Current Obsession: Howie Michael Smith

Howie with Princeton

Last Saturday I went to see Avenue Q for my first time. To be honest, I was worried I would be the stick in the mud of the audience who didn’t think it was that funny and lamented the absence of what my elitist self calls “musical sustenance”– which I had thought could only be provided by megamusicals like Phantom, Les Mis, Rent, and so on.

Boy, was I wrong.

In fact, from the moment that the Avenue Q theme snuck up and surprised the audience booming through the theatre to the last bittersweet note sung in “For Now”, the musical had me smiling like a child watching Sesame Street the whole way through. The entire show is composed of a dynamic of ridiculous humor and overwhelming cuteness, which it executes perfectly.

The show is about several problems faced by the residents of a NYC borough “Avenue Q” (located far outside Alphabet City I assume). Princeton, the show’s lead, is a fresh move-in from college who’s realizing life isn’t easy just because your done college. He also has relationship problems with Kate Monster, his sexy furry friend. Rod, a republican/investment banker, deals with his closeted homosexuality in the worst (most self destructive) ways. The whole gang is hilarious and I encourage everyone to get a piece of this Broadway gold.

Two performances really stuck with me at my showing of Avenue Q. The first was the asian actress, who played the money troubled Christmas Eve. Her parts were hilarious and she would spring out a surprisingly beautiful voice here and there in between her shrill asian-lady parts. The second was the extremely drool-worthy Howie Michael Smith: who played the principal roles of Princeton and also Rod.

I didn’t realize it was a developing crush at first, but all my attention was on him while he was on the stage. He brought SO much energy to his parts, and truly gave Princeton and Rod the exact character persona they deserved. His talented acting and superb voice have actually reignited my deep, starry eyed children’s dream to become a Broadway actor. (Hopefully that urge will subside quickly enough)

After leaving the theatre, Smith’s role still stuck out in my head. His bulging arms and pectoral muscles did, as well. So I looked him up online. As one would expect, I’m not the first person to become obsessed with the man. I read and listened to his multiple interviews and found whatever media about him I could find.

Howie Michael Smith

He’s truly one of Broadway’s biggest talents at the time and I hope I can amount to a fraction of his accomplishment!

Personal Review: Jekyll and Hyde

Musicals are one of my favorite forms of music. I have a decent-sized collection of these works in my iTunes library, and spend a lot of time listening to the same great songs over and over again. So, obviously, I was thrilled when I accidentally stumbled upon some more great music which was completely new to me!

This musical, which I believe came to me through a “related videos” on Youtube or a “users have also purchased” on iTunes, is called Jekyll & Hyde by Frank Wildhorn. You may have heard the name; it’s based on the very popular work by a (Scottish/Swedish?) author named The Strange Case if Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The (watered down) plot centers around a man who, after giving himself an experimental medication, gives birth to a murderous alter-ego by means of extreme schizophrenia. The musical also makes a focus point on social interaction, with its various reprisals of a number “Facade”: a song about the fake-face we all present to our associates. Overall I enjoy the messages employed, and especially like the wording of this question:

“If we’re not one but two, are we evil or good? Do we walk the fine line, would we cross if we could?”

The music in Jekyll and Hyde immediately had me captivated. On iTunes I heard dark, thundering chords of the show’s prologue and immediately bought and downloaded the show. I don’t appear to be the only one. The show is not the most successful musical out there, but has earned a cult following reminiscent of the “Rocky Horror” crowd. I’m much more into dark or sad orchestral music, and saw a blend of some of my favorite show’s motifs in J&H. It seems like a mix of Webber’s love songs from Phantom of the Opera and Sondheim’s dark themes from Sweeney Todd. While that is a very generalized statement, if you give the musical a listen you’ll see what I’m talking about. So now for an objective “review”:

The Good:

The musical moods expressed in Jekyll and Hyde are auditorially fantastic. There are very few songs in the 31-track album that I don’t enjoy listening to. My favorites I’ll discuss below. These few I’ll point out are Lost in the Darkness, Facade, No One Knows Who I Am, This is the Moment, Murder, Murder, and Confrontation.

Lost in the Darkness is the opening vocal number and sung by the show’s protagonist (and antagonist, actually). It’s a lamentable tune and unveils the inner-anguish of the character. The melody is reprised in many parts of the show, and is a very good song for easy listening.

