RIP

Jeff Conaway known for his roles in Taxi and as Kenickie in the movie Grease died early in the week due to a drug overdose

Let us all rock out to Greased Lightning in his honor.

Season 2 of Glee Favorite songs

Here is a list of my favorite songs they have done on Glee this season. Some episodes had more memorable than others. I missed Brittany/Britney, Blame It On The Alchool and Sue Sylvester Shuffle


Fellow Gleeks: Would love to hear what some of your favorite songs this season were.


Episode 1: Auditon

• Listen

Episode 2:Brittney/Brittney (did not watch this whole episode only clips)

• Me Against The Music

Episode 3: Grilled Cheezus

• Losing My Religon





• I Want To Hold Your Hand

Episode 4: Duets

• River Deep Mountain High





• Happy Days Are Here Again





• Don't Go Breaking My Heart

Episode 5: Rocky Horror Glee Show All performances in this episode were amazing and did the original versions justice.

Episode 6: Never Been Kissed

• Teenage Dream





• Stop In The Name Of Love





• Livin on A Prayer

Episode 7: The Substitute

• Nowadays/ Hot Honey Rag- My vote for next season is that they do either All That Jazz or Mr. Cellophane. Who agrees?





• Make Em Laugh

Episode 8: Furt

• Marry You





• Just The Way You Are

Episode 9: Special Education

• Hey Soul Sister





• Time of Your Life

Episode 10: A Very Glee Christmas Please refer to my entry Breaking down the Glee Christmas Album for complete analysis of the song content of this episode.

Episode 11: The Sue Sylvester Shuffle (did not watch the whole episode only clips)

• Need You Now





• Thriller

Episode 12: Silly Love Songs

• PYT





• Firework

Episode 13: Comeback

The only good song in this episode was Take Me Or Leave Me.

Episode 14: Blame It On The Alcohol did not watch this episode.

Episode 15: Sexy

• Landslide





• Afternoon Delight

Episode 16: Original Song

• Big Ass Heart





• Get It Right





• Hell To The No





• Blackbird

Episode 17: A Night of Neglect

• Ain't No Way





• All By Myself

Episode 18: Born This Way

I was very disappointed that they chose to do another episode centered around Lady Gaga's music. I am not a huge fan of very many of her songs. The only performance I liked in this episode was Somewhere Only We Know.

Episode 19:Rumors

• Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow





• Go Your Own Way

Episode 20: Prom Queen

• Rolling In The Deep





• Dancing Queen





• Jar of Hearts

Episode 21:Funeral

• Pure Imagination





• Some People





• Try A Little Tenderness





• My Man

Episode 22: New York Season 2 Finale

• Bella Note



• For Good

Overall Glee has been somewhat disappointing this season mostly in part due to lacking storylines. Hopefully the writes come up with better storylines for season 3 to make this cast go out with a bang. Glee will definiltey not be the same with a different cast and I doubt I will continue to watch it after next year. The finale was so-so. While it was tearjerker in certain areas I thought it could have been better in other areas.

I liked

• Kurt and Blaine's I love yous at the end. They need more scenes together next season



• Sam and Mercedes being a couple



• For Good



• Bella Note



• The scene between Sunshine and Rachel in the bathroom before the performances- I think it puts Rachel in a much better light so that everything isn't about her



• Rachel and Finn's kiss.

I disliked

• How Quinn was ready to get revenge on Rachel but it was al cured with a haircut- I would have actually liked to see how that played out.



• How Finn was trying to so hard to get back trgether with Rachel but it didn't work out. I'm starting to lose hope that they willl get back together at all.



• The Santana and Britney scene at the end. I was actually hoping that something would develop more with their storyline besides them being just friends.

Overall Top 10 Songs from Season 2 of Glee

1. For Good Episode 22 New York

2. Thriller Episode 11 The Sue Sylvester Shuffle

3. Listen Episode 1 Audition

4. Pure Imagination Episode 21 Funeral

5. Losing My Religion Epsiode 3 Grilled Chessus

6 and 7 Somewhere Only We Know and Born This Way Episode 18 Born This Way

8. Get It Right Episode 16 Original Songs

9. Happy Days Are Here Again Episode 6 Duets

10 Dancing Queen Episode 21 Prom Queen

The killer viewing update

5 shows to cover here: Sense and Sensibility The Musical NEC Movement Concert, Les Miserables, Guys and Dolls and Seussical The Musical









Dateline April 30: To end off my April vacation my boyfriend and I went to Wellsely College to see their spring musical Sense and Sensibility The Musical. Granted I have never read the book by Jane Austen (and perhaps I should now) so I did not know what to expect. Unfortunately the program did not come with a song list something I found quite stands so I can't exactly point out what my favorite songs were but all in all it was a good show. Very talented students at Wellsely College and I can't wait to see thier summer show Last Night in Ballyhoo.




