Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Broadway In New York

Wicked is the Story of Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch. It shows there relationship and how they were changed into good and evil before Dorothy came along.  The New York City Theatre average customer review is 4.8 out of 5 stars.  I believe that this scoring was about accurate. I left like the play was written very well with fluidity. The scenery was great along with the music. The actors were great at singing, dancing, and acting. They each depicted the characters with such pizzazz to make it believable to happen before Dorothy came into the picture.

Chicago is about nightclub sensation Velma Kelley, but when she shoots her cheating husband she ends up in Chicago's murderess row. She gets one of the cities most famous lawyers Billy Flynn and has one of the towns most talked about case. Roxie Heart is excited about fortune and fame and wants to sing her way to stardom. When Roxie's abuse lover tries to walk out on her which means losing her ticket to stardom she kills him landing herself in prison as well. Roxie's case with Billy Flynn makes her a star making Velma jealous. Tensions maximize as the two will do anything to be a bigger star than the other. The New York Theatre average customer review is a 3.7 out of 5.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Musicals on Film

Funny Girl is a musical following the life of comedian Fannie Brice (Barbra Streisand) and her path to stardom. Starting in the Jewish slums in the lower east side of New York to the peak of her career with the Ziegfeld Follies. Following her marriage and later divorce with husband ,Nick Arnstein, a gambler. 

Online on Rotten Tomatoes the average audience rating is 3.7 from five people. The average critic rating is 7.6 out of ten people.   I think that these ratings were very low for this movie. Even though this is one of Barbra Streisand's early work I feel like she did a spectacular job as always. Not only was she a great singer but she also did a wonderful dancing and acting job. It is an older movie from the late 60s, some of the events that occur and the mannerisms aren't as relevant today as they were back then. It is definitely a must see musical. 

Gypsy is a musical about the life of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee and her controlling mother. It shows their path from childhood as her mother tries to get Gypsy and her sister into showbiz no matter what it takes. Her mother's battle of having one run away daughter and loosing her fiance due to her obsession with making it big in the industry. Due to having a lack of money Gypsy ends up getting a break as a burlesque showgirl and her career goes up from there.

On Rotten Tomatoes the critics average rating is 6.2 from ten people. I felt like this rating was pretty accurate. It was a good movie but i felt like there are other movies out there are better made. Other musicals have more fluidity within the story lines.  Bette Midler did i fabulous acting job of course     and played well as the crazy controlling mother she was supposed to be. She continued to surprise me with everything she did from scene to scene.

Funny Lady is the sequel to musical Funny Girl. Its about the later career of comedian Fannie Brice. Its shows her new relationship with showman Billy Rose and complications due to her ex-husband Nick Arnstein popping up in her new life again.

On Rotten Tomatoes the critics average rating is 4.4 from ten people. The average audience rating is a 3.2 from five people. I felt that the rating's are about accurate to this film. Even though this is the sequel to Funny Girl I had high expectations due to the fact that it is still staring Barbra Streisand. I felt that between Funny Girl and Funny Lady her character as Fannie Brice changed a lot. In Funny Girl I felt she was down to earth due to her stardom just budding. In my opinion in Funny Lady she could have been more down to earth rather than looking down upon people because she has been in a similar place before.