Somedays (most days, actually) I wish I lived in a place where there was a strong musical theatre scene, like New York or London. Or even some place where there were tons of musical workshops like Chicago and LA.

However, since I live in a country where the musical scene is deader than a doornail (and that's putting it mildly), I have to make do with Youtubing.

So, here are two videos of two fabulous Broadway guys Matt Cavenaugh and Aaron Tveit singing songs written by Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk.

Matt Cavenaugh (West Side Story) singing "Someone Else's Life"


Aaron Tveit (Next To Normal) singing "Run Away With Me"


I swear, I could just fall for their absolutely swoon-worthy voices. Of course, being yummy-faced is quite the added bonus. Grins.

Here's hoping I can go to either New York or London in 2010 :)

Maybe I've lost it at last
Maybe my last lucid moment has passed
I'm dancing with death I suppose
But really, who knows?
Could be I'm crazy to go
They say you should stay with the devil you know
But when life needs a change
And the one devil won't
You fight to the devil you don't

Maybe/Next To Normal
"Next To Normal"

the music of the night

There's something about the last line of the finale song from The Phantom of the Opera that always gets me. I mean, it's not like I start bawling or anything. But just for that instant, when the Phantom sings:

"You alone can make my song take flight. It's over now, the music of the night."

That anguished tone, the emotion in those lyrics, that final refrain of music, makes me pause whatever I'm doing just so I can fully absorb that moment.

Of course, that pause only comes when I'm listening to Colm Wilkinson as the Phantom. Gerard Butler, while undeniably hotter, just does not have that voice. (CW being the Canadian Cast Recording Phantom and GB being the movie Phantom, fyi to all non-PotO-ers)

And, wow, does this just confirm my total musical geekness or what. Haha.

OMG. Lea Salonga is doing Cinderella and Sam Mendes is directing Ethan Hawke in The Winter's Tale. At the Esplanade.

*Shrieks*

Of course, the fact that it costs a complete fortune with absolutely no student discounts (or, really, any discount whatsoever) makes me just want to bawl. Or rob a bank.

Why oh why do shows in Singapore have to be so expensive. Whimpers.

hi, i'm a music addict

I've been told many times by many people that I've got weird music tastes, something I freely admit to. I have an eclectic taste in music and books (but more on books another time).

Case in point: my current iTunes playlist quite literally has everything from Coldplay's Vida La Vida to Glass Pear's Last Day Of Your Life to Patrick Doyle's awesome soundtrack to the less-awesome 1998 film Great Expectations to Chris Cornell's Scream to The Mirror/Blue Night from the musical Spring Awakening (which I rave about here) to Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba.

Eclectic doesn't even begin to cover my taste in music. I listen to all sorts of music. Except metal. Metal and I have issues. Irreconcilliable differences kind of issues.

Point is, when people ask me what kind of music I like, that's a loaded question.

But music's always been a thing for me. You know how there are some songs that you'll listen to and pinpoint an exact moment where you were listening to that song in your lifetime? I do that a lot. I have my own version of the soundtrack of my life. Some songs belong with fab memories, some with bittersweet ones, and some that just make me sigh and wish I could forget that moment.

Then there are the songs from real soundtracks. I obsess over music in shows. I'm one of those with theme songs on their iTunes. And not just the famous ones like John Williams' Jurassic Park and Alan Silvestri's Forrest Gump and Clint Mansell's Requiem For A Dream. I have the theme song to W. G. Snuffy Walden's The West Wing. And that's just one out of many, many songs. (Yes, am a freak.)

And music kept me going through the disaster that was the third season of The OC and it's keeping me going on One Tree Hill despite the horrendous soap opera direction it's taking. So far The OC (and Josh Schwartz) rewarded that with an excellent fourth season. One Tree Hill's still leaving a lot to be desired for, but we'll see how that goes.

But I was just thinking about how a song or score can totally set the mood for any show. Like the explosive (and I mean that literally) premiere of the fourth season of Criminal Minds. Mark Mancina (also composer of Speed) created such an adrenaline-pumping soundtrack that I was so on the edge that my mother saying hi to me made me jump. Now that is some truly excellent scoring work. 43 minutes and I'm just completely gripped.

(Incidentally, the sound editing for that ep was way cool. Adrenaline-pumping scoring blaring out, then sudden silence except for the atmos sound of Morgan searching the empty subway train. Whoa.)

So. Point being, am music-obsessed. And proud of it. Now excuse me while I return to my music and communing with my inner whatever.

Spring Awakening

Aghh the original Broadway leads of Spring Awakening aren't there anymore! Damn. It's times like this when I wish I lived in New York. Sighs.

Oh well. At least there's always Youtube :)

Spring Awakening at the 2007 Tony Awards
Winner of Best Musical Award
Music by Duncan Sheik, Book and Lyrics by Steven Sater

ohmigod you guys!

