Wednesday, February 8, 2012

MUSICALS Party at T.R.A.C.S

We will have a MUSICALS Party at T.R.A.C.S
T.R.A.C.S

Musical theatre is a form of theatre that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The story and emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements of the works. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals.

Although music has been a part of dramatic presentations since ancient times, modern Western musical theatre emerged during the 19th century, culminating with the works of Gilbert and Sullivan in Britain and those of Harrigan and Hart in America, followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the works of American creators like George M. Cohan. Early in the 20th century, the Princess Theatre musicals and other smart shows like Of Thee I Sing were artistic steps forward beyond revues and other frothy entertainments and led to such groundbreaking works as Show Boat and Oklahoma!. Some of the most famous and iconic musicals through the decades that followed include West Side Story, The Fantasticks, Hair, A Chorus Line, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent, The Producers and Wicked.
 
Musicals are performed all around the world. They may be presented in large venues, such as big budget West End and Broadway theatre productions in London and New York City, or in smaller fringe theatre, Off-Broadway or regional theatre productions, on tour, or by amateur groups in schools, theatres and other performance spaces. In addition to Britain and North America, there are vibrant musical theatre scenes in many countries in Europe, Latin America, Australasia and Asia.
source: WikiPedia


Gay Musicals, by JD Doyle
What is a "Gay Musical" and why do we care? Well, I produce a radio show and website called Queer Music Heritage, with an aim to preserve gay and lesbian music culture. And by using the term "Gay Musical" I immediately have to define myself. Musicals have always been a big part of our culture, to the point of it being stereotypical. But I'm not talking about musicals like "Chorus Line," or "Dreamgirls," "West Side Story," "Follies," "Gypsy," "Cats," "Cabaret," or on and on, even though many may have had a gay sensibility, or gay writers behind them. Being a purist, I'm talking about gay musicals where the central characters and plots were gay, and I further limit my focus to those that had soundtracks that made it onto vinyl or CD. Otherwise, only a few get to share the experience. In the early years, recording them didn't happen very often, as the productions were generally low budget affairs, far removed from even being off-off-Broadway.  http://www.queermusicheritage.us/gaymus.html

It was not easy to pick one song from my long list of favourite musical songs.
Than I remember the song "For good" from the musical "Wicked" because it have parts of the poem "Reason, Season, or Lifetime". That already is for ages in my profile.

Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995), a parallel novel of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). The musical is told from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz: Elphaba, the misunderstood girl with emerald-green skin, and Galinda, later Glinda, the beautiful, ambitious and popular blonde. Wicked tells the story in which these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the North while struggling through opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba's public fall from grace. The plot begins before and continues after Dorothy's arrival from Kansas and includes references to locations, events, characters and situations from both the 1939 film and Baum's novel.

For Good

ELPHABA
 I'm limited:
 Just look at me - I'm limited
 And just look at you -
 You can do all I couldn't do, Glinda
 So now it's up to you
 (spoken) For both of us
 (sung) Now it's up to you:

GLINDA
 I've heard it said
 That people come into our lives for a reason
 Bringing something we must learn
 And we are led
 To those who help us most to grow
 If we let them
 And we help them in return
 Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
 But I know I'm who I am today
 Because I knew you:

 Like a comet pulled from orbit
 As it passes a sun
 Like a stream that meets a boulder
 Halfway through the wood
 Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
 But because I knew you
 I have been changed for good

ELPHABA
 It well may be
 That we will never meet again
 In this lifetime
 So let me say before we part
 So much of me
 Is made of what I learned from you
 You'll be with me
 Like a handprint on my heart
 And now whatever way our stories end
 I know you have re-written mine
 By being my friend:
 Like a ship blown from its mooring
 By a wind off the sea
 Like a seed dropped by a skybird
 In a distant wood
 Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
 But because I knew you:

GLINDA
 Because I knew you:

BOTH
 I have been changed for good

ELPHABA
 And just to clear the air
 I ask forgiveness
 For the things I've done you blame me for

GLINDA
 But then, I guess we know
 There's blame to share

BOTH
 And none of it seems to matter anymore

GLINDA ELPHABA
 Like a comet pulled Like a ship blown
 From orbit as it Off it's mooring
 Passes a sun, like By a wind off the
 A stream that meets Sea, like a seed
 A boulder, half-way Dropped by a
 Through the wood Bird in the wood

BOTH
 Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
 I do believe I have been changed for the better?

GLINDA
 And because I knew you:

ELPHABA
 Because I knew you:

BOTH
 Because I knew you:
 I have been changed for good.

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