I'm grabbing this opportunity to feature a Broadway musical that is actually new and I'm really excited about (mostly to acquire the Original Cast Recording after its January 10 release since travelling to New York to watch is obviously out of the question).
Without further ado, let's welcome Arielle back to our lives! How can ever I forget that song, Part of Your World, from the 1989 Disney movie? Two other movie songs were retained, Under the Sea and Kiss the Girl. Oh, it really sounds sparkling (*tightly clasping my hands*)!
This would be a welcome departure from my emotion- and concept-heavy musical playlists of late. I don't know much about the two leads, except that they seem to look the part. Who I'm more interested about initially is the actress who plays Ursula - Sherie Rene Scott. Being the voice behind Cathy (an insecure actress and wife) in The Last Five Years and Amneris (the rightful betrothed to the Prince but was left for an enslaved African princess) in Aida, another Disney-on-Broadway production, I would love to hear the ultimate-villain dimension in her.
Of course, our local, and not to mention original, Little Mermaid production (from Trumpets) from some years back will always be special for me. Its main deviation from this mega-production from Disney is that it is a little more faithful to the Hans Christian Andersen classic. The mermaid (Jewel) didn't get the Prince in the end because she sacrificed herself to save him. The music was first rate, too - less chirpy and more contemplative, I must say.
Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to hear one crustacean sing:
Under the sea, under the sea
Darlin' it's better down where it's wetter
Take it from me.
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we're devoting full time to floating
Under the sea
Here's a peak at Tim Burton's film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's creation (Broadway musical) Sweeney Todd, starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, and Sacha Baron Cohen.
The last film I watched from the trio of Burton-Depp-Bonham Carter is The Corpse Bride, which was great fun. This one, however, looks grotesque; grotesquely gorgeous, that is, if ever those two adjectives can go together. This review from the New York Times scared me out of my wits, though, that I'm not sure if I can make myself go inside the movie theater, which would truly be a shame.
I wanted my first post of the year to be something special and heartfelt. But my drained mind cannot produce anything that remotely merits those adjectives for now. It was then that I was reminded of this poem by one of my favorite writers, Rainer Maria Rilke.
Maybe it's because of its theme - a (potentially great) love undiscovered (or unrequited, if you'll look at it differently) - that I find this poem heartbreakingly familiar. Kudos to Stephen Mitchell for the translation (from the original German text).
You who never arrived in my arms, Beloved, who were lost from the start, I don't even know what songs would please you. I have given up trying to recognize you in the surging wave of the next moment. All the immense images in me– the far-off, deeply-felt landscape, cities, towers, and bridges, and unsuspected turns in the path, and those powerful lands that were once pulsing with the life of the gods- all rise within me to mean you, who forever elude me. You, Beloved, who are all the gardens I have ever gazed at, longing. An open window in a country house–, and you almost stepped out, pensive, to meet me. Streets that I chanced upon,– you had just walked down them and vanished. And sometimes, in a shop, the mirrors were still dizzy with your presence and, startled, gave back my too-sudden image. Who knows? perhaps the same bird echoed through both of us yesterday, separate, in the evening… Translated by Stephen Mitchell
