All tagged Les Miserables

Let’s Talk About Cats the Movie

Let’s Talk About Cats the Movie

Mark Robinson
Cinematters, Music That Makes Me Dance

Reviews for the film adaptation of the long-running West End and Broadway musical Cats have been brutal, even blistering. From the creepiness of the CGI effects to the ridiculously choppy editing and camera work that detracted from the choreography, Cats on the big screen has proven to be... well... a “cat” astrophe, bringing-in well under its projected box office receipts during its premiere weekend. Sure, the film was up against one of the year’s most eagerly anticipated films The Rise of Skywalker, but Cats failed on its own terms, and the force just wasn’t with it. That is not to say that there aren’t some things it got right. A few of them splendidly so. 

The Best Musical Tony Award Debate: 1987

The Best Musical Tony Award Debate: 1987

Mark Robinson
Music That Makes Me Dance

In writing about these the Tony-nominated Best Musicals of various seasons and making a judgment as to which nominee deserved to win, I take full ownership of my opinion and realize that many of you will disagree. In fact, I invite the debate and am always interested in hearing your opinions as well. Theatre is obviously subjective, and what appeals to me might invite disdain from you. Contrarily, what I detest might be something you are passionate about. When I write these pieces, I do try to keep by opinions balanced, supported with reasoning, while trying to find that good and the challenging in each musical I dissect. That being said, I often find myself at odds with my own determinations, loving one show more, respecting another, while ultimately conceding that yet another deserved to win. 1987, which featured Les Misérables, Rags, Starlight Express, and Me and My Girl as the Best Musical nominees, is a year that leaves me so divided, as each of them offered something very different and each excelled in very different ways. 

When the West End and Broadway Came Together for Christmas

When the West End and Broadway Came Together for Christmas

Mark Robinson
Music That Makes Me Dance

This week I was thinking about a holiday special that ran on Britain’s ITV that captured the beauty and spectacle of musical theatre in the late 1980s. Save the Children was the name of the program, and the piece was created as a benefit for the Save the Children Foundation, an organization dedicated to make the lives better for children the world over. It brought together the stars and casts of the West End and Broadway musicals that were the hits of the day, and, with the performers in costume and playing on the impressive sets of their respective shows, they sang beloved Christmas carols with a splendor and glory that stuck with this Broadway enthusiast for three decades.

Collabro: Road to the Royal Albert Hall — Album Review

Collabro: Road to the Royal Albert Hall — Album Review

Mark Robinson
Music That Makes Me Dance

I cannot get enough of the band Collabro. From the moment I first heard them sing “Stars” on Britain’s Got Talent, I felt plunged into a joy of theatre music delivered in an angelic way that has never been equally captured through four-part harmony. Not long after my introduction to Collabro, I had the fortune of interviewing the four young men that make up the group.  I soon learned that Michael Auger, Jamie Lambert, Matthew Pagan and Thomas J. Redgrave are not only extremely talented, but generous of spirit, kind, industrious, eloquent, and dedicated to their art of making showtunes sing with a special flair. It was a honor to speak to them and if their musical hadn’t already won me over, this interview would make me a fan for life. The announcement of their new album “Road to the Royal Albert Hall” was exciting news to me, but would it live up to expectations? 

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