Dateline May 7th NEC Movement Concert Duets This marks the end of an era. This year all the theatre kids who were freshmen when I was a senior are graduating so next year I won't have anyone to go see in shows.. though depending on what shows they do next year I may go back. The Movement Concert is something I look foward to every year and I will miss going to those a lot. This year the theme of the concert was duets. I thought all the dances were phenonimnal but if I could pick three top favorites they would have to be Swans *Rachel Buck 10' and Maddison Shea ( I think she's a freshmen but I'm not sure) Stalker Song (Christna Vasta 11') Audrey Adam Boieslle (11) Ian Allen (10) and Rene Cobar (11) and Romeo and Juliet Kelly Merrick (12) Christina Vasta (11) and Ian Allen (10) Great job to cast and crew and congrats to all the seniors!




Date Line May 14th Les Miserabales Riverbend Youth Company
The last time I saw Les Mis I was in high school. For some reason I had a hard time appreciating the musical and I wasn't sure what I didn't like about it. I remember I saw it in Bedford and that Meghan Harrington and Jon Weinstein were both in it.. can't recall what theatre company it was. Now that I am older I think I have a deeper appreciation for what the show is about and also how powerful the music is. I would like to take the opportunity to say that out all the Riverbend shows that I have seen this one really stuck out to me and while Les Mis may not be one of my favorite shows of all time this was the best performance they have done. I am always impressed with Riverbend's show and I am not being biased because I do backtage work for them either. The amount of talent in each company is amazing.... but most definitley this one. Everyone in Riverbend is equally talented but particular people who stood out in this show were Georgia Craven (Young Cosette), Lucas Nevrla (Thenardier) Aly McKnight( Eponine), Amy Butenhof ( Fatime) Kat Feraco (Madame Thenardier) and Michael Martin (Marius) Fabulous job to everyone!! Congrats to all the seniors and best of luck to you all













Dateline May 20th Guys and Dolls Actorsingers My ongoing goal of seeing shows in theatres I have not seen shows at yet continues with Guys and Dolls at Actorsingers...ironically i am seeing this show in a little under a month at Interlakes Summer Theatre so I am withholding my review till then so I can do a comparison of the two performances. My ongoing goal to see shows at theatres I have not seen shows at yet continues on ... next up is Palace Theatre. I have season passses there next year and I have yet to decide what show I am going to see.

*Summer Theatre In Meredith Village recently changed their name to Interlakes Summer Theatre.

Dateline May 21st Suessical The Musical Peacock Players As a child I loved reading Dr Suess books so I was interested to see how his books would be brought to the stage... once again Peacock Players does an amazing job. I was familar with some of the songs because I've been reading some Suessical fanfiction and not being too familar with the songsI looked them up on youtube. <3 Notice Me Horton. :) Like always the talent was very versatile. Tony Clements pretty much stole the show as the Cat In The Hat. Favorite musical #s included Notice Me Horton,Alone In The Universe, How Lucky You Are and All For You! :) Great job to everyone! :)

Recap Prom & Funeral and Double Dose of Idol

Killer update this week since I didn't update last week. 2 finales and a season premiere next week! Looking foward to it all.

Glee Recap

Overall this seasom of Glee has been mediocre. As I've said previously only three episodes this season have really stood out to me.. this week's episode Funeral is joining the list of stand out episodes. I found this episode to be incredibly emotionally riveting. Sue's sister Jeannie died and it definitley brought out a differnet side of Sue. MY favorite musical number was Pure Imgination from Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory which was sung at the funeral for Sue's sister. Beautifully excueted number. Last week Jesse St James made a reappeance and in this eposode was a "consultant" for New Directions in this episode. He said he is trying to help the Glee club but I can definitley see through him and see that he is probably going to end up hurting Rachel again. He crossed the line when he said that Finn and Rachel did not make a good couple vocally. I love how Finn is looking out for Rachel but thought the fight between Jesse and Finn in the prom episode was very unneeded. I also didn't like how they killed off Sue's sister because she had down's syndrome. I don't know how accurate the information is about people with downs syndrome and their life span but I think it's innacurate because I know people who have this disability who are successful and I feel this downgrades them.
Best quote from this week's episode:"But I'm not Chinese" "And neither is the food at Panda Express".


