Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Back to the Future

I don't have super strong feelings about this show. I listened to the London soundtrack an enjoyed a few of the new numbers (most everything George does in the show is excellent, most everything Dr. Scott does is not so great), but feel mostly mediocre about the show. I will say, the folks I know who have seen it say it's pretty fun, mostly because of the production value and the nostalgia (to quote my sister, "It's a great show for dads") which doesn't necessarily always lend itself to a parade performance, but I was still excited. Partially because I do enjoy Roger Bart and I'm proud of Casey Likes (a Jimmy Award kid) for his second Broadway lead in somewhat disappointing jukebox adjacent musicals.

For one thing, they really kept us waiting for this one. Instead of stacking all the performances at the beginning, they really strung this one along, but it finally came. I was banking on them doing Power of Love (their goto), but instead they did a medley of songs to feature their two stars, which is good...unfortunately, I don't really care for either of the songs. "It Works" has never been as funny as it wants to be for me and "Back In Time" does still kind of belong as credits music in my opinion. The show also does loose a little without all the scenic and lighting effects, so this might not be the best showcase of what they do, but they seemed to be having a good time, so I guess that's an ok way to end this year's parade.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Shucked

I think Shucked is very fun. I enjoy the silly shows, I like how clever the jokes are, and there are moments that are legitimately heartfelt. I know this show is closing soon, which is fair, but kind of sad. For that reason, I'm a little suprised that it's performing, but not dissapointed. I really hope this show gets a solid end of its run and I'm excited to see all the regional productions that are coming, and I'm excited that they got to perform here!

I'll be honest, I was a little worried when floats and bands started crossing before the Broadway performances were done. I was stressed that I had heard it wrong or maybe we weren't atually going to get Shucked. But then, when I heard that music while seeing "The JGG" behind them, I got super excited! And truly, that opening was inspired. If any show was going to sell out and be a comercial, this is a great show to do it. I loved the original jokes/lyrics at the beginning (It's no Beetlejuice, but it's a astart), I liked the medley of song choices, I like the topical food related content, across the board, this is my favorite performance yet. Good work team.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: How to Dance in Ohio

I AM SO PSYCHED FOR THIS SHOW!!! Evertyhing I've heard about it is amazing. I love the music, the message, the story, everything about this show is perfect. I've been gobbling up every piece of media about this show to come out and so I was really excited for this performance

I'll be honest, I was nervous at the beginning. While I do enjoy "Getting Ready for the Dance" I really wanted to see the kids. That being said, the Macy's joke was a good one, and so I'll forgive it. The finale is a song I haven't heard yet, but it does reprise Building Momentum which is a VERY GOOD song (streaming on spotify and YouTube now). While the dance break was a little underwhelming, I think it did a good song of showcasing these excellent characters and performers, which is what the show is about, so I think that's a fine thing for this performance to be about. This show has a lot of heart and I think that came through in this performance. I'm just so exited for these kids making their broadway debut and so excited for this show to be put out into the world.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Spamalot

There's probably an argument to be made that we don't need another Spamalot revival. It's not been too long since the last one and this new revival isn't trying to do anything different or new with the material. It's just the same show with a new generation of comic geniuses, but there's something kind of fun in that. To see the shoes once filled by Tim Curry, Christian Borle and David Hyde Pierce now filled by folks like James Monroe Iggleheart, Ethan Slater, and Michael Urie is kind of fun (also, in Chris Sieber's role is Nik Walker, who I've been following since he was in highschool, so that's fun for me). I don't think it'll run forever, but it's fun and fun for now, and I hadn't seen any full song yet, so I was excited for this performance.

This performance was exactly what I thought it would be, which was a vaguely goood time. Nothing to change the world, but something to bring the new world to. The people are funny, the song is a classic, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. It was a good reminder to us all that even with a pro like Leslie Kritzer, trying to lip-sync scatting is hard.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: & Juliet

We all know that Jukebox musicals aren't really my thing, and honestly, pop music often isn't either, so by all accounts and purposes, & Juliet maybe doesnt make sense to be something I enjoy, but if we're being honest, this show is a ton of fun, and I enjoy most of their performances. I like the shakespeare of it all, I like most of the cast, I like the dance style, it's all just a blast, so I was pretty excited for this performance and think it's a great choice to start off this year's performances.

I was excited by the song choice. I hadn't seen this one performed before and I do like this song on the soundtrack. That being said, I was a tad underwhelmed by this performance. The choreography was excellent as always, but seemed a little small for the stage. And the song kind of falls into the trap many pop jukebox musicals fall into, which is that it doesn't really build or do anything, you just kind of repeat the chorus over and over again. This song has the potential to include an arc with Francois's character, but I thought his performance was a little understated. So, I don't know, everything was fine, and I still think the show would be fun for most asual broadway audiences to see, but this particular performance was a little lower energy than I might have hoped...

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.