Musical Theatre Mondays

A wise director once told me that musical theatre is a "manufactured" art. You take different types of art - music, dance, and acting - and combine it into a whole new form. So it seems to make perfect sense that in order to manufacture a musical, you need to add something else to the combination: A really great piece of source material to drive the story. Some of the most important pieces of musical theatre are inspired by other pieces of art and if this year's Tony Awards were any indication - that number will only continue to grow. I think it's fun to look at how the musical theatre interpretations of these works has added to the fullness of the original piece. Below are three examples of pieces of art that will be forever changed for me because of their musical counterpart. Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte (or A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte ) was the painting that inspired Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park ...

The past few weeks I've been feeling creatively blocked. Maybe you've noticed from my dwindling word count in the last few posts? Any outlet I turned to for enrichment left me feeling discouraged. The completed piece didn't turn out how I'd hoped it would or I'd see/hear someone else's execution that was so much better. I was thinking about all of this and feeling a little sorry for myself sitting at my desk on Friday when "Move On" from Sunday in the Park with George began to play. I was only about a minute into the song when I started feeling choked up, but I didn't know why until I looked up the lyrics. [DOT] Are you working on something new? [GEORGE] No [DOT] That is not like you, George [GEORGE] I've nothing to say [DOT] You have many things [GEORGE] Well, nothing that's not been said [DOT] Said by you, though George ... [DOT] Stop worrying if your vision is new Let others make that decision ...