All tagged Mamma Mia

Jukebox Musicals: Do You Have a Quarter Ready?

In the last decade or so, there has been an ongoing effort to fashion musicals around the songs of a certain singer. musical group or musical period. These are not musical revues that I speak of, but rather book musicals that try to create a story with a through-line hinging on the radio hits that are already familiar to audiences. I may not be in the majority here (or perhaps I am), but I find this the lazy road to creating musical theatre. Yes, there have been occasional hits along the way: Jersey BoysMovin’ OutMamma Mia, and Beautiful come to mind, but, in general, haven’t these jukebox ventures been mostly failures? I often wonder why this trend persists. Is it the off-chance hope of hitting gold like the aforementioned titles? 

Driving Out Jack Frost - Movie Musicals to Warm You Up

The weather was pretty brutal this weekend in upstate New York, and from the weather map, it appears that most of the country has been plunged into a deep freeze that even the creators of Frozen hadn't envisioned. I spent my weekend curled up under a blanket, drinking coffee and watching movie musicals. I do this on warm days as well, but considering the draft that was coming in the window via 40 mile-an-hour winds this Sunday, I decided to put together the ten-best movie musicals to watch on a cold winter's day.