Musicals and Other Shows

[Ming]

My friends and I really love the film versions of The Sound of Music and Les Miserables. When we were hiking earlier last week we kept singing the songs loud and horribly off tune. It was quite funny to hear the epic One Day More in the middle of a rainforest!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Sounds fun, Ming! My daughter and son enjoyed singing songs from Les Miserables while we were walking on the Great Orme in Llandudno.

[Rob Houghton]

so - Just counted my DVD's and videos (mostly DVD's) of musicals and I have 521 musicals from all eras (but I specialise in pre-1960 musicals). This includes Disney feature-length cartoons also, which are classed as musicals in my 'Hollywood Musical' book.

This is just musical DVD's - I have about 200 non musical classics and old movies too!

[number 6]

Blimey! That's some collection, Rob!

[Rob Houghton]

Lol, I'm just a old Hollywood Musicals bore!

One of my favourite musicals of all time is Footlight Parade (1933) - I love that era, and Busby Berkeley.

[Chrissie777]

My friends and I really love the film versions of The Sound of Music and Les Miserables. When we were hiking earlier last week we kept singing the songs loud and horribly off tune. It was quite funny to hear the epic One Day More in the middle of a rainforest!

My favorite scene from "Sound of Music" is Christopher Plummer singing "Edelweiss".

[Chrissie777]

Hello, does anyone here like musicals? If so, what's your favourite musical?Abi

I think it's "West Side Story" followed by "High Society" and "Pal Joey". But I also love the old Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire movies I grew up with.

[Machupicchu14]

I think the only ones I remember watching were The Sound of Music , Mary Poppins and one with Fred Astaire...

[Tony Summerfield]

You have got me on the numbers game now, Chrissie and Rob! I have been collecting programmes from London West End Musicals from the Second World War onwards - a bit too modern for the pair of you, but I have just counted up on my computer (too difficult with the actual programmes!) and I have 633. I am certainly missing some, but of course I go up to shows currently showing in London. I also have about 200 brochures.

When you said (in what is now another thread) that you had 6000 DVDs, Chrissie, I worked out that if you watched one every day it would take you 16 years to watch each one once! I was worried about the number of DVDs I have and how often I would be able to watch them, but the number is dwarfed by the pair of you - happy viewing!

[number 6]

Blimey! That's some collection, Rob!

Lol, I'm just a old Hollywood Musicals bore!

One of my favourite musicals of all time is Footlight Parade (1933) - I love that era, and Busby Berkeley.

I wouldn't say you're a musical bore, Rob! You like what you like & that's what it's all about!

[Rob Houghton]

You have got me on the numbers game now, Chrissie and Rob! I have been collecting programmes from London West End Musicals from the Second World War onwards - a bit too modern for the pair of you, but I have just counted up on my computer (too difficult with the actual programmes!) and I have 633. I am certainly missing some, but of course I go up to shows currently showing in London. I also have about 200 brochures.

I have loads of programmes, but not many from West End shows. They are either from musical shows from Birmingham Hippodrome or Alexandra Theatres, and many more from amateur theatres (we have several amateur groups in Birmingham, plus the group I belong to). Your collection sounds great, Tony!

[Chrissie777]

You have got me on the numbers game now, Chrissie and Rob! I have been collecting programmes from London West End Musicals from the Second World War onwards - a bit too modern for the pair of you, but I have just counted up on my computer (too difficult with the actual programmes!) and I have 633. I am certainly missing some, but of course I go up to shows currently showing in London. I also have about 200 brochures.

When you said (in what is now another thread) that you had 6000 DVDs, Chrissie, I worked out that if you watched one every day it would take you 16 years to watch each one once! I was worried about the number of DVDs I have and how often I would be able to watch them, but the number is dwarfed by the pair of you - happy viewing!

Tony, I watch indeed one movie almost every day on our multi-regional DVD player upstairs (it plays all my German, British and French DVD's) while Cody takes his nap around lunch time.
We are very limited to what we can actually watch downstairs as he barks at dogs on the screen as well as cats, horses, bears, squirrels...you name it.

I plan to watch 2 to 3 DVD's per day once André will retire (and then I'll hopefully have more time), one film with him and one or two films by myself while he plays golf. That would be over 700 DVD's per year, after 9 years we would have to start over again.
I'm planning to become at least 90 years old in order to make more time for reading books and watching movies.

On weekends like this past Thanksgiving weekend we usually watch 2 DVD's per day, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon (in-between we take care of useful things, of course).
If there's a remake, we watch the older version in the morning and the remake later in the day (we just finished watching "Lost Horizon" last night, a musical with Peter Finch, Michael York and Liv Ullmann), so we can compare both versions.
We also watch half or at least a third of a DVD almost every evening during the week...we certainly are movie buffs.
And we love watching the bonus features.