I cannot believe they've made a reality TV series searching for the new Elle Woods for the Legally Blonde musical. And ohmigod, the girls totally can't compare to Laura Bell Bundy.

Sighs so much for me getting to see the original Broadway cast perform it live. Oh wells. Let's hope Christian Borle and Orfeh don't leave so soon either.

prime passed

You know what. I think I've passed my prime. Seriously. The twenties is no longer the time for, well, primeness. Talents are popping up in their teens.

Case in point: Adam G. Sevani, the kid who plays Moose in Step Up 2 The Streets is 16-years-old. Sixteen. Have you seen the way he dances??

Not to mention the guitarist in the We Will Rock You band for the Australiasian tour. Guy's been in the WWRY band since he was 16. And he's 21 now. Dude's younger than me and he's been playing on WWRY for five years.

Like I said. I've passed my prime. OMG.

One of my favorite songs from the musical We Will Rock You, sung by original London cast member Kerry Ellis. Wish I could've seen the original London cast sing. Sighs. But Youtube's the next best thing. Haha.

who wants to live forever

there's no time for us
there's no place for us
what is this thing that builds our dreams
yet slips away from us

who wants to live forever..
who wants to live forever?

there's no chance for us
it's all decided for us
this world has only one sweet moment set aside for us

who wants to live forever..
who wants to live forever?
who dares to love forever
when love must die?

but touch my tears with your lips
touch my world with your fingertips
and we can have forever
and we can love forever
forever is our today

who wants to live forever..
who wants to live forever?
forever is our today

who waits forever anyway..

- queen -
- galileo/scaramouche, "we will rock you" -

bless the music treats of 2008

Am absolutely happy that this year has been a yummy treat for my music soul so far. Got to see two of my favourite bands EVER, *Switchfoot* and *Maroon 5*, both with totally fabulous music. Hearing Jon Foreman's amazing voice singing 24 and Dare You To Move live makes the CDs pale in comparison. And there's nothing like watching the delectable Adam Levine move on stage. Yum. Grins.

On the musical front, got lovely fixes at the start of the year with *Legally Blonde The Musical* which is completely hilarious with funny happy song, and *Rent* which is bittersweet with awesome rock tunes. Granted, I could only see them on screen. But even on screen, these two awesome musicals eased the fix for a short while. At least, until the itch came back.

And guess what musical answered the call?

The absolutely rocking musical *We Will Rock You* which I got to see not once, but TWICE (and both times for student price! beams. the perks of studenthood.) And may I just add, the 2nd time was front and center, giving me a crystal clear view and being thisclose to the yummerlicious Mig Ayesa. (Yes, I know I'm bragging. But being thisclose? I so get bragging rights.)

And now, today, I got to hear (almost) an hour of Mig Ayesa live and acoustic on Power 98! Admittedly, so did a billion other people who happened to tune in. But still. Doesn't dampen the effect of hearing him sing I Want To Break Free and doing an adorable guitar voice :) (Cue me bouncing about happily.)

Now all I need is my iPod to work again so I can listen to all their music over and over again while I'm making my dreary trips to and from work. Sighs.

from the peace to the war

16 June 2007:

Acres and acres of beautiful sprawling greenery amidst tall towers of concrete. OINY. Only in New York.

Central Park is my favorite place to go to in the day. Okay, I'll probably freeze there in winter so to correct myself, it's my favorite place to go in the summer of New York. It is so amazingly serene. Even with groups of people all around you, and tall buildings still in view, it is utterly awesome. We bought lunch (more about that later) and had a little picnic in Central Park, near the Columbus Circle subway stop. It wasn't too hot, and it was so much fun to just sit, eat fab food and chat. A picnic here is so not to be missed.

Actually, I'm sure there's a lot more to the park that I've yet to see. Wanna know how big it is? The Metropolitan Museum of Art is located inside. There's a zoo, about three large bodies of water, and it stretches all the way from 59th St. to way past 100th St. Going to try for the Met tomorrow.

Lunch was a whole new experience today. We got out at Columbus Circle and saw a mall across the street with a Wholefoods supermarket, so we walked in, intending to get some biscuits to munch at Central Park while we walked around. Instead, we found a totally yummy paradise.

Apart from the typical grocery section (which are all organic, hence the name Wholefood), there are two salad bars and two hot food bars for you to pick and choose food from. Food goes at about 7.99USD per pound, but if you're not a heavy eater, it's unlikely you'll hit that range.