Can't wait til the finale next week. :)


Favorite Episodes: Audition, Funeral, Never Been Kissed, Rocky Horror Glee Show

American Idol Recap

Grand totals of last weeks and this weeks performances sans James because he was eliminated. He sang Don't Stop Believin' by Journey and Love Potion #9. Out of the 2 I really liked Don't Stop Believin the best but he did pretty decent with Love Potion #9. He should have been in the top three instead of Haylee. This week the contestants sang three songs each... the first selection was thier choice the second of producer Jimmy Ivine and the third of the judges.





Top 3 Ratings


Lauren


Last Week Song 1: Anyway Martina Mcbride 10 Song 2: Trouble Elvis Presley 9 Total 19


This Week: Song 1: Faith Hill Wild One 10 Song 2: If Die Young Perry Song 3: I Hope You Dance Leann Womack 9 Total: 19 GRAND TOTAL 48
She did good both weeks. Our of all the songs she sang over the course of the past two weeks she my favorites were I Hope You Dance and Anyway. I am not familiar with the second song she sang last night but she did a wonderful rendition of it.

Haylee


Last Week Earth Song Michael Jackson 6 I Who Have Nothing 9 Total 15
This Week Song 1: What Is and What Shall Never Be Led Zepplin Song 2: Rhiannon Fleetwood Mac Song 3: You Outghaa Know Alanis Morriesette Total : 30 GRAND TOTAL: 45
Out of these five songs the weakest one was probably Earth Song. I am not even familiar with that song by Michael Jaclson. I am not really all that familar with I Who Have Nothing either. As for last night she did outstanding and think performing with her dad for the Led Zepplin song added something really special to the show. Love Fleetwood Mac and Alanis. I felt she did those songs excellent justice.

Scotty


Last Week Song One Alan Jackson Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning? 10 Song 2: Young Blood 6 Total 16
This Week Song 1: Amazed Lonestar 10 Song 2: Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not? 10 Song 3: She Beleives In Me Kenny Rogers 10 Total 30 GRAND TOTAL 46
Scotty has not had a bad performance all season long and is by far my favorite contestant. I have no other commentary to make though I didn't quite care for his second song last week.

Honestly tonight it was really hard to decide who to vote for because they were all amazing. In the end I ended up voting for Scotty because he has been pretty solid all the way through and he has been my favorite all season long. It's even harder to predict who goes home last week I was hoping Haylee would but this week she definitley redeemed herself.

RESULTS SCOTTY AND LAUREN ARE IN THE FINALE!! YAY!! I am super excited about seeing the tour on August 31st!

Requests Requests

Readers! Your help is needed.
I am in a lurch when it comes to fan fiction. Lurch is actually not that great of a desriptor. I would say loss of inspiration is better. My main fandom has been Little Shop of Horrors and lartely I've written quite a few Music Man fics in order to deal with post show blues. Aside from a few loose ends that need to be tied up I need new ideas for fics

So what are your favorite musicals? What character pairings would you like to see me write fics about?


Stay tuned to my fanfiction website http://fanfiction.net/~showtunediva

My goal is to get as many new fics written as possible between my July 31st hiatus. After that I will be taking time to focus on something far more improtant.. my gay bullying play. Fan fiction is more of something I do on the side.

Ameircan Idol Results

So I don't typically do a seperate entry about American Idol results but I figured tonght I would do one..perhaps because i'm feeling a little bit lazy to add it to my other entry.

Anyway... the results show was decent. Lady Antebellum performned their new single and it was fabulous. Jennifer Lopez performed her new song as well... she definitley back in action. I am definitley downloading that song. Her new music video was also performed. LOVE HER and glad she's back. I feel like it's been a really long time since she has come out with any new cds or music videos.

The results tonight were very predictable. I was quite happy with who went home. Bottom 2 Lauren and Jacob. Jacob was eliminated. He was never one of my favorites from the beginning and in my honest opinion I think bad song choices really did him in. Overall he has been all over the place with his performances..some have been amazing some have been mediocre and some have been weak. This week's performance follow under the weak category. I feel he has been very inconsistant as of lately with his performances. In my opinion he should have gone home a few weeks ago instead of Pia.. apparently America felt differently.

