Thanks so much for the John Owen-Jones video posted earlier! I saw him perform in Les Mis in London and loved him, and I've been wanting to hear him again ever since.

This sound like so much fun.

There's apparently a new musical version of Anne of Green Gables off-Broadway? I've seen the musical that is produced every year in Charlottetown, PEI, which I really enjoyed.

Ooh! Apparently Take That aren't so keen on the stage show now they're successful again.

Oh. My. God.

I was at the first big rehearsal for our London concert today, and while I knew that we were doing a Kander and Ebb tribute, there were some things I didn't know. Like that some of the music has been rearranged for us - and that John Kander is going to be there. So we're singing all these songs - including All That Jazz, Razzle Dazzle and a lot of the less well known ones - in front of one of the people who wrote them. No pressure, folks.

Wow. John Kander. Very, very, very talented man! What's the full list of songs you're doing? He and Ebb wrote so many absolute gems, including some surprisingly quiet and introspective ones.

As well as All That Jazz (presumably with Ruthie Henshall) and Razzle Dazzle we'll be singing A Quiet Thing and Tomorrow Belongs to Me and parts of The World Goes Round, How Lucky Can You Get? and New York, New York. I say parts of because those ones are for the professional soloists with just support from the choir. There are some other pieces coming too, Everybody Dance and Steel Pier I think.

It should be fun, but so much hard work!

Good stuff. 'A Quiet Thing' is gorgeous, isn't it? I think I once read that it's John Kander's favourite of the songs he wrote with Fred Ebb.

It's a beautiful song, and I like the arrangement we're doing. It has been adapted from an arrangement originally done for the Boston Gay Men's Chorus, and we're apparently singing it with only the accompaniment of a vibraphone and an oboe. A bit of a challenge!

I believe that everything listed under "Blog Mentioned Songs" at this link are songs from the never-completed Batman musical. You can see how hard they tried to capture the spirit of the comics in musical form, and simultaneously why and how they were doomed to fail

I think that Jim Steinman's The Catwoman's Song is my new favorite "forgotten" showtune.

You know they're doing a Spiderman musical. http://www.playbill.com/news/article/87231.html

(what's up with my links not working???)

ETA: The cast album for Evil Dead: The Musical is out! Just ordered.

High Fidelity cast recording is coming out soon! I am excited - the show did not deserve to close so fast, and the score was great. Plus it has the lyrics, 'Now please don't take this as mean-hearted/ But are you on crack, or just retarded?' so how can I not love it?

You can hear a couple of clips here: http://www.sh-k-boom.com/HiFi.html

I wish they'd included snippets of "Number 5 With a Bullet" or "She Goes" to prove that there were chicks in this show, too. Kickass ones!

I was on Andrew Lloyd-Webber's official site and it looks like the Phantom sequel is happening. If he could get Sarah Brightman to come on board,I'd be thrilled.

According to Anthony Rapp's official MySpace blog, both he and Adam Pascal are returning to RENT this summer!

I am cannot even tell you how much I want to go back to see this again, now.

I am so there this summer. I got to see the OBC way back in 97.

I'll definitely be interested in checking them out; although I'm not the biggest fan of their voices, I heard that together they're just amazing performers. Plus, Tamyra Gray is going to be Mimi, eeeee!