Facade immediately follows Lost in the Darkness, and is a minor-keyed choral work which discusses society’s impure ways. Connections can be made between this song and “At the End of the Day” from Les Miserables. This song also has some very good sections from a lyrical point of view: with verses such as this:

“Nearly every one you meet
Like him and her
and you and me
Pretends to be a pillar of society

A model of propriety,
sobriety,
and piety
Who shudders at the thought of notoriety.”

The overall fast and flowing pace of this song is a great listen and the orchestration has wonderful balance. It’s an excellent depiction of what I see as the main three types of songs in this work (which I’ll discuss later).

No One Knows Who I Am is a morose female aria, rich with fluff-filled similes and essentially the entire point of the song is in the title. Besides that small complaint, the eerie melody of her voice complemented by a jazz-influenced piano accompaniment make this song very enjoyable.

This is the Moment may have been written by a male Celine Dion. It’s cheesy, it’s bursting at the seams with over-emotion, and is a very good listen. Preluding the musicals “turn for the dark side”, it is an inspirational climactic piece monologued by the protagonist/protagonist about himself reaching his pinnacle point to overcome the odds recently set against him. It starts out quiet and reflective and crescendos incredibly for a gripping conclusion of the musical’s exposition (though it does not end Act I). It also is representative of the second type of song in the J&H.

Murder, Murder fits in with “Facade” in the group of fast-paced, minor-keyed, choral songs that make up a good portion of the show. Just for reference, the songs in this group are “Facade”, “Facade Reprisals 1-4″, “Good N’ Evil”, “Alive”, and “Murder, Murder”. This song moves the plot along quite nicely, outlining four or five murders that take place over a few day’s time. I suppose it makes up for it by being a long one: the song weighs in at five and a half minutes. Although there’s two or three different melodies that are cycled in these 5 1/2 minutes, it’s still enjoyable the whole way through. Similarly to “Facade”, the song shows great orchestral balance, and the fullness of the melodies makes it a fantastic song.

Confrontation is my favorite song from the musical: being the final climax and conclusion. As the title suggests it is the “confrontation” between Jekyll and his alter-ego Hyde. The song actually employs the two previously mentioned motifs and represents the third. The beginning of this song is a reprisal of “Lost in the Darkness”, and the beginning of the feud with Hyde is reminiscent in rhythm and structure to “Facade”/”Alive”. The end of the song represents the last type of music in the show: a bombastic orchestra complemented by choir ah’s, with loud and evil-sounding vocals. This third type has an extremely impressive sound and should paint a smile on the face of anyone with an appreciative ear. “Confrontation” from Jekyll and Hyde ranks in the top five songs from any musical, and definitely is up there across all genres.

These songs are great to represent the musical and should definitely be given a listening

The Bad:

This show does not appear to have been received with huge enthusiasm as it played for only four years in its Broadway run. After seeing the performance of the song “First Transformation” by David Hasselhoff in the DVD of the stage-show, I think it’s because the plot performance is not as great as the music.

Other than that, I must admit that the musicality of the music is not very advanced at all. Many of the songs consist of a very standard and basic minor scale progression: (for example) D minor, C major, Bb major, A major, D minor… If compared to shows like Sweeney Todd, Wicked, or West Side story- the ‘genius’ of the composer is pale in comparison.

That doesn’t get me down, though. I truly love listening to some of the songs and enjoy every one at the least. There is a crowd of “musical elitists” that don’t give music the light of day that they deserve if a chord structure isn’t complex enough or if it lacks originality. But the fact is I enjoy it, and would never knock it for that reason. Still, I would have to say the composers of other more complex works are deserving of more respect for their efforts.

Conclusion:

Basically it’s up to you. If you’re interested enough to give it a listen, make sure to buy the 1997 Broadway Album (definitely the best, iTunes link here).

I love the music of the musical, but as I said I am a huge fan of dark orchestral music. So, no, this music will not be everyone’s cup of tea. But if you’re anything like me, or just intelligent enough to appreciate pleasing music, you should find something great in Jekyll and Hyde.

Note: apparently there are talks of a J&H movie. That’d be fantastic! Hope you enjoyed me review and analysis. Feel free to comment! -Alegoo92

Video Game Scores

Slowly as ever working on a compilation of my favorite video game scores for my youtube channel. The thing is the selection out there isn’t that great. People argue for the sake of Final Fantasy and those japanese-ultra-dramatic soundtracks: but I see very little to nothing in them.So far I’ve finalized Kingdom Hearts, World of Warcraft, Zelda, and Halo. If anyone has any favorite pick of theirs and wants to share, please feel free to do so.-Alegoo92