Arts & Theater
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When the Tallest Person in the Room Sits Directly in Front of You… — OnStage Blog
by Chris Peterson Good morning. I would like to begin today with a message of solidarity for a very specific group of people: those of us who have paid full price for a theatre ticket only to spend the evening staring directly into the back of someone’s head. As a short person, I know this experience well. Too well. I…
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Track by Track: “Songs for a New World” (1995 Off-Broadway Recording")
by Chris Peterson For this week’s Track by Track, we are going back to one of those cast recordings that did not just live in your CD binder in the early 2000s. It became part of your personality. For a very specific generation of musical theatre kids, Songs for a New World was one of those albums. It was not…
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Track by Track: “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (Film Soundtrack)
by Chris Peterson It is still kind of unbelievable that The Hunchback of Notre Dame exists as a Disney animated film at all. This is a movie built around lust, sin, hypocrisy, repression, cruelty, and public humiliation, all pulled from one of the darkest stories Disney ever chose to adapt. Even now, revisiting it as an adult, I keep coming…
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Track by Track: “Godspell” – 2011 Broadway Revival — OnStage Blog
This sounds great. Really great, actually. It is one of those endings that just swells in exactly the way you want it to, and on this recording it lands with a real sense of power. It is not really a traditional Broadway finale in the sense of wrapping up plot and sending you out with one last button. It is…
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Some Theatre Teachers Really Need to Learn the Difference Between Teaching and Killing Dreams — OnStage Blog
by Chris Peterson There is a particular kind of arrogance that seems to show up in theatre training far too often, and it is this idea that a professor or teacher gets to decide who is and is not meant for this business. Every so often, I hear a story from someone in theatre about the moment a professor, acting…
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“The Phantom of the Opera” — OnStage Blog
A full banquet of chaos. This final sequence gives you confrontation, desperation, emotional collapse, mob energy, romance, pity, and just enough redemption to leave everyone arguing on the ride home. Crawford is especially strong here because he lets the Phantom unravel in a way that is ugly and sad rather than glamorous. That matters. The ending only works if you…
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“The Addams Family” — OnStage Blog
As much as this cast recording benefits from having absolute pros like Nathan Lane, Bebe Neuwirth, Terrance Mann, Kevin Chamberlin, and Carolee Carmello in the mix, I have to give this one to Krysta Rodriguez. Because for me, she is the person who elevates the material the most. And that is not a small thing on an album like this…
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Why Those Post-Show Diner Trips Meant Everything — OnStage Blog
by Chris Peterson There is something sacred about a post-show diner trip when you’re a theatre kid. And for me, that was especially true in college. Those Denny’s trips were sacred events. I do not mean that in some dramatic, exaggerated way either. I mean, truly sacred. They were the extension of the show. The unofficial final act. The place…
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The 10 Love Songs I’m Playing on Repeat This Valentine’s Day Weekend — OnStage Blog
by Chris Peterson Valentine’s Day weekend always does this to me. Some people buy flowers, some people book overpriced prix fixe dinners, and some of us sit around ranking musical theatre love songs like it’s a competitive sport, and our emotional well-being depends on it. So in the spirit of romance, longing, chaos, and people singing their feelings instead of…
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“Groundhog Day” is Underrated and I’m Done Being Quiet About It — OnStage Blog
And that’s honestly why I love it, and I need to say this clearly: I think Groundhog Day is one of the most underrated musicals of the last decade. And I don’t mean underrated like “it didn’t win everything and I’m still bitter.” I mean, underrated like, why are we not talking about this show the way we talk about…
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