Musicals Are Fun!

[Steph Dawe]

I've just finished with a musical done by one of the neighbouring schools Pedare - and I had such a great time doing it.

Being dropped off at home by the drummer did it for me, I think. Something about drummers and me...

The musical was "Back to the 80's - A Totally Awesome Musical!" and had songs like Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Lost In Your Eyes (my new favourite love song), Glory of Love (a close second - the guy who sang it did a fantastic jorb), Love Shack (of course!), Nine To Five, Material Girl, etc. It was a small band too - bass, drums, piano, keyboard, guitar, alto sax, trumpet and trombone, so we were pretty tight. The bone player and the drummer were uni students too (they used to go to Pedare) so it was even better - the bone player looks like a really young Richard Gere, damn he was good looking. So was the drummer...


... sorry. Got a bit distracted there.

So yeah. I had fun. We did three shows, one matinee and two night performances. Rehearsals were all week, so I'm a bit tired, and behind in my schoolwork but it was all worth it I reckon.

Have any of you done a musical before? I think it's cool being able to blend two, three kinds of performing arts together - it's what we should be doing at my school; maybe next year. I should get a petition going...

That's not a bad idea.

[Freaky Fender]

No "Owner of a lonely heart"? pfft.. It's not 80s then.

[Steph Dawe]

Haha yeah, I thought that too.

And no Duran Duran.

[Brendan]

I haven't played in any, but I've been in a few. Strictly high school, but whatever, right?

Some of them have really good sountracks/scores. I really enjoyed Rent and Man of La Mancha. Dance of the Vampires was okay as well, but they didn't quite nail the camp thing.

[Gia]

ahhhhh too many musicals.

never again.

until school starts

[Chad Michael]

Good for you steph - you go!!!

Sounds like you had fun....

[natrab]

We just jumped on the musical train. We're doing The Rocky Horror Show for the month of October, and it looks like we'll be doing a couple more next year (Guys and Dolls and Little Shop of Horrors). The Rocky Horror Show is fun because it was very easy to "ska" up. Guys and dolls I think will have to be played straight, but Little Shop of Horrors will rock.

Musicals are really fun, especially when you have a great cast to work with.

[Jace The Bass]

Ive done a few musicals in my time either read or by learning the repertior ( my spelling suxs ) anyway by doing musicals its a good way to get known ( ie networking yourself ) Seems like youre getting around sounds cool anyway nothing beats a good jam with a horn section

[Steph Dawe]

Originally Posted by Jace The Bass

nothing beats a good jam with a horn section

Yeah it was mad, just before we all left the drummer, bone player and the trumpet player started up a jazz thing, like a slow kinda smooth jazz thing, and we improved over something (I did a f# minor kinda thing), it was sweet.

Originally Posted by Super Pinapple :D

The Rocky Horror Show is fun because it was very easy to "ska" up.

Brad (drummer) and I used to play "Walking on Sunshine" in a ska kinda way during some of the rehearsals, but the MD didn't like it (the 4/4 bits stuffed the horn section) so we didn't do it for the shows. We should have though, it would have been mad.

[Funk On Crack]

Last year I played in my schools musical "Sweet Charity", and this year I did "Oliver". Really fun stuff

[puttz buster]

Yeah, musicals are fun. I had to play drums in "the little shop of horrors" a few years back. Very cool.

[josh_m]

I've done Oliver and Mame, my next show will most likely be Once Upon a Matress(sp?). I hope he doesn't use tracked music for that, seems like such an awesome musical. For one of the rehearsals it was just me, the piano, a french horn, and an oboe... now that is some quartet.

[Pause]

I've played bass in Little Shop of Horrors, Grease, and Oklahoma! (on DB). They were so much fun to do. I especially enjoyed Little Shop of Horrors.

[invisiman]

Little Shop Of Horrors is an amazing musical. That is all

[alapantera]

I played in the pit band for Godspell my first year out of highschool. twas a blast! most of the kids in the cast were pretty good friends of mine, the music was great, and i got paid (bonus!... although i wasn't really expecting anything and would have done it for free). I'm not sure i could stand to play pit in too many musicals, but a quartet (guitar, keyboard, drums and bass) playing heavy rock music was intense.

forgot to mention i got to sit onstage in a beanbag chair above the rest of the pit.

[puttz buster]

Originally Posted by alapantera

and i got paid (bonus!... although i wasn't really expecting anything and would have done it for free). :

I got 2 days (paid) off and the M.director gave me a bottle of johnny. W. black. The music store I was working in asked me to do the gig as a favor to the store, they obviously sold alot of equipment to that high school. Hell, I'll take 2 days off work to play drums in a musical, where do I sign.

[rfalter]

I played sax in the pit orchestra every year in high school. It was a blast. I think every high school is required to do Godspell and Oaklahoma. Ahhhh, the good ol' days !

[Shoka42]

Any pictures? Sounds like you had a good time, and shame on you for liking a drummer :P

[Hambone]

Goin' a few years back, I was in the pit orchestra for "Oliver", "The Sound of Music", and "A Lion in Winter" in community theater. Not on BG though, I was on Tuba. The SOM gig was cool because we were reading from original hand transcribed parts from the first printing of the original production scores. Pretty Cool. There was lots to learn about working in a larger group at a lower volume!

I've done sound production for some church productions as well like "Fiddler on the Roof" These aren't your typical hokey shows - most take 6-8 months of planning and production to coordinate. Usually 80-100 people in all. The band for this one numbered about 12 with a 3 piece horn section. It's interesting working music reinforcement while juggliing actor levels, and sound effects!

[Steph Dawe]

Any pictures? Sounds like you had a good time, and shame on you for liking a drummer :P

Unfortunately no. I didn't think of that until all the cast had their cameras.