Four Year Anniversary

Tomorrow is the 4th year anniversary of Three Panel Musicals! Thanks to all who've stuck with it and welcome to those who've just discovered it.

My favorite comics from 2017 include:

Caroline, or Change
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (season one)
Ragtime
Smash
They're Playing Our Song


The 2018 Tony nominees have been announced so there'll be lots to discuss in the coming weeks.

300 Comics. 900 Panels.

Somewhere along the way I've passed 300 comics. The 2 in 1 posts make it hard to pinpoint the spot but my counter says it's happened.

So why do I do this? Why obscure (and sometimes not so obscure) musicals? I fell in love with my grandmothers' vinyl cast album collection at a young age. Soon my noisy toddler self was singing Jerry Herman, Lerner and Lowe, Frank Loesser and some inappropriate lyrics from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. 

Since then I've studied, attended, performed in musicals. Reading the behind the scenes books of Ken Mandelbaum and Ethan Mordden taught me that every musical, hit or flop, took a great deal of blood, sweat, tears and cash to create. High schools are still producing shows that succeeded 60 years ago. Other shows opened to bad reviews and quickly shuttered. The musicals without cast albums have all but vanished. That so much time and effort would be put into a work of art only for it to vanish in days is tragic. Even the worst shows can still bring pleasure to people but it's up to the super fans to record the history, retell the stories and keep the memories alive.

Three Year Anniversary

Musical theater can help us escape or explore our world. The attitudes and song styles capture moments of the past and make us re-evaluate our present.

Here are some of my favorite comics from 2016.

Bright Star
Cabaret
Pete's Dragon
Quick Sketch: Showboat and Carousel
Yank!

Thank you so much for reading.

Two Year Anniversary

Today is the two year anniversary of Three Panel Musicals. It snuck up on me.
Thank you to everyone for reading!

Most viewed comics:

• Into the Light - Thanks to Jason Robert Brown for sharing this on Twitter.
• Tony Awards 2015 : The Nominees Aren't... - American Psycho, my second favorite new musical this season, was mostly ignored by the Tony's. I'll be posting my thoughts on it soon.
• Tony Awards 2015: The nominees - Everybody loves a winner.
• Ride the Cyclone - An exciting new musical that has toured Canada and visited Chicago.
• Annie Warbucks - The better-than-you'd-think but still-not-good sequel to Annie!

Favorite comics from year one: 

I wanted to draw more. I picked a project that would force me to draw each week. Looking back at early posts they're... pretty rough. But here are some of my favorites.

• Sweeney Todd - I took more time and the artwork is cleaner for it.
• Camelot - I'm gradually learning to pare down my captions. Less is more.
• A Little Night Music - Again Sondheim brings out my best.
• Funny Girl - I really like my Barbra Streisand.
• The Sound of Music - A well known show that allowed me to have some fun.

Far From Heaven

I’ve discussed several musicals that explore the leading lady’s conflict between marriage and career. This month I’ll be looking at a collection of shows whose leads are unfulfilled housewives.

Housewife: a married woman whose main occupation is caring for her family, managing household affairs, and doing housework.

Musicals often explore characters inner thoughts but the lyrics of Far From Heaven mirror the dialogue of Todd Haynes’ 2001 film. This leaves the music itself to explore the subtext of the deeply repressed characters.  Cathy’s opening song, “Autumnin Connecticut,” is less “I want” than “I am.” She won’t begin to question her life till her husband Frank’s infidelity is revealed. Cathy’s music is operatic while Frank and the chorus express themselves through Angry Jazz. Raymond, the gardener, shares Cathy’s musical language signaling their bond. Frank will not adopt this language till he accepts his homosexuality in the tear-jerking ballad “I Never Knew.” By the end the three have much in common but society will force them to part. Two of the stars stars, Steven Pasquale and Kelli O'Hara, would quickly jump to the similarly themed Bridges of Madison County. 

This is my 200th comic! That's 600 panels of musicals. Thanks to all of you for reading!

One Year Anniversary

One Year.
160 posts.

Thank you all for reading!

Next on the horizon: More Bock and Harnick, Jerry Herman, and the Broadway musicals of the 2014-2015 season.

Sweeney Todd

100th Comic! That's 300 panels of musicals!

My favorite horror musical manages to surprise on a first viewing and provide new discoveries on repeated viewings. We're very fortunate that the controversial film is not the only record as Lansbury, LuPone and Thompson have all had their stage productions broadcast.

The Woman in White

After exploring some new territory, Andrew Lloyd Webber returned to gothic novel adaptation with Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White. The magic of Phantom was not recaptured. The show ran 19 months in London and 3 months on Broadway despite the efforts of leading lady Maria Friedman and a series of guest stars in the role of supporting villain Count Fosco (Michael Crawford, Michael Ball, Simon Callow).

• Maria Friedman singing the belty All For Laura.
• Count Fosco's duet with a misbehaving live rat.
• Guardian 2004 Review - "It's a pity Jones's book isn't better because the show has a lot going for it. Lloyd Webber has written a particularly good score...  in trying to ... show all Victorian women as social victims, she actually deprives Marian of much of her odd, independent quirkiness that makes her one of the most original characters in fiction."
• NYT 2005 Review - "It's not a terrible show, but it's an awfully pallid one. The difference between it and "Sweeney Todd" is the difference between water and blood."
• Broadway Abridged's Recap - "I'm so glad I found you!  I've come back to again mention I have some vague secret, then to sing in very poorly-written ballads, and to shriek enough for the audience to cover their  ears."

This is my 50th comic! Thanks for reading everyone!