Musical Theatre Mondays

Broadway and Christmas make an excellent team. This week, I set out to gather Christmas songs from Broadway shows and was pleasantly surprised to find that a lot of my favorite Christmas songs originated in a musical - "We Need a Little Christmas," "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," and "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas." So I made a little playlist to get you in the spirit. I like to think of Christmas music as a gateway drug into musical theatre - it's a great time to share songs with those non-musical loving people in your life. But, if you do nothing else with this list - at least do this for me: You must listen to Judy Garland sing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." It's beautiful and those low notes with her voice? That'll get you in the Christmas spirit any day of the year.

White Christmas is the show that first had me hooked on musicals. It has been a holiday tradition with my family since I was tiny and something I can always count on my whole family sitting down and enjoying together on Christmas Day. That's not to say that I don't indulge on the music the rest of the year because I totally do. That's one of the things I like best about this show is that because it's a conglomeration of Irving Berlin songs, it's not just all about Christmas. There's a little sisterly love, some dancing, some silly songs about choreography, Mr. Bones and even songs to drive your sister named Amanda crazy! Not only are the songs and dances some of my favorites, but some of my favorite costumes ever are from this show. Aside from the white gloves that give Betty a serious case of the man hands, the whole look from "Love You Didn't Do Right By Me" is truly perfect and timeless. Natalie's Five Favorites! Favorite Charact...

Utah Repertory Theater Company’s production of The Bridges of Madison County packs a punch through a powerful story and engaging music. This is the first time this show has been done in Utah and the first time that Utah Rep has done a show in the Regent Street Black Box at the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City. With a book by Marsha Norman ( The Color Purple ) and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown ( Parade , The Last Five Years ), I knew I was in for an moving show. The Bridges of Madison County is a story about Francesca Johnson, a bored Italian housewife in Iowa and the day she meets Robert Kincaid, a photographer for National Geographic. Francesca and Robert spend 4 days together in 1965 while Francesca’s husband and two children (Michael and Carolyn) are at the state fair in Indianapolis. Through this chance meeting - Robert asks for directions to a local bride - Francesca and Robert develop a romantic relationship and both come to realize the things they are missing in ...

1957 would prove to be a good year for Broadway. The Music Man , Carousel and Brigadoon  all opened that year, but I think the show that would come to change the face of musical theatre the most when it came to how music and dancing are used to tell a story is West Side Story . In the September 27, 1957 edition of the New Herald Tribune , journalist Walter Kerr wrote in his review of opening night:  "The radioactive fallout from West Side Story must still be descending on Broadway this morning." (Source:  Saturday Evening Post ) I think I understand a little of what Mr. Kerr must have meant by "radioactive fallout." I saw a production of West Side Story last year, almost 60 years since it's opening night, and still can't think about it without getting teary-eyed. What is it about this show that causes such an emotional response? One of the facets of musical theatre that continues to make it such a progressive art form is its ability to have those ha...

When I think of Christmas musicals - I don't often think of musicals that actually happen during Christmas. What I do think of is  The Sound of Music.  I think that's because like most Americans, after Christmas presents have been opened and faces have been stuffed with food - I watch TV with my family and there is usually some station playing a 24 hour rotation of The Sound of Music . And because I love a soft focus and truly believe that Julie's voice is sent straight from heaven - I can't help but watch. It's one of the first musicals I can remember watching with both of my grandmothers - they both instilled a great love of Julie Andrews in me. I learned a lot of things in preparation for this week's post so let's listicle this a la Buzzfeed. 10 things that Natalie has learned about or finds really interesting about The Sound of Music: 1. It was the last of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musicals. (source: Mental Floss ) It opened on Broadway in 1...

I'm lucky enough to have spent the last few months in rehearsal for a really special production of A Christmas Carol at Centerpoint Legacy Theatre (CPT). With music by Alan Menken (the man behind all your favorite Disney stuff) and lyrics by Lynn Aherns (the woman behind Ragtime and Anastasia ) it is so joyful and catchy. Now I'm always a little emotional when I'm watching something on stage. Sometimes it's from the music, sometimes it's purely just an outlet for how happy I am to be watching the show (or how happy I am for the people that get to be performing it it), but very rarely do I get emotional about shows that I perform in. I think you become sort of desensitized to the story and the touching moments because you've gone through the very rigorous process of rehearsing them over and over and over again. But as I sang the last few lines of our curtain call number during our final dress rehearsal on Saturday, I could barely hold back tears as I sa...

Since we focused on one of the most influential choreographers last week - it's only appropriate that we talk about one my favorite and one of the most famous dance scenes from a movie musical:  the barn dance from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers! In my experience, this is something that just about everyone has seen and even if musicals "aren't their thing" can admit that it's pretty freaking cool. I'll get to a post about the show as a whole later as it is one of my favorite musicals and has some really fun songs, but where I think this show really shines is in the dancing. Four of the 6 brothers and all of the brides are professional dancers so unlike other movie musicals where a "dream version" of the lead characters is subbed in for big dance scenes - it's the same people! (Although most of their singing voices were dubbed in.) Here are my two favorite things about this dance: These dancers make the dancing look so easy! It appears e...