Here are the answers to the second six questions Goldstein asks on his podcast. To read the first six, see last week’s post.
What is the sexiest musical? — I guess I would have to say Cabaret. I first saw this (film, not in person) when I was a kid and remember thinking, I don’t know if I should be watching this. I understood barely any of it, but I remember Liza being sexy and vulnerable (not that I yet had the vocabulary to verbalize that). It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this one – I wonder how it holds up, sexiness and all.
Which musical do you most relate to? — I mean, I often randomly break out in song in my real life, so most of them. 🤣 I think, though, that I would say Waitress. Not in the physical abuse sense or anything. Just in the having a dream and being afraid to pursue it because of things others around me have said. Also, the first time I heard “She Used to Be Mine,” those first couple lines grabbed my attention: “It’s not simple to say / Most days I don’t recognize me.” I remember that girl. I was that girl for a long chunk of my life. Hello, my twenties and thirties. Then the start of the chorus: “She’s imperfect, but she tries / She is good, but she lies / She is hard on herself / She is broken and won’t ask for help / She is messy, but she’s kind.” Sara Bareillis is an incredible song writer – many of her lyrics have felt relatable, almost as if she had access to my own thoughts. (I’ve also written about her before.) I wish I had the chance to have seen her live in the role of Jenna, but the recorded performance was lovely. (Also a contender for making me cry.)
Which musical is objectively the greatest ever? — I’m going to split this answer between ‘old school’ and ‘modern’ musicals. The best old school musical is, hands down, Singin’ in the Rain. It’s light, charming, fun. The movie version has the incredible Debbie Reynolds, who as Grace’s mom in Will & Grace became an icon to me (yes, I know she was an icon well before that – but that was my personal introduction to her.) The integration of music into the story worked so seamlessly.
For modern musicals, Rent is clearly the one that really shifted what musical theater could become. On the other end, we have Hamilton. Both shook things up in ways that musical theater needed to be. They made musicals appealing to new generations and demographics. They made these people human. They tackled hard topics. And they did it while singing and dancing.
Which musical is the one you’ve seen the most? — If I stuck to live performances only, Rent. I saw it for the first time in college, and I loved it so much, I went back the next night. (This was back when student rush tickets were an option for me, so it was relatively inexpensive at the time.) I then saw it again in Minnesota when Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal were in it playing their original roles. Then at the Nederlander the summer before it left Broadway. If I included films/recorded performances, that would be hard to say. I’ve re-watched a lot of musicals a number of times. Maybe Cabaret? Maybe Chicago? I watched South Pacific a lot as a kid. Fiddler on the Roof or West Side Story (the original, though I also love the remake!)? All of them. 🤣
What’s the worst musical you’ve ever seen? — Not really a musical, but a musical spoof in a TV show – Stars Hollow: The Musical. Now, I know it was supposed to be bad (I think…hope?), but I don’t think it accomplished what the writers were intending? Also, I have no idea how Christian Borle and Sutton Foster even got through filming it. (Plus, the show gave WAY too much screen time to it…) Also, the second season of Smash. I loved the first season – the idea of a musical TV show about creating a Broadway musical felt tailor-made for me (also, Leslie Odom Jr.). But then it shifted into a love letter to Jennifer Hudson. While I think she’s an incredible talent, the story shift wasn’t what I had signed up for. I do think this would have been better as a mini series – focused around building that one musical start to finish.
What is the musical that’s literally made you laugh out loud the most? — The funniest scene to me has always been “Make ’em Laugh” from the film version of Singin’ in the Rain. Slapstick doesn’t usually make me laugh out loud, but there was something about the routine and the music and the actor that just always clicked for me.
At the end of the podcast, Goldstein tells his guest that there is only enough room in the casket to take one film with them into the afterlife – so which one would they take? This is probably the hardest one because there are so many lovely musicals out in the world. But I think I would take South Pacific, though, so that I could watch it with my grandmother.
Ami Maxine 