31 Days of Halloween #12

I really hope that people enjoyed my last post (about Five Nights at Freddy's), because in the spirit of the game, this is part 2 in a mini-series of FNAF posts.  Think of this as Day 2 of Five Nights.

Day 12: Five Nights at Freddy's (Day 2)

 

I want to preface this by saying it was not my intention at the outset to do a FNAF series for 31 Days of Halloween.  But, I decided to do it for a couple reasons.  1.) I've just been too busy to put together a good list of ideas, so 2.) I'm running out of topics for posts, and 3.) I've become somewhat obsessed with FNAF since I started looking up videos for the last post.

Anyways, our topic this time around is going to be based on the FNAF musical.  This was put out by the creative minds at Random Encounters, with a little help from my man Markiplier (the King of Five Nights at Freddy's).

Just a quick disclaimer: if you've not played Five Nights, you might not get a lot of the references included.  So, I'll try to sum a few things up.

• In the game, you play the nightguard who receives increasingly creepy and cryptic messages from "phone guy" who tells you what to what out for and how some others have not fared so well at this job.
• The animatronics come to life and they think you're a endoskeleton (the metal frame that makes up the animatronics) without your costume on, so that's why they try to stuff you into a costume.
• "Purple Guy" is a murderer who killed some children and stuffed their bodies into the animatronics, which is why they are now so bloodthirsty.

Okay, so that should be enough to get you started.  If you want more information, be sure to check out the FNAF Wiki here.

Finally, the musical is going to be in five parts (for the five nights), but Random Encounters has only finished parts 1-3 as of right now.  So, if you like what you see, stay tuned for more :)

Stay scary, my friends :)

Trouble in River City

I've had this song stuck in my head for the past day or so....I think I need to get my hands on a copy of The Music Man.

Jérome Pradon : "Seul devant ces tables vides"

I love Les Misérables! In fact, it might actually be my favorite musical (up in my Top 3 at the very least, with Frankenstein and The Phantom of the Opera). I also love Jérome Pradon, ever since I saw him in Jesus Christ Superstar (2000). Besides enjoying the film far more than the original 1973 version (I thought it was dreadful), I was captivated by the balding French actor with the piercing dark eyes playing the role of Judas. If you haven’t guessed it already, that was Jérome! Anyway, while I was surfing around on YouTube, I came across this beautiful rendition of Seul devant ces tables vides (Empty Chairs at Empty Tables in the English version) from Les Misérables. And, of course, to make it even sweeter, Jérome Pradon was the singer!

I’ve been listening to this song repeatedly…..Although I get frustrated when I can’t understand the lyrics to a song, because it’s in a foreign language, I have to admit that I LOVE listening to familiar songs in other languages (especially from musicals). I already know what is being said, and it just sounds so beautiful! And it’s even better when the song is from something like Les Misérables, where the character is actually singing it in his/her own language. In this case, the character Marius (here played by Pradon), is singing in French, so this is what the song would have sounded like if he were actually singing. Of course, I love Michael Ball’s English rendition of Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, and that’s the version I usually listen to, but there is something wonderful about this one…the combination of the authentic language (in this case French), mingled with Jérome Pradon’s awesome vocals is just perfect! I’ve added the video below; please, watch and enjoy :)

For those of you who are not familiar with the plot of Les Misérables, I’m afraid there is no short way to give an explanation of the story. There is so much going on that this would be a freakishly long post, and then by the time you got to the video clip, you’d want to do something else….So I’ll be brief. In this scene, Marius, a young soldier in the Student’s Revolution, sits in an empty café, contemplating life. All of his friends died in the barricades, as they were shot at by the French soldiers. Marius survives after he is saved by Jean Valjean, the father of the girl he loves. Marius thinks about the “empty chairs at empty tables” where he used to meet with his friends and discuss their revolution; he wonders why he was the one to live if all the others had died, and if they even made a difference. It’s a very powerful, haunting song.

Did Any of You Watch "The Office" Tonight?

