I recently rediscovered my love for The Boy From Oz -- the man can do no wrong. I am such a Hugh Jackman fangirl. (That alone let me totally forgive him for Van Helsing.) "I Still Call Australia Home" and "Once Before I Go" make me cry.

(And my embarrassing tale -- yeah, I saw it live, and he came out and signed autographs; he signed my playbill and smiled at me, and I actually collapsed. My legs just went out from under me. It's a good thing my 6'3", ballet-dancer cousin was standing behind me and sort of...caught me. And then I cried. I really think I deserve a Fangirl Award or something.)

High Fidelty is closing. And I was supposed to go and see it on 12/28 and now it won't be there! I'm really disappointed, not really because I was all that invested in seeing it per se, but because it's been 3 years since I've seen a show and I really wanted to go. Plus, my parents had bought the tickets, so it would have been a free show either way (I think they're getting their money back).

Well, as I'm always going on about our choir, I had to share this. It's our recording of Anthem. I'm quite proud of it, especially as we're all amateurs.

Anyway, here we are - Anthem.

Just listened to my Anything Goes soundtrack for the the first time in ages, and remembered just why I love it. I Get a Kick Out of You, You're the Top, It's De-lovely and Blow, Gabriel, Blow are some of my favourite showtunes ever. I've just realised that I must have seen John Barrowman in the West End production in 2003, but didn't take much notice because I'd never heard of him before. Damn you, ignorant younger self!

Wait a minute - that means that he's singing on the 2003 London cast recording that I'm listening to! John Barrowman's been singing to me all this time and I haven't noticed?!

So as I'm sure you've all heard that there will be a Sweeney Todd movie starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. And, I hope this isn't true, Sasha Baron Cohen aka Borat was cast as Pirelli and since his singing wasn't up to par they are letting him RAP the songs instead of sing. Please someone tell me this is just a rumor..please? If his voice wasn't up to par, why cast him? And why not replace him in favor of someone who can sing it? ::sigh::

Omigosh, I love Ragtime too. Sooooo good, and I actually did see it years ago. Great musical.

Anyone else love The Last 5 Years? I've recently become rather obsessed with it. So sad and so lyrically brilliant.

I looooove The Last 5 Years! I basically love anything with Norbert and/or Sherie in it though. I especially love belting "A Summer in Ohio" and "Better than That". And also, I love Norbert. Rarr.

"Climbing Uphill" is great, too. Some of the theater people I know have told me that that's exactly what auditions are like for them.

"Why'd I pick these shoes, why'd I pick this song, why'd I pick this career, WHYYYYY..."

Cell Block Tango. And, yes, all the time, although the songs varies. Pop...Six...Squish...uh-uh...Cicero...Lipshitz.

Just went to see Evil Dead: The Musical off-Broadway and it was awesomely great. Loved it and may have to get the soundtrack.

I've been getting into Evita lately. Just took out the Antonio Banderas/Madonna version, but I'm sure Raul Julia is much better.

The clip of NPH doing the confrontation was great. I can't get enough of Master of the House, though. sad.

Apparently, Lea Salonga will be taking over the role of Fantine on Broadway.

Playbill article

I object to Daphne Whats-her-name being mentioned as 'creating' the role of Fantine. Pfft. I wouldn't mind seeing Lea give it a go, though.

I've seen the Les Mis revival twice now (yay, student rush tickets!) and I have to say, Daphne Rubin-Vega was nowhere near as bad as I expected her to be. I'm not a fan of hers at all - never cared for her in Rent - so I was pissed at her being Fantine from the moment that casting choice was announced. But while I'm most definitely looking forward to Lea Salonga in the role (yay, belting!) I still don't think Daphne was as horrific as everyone says. Her "I Dreamed A Dream" was good and her acting was heartfelt (although that was less apparent from my mezzanine seat than when I sat in the orch) but there were definitely a couple points where she didn't sound the grea-*test*-('"). When I went last week, I brought two friends - one of them absolutely hated Daphne, and one loved her. I've pretty much been hearing one extreme or the other about her, so... yeah.

I will say that the cast for this revival is amazing. Norm Lewis, who plays Javert, has an INCREDIBLE voice. Celia makes a great Eponine (and her understudy, whose name I can't remember, is great as well), the little kids are all adorable - Gavroche has a new song, by the way - and Alexander Gemignani as Valjean is very powerful. His "Bring Him Home" is crazy beautiful and received insane amounts of applause both times I saw it.

By the way - I heard High Fidelity is making cast recording. This makes me very, very happy. It was a really fun show with great music, and I'm still kind of pissed that it closed so fast.

I like "Shiksa Godess". But yeah thats a fun, fun show.

And I love Antonio Banderas. Raul Julia was probably better (and so was Mandy Patinken judging by video tape) but Antonio was really good, and was also really good in "Nine"...again taking over a Raul Julia role.

I'm going to see A Chorus Line in February...4 weeks from tomorrow! Saw it originally in 1982 so 25 years later I'm back and dancing to "One (Reprise)" in my recital in March.

Video of Lea Salonga singing "I Dreamed a Dream" on some talk show or another. I think this has to be one of my favorite renditions.

Also, I think I posted this right before SF 2.0 died, but it's too beautiful for anyone to miss it: John Owen-Jones singing "Bring Him Home"

"I Dreamed a Dream" sung by anyone is always so devastating to me. I love it, but it makes me feel depressed.