

Adam's post in the running for dumbest thing written on ilx

when you are concern-trolling musicals it's time to take a step back

"The Schuyler Sisters" is a jam and a half

My daughter's fave

We like "Helpless"

“Wait For It” is my current favorite