Breaking Down: Rumors and Now and Then

Get ready for a Glee and American Idol DOUBLE UPDATE

Overall I haven't been a huge fan of Glee this season. On numerous ocassions I've gone out of my way to avoid watching the episodes. The number one thing irritates me is the lack of plot. Last season the plot and the songs seemed to mesh together very well. This season.. not so much.
Aside from this one three episodes this season have really been standouts
Audition
Never Been Kissed
Rocky Horror Glee Show

This week's episode was called Rumors and was Fleetwood Mac inspired. Loving the choice of theme this week. My favorite musical numbers were Go Your Own Way and Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow. LOVED LOVED the reappearance of April Rhodes and how she is encouraging Will to follow his dreams to go to Broadway. Loved their duet. Also love that Kurt is back at McKinley where he belongs. He just didn't fit in at all at Dalton Academy though I am happy he found a love interest in Blaine. They are adorable. Loved how Artie confronted Brittany about how Santana was treating her... hated how he called her stupid. I totally agree with Artie's viewpoint about Santana. She is being manipulative about trying to get Brittany to be with her when she truly does have emotions for Artie. Speaking of Brittany.. Fondue for Two was hysterical. I am begining to like Brittany's character a lot better than last season. Last seson I thought she was really ditzy and obnoxious. The story line with Sam was definitley relevant today's society and I almost cried after Finn and Rachel gave him the guitar and his little sister said "Don't cry Sammy." I hope they develop Sam character's more throughout future episodes. He could easily become my favorite male besides Finn.
Very excited for next week's prom episode .. especially that Jesse St James is back in the picture. Let's see where that storyline ends up. Rachel needs to move on from Finn and I personally think it would be great if she and Jesse ended up together. Ironically I am writing a fanfiction in which Rachel and Jesse reconnect with each other.. I call it good karma that the writers are including him in next week's episode.

Now on to American Idol

We're ALMOST down to the wire. Top 5. This week's theme was Now and Then. The contestants sang two songs a piece. One from present and one from the past.

Who remains: Lauren Scotty James, Jacob Haylee
Last week's elimination: Casey Another shocker! At the beginning of the season I picked him to be in the top three with Scotty and James which made me diappointed yet again in the voting public of Amercian Idol. Pia's elimination left me shocked too but that was different because the judges did not expect that at all. :(

Ratings:
Lauren 20 (Song 1 10 Song 2: 10)
Scotty and Haylee 17 Song 1: 10 Song 2 7
James 16 Song 1 6 Song 2 10
Jacob 11 Song 1: 6 Song 2 5

There was a great variety of songs tonight. Haylee took a chance with singing a Lady Gaga song that has not been released yet. Having not heard the song on the radio I can't give a really good summary of what I thought of the performance. I hope that choice doesn't put her in the bottom. She did amazing with House of The Rising Sun by The Animals (I'm pretty sure Allison Ireheta did that song three years ago and she did amazing with it too) She definitley redeemed herself with that song and loved how she started out Acapella. I didn't really care for either of Jacob's song choices and didn't really think he excuted either song very well. I think there is big chance he's going home this week. Scotty was amazing as always. Loved both of his songs. Lauren sang a new Carrie Underwood song and Unchained Melody by The Righeteous Brothers. She has grown as performer this season and I think she has a good chance of making it to the finale. Will she beat Scotty? Possibly. James sang Closer To The Edge by 30 Seconds To Mars and Without You by Harry Nelson. Didn't care for his first song at all. A bit too over the top for me but abosolutly adored how her showed his sensitvie side with the second song. Simply beautiful!

My predicted top 3: Haylee, Scotty James
Predicted Winner: Scotty
And honestly it's a toss up between Haylee and James for second place. Lauren will come in third one way or the other.

3 weeks til the American Idol Finale.... and the premiere of So You Think You Can Dance.

