It's delightful, it's delicious, it's dlevy!
Powered by Disqus
I think many of us need a little bit of this today.
When they finally put the flame out
When your final tear’s been spilled
You can stand there portioning the blame out
Or begin at last to build…
1. Stephen Schwartz used to write great opening numbers. WTF happened with Wicked? (Wicked has a lot of lovely things in the score, but oy, that opening.)
2. Corbin Bleu could make a great Leading Player. Diane Paulus, are you listening?
The Godspell Cast of 2032. This is probably my favorite thing to happen on a Broadway stage this season. (I’m particularly enamored by the kid playing George Salazar’s role, but that might be because I think there’s something extra adorable about children dressed like hipsters.)
Missed the Tony noms in real time, so I will now tweet my reactions to the list, as published by Playbill: owl.li/aCQOh
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
Best Play noms all seem appropriate to me. I can only understand Leap of Faith’s nom as a fuck you to Ghost, or a gift to @mrtylermartins.
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
Is Evita really a better revival than Godspell?
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
Controversial opinion: I would vote for One Man, Two Guvnors for Best Score.
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
The Best Actor in a Play category is like an amazingly demented game of F/M/K. I need to see a lot of plays in the next month.
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
Not sure who I’d bet on for Best Actor in a Musical, but I think Ron Raines is safe not writing a speech.
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
I haven’t seen all the Best Actress/Musical nominees, but based on first out of town preview of P&B I’d give @AudraEqualityMc all the Tonys.
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
DEAR GODS OF THEATER PLEASE LET ANDREW GARFIELD AND REEVE CARNEY DO A SPIDERMAN BIT AT THE TONY AWARDS INVOLVING UPSIDE DOWN KISSING
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
Also Phillip Boykin. (Meaning he should get a Tony Award, not an upside-down kiss from Reeve Carney. Well, maybe that too.)
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
Best Featured Actress in a Musical should be renamed Best Featured Actresses in Roles/Shows Clearly Beneath Their Talents.
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
Peter and the Starcatchers got a design nod? Isn’t it a bare stage and a piece of rope?
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
If Bob Crowley doesn’t win for design of a musical then we are doomed to a decade of Broadway shows that look like videogame acid trips.
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
Godspell didn’t get a single nomination? WTF Tony Awards? You really thought Spiderman and Ghost and Leap of Faith were more worthy? FEH
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
Seriously I think it’s a shame that @solidgoldstein wasn’t recognized for his work on @BwayGodspell.
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
Also, if Bernie Peters can get a fake Tony as an apology for not getting an acting nom, can’t we recognize the ensemble of @BwayGodspell?
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
<END OF TONY RANT>
— David Levy (@itsdlevy) May 1, 2012
The Broadway production of Godspell has created a DVD-like commentary for their production, which is being released for free over the course of ten weeks on Soundcloud. I haven’t listened yet, but what a great idea!
ETA: The Soundcloud embed doesn’t seem to be working, but you can listen to the commentary on the Godspell website.
Eric McCormack (Will from Will & Grace) saw Godspell this week, so naturally he was pulled on stage for one of the audience participation bits.
And in case you aren’t familiar with the dorky original version of “Beautiful City” from the film version of Godspell, here ‘tis.
I suppose if I’m going to talk about the high-energy, Dave-Matthews-inspired rendition of “Beautiful City” from the 2001 touring version of Godspell (directed by Scott Schwartz), I should share it so you all know what I’m talking about, right?
This reminded me that I wrote about “Beautiful City” as part of a series on “Social Justice Showtunes” for Jewschool.com in 2009.
Since many of my friends were at Lincoln Center for Laura Benanti’s American Songbook concert while I was at Circle in the Square for Godspell, here’s Laura singing my favorite song from Godspell: Beautiful City. Uptempo. As God intended it to be.
I love this song as a ballad AND uptempo.
But sometimes when I try to do it as a ballad Hunter-style people get confused.
I mean… I’ve never seen Godspell, and I love me some Laura Benanti, but i like Hunter-style ballad better. It feels more right to me, because the feeling seems more genuine to me in that style.
Are you implying that emotions can only be genuine in ballad form?
The song as originally conceived is about the high we get when we work together to do good things in the world! When performed well in its original meter (although not with the rather treacly original lyrics), the song can pump you up so you want to jump up and go volunteer for Habitat for Humanity to start building that beautiful city right away. If you feel a lack of sincerity of emotion in this track, that’s fine, but blame the singer, not the tempo.
(I suppose it’s worth noting that Stephen Schwartz prefers the song as a ballad. But the one thing I liked best about Scott Schwartz’s production, or at least its cast album, was the high-energy, Dave Matthews-inspired take on this song as an Act II opener.)
(via thesubtlegatsby)
