Friday, June 30, 2006

Now you know what's out there in the world

In my CD rotation over the last few days I've been working through all the Sondheim I own, which really only consists of Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, and Into the Woods. It's interesting to note that the least depressing of those shows is the one about the homicidal barber who kills people and has them baked into meat pies. Maybe it's because so many of the numbers in that show express some sort of joy, be it love of all sorts ("Johanna," "Pretty Women," "My Friends"*), or finding that your homicidal urges will provide a monetary windfall, or even that human flesh is effin' delicious.

Meanwhile in the other two shows you've got betrayal, longing, broken friendships, deaths of wives and children, characters waking up to find that they've wasted their entire lives... all happening right there on stage!'

Seriously, those shows are a BUMMER.



*This remains the most beautiful song ever sung to a set of straight razors.

1 Comments:

Blogger chris said...

umm, and i sincerely hope the *only* song ever sung to a set of straight razors...

pretty much everything you said in the post is spot-on, though. damn, i miss theatre. it's just not the same in french.

i mean, can you imagine "a little priest" in french? that's not funny, that's just terrifying natural... the whole damn play would turn into the bedlam scene. people would be seriously traumatized.

okay, i've convinced myself. for that reason alone, we pretty much have to do it. rally the troops, and teach them french. i'll be waiting for you here.

{c}

11:57 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home