Have you been to many of these musicals? That's quite impressive to collect all those programmes.
André went to see "Wicked" and "Spamelot" (I think that was Monty Python?) when he worked for 11 months in Uxbridge near London in 2008/2009. He was so thrilled and told me all about it on Skype (that was before I joined him in Uxbridge).

My uncle who lives near Berlin, Germany, has a huge movie programme collection from US movies which were shown in the 1950's and 1960's in German movie theaters.
I started to collect them, too, but didn't get very far. But I have two books which contain hundreds of these film programmes printed on pages with the original text & pics.

Do you have a theater and can watch musicals in Salisbury, too?

[Anita Bensoussane]

Have you been to many of these musicals? That's quite impressive to collect all those programmes.

Tony has certainly seen one musical very recently, as I met up with him in London on Saturday to see Half a Sixpence at the Noel Coward Theatre! We got front row day seats for £20, which gave us a wonderful view of the action. 22-year-old Charlie Stemp was incredible as Arthur Kipps - he really sparkled and was always on the go, spinning and leaping with such finesse that he made it look effortless. He has been described by critics as a cross between Tommy Steele (who was the first Arthur Kipps in the stage and film versions) and Michael Crawford. I was also delighted to see Emma Williams again (as Helen Walsingham). We first saw her a while ago in Mrs. Henderson Presents (at the same theatre!) and she's got a beautiful voice. Half a Sixpence was originally designed to showcase the talents of Tommy Steele, and I always feel while watching the film that the structure of the story is somewhat awkward (I'm not sure how closely it follows the plot of the book on which it is based, Kipps by H. G. Wells). Some restructuring has been done for the current stage show and I think the story flows better.

Before wending our way to the theatre, Tony and I went to Vauxhall where we took a look at the MI6 building and then crossed Vauxhall Bridge to the Tate Britain where we saw paintings by Turner, Gainsborough, Constable, Canaletto, Stubbs, John Singer Sargent, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John William Waterhouse, Sir John Everett Millais and others. I managed to wander into the Turner Prize Gallery without paying (by accident - I hadn't noticed the man at the desk!) but Tony called to me to come out! I was happy enough to leave the modern stuff and return to the land of "proper paintings"!

Not long ago, we also saw the new musical of The Wind in the Willows at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton and it was sheer magic. It had melodic songs and gorgeous sets (the willow fronds hanging down reminded me of Val Biro's cover artwork for The Secret Island), and the way the various animals were portrayed was impressive. Toad was played by Rufus Hound. Badger's home was a delight - a dim, cosy hollow full of books stacked at all angles. It reminded me of Tony's Cave! Before the show we went to the SeaCity Museum where there's an interesting exhibition on the Titanic.

[Rob Houghton]

I agree about the structure of Half A Sixpence. I was in it way back in 2002 and I've always felt the plot meanders a little, especially after the two main characters get married. Flash Bang Wallop is a great number...but it almost feels like the show is over once that number is done with! The rest seems an anti-climax in some ways. I enjoyed being in it as a show though - our dancing was very energetic!

[Chrissie777]

Not long ago, we also saw the musical version of The Wind in the Willows at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton and it was sheer magic. It had melodic songs and gorgeous sets (the willow fronds hanging down reminded me of Val Biro's cover artwork for The Secret Island), and the way the various animals were portrayed was impressive. Toad was played by Rufus Hound. Badger's home was a delight - a dim, cosy hollow full of books stacked at all angles. It reminded me of Tony's Cave! Before the show we went to the SeaCity Museum where there's an interesting exhibition on the Titanic.

Anita, we've been to the Titanic exhibition, too, it was a few years ago. But I simply cannot remember where it was (in Europe or in Québec City?).

I wanted to add something to "The Wind in the Willows".
In a Cornwall travel guide I once read that Kenneth Grahame was friends with Cornish author Sir Arthur Quiller Couch from Fowey (whose daughter Foy was good friends with Daphne DuMaurier).
And on one of his visits Quiller Couch took Grahame to Lerryn Creek (this is a side "arm"/natural extension of the Fowey River which is actually no river at all, but an inlet with high tide and low tide).
They crossed the old stone bridge and walked along Lerryn Creek into the woods.
Supposedly these woods inspired Grahame to write "The Wind in the Willows".

In 1995 I crossed Lerryn Creek from the parking via stepping stones which are next to that stone bridge and walked through the woods all the way to St. Willow church and back.
Once I entered the woods, I noticed that it was low tide and the trees were hanging over the empty creek...it felt like an end time vision (don't know how to describe it in proper English words ).
Other than me there was nobody walking in the woods and the mood was kind of desolate/deserted, but I found it fascinating and actually enjoyed it.
Once I reached the end of Lerryn Creek and turned right to walk along Fowey River (away from Fowey), I could hear sheep cry on the other side of the river on a green hill (this was mid May) and a sail boat floated by. It was no longer deserted.