Saturday 25 June 2011

"We will rock you"

I took Her Indoors to see this musical for an early birthday present, and although I despise musicals in general and don't particularly like the music of Queen in particular, I must admit it was quite a pleasant experience.

Two points to note:

1. For some reason, they have done their best to airbrush Queen's bass player John Deacon out of history.

2. Unlike 'British' films or 'British' theatre productions (the quality of which is inversely proportional to the amount of subsidies they get), musicals do not get a penny in subsidies, but somehow, these theatres are more or less sold out, week after week and year after year, despite their high ticket prices (£60 for the front rows appears to be normal). If popularity or profitability is a measure of quality, then they beat 'Briitsh' films and 'British' theatre hands down. People flock from all over the world to see them, which in turn is good for our balance of trade and hotels in London etc.

11 comments:

Bayard said...

The infant mortality rate amoungst musicals is very high.

Unknown said...

don't particularly like the music of Queen Bloody heathen lol.

I love Queen. Glad you and your lass had a good night out though.

Yer still a bloody heathen tho. :)

Unknown said...

Oops, got my 'i' tag in the wrong place Mark, who's the heathen now eh...I blame the beer myself.

Tim Almond said...

The key difference between US and UK cinema is that US cinema has protagonists that the main audience for cinema (people under 25) can either relate to, or are interested in. British cinema makes films about aristos (that they don't relate to) or people on sink estates (that they aren't interested in).

No-one wants to get out of 8 hours in a call centre to watch Ken Loach lecturing them about capitalism. They'd rather watch Jason Statham blow some shit up.

JuliaM said...

"They'd rather watch Jason Statham blow some shit up."

They don't need to go to the cinema for that. Most go straight to DVD...

Sean said...

There you go Mark all you have to do for fame and fortune..and your own greek island (if you can put up with the chinese neighbors) is LVT the musical

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, yes, some crash and burn, others run for decades.

TBY, I like some of their stuff, obviously.

JT, agreed.

JM, but watching stuff being blown up in the cinema is still more fun.

S, I'm working on it.

DBC Reed said...

You can't call this kind of thing a musical:it is just a bunch of greatest hits strung together with a crap story-line.The only tricky bit is getting everybody involved to sign up, which is probably why the bassist isn't participating.
The LVT musical would involve writing all the songs which is hard work as there are n't any existing LVT numbers (except the "Land Song" which is basically "Marching through Georgia" re-worded.That geezer Bellamy(?) of Muse is supposed to be a land taxer but I've never made out anything Georgist in his lyrics whatsoever.

Mark Wadsworth said...

DBC: "it is just a bunch of greatest hits strung together with a crap story-line."

True. But a musical is just a crap story line strung together with some (crap) songs. If it becomes a success, and all the songs become hits, then it morphs into exactly that - people went to see Cats because of "Memories" and so on*. So it's quicker working backwards from the hits, see also "Mama Mia".

* Not the Public Image version, unfortunately.

Tim Almond said...

JuliaM,

They don't need to go to the cinema for that. Most go straight to DVD...

Some seem to, but his more recent films get a cinema release.

Incidentally if you've not seen The Bank Job, it's a blinder of a film. It's up there with Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead and Layer Cake amongst my recent favourites. I also liked Red Road, which does look a bit like Standard British Miserableness, but is quite a clever little film.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't wish to fundamentally disagree with Joseph - I am more than happy to have my tastes dictated for me or run the extreme risk of being labelled some screwball who on that basis alone can be ignored - but sometimes I quite enjoy "Ken Loach lecturing [them] about capitalism". I am not particularly taken with the acting skils of Mr Jason Statham either but I might just be tempted to round off my 8 hours in the call centre by watching a film in which Mr Statham, exercising all his thespian skills in a portrayal of someome who "blows shit up" if the film in question had a catchy title like "The Call Centre Demolition Man".....