The variety of food is SO yummy. There's rice and curry and five types of chicken and lots of salads and couscous (which I am now into, thanks to Sandy. heh.) and a whole lot of yummy food. It smells so divine. We spent a good two hours trying to figure out what to get. Oh and the soups! I love the soups. There's like ten types of soup to choose from. So yummy. I had gazpacho which is a kind of cold soup, which is totally perfect for a summer picnic in Central Park :)

We went back to Times Square after because I decided that I just had to watch Les Miserables on Broadway. Lea Salonga's singing Fantine! How could I possibly miss it? The queue was surprisingly (and blessedly) short, so our poor legs, tired from the queues of the day before, weren't overexerted. After that, we wandered about Times Square. Pretty much went back to the stores we were in love with, like Colony (for me) and M&Ms (for Jing Yng).

Colony is the coolest music store. It has every single score to a ton of famous artistes and musicals and movies, and then some. Marina and "Aidan" (heh), you guys will totally love it. I found Maroon 5 and guess what. There's more than 5 chords to Sunday Morning. Hahahahhaha. Too bad the scores were a tad bit ex, otherwise I'd probably have bought something. But it's totally a musical paradise.

M&Ms is so SO funky that even going two days in a row, we're still enjoying ourselves there. Took a photo with green and red M&Ms (which I'll upload soon. one day. i think.) and played M&M checkers. The chocolates are separated into columns according to color, so it looks so pretty. They've got themed M&Ms too, like Halloween (black, purple and orange), Christmas (green, white and red obviously), and -get this- Shrek-inspired M&Ms! The chocolates are "ogre-sized" and the come in green, brown and orange. SO cute. Everything in there totally screams "Photograph me!" They've even got jewellery in the shape of M&Ms. Haha.

We got our "I Heart New York" T-shirts from the opposite corner, which I will proudly wear when I'm back in Singapore - but only at Parkway because it is a tad bit big and I look quite sloppy in it.

I went to watch Les Miserables after that, while JY and Alvi wandered about themselves (which you can read about it here when JY gets around to blogging about it). It really differs from the West End production. Firstly, American accent. Kinda weird to hear them sing with American accents after being so used to hearing it in the Brit one. Lea Salonga was so amazing. She had the loudest cheers from the audience (which probably means I'm not the only one who went to watch just for her). The rest of the cast were alright, although I didn't really like Eponine. Had a lot of replacements in the cast although they were mostly the small roles, except for Enjolras. But the replacement was quite excellent.

Sadly, it doesn't compare at all to the West End cast. Okay, maybe I'm biased. Broadway Marius certainly wasn't as cute as West End Marius. Heh. Also, the Broadway musical arrangement differs from the West End one. Instead of the full orchestra of the West End, Broadway uses more strings, so the whole musical lacked a sense of climax at several points. Like when Enjolras was garnering support for the revolution, the song seriously lacked the oom-pah-pah that I've been so used to.

On the bright side, it has a couple of scenes that they kept from the original musical but was taken out of the West End production. They fleshed out the stories a little bit more, which added to the overall feel. They had a couple of prop problems though, because when Cosette was pining away from Marius, the gates started opening slowly and a crew member had to come out to latch everything together. Rather ruined the mood. Then again, I never liked Cosette's pine-y song, so whatever.

I think it's safe to say that epic musicals work better on the West End. They've got more dignity for it. Broadway probably does spectacularly for musicals like The Producers and Chicago. Oh wells. I'm glad I watched Les Mis here though, 'cause now I can proudly proclaim I've seen it in three different countries, and with four different casts live, plus one on TV. Ahh, the 10th anniversary concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1995. The dream cast has totally spoiled me for any other version of it. No one, absolutely no one, comes close to doing Jean Valjean as fabulously as Colm Wilkinson does.

Okay. While I'm running on a happy buzz from watching a musical, I shall go sleep and dream happy dreams. Night all :)

there's nothing like a show on broadway

15 June 2007:
There are several things that are considered a must when one comes to New York. Take a stroll in Central Park. See the Statue of Liberty. Go to the observatory deck of the Empire State Building.

See a Broadway musical.

Which I am so deliriously proud to say I did today! Hah.

We watched Boubil & Schonberg’s newest musical, The Pirate Queen, which combined the typical epic-scale musical of B&S with amazing tapping from the people of Riverdance. I’ll talk a little bit more about the musical later.

But first. Let us hear the tale of woe that three strangers in a foreign land had to endure. It is one of excitement and intrigue, filled with suspension and tension that leaves you exhausted yet exhilarated.

Okay. So that may be a slight exaggeration. But really, only very slight. Because let me tell you, buying tickets to a Broadway show is rather stressful. It should come with a warning that says “only the die-hards like xun need apply.”

Unlike the dignified air of the West End, queuing for half-priced tickets on Broadway is an excruciating business. We had to queue up at the TKTS booth just next to the Marriott Hotel lobby for a good hour that snaked up and down the side of the lobby. Orchestra seat tickets are sold at half-priced here, which approximately comes to about sixty bucks for a ticket. Musicals here really are quite on the expensive side. Converting back to Singapore dollar, I paid much less for a fabulous seat in the West End than I did for a so-so seat on Broadway. Blah.

