What I've been watching: Musical edition

[sarahmichigan]

The good:

We watched the hysterical "Singh is Kinng" at a Bollywood party on Friday. I picked it, and I'm so glad I did, from the hilarious disclaimers about hens not being harmed at the beginning to the bizarro end credits, with lots of WTF throughout. Apparently, Punjabi films with Sikh characters and dress are rare in Bollywood, so this was kind of different.

Have a fun video snippet from the show...

The bad:

I know some of you will probably be appalled that I didn't care for "Chicago," but I didn't. In case you want to talk about the stage play, I did see it performed by a community theater many years ago and enjoyed it, but I was a teen Christian at the time and didn't quite approve of how racy it was. Watching the movie version, I found I liked the songs, thought the costumes and set were fantastic, and was favorably impressed by Richard Gere's singing. However, my main problem with it is that the bad guys- not necessarily just meaning criminals, but mean people who hurt other people-- get away with everything, unpunished, and the little people they hurt are never avenged. I realize this is because the author was saying something about how bad and corrupt Chicago was at the time, but it was still problematic for me- there wasn't anybody to like. The only major non-evil character is a dufus who lets himself get walked over, and so I pretty much hated every character.


Comments

[pstscrpt.livejournal.com]

There was also the innocent Hungarian woman.

I'm not sure if you're really suppose to consider that a happy ending, or not. Their other big musical is Cabaret, which definitely does not have a happy ending.

[mogwar.livejournal.com]

Also, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, which definitely does not have a happy ending, but all the major characters are sympathetic.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the musical, just the non-musical movie and also read the book, both of which I liked. Is the musical version on video anywhere?

*goes to google it*

[mogwar.livejournal.com]

I have yet to run across a video version of the musical. Sadly, all I have is the soundtrack. Well, and a few clips from the Tonys and what have you.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my problem wasn't that it didn't have a happy ending - because it WAS a happy ending for the two murderesses. My issue was the unlikeable, unsympathetic characters and the fact that evil prevailed!