The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Peter Pan

NBC learned from their mistakes last year and this year gave the perfect Thanksgiving Performance!  They used their whole ensemble (which, in case you couldn't tell, is largely comprised of Newsies alumni), they used super recognizable songs, they did big dance numbers, and it was just so darn fun!  I loved both songs they chose!  The Pirate song was exactly what it should be (and Christian "Bor-ell"'s wig though!) and the Lost Boy's song was dynamic, entertaining, and just plain fun!  It made me remember how much I actually do enjoy Peter Pan (although it's not my favorite adaptation of the story) and how excited I am for the live showing.  All in all, wonderful choices, wonderful performance, and *fingers crossed* It's going to be a wonderful show next week.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: The Last Ship

To be perfectly honest, this has been my favorite performance thus far, which is surprising because, in general, I don't like this show as much as I like "Gentleman's Guide", "On the Town", etc.  But they did it right. They chose a GOOD song that utilized the entire cast, was really catchy, and showed a lot of the themes of the show (i.e. drunken Scottish shipbuilders).  While I'll admit that a lot of the lyrics were repetitive and the dancing was a little adelescent, I still thoroughly enjoyed the performance, I liked the choice, it definitely made me want to finally look into the show (I've been meaning to for forever).  While "Sting" isn't a big draw for me, he hasn't been the determent that I thought he might be *cough U2 cough*.  All in all, really great performance!

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Side Show

I thought Side Show's performance was nice.  It wasn't the best, and, I'm not going to lie, it was a little underwhelming.  I'd seen the pictures of the entire cast and they look pretty epic and I was looking forward to a "Magic to Do" level epic ensemble song....and that just kind of didn't happen.  That being said, once I got past that disappointment, I was able to enjoy the song.  It was a good choice in that it showed the central selling point of the show (how they handle the conjoined twins thing) and the song was kind of catchy.  It didn't necessarily make me want to learn more about the show, but, as it happens, I want to know more about the show anyway...so I will look it up, and I look forward to seeing how this song fit in context.  For while I don't love the choice, it was a great cast, a great performance, and I've been told, it's a really great show!

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: A Gentlemans' Guide to Love and Murder

I really enjoyed the performance of "A Gentleman's Guide" in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  It reminded me of their Tony Award performance....and their Today show performance...and their performance on the View......and pretty much EVERY TIME THEY EVER HAVE TO PERFORM A SONG ANYWHERE EVER.  Look, it's a nice song, and I enjoy it, but it should NOT have been performed today.  First of all, we've all seen it thousands of times.  Secondly, it's a tough song to lip-sing and you could kind of tell.  And finally THEY AGAIN NEGLECTED TO SHOW US A SONG WITH JEFFERSON MAYS!  So sure, the song is ok, but I'm disappointment in the producers for putting it on again.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Honeymoon in Vegas

The second performance of the morning was Jason Robert Brown's new musical Honeymoon in Vegas.  This is a show that I've been vaguely excited about since it was announced (but not enough to do a lot of research) so I was familiar with the cast and the plot-line, but hadn't heard very much of the actual music before.  That being said, I thought the song was a nice one.  Personally, I would've liked for them to choose a more "Rob McClure-centric" song (that guy is HILARIOUS and needs to be featured every time he's even in the room).  That being said, a good rule of thumb is that on the parade you need to do a song that's indicative of the show, features the whole cast, and is "dancy".  And since this followed all of those rules, so I can't really complain.  The performance itself was cheesy, but that's what the show is, so that's what it should've been.  All in all, I enjoyed it, and it did make me want to learn more about the show.  Which, really is the goal!  Well done Honeymoon in Vegas :)

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: On the Town

They tricked us.  The Broadway performances started super early this year as the very first seconds were filled by the cast of On The Town.  While this threw me off and I was plugging in my computer and running around getting things set up during the performance, I have to admit that this is a stellar idea!  I mean, sure I've seen plenty of "semi-immersive" versions of On the Town this year, but for people who haven't been following the show it was a great hook!  Granted, I am starting to worry that there is only one song in On The Town, because I literally have only heard this song played on every single promotional event.  However, it is in fact a good song, they did a good job with the dancing, and they were smart with the way they integrated it into the parade.  It wasn't super informative for me (who's seen it all before), but I'm hoping it caught they eye of enough other people to maybe make them come see the show.