Plus the half-priced tickets weren’t available for the shows we really wanted to see, such as The Lion King and Wicked. So we ended up in a debate over whether to watch Beauty and the Beast (which I vetoed) or Altar Boys (which was selling pretty cheaply, but we weren’t sure about it) and The Pirate Queen. As aforementioned, we went with The Pirate Queen.

But the decision-making was the least of it all. We were hurrying up and down the entire Times Square district, going ten streets away and back in like 15 minutes, or running eight floors down the Marriott Hotel. All in desperate attempts to get cheaper tickets. Not like there was much discount. Sighs. Still, it was a pretty interesting experience.

Considering PQ was written by the great talents that delivered Les Miserables, I expected it to be an ab-fab musical. Unfortunately, it only had an average storyline. The singing was quite decent, although there was once where I thought the actor playing Tiernan looked like he was seizing while singing. Oh, and Donald looked uncannily like Legolas and Aragorn’s elven general war buddy in The Two Towers. Har. But it was quite an unsatisfactory musical experience overall. Maybe London’s West End has totally spoilt me. Oh dear.

Anyways. That was the end of the day. To rewind time, we started our day by wandering about Greenwich Village, which has pretty funky stuff. Oh, the Forbes office is here too and it had a really cool display of antique toy boats, every edition imaginable of Monopoly, and a bunch of other toy collections from Malcolm Forbes’s childhood.

After that, we went to the Strand bookstore which sells books outside for a dollar each, but requires impressive scrounging (which I’m apparently quite incapable of). I spent more time at Forbidden Planet though, which is the coolest comic store I’ve ever seen. I’m so in love with it. I was reading the first issue of Neil Gaiman’s Eternals inside and the latest Exiles issue (which, thanks to a pathetic comic collection in Singapore, I’m like 50 issues behind). It is an amazing shop. So desperately wanted to buy everything there, like the Eternals and the Buffy spin-off comic that is supposed to be “season eight”. However, the prices of a lot of the books made that quite on the side of impossible.

From Greenwich, we headed over to Times Square, which is currently my official favorite place ever in New York City. It is so frickin’ cool. It has a massive M&M’s shop that has the funkiest stuff, and a really excellent music store called Colony. Ooh and yummy ice cream from Coldstone’s. By the way, neon lights? So passé. The in-thing now is brightly lit digital screens. Utterly pretty. I doubt any of my photos would do Times Square justice. And the excitement from the people all around you makes you feel so excited too.

I am in love with Times Square. It is so cool. I’ll probably head down again tomorrow or the day after so I can get my “I Heart New York” t-shirt. Whee! Okay. Off to bed now. Too tired to keep my eyes open. Ciao!

do you hear the people sing?

Do you hear the people sing
Lost in the valley of the night?
It is the music of a people
Who are climbing to the light.

For the wretched of the earth
There is a flame that never dies.
Even the darkest night will end
And the sun will rise.

They will live again in freedom
In the garden of the Lord.
They will walk behind the plough-share,
They will put away the sword.
The chain will be broken
And all men will have their reward.

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!

- Finale, Les Miserables -

yeah i know i'm supposed to be studying psych. taking a five min break before i really go psycho.
sighs. back to psychological disorders. again.

oh, to meet you....

So. I was reading Neil Gaiman's journal on www.neilgaiman.com when I saw this link to an interview he had with Joss Whedon, from Time magazine, and I suddenly thought of the people I want to meet in this lifetime. And not just meet, but hold entire, lengthy conversations with them. Or watch them perform live. (Thus the new list on the sidebar) So:

1. Neil Gaiman: if only I could be Hy Bender. If you've read the Sandman Companion by Bender, and are as crazy over Neil Gaiman and Sandman as me, you'll get why I want to be Bender.
2. Joss Whedon: because who can look back on his miserable high school years and create Buffy?
3. Colm Wilkinson: the one-and-only man in my opinion who can sing Jean Valjean in Les Mis and the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera
4. J. K. Rowling: where on earth did Harry Potter sprout from? And also, bring back Sirius Black. And Dumbledore. Sighs.
5. Jim Brickman: I want a piano lesson from him. :)
6. Jason Hahn: who exactly are Saffy and Amanda?
7. Craig Armstrong, Hans Zimmer: just for their unbelievable skills with film scores

Edited 4th October:
When Stacey saw this post, she said how this list of people was basically everything you need to know about me (or something along the lines of that). Which is pretty accurate, because it does cover all my top interests.
Funny how that works out, huh? Wonder who others will put on their list of people to meet. Anyone who does this, let me know. I'll want to check it out. Hehz.