I normally don't watch The Office, but my family does, and they told me that this episode was going to feature the musical Sweeney Todd, which is an opportunity I couldn't bear to pass up! I just adore the musical, although I haven't seen the Tim Burton movie version. Personally, I'm a huge fan of the George Hearn/Patti Lupone duet.

So....Sweeney Todd on The Office....It. Was. Amazing! I loved it! For all you Office fans who missed it, Andy was playing Anthony the sailor who Sweeney befriends early on in the play. He did a wonderful job! I was so impressed :) I wish they would have shown more of the play, but obviously, with time constraints (its only a half hour show) and such, they did the best they could. I was very impressed with the quality of the music. For such a small portion of a musical, they really gave it a lot of effort, and the result was chilling and wonderful, just like Sweeney should be.

For those of you who have not seen Sweeney Todd yet, I highly recommend it. However, I would advise against the Tim Burton version unless you are a hard-core fan of the musical. (Its very dark, very bloody, and they take out almost all the humor from many of the songs). As I said before, the best version is the one with George Hearn and Patty Lupone, which you can find on Youtube, although its also available on DVD (Sweeney Todd in Concert).

And a quick synopsis.....

Sweeney Todd is the dark story of a man seeking revenge. After he is wrongly imprisoned for life by a corrupt judge who wishes to seduce his wife, Benjamin Barker returns to London under a new name: Sweeney Todd. He joins forces with a pie maker, Mrs. Lovett to kill all those who wronged him. Sweeney, a barber, slits the throats of his victims while shaving them, while Mrs. Lovett turns the bodies into meat pies to hide the evidence. Gruesome, yes, but also amazing. The music is fabulous and the plot starts to blur the lines between hero and villain. This musical is actually based off a true story about a madman who killed people to be made into pies (although there is no love and revenge in the true story; just murder and meat pies).

Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical

I'm sure most of you remember my thrilled reviews of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from back in June when I finished reading the book for the first time. Right after I had finished it, I went to the library and requested the musical Jekyll and Hyde both on CD and on DVD. The CD came in very quickly, and I listened to it several times before returning it. The movie, however, just came in about a week ago! I wasn't sure if I was really interested in watching it, especially since my little "Hyde high" had worn off, but I thought it might be interesting, so I put the DVD into my computer and started watching it yesterday, and finished it today. (It's a very long movie...over two hours!)

I loved it! I was totally mesmerized by the music, the storyline, the songs, the characters, the costumes... It was a wonderful production, and so different from the classic story Robert Louis Stevenson had written. There is so much I could talk about, but I don't want to bog down this post with a long and detailed description of what happens...the experience is much more rewarding if you were to check it out yourselves ;)

But, I will say this: the cast was amazing! Just a quick bit of clarification, though...I am not a Hassehoff fan. When I discovered he would be playing the doctor and Mr. Hyde, I will admit that I was hesitant to watch. I've seen all the crap he's been up to on the news, and I really wasn't interested in seeing the drunkard/druggie Hasselhoff on stage. I was sooo wrong! Hasselhoff's performance was AMAZING! Jekyll was pitiable and depressing, the emotion so raw at times that you just wanted to cry. And his Hyde could only be described as demonic. He truly captured the duality that the characters were supposed to maintain. Kudos!

Coleen Sexton, Andrea Rivette, George Merritt, and Barrie Ingham were all amazing as their respective roles of Lucy Harris, Emma Carew, Mr. Utterson, and Sir Danvers Carew. The four of them provided a wonderful supporting cast, and each one captured their characters and brought new light and life to them.

As for complaints, I have very few. I was disheartened that some of the songs I enjoyed had been removed from this production (although, probably in the interest of time), and I was a little confused by some of the remaining songs' rewordings. Also, I was a bit surprised that the leading lady Emma Carew had her name changed. In most productions, her name is actually "Lisa," not "Emma". Finally, I thought that Hasselhoff, while putting on an amazing performance, tended to get a tiny bit over dramatic. Especially at transformation scenes.

