#amusicaladay #9 High School Musical The Musical The Series. I'm not a fan of High School Musical and have only seen snippets but the soundtrack for this spin off TV series on #DisneyPlus isn't too bad. It's actually lead me to watch the series and I'm 3 episodes in. It's cheesy and the characters are fairly tropey at the moment but it's entertaining.

Favourite Song: I'd already come across the song Born to be Brave and that is easily my favourite from this first series.

Favourite Songs: Are You a Believer?, I'm Outta Here, With You and parts of Suspend My Disbelief.

Straight on the Playlist: Are You a Believer? and I'm Outta Here.

Fascinating Fact: Someone obviously agreed with me about the oddness of Ball of Wax as it was replaced by another song 'You Gotta Let Go' for the Broadway and UK tour versions.

#amusicaladay #ghost #musicals #WestEnd #Broadway

#amusicaladay I suspected my favourite songs would involve Oda Mae, the psychic character memorably played by Whoopi Goldberg in the original film of this story. I was right. Her two main songs - Are You a Believer? and I'm Outta Here are great fun. Ball of Wax is a fun song but tonally out of whack with the rest of the musical (it's sung by other ghosts when Sam first dies). Carl, the 'baddie' has a jaunty song called 'Life Turns on a Dime

#amusicaladay Okay so it's not a day by any stretch of the imagination but for the sake of a hashtag.

#8 - Ghost the Musical

The first half of this soundtrack was all a little meh but I don't think I was fully concentrating. Some nice tracks and, inevitably, Unchained Melody features (although neither version in the musical was a particularly appealing rendition).

The signature song I feel is With You, sung by Molly when she is struggling with her grief but it might need a second listen.

Oh and I haven't forgotten about #amusicaladay. I stalled a little but am halfway or so through the soundtrack for #Ghost the musical.

#musical #WestEnd

#amusicaladay has not been forgotten but is turning more into 'a musical whenever I get the time'. The letter G is bringing us the musical Ghost next. I'm intrigued by this one.

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Favourite Song: Gotta Be This or That / Undecided and Perfidia are fun.

Playlist: Gotta Be This or That and possibly a couple of others once I've given the tracks a relisten.

Fascinating Fact: There is a Christmas sequel called Plaid Tidings.

#amusicaladay

Favourite Song: Gotta Be This or That / Undecided and Perfidia are fun.

Playlist: Gotta Be This or That and possibly a couple of others once I've given the tracks a relisten.

#amusicaladay No. 7 Forever Plaid

This was a musical I had a vague recollection of from my youth but I don't think I ever knew what it was about. A singing quartet from the 50s return to Earth for one final concert after dying in a car accident. It's a weird framing device for what is essentially a jukebox musical in the vein of Ain't Misbhavin' and Five Guys Named Moe. Some lovely harmonies and songs in this with a couple which are going on to the Spotify playlist

My daughter has won the role of the Childcatcher in her school's production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. We rewatched the film over the last couple of nights. I absolutely adore it. Every single performance is brilliant; the songs infections; the gags hilarious. I adore it more every time I watch it (except that awful song Truly sings when she realises she loves Dick Van Dyke - that always gets fast forwarded).

#ChittyChittyBangBang #DickVanDyke #SallyAnnHowes #LionelJeffries #amusicaladay

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Nothing is quite hitting me as hard as some songs can when they instantly get added to my Spotify playlist but I do think a few will make it on to the list.

Favourite Songs: G.E.E.K, Go You Genius and The Future is Bright.

Straight on the Playlist: The Future is Bright and G.E.E.K. Maybe Hollywood is going on there too.

Fascinating Fact: The evil genius was originally played by Warwick Davies who was also a producer.

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I enjoyed it but it didn't blow me away in the way I thought it might based on my friend's enthusiasm.

Coming back to this for my little project and listening to the soundtrack without visuals and I found more of the songs hit me right. G.E.E.K., The Future is Bright, Who's That Guy, Go You Genius and Comic Book Kind of Love are all strong tunes with some fun lyrics.

#amusicaladay No. 6 - Eugenius!

This was a musical a friend of mine raved about and during lockdown the entire show was put up on Youtube for everyone to enjoy. It is a musical which should 100% be right up my alley. It's about geeks, superheroes and has a huge 80s vibe in the music.

Somehow, though, watching the show on Youtube just didn't work for me. Stage on screen is tricky as I don't think the show's always fully work - the atmosphere of live theatre is simply lost on a screen.

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Fascinating Fact - the puppets were created by Jim Henson's Creature Workshop.

(And I love the work by the Workshop so I'm miffed I never got to see this on stage now).

#amusicaladay Sadly nothing on the score engaged me much and I'm even struggling to identify a favourite song as they're all quite samey. Possibly Beautiful Things and Talk to the Animals is iconic (if not particularly stirring my musical juices) None of them will be troubling my Spotify playlist.

That said, I'm sure it looked amazing on stage and there is a touring version with Mark Williams in the title role on at the moment which does look like a lot of fun.

#amusicaladay No.5 - Doctor Dolittle.

I remember this stage adaptation of the Rex Harrison film arrived with great fanfare. I believe it was Philip Schofield's first major role on stage after suddenly breaking into musical theatre via Joseph. I know Julie Andrews was the voice of the parrot and much was made of the (for the time) state of the art puppetry and animatronics which brought the animals to life. #musicals #PhilipSchofield #DoctorDolittle

#amusicaladay Number 4 - Closer Than Ever. This is one of those 'revue' style #musicals which is just a string of loosely linked songs. The general theme of life threads through these but unlike a couple of other similar musicals I know - 35mm and Personals - none of the songs have made much impact on me and the overall musical styling left me a bit cold.

Favourite Song: Miss Byrd was fun and If I Sing had touching lyrics.

Fascinating Fact: This was originally a much shorter one act show.

@TheatreReviews One of my all-time favourites and recently revisited for my #amusicaladay .

#amusicaladay Number 3 = Blood Brothers.

A longtime favourite of mine ever since taking my now wife to see it on one of our first dates. I love the story and that dramatic ending with the shoot out is great theatre.
Favourite Songs: Bright New Day and I'm Not Saying a Word are top drawer. Tell Me Its Not True is a proper showstopper.
Going on the Playlist: Bright New Day is on there although I have to be in the mood for it otherwise it sometimes gets skipped.
#Musicals #WestEnd

#amusicaladay

Favourite Song: Probably The Gentleman is a Dope. It reminds me a lot of 'You Can Always Count on Me' from City of Angels. You Are Never Away is quite nice too.

Nothing feels like it's going to trouble my musicals playlist though.

Fascinating Fact: This musical's original production had a female combined director-choreographer - Agnes de Mille. It was quite the experimental musical for the time in the way it was staged.