Hairspray Live! The Official Song Performance Videos Are Up!

We Have the Full Cast and Song List

The songs and other official videos can be found on the Hairspray Live! Youtube channel, or on NBC’s Youtube channel. We’ve embedded some of them below (above- It Takes Two). You can take our poll and tell us what you thought of the musical HERE.

ETA: Youtube has taken almost everything down from Hairspray Live! I’ve replaced the live videos with songs from the soundtrack so that there’s something here. The copyright owners really, really want to sell you the video.

Continue reading “Hairspray Live! The Official Song Performance Videos Are Up!”

What Did You Think of Hairspray Live? Take the Poll

 

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Did you love it? Hate it? Vote, then tell us why in the comments.

We’ll have a full review up later. For now, let’s just say we loved it! It’s one of our favorite musicals, so it’s hard to go wrong with this show. This production did an exceptional job. It wasn’t perfect, but that’s part of being live. Everyone has different tastes, though, so let us know what you thought below.

Greg Berlanti to Remake Little Shop of Horrors Film

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Berlanti Should Continue His Streak of Casting Glee Alumni, and Cast Darren Criss and Lea Michele as Seymour and Audrey

Deadline reports that Warner Bros is developing a film remake of the classic musical Little Shop of Horrors with Greg Berlanti, producer of superhero shows on The CW, directing, Marc Platt (La La Land) producing, and a script by Matthew Robinson (The Invention of Lying).

Little Shop of Horrors was originally a 1960 B movie cult film directed by Roger Corman. Alan Menken and Howard Ashman turned it into an Off-Off-Broadway rock musical in 1982. It eventually made its way to Off-Broadway, where it ran for 5 years, then to movie theaters in 1986. Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene starred in the 1986 film as Seymour and Audrey.

After the cut, my take on the news, and video of Darren Criss and Lea Michele singing Suddenly Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors.

Continue reading “Greg Berlanti to Remake Little Shop of Horrors Film”

Hairspray Live! Airs Tonight on NBC (Video and Audio)

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It’s Finally Here! And Darren Criss Is All Over It!

Here are the last few promo videos before Hairspray Live! airs on NBC tonight (12/7/16) at 8:00 PM ET. At the bottom, two bonus audios from the cast album. Darren Criss hosts a preshow special, The Countdown to Hairspray Live!, on NBC at 7:30PM ET. Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth cohost. Darren will also host a Facebook live event during the broadcast, as well as giving viewers peaks backstage within the broadcast itself.

Videos:

Darren Criss and Garrett Clayton (Link Larkin) tour the 3 acre set in a golf cart.

Continue reading “Hairspray Live! Airs Tonight on NBC (Video and Audio)”

Pasek & Paul’s Dear Evan Hansen Opens on Broadway/ Order the Cast Recording

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Dear Evan Hansen, opened at the Music Box Theatre on 12/4/16. The new musical has music by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dogfight, A Christmas Story), book by Steven Levenson, and was directed by Michael Greif (Rent, Next to Normal). It stars Ban Platt (Pitch Perfect). The reviews are overwhelmingly positive, with most particularly singling out Ben Platt’s talent as a reason for its success. Almost all of the reviews mention that the show has improved since its Off-Broadway incarnation. BroadwayWorld.com has a Roumd Up of the reviews.

The music that I’ve heard so far from Dear Evan Hansen has been gorgeous, haunting, and up to par with Pasek and Paul’s other musicals. Ben Platt’s voice on the songs is so heartfelt and controlled. Not what you would expect from the guy in Pitch Perfect.

After the cut, preorder information for the original cast recording, and videos of the cast singing songs from the show.

Continue reading “Pasek & Paul’s Dear Evan Hansen Opens on Broadway/ Order the Cast Recording”

Official Dates for the New Frozen Musical’s Pre-Broadway Run Announced

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BroadwayWorld.com reports that Frozen the Musical will play at the Buell Theatre in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts for a 6 week run from August 17 through October 1, 2017. Tickets are already on sale as part of the theater’s Broadway subscription series. Subscribers will be able to order extra tickets December 12th at 10:00 AM. Single tickets won’t be on sale until Spring 2017. Anyone interested in receiving alerts about ticket sales can sign up at Denvercenter.org/Frozen.

