mtabcs

the Musical Theatre Alphabet:
Pretty Pictures!
A WORD TO THE WISE
CLICK EVERYTHING

If only talent was a foursquare badge, the text a tweet, and the twinkle-toed thespian a tumblr. T is for theatre (or theater) in all its glory. 

If only talent was a foursquare badge, the text a tweet, and the twinkle-toed thespian a tumblr. T is for theatre (or theater) in all its glory. 

If you're not watching Bunheads, then you're not ready for S.

S is also for Seth Rudetsky. 

R is for Raisin.

R is for Raisin.
For that fringe-y show you love?  The one which is your little secret weapon during musical sing-along on big road trips? Well: Q is for Quilters.

For that fringe-y show you love?  The one which is your little secret weapon during musical sing-along on big road trips? Well: Q is for Quilters.

Promises, Pippin, Promises. P is for Posterity: and the future generations who will look back to see what they have become.

Promises, Pippin, Promises. P is for Posterity: and the future generations who will look back to see what they have become.

O is for Once...

In a year I’ll be able to comment on the title, but TDF is now all sold out for now. And because there will always be a ‘Best Musical’. 

N is for Narrative. Sometimes vic(tor)ious ’fictitious‘ non-fiction creates one heckuva good story. (Or not)

N is for Narrative. Sometimes vic(tor)ious ’fictitious‘ non-fiction creates one heckuva good story. (Or not)

There will be one fifteen minute intermission.

In lieu of posting N right now, I think it in the best interest of this µblog to respect the typical two-act set-up and proceed into a seventeen minute long fifteen minute intermission. 

We can take a brief moment to examine the word and understand that half-way through our show we have decided to bury our task. 

It’s incredibly depressing that wikipedia reminds us that certain shows have intermissions because of their fundraising potential. To think that one only need write a catchy first act before running down another hell bound road is actually very intriguing. 

Oh shucks, the lights are flickering already. 

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M is for Music: A guest post by composition student Matthew Cramer. Obscure to the masses and known to most modern musical theatre-folk, the Last Five Years is a treasure to many, and to many people, Jason Robert Brown is the best (read “smartest”) thing to happen to musical theatre since Sondheim (okay, maybe an over-statement, but still). There are deliberate choices in his music; a song isn’t just “up-tempo” – it’s a clear homage to Irving Berlin or Gershwin, and a damn good one at that; it’s not simply a rousing chorus – it’s an obvious offshoot of Charles Ives, or it’s a brilliant juxtaposition of material that results in emotions that truly challenge an audience, not simply to feel but to think.Here’s one simple, but loaded musical choice JRB makes in “The Next Ten Minutes”: the beginning of each of the accompaniment figures occurs on the upbeat. Who cares? Well, when you first hear the song (and many times after), you immediately become accustomed to the rolling rhythm; only with the introduction of the bass and the melody do we realize we’ve been seduced into a trap – the real beat is displaced! Already, this ballad of marriage vows is on unsteady footing. Besides the dissonant punctuations near the end of the song, we already are confronted with musical foreshadowing of how the marriage is doomed. How brilliant is that? This is music that serves the drama as much as the words, acting, and staging do.

M is for Music: A guest post by composition student Matthew Cramer.

Obscure to the masses and known to most modern musical theatre-folk, the Last Five Years is a treasure to many, and to many people, Jason Robert Brown is the best (read “smartest”) thing to happen to musical theatre since Sondheim (okay, maybe an over-statement, but still). There are deliberate choices in his music; a song isn’t just “up-tempo” – it’s a clear homage to Irving Berlin or Gershwin, and a damn good one at that; it’s not simply a rousing chorus – it’s an obvious offshoot of Charles Ives, or it’s a brilliant juxtaposition of material that results in emotions that truly challenge an audience, not simply to feel but to think.

Here’s one simple, but loaded musical choice JRB makes in “The Next Ten Minutes”: the beginning of each of the accompaniment figures occurs on the upbeat. Who cares? Well, when you first hear the song (and many times after), you immediately become accustomed to the rolling rhythm; only with the introduction of the bass and the melody do we realize we’ve been seduced into a trap – the real beat is displaced! Already, this ballad of marriage vows is on unsteady footing. Besides the dissonant punctuations near the end of the song, we already are confronted with musical foreshadowing of how the marriage is doomed. How brilliant is that? This is music that serves the drama as much as the words, acting, and staging do.

So I’ve been deliberating on L for weeks. It’s been crazy. Fret not because Lippa/LaChiusa will come at W, and we’ve done Lorenz. But it’s almost like I can’t put it into a word, let alone a letter, so enjoy this video in the meanwhile. 

Kiss your way through this spiderweb.

K is for Ed Kleban -> A Chorus Line -> A Class Act -> BMI Musical Theater Workshop -> Jeff Blumenkrantz -> Two Cents -> Submissions Only -> Andrew Keenan-Bolger.

This one’s for the late-night tab-openers.

J is for Joseph the Amazing Technicolor DreamContest!

J is for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. J is for Joseph because it is one of the many pieces which uses the colorful wonder of mt (and children) to capture the hearts and minds of the youth.

I want you send me an e-mail at turtleofshoe@gmail.com with your earliest memory of musical theatre and one lucky person will receive an original Canadian Cast recording of Joseph on cassette that my grandmother recorded sometime in the ’90s and I found in my aunts house about six years ago! 

No purchase necessary! Anyone can enter to win! I will pay for postage and handling!

I is for you. I is for I Do! I Do! A SchmidtJones adaptation that brought deHartog’s Martin and Preston from the horse-drawn carriage into the 20th century.

I is for you. I is for I Do! I Do! A SchmidtJones adaptation that brought deHartog’s Martin and Preston from the horse-drawn carriage into the 20th century.

I C U Ziefert and Kreloff, but Ahrens and Flaherty have to wait till O.

I C U Ziefert and Kreloff, but Ahrens and Flaherty have to wait till O.

Jack Cassidy & Holly Harris - This Can't Be Love

As we learned earlier, you’ve gotta have Hart. H is for Lorenz Hart, for the words (to the music). Shakespeare watch out.

(Source: amazon.com)