1980s Broadway Musical Logos Madness! The Elite 8

We are obsessed with show logos and window cards! We just LOVE them. So we thought it'd be fun to have a show logo tournament, you know, like March Madness. We poured over the archives and decided to start with a 64 show bracket of musicals from the 1980s. Over the past seven weeks, you really responded, and the complete results through the Sweet Sixteen are below:

The original 64 team roster has been narrowed down to an Elite 8. Now, your job will be to determine The Final 4. Full sized versions of each show logo/window card appear below. Scroll down to start the poll. Thanks for playing! 

#2397

1980s Broadway Musical Logo Madness!

The Elite 8

HOW IT WILL WORK:

• Each week, we'll open the voting for a different segment of the bracket, and you will select your favorite from each pairing.
• Your selection should be based on the logo/window card ONLY. We are NOT looking for your favorite show! And it's possible to like a logo from a show you've never heard of before!
• You may vote every week!
• We will provide pictures of the full window card (in most cases) above each week's round, then you scroll down and make your selections. You MUST click/tap the "Click Me to Count Your VOTES" button at the bottom of the survey.
• THIS ROUND WILL CLOSE ON FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 AT 5 PM!

Here we go! May the best logo win! The actual poll appears after the full sized samples!

GAME 1:                                                                    GAME 2:

                         

GAME 3:                                                                    GAME 4:

                    

Broadway Games: More Trivial Pursuit: Broadway Edition

A few weeks ago, we tried out some Trivial Pursuit: Broadway Edition. The feedback was awesome, and we got several requests to play some more. Your wish is our command! Enjoy!

How many wedges can you earn from the "cards" below? (Without looking up the answers, of course!) As with the original game, the categories are: geography, entertainment, history, arts and literature, science and nature, and sports and leisure.

Good luck!

Broadway Games:

More Trivial Pursuit

G	Which Broadway house is closest to the Hudson River?
E	What 1972 musical famously created the first television commercial for a Broadway Show?
H	Six refers to what group of women?
AL	The opera Madame Butterfly serves as the basis for what musical?
SN	What experiment is Dr. Jekyll working on in Jekyll and Hyde?
SL	The play Take Me Out centers around what (to date) fictional issue in baseball?

G	On what continent does Priscilla Queen of the Desert take place?
E	What musical phenomenon appeared on the October 11, 1982 cover of Newsweek?
H	Who was the U.K. Prime Minister during the events depicted in Billy Elliot: The Musical?
AL	What Shakespearean tragedy is, at least in part, the basis of The Lion King?
SN	From what physical manifestation of a psychological trauma does Tommy, the pinball wizard suffer?
SL	What sport do Lysistrata Jones, The Full Monty and Promises, Promises have in common?

 

#2396

*****     *****     *****

Answers to Last Week's Game!

 

1. Show: Rent

    Song: "La Vie Boheme"

    Characters: Mark Cohen and Company

2. Show: Mean Girls

    Song: "Watch the World Burn"

    Characters: Regina George and Ensemble

3. Show: Kiss of the Spider Woman

    Song: "Where You Are"

    Characters: Aurora and the Prisoners

4. Show: Into the Woods

    Song: "It Takes Two"

    Characters: The Baker and the Baker's Wife

5. Show: Hello, Dolly!

    Song: "Dancing"

    Characters: Dolly Levi, Irene Molloy, Minnie Fay, Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker

6. Show: Hamilton

    Song: "Satisfied"

    Characters: Angelica Schuyler and Company

7. Show: A Chorus Line

    Song: "The Music and the Mirror"

    Character: Cassie

8. Show: Bye Bye Birdie

    Song: "The Telephone Hour"

    Characters: The Teenagers

9. Show: Beetlejuice

    Song: "The Whole 'Being Dead' Thing"

    Characters: Beetlejuice and Company

10. Show: The Band's Visit

      Song: "Answer Me"

      Characters: Telephone Guy and Company

Ms. Broadway August 2020: Mean Girls' Krystina Alabado

Of the current Plastics over at Mean Girls, Krystina Alabado has the most seasoned and lengthy resumé. That's no slight to the other actresses, of course, but they are in good company. She has a nice range of projects, ranging from regional and national tours to off and on Broadway stage credits. Those credits include several cutting edge productions from seasoned and new voices. And any alum of American Psycho has my vote in any month! These days, however, being the misunderstood Gretchen Weiners is more than enough to name her Ms. Broadway August 2020!

Ms. Broadway August 2020

Mean Girls'

Krystina Alabado

GETTING TO KNOW KRYSTINA ALABADO

Birth Date: August 7

Education: Hamilton High School

Family: Married to Robert Lenzi

Select Theater Credits: Broadway: Mean Girls, American Psycho, American Idiot; Off-Broadway: The Mad Ones, Lazarus; National Tour: Evita, American Idiot, Spring Awakening; Regional: Burn All Night, Miss You Like Hell

REGIONAL

Burn All Night

NATIONAL TOUR

OFF-BROADWAY

BROADWAY

#2395

Musical of the Month: Floyd Collins: The Score

This week, we end our Musical of the Month series on the off-Broadway show Floyd Collins. Specifically, I'll be sharing a few thoughts on the score (music and lyrics) by Adam Guettel.

I'll begin where I probably should end, with an admission: the complexities and richness of the piece is such that one could write a book about it. So to try and even explain a little of it can't possibly do it justice. I'll just suffice it to say that this score is a pinnacle of the new modern musical era, so advanced is its sound. Like all of the new scores (and composers) of this turn of the century, post-Sondheim generation, Collins pushes boundaries, demands much of its audience, and propels the innately American art form, the musical, once again to the forefront of music that deserves - begs - to be studied.

Not unlike his equally wondrous Light in the Piazza, it forces you to pay attention, and in doing so, makes you get lost in the world it creates. Appropriately, Floyd Collins has a hillbilly/bluegrass sound, rich with fiddling, banjo playing and harmonicas. But all of those sounds also come through in an almost symphonic way, too. The result is a tightly woven score that is simultaneously evocative of its rural Kentucky setting  and character-specific. The lyrics are drawn from simplistic vocabulary that is so carefully chosen, you get both authenticity and a scholarly vividness all at once.

The company of actors executes the vocal arrangements with such dexterity, you don't notice it until it hits you aren't actually in a cave with Floyd, or waiting anxiously outside with friends,  family, and a growing crowd of thrill-seeking strangers.

The entire cast recording is amazing, and I highly recommend you listen to it all the way through. Several times. But in the interest of, well, generating interest, I offer you six of my favorite numbers, in the order they appear in the show:

"The Call" - Floyd Collins (Christopher Innvar)

Listen to this "I want" song for its yearning and its yodeling. 

"It Moves" - Floyd Collins (Christopher Innvar)

Close your eyes and you'll see the Great Sand Cave appear in your mind.

"The Riddle" - Homer Collins (Jason Danieley) & Floyd Collins (Christopher Innvar)

The brotherly love and heartbreaking hope is palpable. Danieley is perfection.

"Is That Remarkable?" - The Reporters & Company

You'll laugh at this toe-tapper. Then you'll give some serious thought to journalism and sensationalism versus the truth.

"Carnival" - Floyd Collins (Christopher Innvar) & Company

What is going on in the cave versus outside, and a stunning orchestral interlude.

"The Dream" - Floyd Collins (Christopher Innvar), Homer Collins (Jason Danieley), Nellie Collins (Theresa McCarthy) & Company

I dare you not to cry.

#2394