Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Six

I don't expect there's anyone who stumbles onto this blog who hasn't already heard my take on Six the musical, but I don't have anything else to say about it so here it is again. The music: Spectacular. Catchy melodies, witty lyrics, fun takes, truly excellently written songs with very few "skip tracks." That being said, does it belong on Broadway? No, no it does not. It deserves to win the fringe festival it was written for, it deserves to have a great run on a cruise ship or in a theme park, and I don't even hate the idea of it touring in the way that concerts tour. But nobody will ever convince me that it has a place on Broadway. Thank you for coming (back) to my Ted Talk.

As for what I have to say about this performance, you can basically just read last year's post. They sang the same medly, about half of the women were new and that was fun I suppose, and they all continue to be very talented ladies singing a very good song. If anyone hasn't seen this show yet, this song will give them a great idea of what to expect and I know that's what these performances are meant to do. But for those of us who have seen any of their promotional performances already...it's nothing revolutionary.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Moulin Rouge

Ok, coming at you later on Thanksgiving to talk to you about the CBS performances. It took me a while to realize these existed and they still don't have the fun and nostalgia of the NBC, Macy's Square performances, but I do have to admit that sometimes they give pretty good performances. I'm pleased with how often they show us a new song and it's fun to sometimes see the new casts of shows that have been running for a while. Both were the case with this year's Moulin Rouge performance. I've been somewhat vocal about how I think Moulin Rouge is, like, fine I guess, but not worth the hype that it's gotten. Nonetheless, I was excited to see Derek Klena & Ashley Loren's take on the roles and thought it was great that they did a (somewhat) new song that wasn't Diamonds or Come What May.

I have to say that this was one of my favorite sequences in the original movie and I don't know that the update added anything necessarily, but I get why they wanted to flesh it out to fit with the vibe of the rest of the show. The new songs mashed in are fine and all in all it's still a strong number. I was a bit taken aback by how different Derek Klena's voice sounds to Aaron Tveits (and Ewan McGregor if we're being honest). I think he's technically still a tenor but his voice has this deeper, fuller quality that makes him sound older than Aaron, despite looking younger, so that was a bit jarring I think. Nonetheless, I thought Ashley was excellent and the song was fine. The staging wasn't super exciting, watching this didn't make me any more inclined to see the show live, but I did appreciate this reminder that the cast is wonderfully talented and the show is what it is, and has it's place, and I don't have to go too near that place.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: A Beautiful Noise

I've been hearing a lot about this show for a long time because it's produced by Mr. Ken Davenport who has an excellent (although, I admit, increasingly less excellent) blog about all of his theatrical goings on. Personally, I could not be less interested in a Niel Diamond Jukebox musical, but but when it was announced, my dad, mom, and grandma all perked up a little, which I guess was entirely the point.

The performance was underwhelming for me. The costumings were relatively uninspired, the dancing honestly seemed a little sloppy to me, and Will Swenson was doing his best strutting around pretending to play the guitar, but it didn't quite capture my attention entirely. That being said, if history holds, it'll be marvelously successful, Will swenson will win the Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, and it will sell out to tourists for years to come. And I guess, good for them?

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Some Like It Hot

I'll be honest, I was worried about this show. Like many folks, I'm not a huge fan of the recent trend of taking my favorite comedic broadway actors in dresses to be laughed at (looking at you rob McClure & Santino Fontana), so I was a little worried about Christain Borle joining their ranks. However, everything I've heard says that this show is pretty good. The book is updated and the songs are catchy and the cast is doing a great job! I still don't anticipate it being my favorite show of the season, but I'm excited for what it does have to offer and was glad to see a number from it!

I'll be honest, I'm bummed that Mr. Borle wasn't present for this performance (not entirely sure why), but the rest of the cast did great! Loved the tappin', enjoyed the singing, and thought the whole vibe was pretty good. I guess I was expecting something a little...wackier from this show? This was super classy and super classic, but maybe that was intentional and is the branding they're loking for? It's not necessarily something that would draw me to the show, but I suppose the target audience would be people who are familiar with the movie and this would get them interested. So, not for me necessarily, but I suppose good on them.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade: The Lion King

With the recent announcement of The Phantom of the Opera closing on Broadway, it's started some confversation about what the next longest running show on Broadway will be. And while I think the Chicago revival currently still holds the next top slot, myself and many others are hoping that closes soon enough to give Lion King the honor, one that i think will be entirely deserved. This is truly one of the most gorgeous and quintessentially theatrical shows to ever grace the Great White Way and I appreciate every opportunity to remind the world of that.

Was it a great performance? Yeah, you bet it was! Almost every member of my family watching this said out loud, "man, I forgot how good this is and I'd love to see this again." The visuals are gorgeous, the sound is heavenly, and every performer was completely on point. I was a bit dissapointed that they kept cutting to children in the audience, but I suppose there's something to be said for it because it was cool to see the agape faces. All in all, I'm inclined to say this performance wasn't anything revolutionary, becuase they've been doing it for 25 years, but in some ways, it still kind of is.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Funny Girl

So when they announced that Funny Girl was performing on the parade, we all knew that they'd have to do this song. It's the most famous song in the show, and one of the few parade specific songs in the broadway canon, so it just makes sense. And like, objectively, I suppose it was a pretty good performance and a pretty good opening to the parade. In some ways it feels like it barely counts as a Broadway performance, because I wouldn't be surprised if, in some previous parade, they just got a different celebrity (or maybe just Lea Michele) to sing this song without a dancing ensemble behind her. But nonetheless, they did it.

I'm going to stay out of the conversation about Lea Michele in the role (if anyone's interested, you can read someone else's thoughts on it here). But I will say that she sang it well, and I appreciate them using the ensemble to spice it up at least a little. It didn't make me want to see the show any more, but I suppose it probably was the best they could've done.