Gone are the good ol' days

I am a real fan of new shows on Broadway! I love to get the new CD's and talk about it with others. Today as I received my email about all the new stuff for the year, I was a little speechless about one of the upcoming shows this year!

SHREK THE MUSICAL, based on the William Steig book and the DreamWorks film, heads to Broadway in November. The musical features book and lyrics by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire and music by Tony Award Winner Jeanine Tesori. AVENUE Q’s Jason Moore will direct. The musical is being produced by DreamWorks Theatricals and Neil Street Productions and represents DreamWorks Animation's first venture in legitimate theater. The musical features the title character, a lovable green swamp-dwelling ogre; his wisecracking sidekick, Donkey; the lovely Princess Fiona; Lord Farquaad and a chorus of everybody's favorite fractured fairytale creatures.

Are you kidding me?!?! I know the writers are on strike, and there is much controversy over that - I know someone who writes for a Young & the Restless and it's affecting their family tremendously! And I feel for them, BUT . . . come on! Shrek? The MUSICAL?!?!?! That's stretching it a bit, isn't it? There are so many OTHER great shows to make into a musical, if no one wants to use their BRAIN and come up with an original script! GEEZ! I miss the days of R & H (Rodgers and Hammerstein), Lerner & Loewe, Cole Porter, and Jule Styne, Kander & Ebb, Norman & Simon - among other greats. I miss the old greats and their TALENT of writing good music. There are more revivals than original scripts as well. It's as if no one wants to take time anymore to be original.


On a good note:
Little Mermaid opened last week and the music is SPECTACULAR! I love me some Alan Menken! Go here for a sneak peek: http://disney.go.com/theatre/thelittlemermaid/index.html#video
You'll be able to see video and hear some of the new music! The costumes are beautiful, the songs amazing and the cast very talented! (Prince Eric can sing to me any day!)


Another revival, although it is a good one, opened the same day - Sunday in the Park with George. I'll be interested to see if the revival actors are as good as my fav - Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin. Although I really liked Raul Esparza (Kennedy Center) and would LOVED to have heard Audra McDonald as Dot (Chicago Shakespeare)!
And if you didn't know - Mary Poppins opened last year and it's an eye-spectacular! The audiences are raving!



All I'm asking is the strike end, writers get back to work and please let's be original! Let's tap into the good ol' days and bring back Broadway at its finest!!