Tony Awards Nominations Announced

http://broadwayworld.com/article/2011-Tony-Nominations-Announced-THE-BOOK-OF-MORMON-Leads-With-14-20110503


Honestly I haven't really been to up on the recently released Broadway musicals. Between the show I was in, work and the recent death of my great aunt I haven't stayed on top of things too much. Happy for Catch Me If You Can getting a few nominations.. wish they could have gotten more. Haven't seen the show but I really want to despite not being a huge fan of the movie version. Sutton Foster is nomiated for best lead actress in Anything Goes which I am pumped for. I hope she wins. I saw her performance on the Tony's a few years ago when Shrek The Musical was nominated and she was awesome. :P)

Latest Milford Cabinet Article

Les Miserables to be performed at the Amato Center
By Janine Leffler


Get ready to go back in time to the French Revolution as the Riverbend Youth Company performs the popular musical Les Miserables.
All productions have their shares of challenges and joys. Mike Martin, a junior at Bedford High School makes his Riverbend debut with Les Miserables. He expressed, “The characters in this show have a lot more depth to them and are multi-dimensional.” When speaking about portraying his character, Marius, Martin says, “The thing that is most interesting about Marius is that he is not as easy to relate to as other characters I have played in other shows.” Rachel Taylor and Annie Feraco shared similar sentiments that the biggest fulfillment of the process of the production, is the depth and the emotion that the show has.
When it comes to character development, Patrick McKnight was able to make a connection between his current role, Emjorlas and his most recent role as Tommy Diljas in the PTA production of The Music Man, “In this show I play a character who is trying to lead a revolution but not really sure of how to do it but still tries to. The comparison I can draw between my character and Tommy Diljas from The Music Man is that they’re both really young and trying to go against the system and not sure of how to do it.” When comes to character development Mcknight said “Some people have rituals to get into character. I think of emotions and actions that my characters feels. I don’t feel I’ve become the character until I get on stage.”
Aly McKnight shares the role of Epione with Emily Butler. When asked about developing her character McKnight says, “I parallel situations she is in to situations in my own life.” She then went on to say that the biggest challenge of playing her character is that she is multi-dimensional, “One minute she is a romantic, flirtatious and in love with Marius and the next minute she is angry and involved with her parent’s gang. If you walked up to her on the street you wouldn’t necessarily expect her to be nice.” McKnight continued by saying that the most fulfilling part of her character is the songs that she sings, “ Little Fall of Rain and On My Own are beautiful pieces of music.”
Lucas Nevrla who plays the innkeeper says the most challenging part of playing his character is “the level of nastiness he has to portray but in the end it is the most rewarding part.”
One thing that sets Les Miserables apart from most other shows is the fact that the lines are sung and not spoken. Some methods for line memorization include watching video clips on youtube or listening to the soundtrack repeatedly until they get their part nailed down. Matt Campbell, an 8th grader at Amherst Middle School finds it equally helpful to play the portions of his songs on his guitar.

Les Miserables was performed in 2006 as part of Riverbend’s inaugural season. Performing in the show has been a familiar experience for Souhegan seniors Amy Butenhof and Aly McKnight. Looking back on the 2006 performances, Butenhof says, “ We were just starting out and trying to recruit people and get costumes and props together. This production is a lot more structured.” Butenhof continued by saying “ It’s really fun to be able to do this show again.” McKnight shared similar sentiments. “This is a nice show to end my career with Riverbend with not only because it was also the first show that I did but because of all the memories I have made at Riverbend over the past years.” For Butenhof, McKnight and fellow senior Lucas Nevrla their last show with Riverbend serves as a bittersweet experience. While they will miss all the fun times and great memories with Riverbend they look forward to the next chapter of their lives with great promise. Lucas added “The most fulfilling part of working on this show was not only getting to work with the cast but also working with John Sefel, a director who I haven’t worked with before. I plan on coming back to see all the performances next year.”

You won’t want to miss Les Miserables. Performances are at 7:30 pm on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday May 12th 13th and 14th and 2pm on Sunday, May 15th at the Amato Center for the Performing Arts 56 Mont Vernon Street Milford NH. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for students and seniors.

May and June Viewing Schedule

May and June Viewing Schedule

*=subject to change due to schedule and budget.

**= Definitley attending,just not sure what performance I am seeing

Please let me know if you're interested in joining me on excursions

May

21- Suessical The Musical Peacock Players

Movies: Pirates of The Carribean 4 On Stranger Tides 5/27

June

6/16 Charlotte's Web Riverbend Youth Company

18th Guys and Dolls Summer Theatre in Meredith Village

*26th The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged) Stagecoach Productions

Due to budget we have to see one show a month and we will most likely be waiting to sewhatever movies we want to see until they come out on dvd.