From the Denver Center for the Performing Arts Blog:

This Broadway-bound Frozen, a full-length stage work told in two acts, is the first and only incarnation of the tale that expands upon and deepens its indelible plot and themes through new songs and story material from the film’s creators.  Like the Disney Theatrical Broadway musicals that have come before it, it is a full evening of theatre and is expected to run 2 1/2 hours.

Written by a trio of Oscar-winners, Frozen features music and lyrics by the creators of the film score Kristen Anderson-Lopez (In Transit, Up Here) and EGOT-winner Robert Lopez (Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon, Up Here) and a book by Jennifer Lee (Wreck-It Ralph), the film’s screenwriter and director (with Chris Buck). Frozen won 2014 Oscars for Best Song (“Let It Go”) and Best Animated Feature.

Continue reading “Official Dates for the New Frozen Musical’s Pre-Broadway Run Announced”

More on Hairspray Live!: Listen to the Soundtrack Album and Watch the New Promo

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Wednesday Night Is the Night!

Here’s another round of videos and articles on  Hairspray Live! before it airs on NBC Wednesday night, December 7, 2016 at 8:00 PM ET.

The Hairspray Live! soundtrack album was released on Spotify a few days ago and it sounds amazing. Maddie Baillio, the newcomer who plays Tracy Turnblad, is a real find. There are surprises that are different from both the stage show and the movie. You can listen to it by getting a free Spotify account, or hear samples at BroadwayWorld.com.

Continue reading “More on Hairspray Live!: Listen to the Soundtrack Album and Watch the New Promo”

Lena Hall Does Hedwig Robinson in LA-Photos

 

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We have a new set of photos for you today from Lena Hall’s last show starring as Hedwig in LA on 11/25/16. Shannon Conley was her Yitzhak, and the usual members of Tits of Clay played Hedwig’s band, The Angry Inch. Lena makes a glamorous Hedwig, doesn’t she?

The Hedwig and the Angry Inch National Tour continues performances around the country through July, starring Euan Morton as Hedwig and Hannah Corneau as Yitzhak. Tits of Clay and all of the stand bys and understudies are continuing with the tour.

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Frozen Broadway Musical Dream Cast Part 4: Olaf, Oaken, Grandpa Troll and Bulda Troll [VIDEO]

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                        Part 1     Part 2     Part 3

This is the final part of my series of posts on the metawitches dream cast picks for the Frozen Broadway musical, which opens in August 2017 at the Buell Theatre in Denver, CO, before moving to Broadway in Spring, 2018. This time, we finish up with a few of the minor characters.

I’d love to see Olaf the snowman played Tituss Burgess. He originated the role of Sebastian the Crab in The Little Mermaid on Broadway (below he Sings Under the Sea). He’s currently on the Netflix show The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, but that show has a short season and films in NYC, so in my dream world they’d work around his schedule. In the second video his Kimmy Schmidt character, Titus Andromedon, auditions for Hamilton. Spoiler: He hasn’t seen the show and doesn’t rap.

Continue reading “Frozen Broadway Musical Dream Cast Part 4: Olaf, Oaken, Grandpa Troll and Bulda Troll [VIDEO]”

Viewers Make Good on Threats to Stop Watching The Walking Dead

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Apparently I wasn’t the only one who stopped watching. Can it be fixed?

When I wrote my post about Why I Stopped Watching the Walking Dead, I hadn’t paid any attention to how the show’s ratings were going this season. I was just upset about the direction one of my favorite shows had taken, and the way other fans criticize each other when their opinions differ. But it seems that many other fans are taking action rather than just complaining about the show in comments sections. The Walking Dead’s ratings have dropped from a high of 17.03 million viewers for the season premiere to a low of 10.4 million viewers for episode 6, “Swear.” That’s a drop back to season 3 levels of viewership.

The Walking Dead Wikipedia ratings page has all of the detail you could want about TWD’s ratings, both for the length of its run and for this season, so I’ll just share this chart:

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The chart shows that season 5 was the overall peak in ratings, with seasons 4 and 6 being roughly equal (and a decline that started in 6B), then a steep decline over season 7 so far. That fits with both metawitches opinions of the quality of the show over time, and many of the comments from longtime viewers we’ve seen around the web. The show plateaued in season 5, and season 6 was a clusterfuck. I gave up on reading recaps of season 7 after a few episodes when it became clear that there wasn’t enough plot or character development happening to justify the writer’s time.

Continue reading “Viewers Make Good on Threats to Stop Watching The Walking Dead”