The Toxic Avenger: The Musical

As I was randomly flipping through library CDs, I found The Toxic Avenger, and spent about ten minutes trying to decide if I wanted to check it out or not, and finally realizing that it would be okay to try it. Umm...yeah...I think I might have made the wrong choice.

First of all, please let me say that I had no idea this was based off a movie. Looking it up later, it sounds like a really weird movie at that. Actually, I had originally thought that The Toxic Avenger: The Musical would be something similar to Little Shop of Horrors: a slightly nerdy/awkward/down on his luck young man falls in love with a pretty girl, finds himself unable to win her, but with the sudden appearance of something that is both a blessing and a curse, is able to win her heart, but destroys himself in the process. You know, a dark, depressing romance story of sorts.

The Toxic Avenger is a little different. Melvin Ferd III is an earth scientist investigating global warming. When he finds out that the Mayor is supporting toxic waste dumps that leave vats of the crap all over the city, he confronts her about it, only to have her henchmen throw him into the toxic waste and leave him for dead. He comes out as a giant mutant monster and rips people apart.

The lead female is blind, which is good for the hideous Melvin, but I also found her to be a very shallow and vain sort of person. She loves the attention she gets from dating "Toxie," who is now a local hero, but when she learns he's leaving the town, she asks to feel his face and breaks up with him because of his new deformities. She also attempts to sell her story as a memoir so that she can get on Oprah.

The cast is very small, and it makes for some weird characters, as many of the female characters are played by men. I'm used to cross-dressing in theatre, but this just gets weird.

All in all, not really a fan, although I will admit that the premise was interesting (just not for a musical--maybe a late night horror film) and some of the songs were pretty good. Still, I would not check it out again.

Frankenstein the Musical

Finally! I've found a wonderful musical that has everything! The music is amazing, the lyrics are perfect, the plot is suspenseful, and the perfect cast has been selected! Hunter Foster plays the doomed Dr. Frankenstein, Christine Noll plays his beloved Elizabeth, and Steve Blanchard is the Creature. The musical is a powerful production and a faithful retelling of the classic story. It transports you through tender love scenes, hard-wrenching deaths, and the painful circumstances that unite a man and a monster that is destined to ruin his life. I cannot recommend this highly enough! I'd have to say that of the three musicals I have recently reviewed on my blog, this is by far the best!

Coraline: The Musical

As a had mentioned in my post about Spring Awakening, I've checked out several CDs at the library...and the second on my list is Coraline: The Musical. I am a huge fan of Neil Gaiman's work. I can't get enough of his short stories, and I personally loved his novel Coraline. So far, though, I haven't seen the movie, but I've read the graphic novel (creepy, but also wonderful). So, when I saw the musical at the library, I thought it might be fun to listen to.

I'm disappointed :( The music is creepy, but the lyrics are all rather mundane. They don't have any depth, and the overall impression I got from them is that they had nothing better to write songs about, so they wrote about electric green gloves or being a cat. But, even then, they couldn't make it exciting.

The casting was strange as well, with Mrs. Forcible sounding rather like a man, while the Other Mother actually was a man. And, the eleven-year-old protagonist Coraline was played by a woman in her fifties, which didn't make any sense to me at all. :S

Spring Awakening

I just finished listening to the musical Spring Awakening today. For those of you who don't know, I'm a HUGE Broadway fanatic. I just love listening to the music. But, anyway, this is one I didn't think I would actually check out. I mean, it just never really appealed to me. A couple of people had been pushing for me to check it out, but I finally decided to when I happened to stumble upon it at the library. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but I found several CDs, to try out, and of course, this is going to be the first of several Musical Reviews :P

First of all, the music is amazing! I mean, I can't believe how amazing the music sounds. Its wonderful! The storyline, however, is a bit tense and controversial. And the lyrics are very intense. If you're offended by a lot of swearing, I would advise you to pick up a different CD.

All in all, I think its a wonderful musical, and I would highly recommend it. :)