Promises, Promises

Okay so it's not really a holiday musical but it does have the song Turkey Lurkey Time.

Billy Wilder's The Apartment and the musical adaptation Promises, Promises fall into the genre of dark romantic comedy. It's boy meets girl with a villain in the way but this time the boy is self loathing and the girl is suicidal. The corporate setting makes it a creepy cousin to the peppier How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. 

The brittle film has held up better than the sentimental musical. It was a hit in 1968. Bacharach's sound was fresh and the gender politics slightly less dated. When the show was revived on Broadway in 2010 the critics found Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth's natural liveliness was undercut by the hangdog roles. The 2017 London revival faced similarly mixed reviews.

Fortunately act two is perked up by the arrival of Marge, a flirty alcoholic. Christine Baranski and Kate Finneran made three course banquets out of her would be seduction of the leading man.

Be More Chill

The musical Be More Chill had a short run but the cast album has inspired a rabid fan base. I was introduced to it by the shows breakout song "Michael in the Bathroom." The premise reminds me of Little Shop of Horrors. Each features a self-loathing protagonist goaded by a malevolent force into harming others for the sake of his crush. Audrey II wants to eat the world. The Squip wants to control it. The Squip in the novel could be cruel but it has been upgraded to full super villain in the musical. Seymour wants Audrey. Jeremy wants the underwritten Christine. She takes a back seat to Michael, the leading man's mistreated best friend. They get the duet and the arc. Hence the fan base (and the fan artists) focus on the bro-mance.

There's a lot of tonal whiplash on the album. I'm curious to see how a live production balances the black comedy with the uglier themes of depression and sexual assault. Particularly after watching season 3 of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend balance these so well.

Zombie Prom

I don't have much to say about this one.Grease without the sex. Little Shop of Horrors without the horror. It occupies a bland middle ground. The antagonist, Miss Strict, gets a fun song but they didn't let RuPaul sing it in the abridged film version. I'm running out of Halloween themed shows.