Courtesy of NotShyChiRev...

1. Describe the last play or musical you saw. (At least provide the what, when, where, and why). What was your opinion of it?

That would be Spamalot at the National Theater a month or so ago. Mamala bought us really good tickets because, well, we needed it! I LOVED it. Funny and irreverent. My face hurt from smiling and laughing, although I enjoyed most of the new bits more than the ones recycled from the movie. Most of the players looked a heckuva lot like the Monty Python actors, AND were really good, which made me realize just how many talented actors there are out there that they could find good people who also looked exactly the part.

I also realized that for people like me who can take life way too seriously, "silly" is a ministry.


2. All time favorite play? Musical?

Hmm. I don't know if I have a favorite play, but my all-time favorite musical is Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim, followed by Les Miserables. I also like Rent a great deal. Lots of earworms in that show, but also some really clever music, IMO.


3. “The Producers,” “The Philadelphia Story,” “Hairspray,” “The Wedding Singer”…all were movies before they were musicals (okay “The Philadelphia Story” was a play and then a movie, and they changed its name when it became a musical, but whatever). What non-musical movie do you think should next get the musical treatment?

I wonder whether they'll do something with Harry Potter? I must admit I'm not sure how I feel about this.


4. Favorite song from a musical? Why?

What?!? I can't pick just one!

"Happiness" from Sondheim's Passion - so atonal and lovely and creepy

"No One is Alone" from Into the Woods - I adore that whole show

pretty much anything from The Sound of Music - Chris Plummer said the movie was "like being bludgeoned to death with a Hallmark card," but it's got lovely music

"I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Mis - so overblown and tragic, that's what musical theater is about eh?


5. The most recent trend in Broadway musical revues is to construct a show around the oeuvre of a particular super-group or composer, where existing songs are woven together with some kind of through story. The most successful of these (“Jersey Boys” (The Four Seasons), “Mamma Mia” (ABBA), “Movin’ Out” (Billy Joel)) have made a mint, but many (“All Shook Up” (Elvis), “Hot Feet” (Earth, Wind and Fire)) have bombed. What great pop/rock singer/composer or super-group should be the next to be featured, and what might the story-line be for such a show?

Slightly related to this: the Indigo Girls collaborated with the Atlanta Ballet a few years back for a very interesting show that combined the Girls playing live on stage with modern dancers. I really enjoyed it. They just had a few performances.

I think U2 would be an interesting choice with some sort of spiritual quest story. (Predicting Dickie Cronkite's appalled response even now)

Bonus question for singer/actors. Favorite part you’ve ever played/sung.

I was the Baker's Wife in Woods. That is such a great part. Joanna Gleason played her on B'way and pulled an upset, beating out Bernadette Peters for the Tony award.