5 On Friday - Showstoppers

Travis of Trav's Thoughts has invented this delightful once a week meme.  For full instructions and to sign in so we can all visit you, just click on the link.

This week I'm off to Broadway for some of my favorite songs from newer musicals

First up, the bittersweet and funny song from a Girl Friday who's always the friend with benefits not the romantic object of someone's affections.



Kate Monster isn't doing all that well either in Avenue Q and here she is with her song of unrequited love.



Now Evelyn Nesbitt in Ragtime was getting plenty of love ... Maybe a little too much since her husband shot her lover leading to "The Crime of the Century"



Will Rogers was so well loved that Oklahoma nominated him for President as their "Favorite Son". Here is the rousing number from The Will Rogers Follies - Plus a great piece of choreography where no one is on their feet




Finally a song about gossip, machinations, and everyone chasing all the wrong someones with "A weekend In The Country" from "A Little Night Music".



Since the subject has been love, here is the cast of Rent closing it off with all the ways to measure the Seasons of Love

Five For Friday - The Song That Goes Like This

My buddy Travis over at Trav's Thoughts has created a meme involving a selection of five songs.  For complete instructions, please visit his website.

Every successful musical whether in motion pictures or on Broadway always has at least one song that everyone remembers.  It will stick with you long after the evening is over.  It is the song that makes you cry, moves the action along, brings the lovers together, or gets whistled on your way home.  My submisstion for this week's "Five On Friday" is a collection of those songs.

If you have seen Les Miserables, can you still see the image of Jean Valjean carrying Marius in his arms while begging God for the life of the young man he thinks of as a son. - Did you tear up during "Bring Him Home"?

If you have seen Rent, will you ever again forget that there are five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes in a year? 

You may not have had the pleasure of seeing Sunset Boulevard for the simple reason that the idiotic powers that be haven't gotten around to making the freaking movie and everyone doesn't live on top of a great theater venue!!!!!  (Can you tell I'm pissed?).  I know the story and have played the soundtrack into the ground .... grumble, grumble @$#@^  Anyway there are three major numbers in the show:  With One Look, As If We Never Said Goodbye, and Sunset Boulevard.  I really wanted With One Look because it tells of the almost mad Norma's remembrance of a silent star's powers to bring magic in the dark with only her eyes.  Click on the link to You Tube to watch Glenn Close knock it out of the park.   The player didn't have it so I opted for "Sunset Boulevard" where Joe Gillis justifies his use of Norma for money and connections. 

The plot turning point in Carousel is the Act I closing number where Billy Bigelow first muses in "Soliloquey" about the delights of having a son and then decides he has to have money to raise a girl.  This sets up the rest of the musical as that decision leads to a crime and his death in Act II.

Now you know the comedians couldn't leave alone this time honored tradition of the memorable song without making fun of the practice.  Who better to put a pin into an overly important musical balloon than Monty Python and the cast of Spamalot.  So here you have "The Song That Goes Like This".

Today In History

Today is fun because there is both an old and new music sample. In 1896 Puccini's opera "La Boheme" premiered in Turin, Italy.



And then along came "RENT"



Have a great Sunday