Artistic Differences

Sherie Rene Scott & Everyday Rapture completely blew my mind. I don’t know how much of what she tells in the show is true, but this was still one of the most honest, bare and brave performances I’ve seen by a stage actor. It was insane, hysterical and so incredibly moving - and so was her writing for that matter. A beautiful and unique show. She’s positively commanding on stage.

Also, that kid was amazing.

I’ve got two words for you (or maybe 6): Submissions Only and It Could Be Worse.

You should all just flock to those. They’re better than all the shows you were in.

Aw NBC canceled The New Normal? That’s too bad. Like I said when the finale aired it was really improving and I was looking forward to more.

Poor Andrew Rannells. We all know he doesn’t have a Tony yet and now this. He should become a regular on Girls. Or go back to Broadway.

Fellow singing unemployee Laura Benanti is on board

Josh Gad is free too.

And I’m sure Megan Hilty, Andy Mientus, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Jesse L. Martin, Ann Harada, Jeremy Jordan, Krysta Rodriguez, Wesley Taylor and Christian Borle’s schedules are opening up pretty soon.

It’s time to produce a show with a big-ass cast, Broadway.

Or not.

Believe it or not I found an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet where they don’t die!

Which was weird but nice because every time I watch a new adaptation of that damn play there’s a good chance I will stay depressed for the whole evening, possibly for a day or two if it’s a very good adaptation. It’s my thing. Doomed teen romances make me horribly sad.

But I stumbled upon Private Romeo on cable and I was like - hey that’s Matt Doyle of Broadway fame! I saw him perform Melchior Gabor just last week! And now he’s playing…Juliet. Like literally. Not Peter from Bare Juliet. Juliet Juliet. With the nurse and everything. And it was very conceptual with the military setting and the original Shakespeare dialogue and it looked kind of cool but I really didn’t want to watch it because I thought I knew how it was gonna end. I stuck with it because of the amazing acting and what do you know it turned into Sleeping Beauty in the last 5 minutes.

It’s a very good movie though. I liked how the flourishes of the old English were kept in line, so to speak, by very precise, clean, almost analytical directing. It’s easy to make Elizabethan English work in a baroque/post-modern setting like in Luhrmann’s R+J, it’s much more difficult to make it work in a setting that is truly realistic and grounded in our time, and Private Romeo makes it work because the whole cast is so good. The guy who plays Mercutio was especially good and so was Matt/Juliet himself.

Just finished watching what I believe is the best Spring Awakening video available - or at least the best I’ve seen so far (I still have got a few to go through from my collection).

Man I love this show so much. I know it inside out and I can still find so many new nuances whenever I watch it.

This video has Matt Doyle as Melchior and it was the first time I saw anyone other than Jonathan Groff in the role. I must say, it’s quite different. It’s actually very nice to have something new when you know a show so well, and Matt - maybe unintentionally - brings something refreshing to the role. Groff’s performance is still an untouchable masterpiece, and you know how he had this undercurrent of meanness going on, not that there was malice in Melchior, but you at least got a sense of a soul that was intellectually troubled and unstable. Which is what made the performance so amazing. Doyle on the other hand always has this wide eyed approach to things so he brings out the child in Melchior much more than Jonathan. It’s a softer, sweeter Melchior, and that makes his reaction to Wendla wanting to be beaten quite emotional and raw. He looked terrified and mortified and delivered the most emotional The Mirror/Blue Night I’ve ever heard.

Emma Hunton as Ilse is a force of nature. The bob is anachronistic, but very fitting. She looked great and sounded even better.

Blake Bashoff as Moritz. Well. Almost as good as John Gallagher? For a moment I actually thought it was John. He really sold all his songs. Slightly weaker in the dramatic spoken parts (he was just fine in the comedy bits).

The rest of the cast was fine. All the girls + Skylar Astin were from the OBC. Nothing new to see there. A very good Ernst from Blake Daniel, slightly disappointed by Jesse Swenson as Hanschen.

Still love this show so so much. Interested in seeing Hunter Parrish now, and Matt Doyle as Hanschen sounds…insanely out of his comfort zone, which should be interesting.

Of all the superhero books I’m reading at the moment, Gillen’s Young Avengers would totally make the best superhero musical ever. Like a hipster superhero rock opera ala Rent meets Avenue Q with ironic clothing, 1990’s hairstyles and Skrulls.

I’m re-reading the first issue and my god, from those first panels the mood is set so perfectly. Can’t you just hear music playing throughout the whole thing?

So let’s play fancasting

Josefina Scaglione as Miss America

Aaron Tveit as Noh Varr

Stoyle as Wickling

Krysta Rodriguez as Kate Bishop

I’m open to suggestions about Kid Loki

Can we unleash Julie Taymor on this

and I can’t see why this can’t become a photomanip project. Let me sharpen my tablet pen.

It Could Be Worse is a great webseries with a lot of Broadway goodness. Only three episodes in and I’ve already spotted Gideon Glick, Laura Benanti, Adam Chanler Berat, Kyle Dean Massey and Audra McDonald who has a hilarious scene at the end of episode 2. Oh and of course it stars and was created by the talented Wesley Taylor. I love watching these people in things other than fuzzy bootlegs :)

Which reminds me. Submissions Only v3 must be close.