"After Midnight, Early Blue Evenin', Lights Ain't Come On Yet"

So for those of you that religiously follow the Tony Awards as much as I do, you'd know the nominations for this year's Tony Awards were released today. Here's the official link to look up all of the awards given: http://www.tonyawards.com/mobile/en_US/nominees/index.html

I'm so excited for the awards—I can't wait for them to be on already! So in honor of the Tony Awards being a little more than a month away (June 8), I will try to post as much as I can about some of the nominees, starting with the nominations for Best Musical. 

The first one I will try to talk about is the musical After Midnight, a semi juke-box musical taking place in the era where the Cotton Club (if you don't know about this place, now's the time to do some research!) was in full swing. 

The show celebrates Duke Ellington's years at this place using his original compositions and performed by a "world-class big band of 17 musicians." To be honest, I haven't really found anything that indicates there's an actual plot to the show but maybe I will be proven wrong in the future! 

This show was nominated for 7 Tony Awards which are; Best Musical, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical (Adriane Lenox), Best Direction of a Musical (Warren Carlyle), Best Coreography (Warren Carlyle), Best Costume Design of a Musical (Isabel Toledo), Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Howell Binkley), and Best Sound Design of a Musical (Peter Hylenski). If this musical was nominated in seven categories, there definitely must be some hype that I'm missing!

Here's a clip of a First Look of After Midnight (For all of you Psych fans: yes, that is Dulé Hill (Gus) in the beginning of the video). 

"You're Just Too Good To Be True, Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You"

Days like these I'm glad I follow a lot of musical theatre accounts on Facebook and Twitter. Why you ask? Mainly because I just discovered that a hit Tony award-winning Broadway musical is coming onto the big screen on June 20. The musical is........ Jersey Boys.

This 2005 jukebox musical is essentially a documentary about the formation, success and break-up of the 1960s rock 'n' roll group The Four Seasons (does the name Frankie Valli ring a bell?). Fun fact: Apparently the composers of the show, Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe, are portrayed in the musical as a member (Gaudio) and the record producer (Crewe).

[A jukebox musical is a musical where its score contains previously released popular songs. Some musicals include Ain't Misbehavin', Singin' in theRain, Mamma Mia!, We Will Rock You, Prescilla Queen of the Desert- the Musical, Rock of Ages, and Xanadu.]

Anyway, I just discovered the official trailer of the movie so it should definitely be checked out!

"If You'd Come Today, You Would Have Reached A Whole Nation!"

Happy (early) Easter to everyone that celebrates it! Sorry I haven't been posting in like two weeks......this month was a pain in the butt for homework. 

Anyway, since this is the weekend of Easter, I thought I'll pick a show where the plot line encircles around Jesus' final days and is hung on the cross and I thought of two; Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar. Personally, I would probably put on Godspell and choose either "By My Side" or the finale, but I always choose this show. So I guess I'll try Jesus Christ Superstar (fair warning, I don't know this show well).

To be honest, it's not one of my favorite musicals (both of Andrew Lloyd Webber and of all)  in terms of the story line—something about it doesn't seem to gel with me. Don't get me wrong, the performances and ranges of the songs are spectacular but I never pictured a rock opera for describing Jesus' final days. I mean, that's just me.

This video comes from the second film adaptation of the show, released in 2000 and stars Glenn Carter as Jesus, Jérôme Pradon as Judas (the guy in the red leather jacket), Renee Castle as Mary Magadalene and Rik Mayall as Herod. I like this version a little better than the original location-based 1973 version because it's filmed as a recorded stage version. 

Oh I almost forgot— the song is "Superstar." 

   

"For When He Comes Crawlin', I'm Not Fallin'!"

I just came back from a middle school performance of the junior version of Thoroughly Modern Millie and I have to say it was probably the cutest and yet one of the most relatable shows ever, and I'll explain why.

It was cute because I personally knew a good portion of the actors in it (especially the boy who played Trevor Graydon III). I also thought it was relatable because some of the love songs the characters sing are dilemmas I've personally gone through (such as "What Do I Need With Love" and "Gimme Gimme"........hey, I can still think these things!) and it has a good theme about women not needing to marry into money to be happy and taking charge of their own lives. 

The songs were pretty catchy, I must admit. One that I really liked was "Forget About The Boy." I think it's a song for every girl who broke up with her boyfriend or is trying to get over a crush or fling—it really does fit! This performance is when Sutton Foster (one of my idols) was Millie during the 2002 Tony awards (which she won for Best Actress later that night)! 

(The actual song ends at around the third minute, the rest is the ending of the Tony performance.)

"I'm Singing (Lion King) On A Plane...."

You guys know how much I love The Lion King— it's a part of my childhood— so you better get used to my future numerous posts about it.

So recently, on April 1st, a video of the Australian cast of The Lion King singing an impromptu version of "Circle of Life" while waiting on an airplane (from Brisbane to Sydney) for boarders to come on has become viral. I personally just listened to it myself and it made me "grin from ear to ear" and I can't avoid putting it on here and sharing it with you all! 

"We'll Always Be Together......Wha Oooh Yeah!"

For some reason, I've been flash backing to the musical Grease. My guess it because the show is about a group of high school students embracing their senior year (which is what I'm going  through).  Now it hit me how I'm able to connect and enjoy this musical, it may be catchy and ridiculous at times but it's cute!

I wasn't planning for this post to be long so that's all I wanted to say. Here's the performance of the 2007 Broadway Revival cast of Grease performing a mix of "Grease Is The Word" and "We'll Always Be Together" (I believe Max Crumm and Laura Osnes [Danny and Sandy—both won their roles for this show by competing in the TV show Grease: You're the One that I Want!] are in this performance!)