Saturday, February 16, 2008

Welcome to Musicals101's New Blog!

Musicals101.com enters the era of Web 2.0 with this, our new interactive blog. I've long included editorials and opinion pieces on Musicals101, but the only means of reply was via e-mail. Now we're really opening up the discussion. Disagreement is encouraged, so long as it is constructive. Abusive or vulgar posts will be subject to deletion -- this is a family friendly site.

Hope you like the blog, and that you will take the time to add your two cents to the discussions here.

4 comments:

Passionate said...

This is a great site.

Just wanted to add smething my grandmother just told me. With all the names (many dubious) being added to the Theatre Hall of Fame, how is it that Vivienne Segal's has never appeared. caan someone rectify this? Or does someoneknow who to write to?

John Kenrick said...

Don't know how they could have overlooked that legendary talent. You would have to ask the Hall of Fame's committee, which seems to concentrate on honoring those who are still alive. I understand their point, but the lady who introduced "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" certainly deserves mention.

diacad said...

Discovered your wonderful site a few days ago, and have been exploring it and the valuable links you provide.

A buff on older musical films, especially operettas and also shows of the Berkeley/Ziegfeld type, I have been trying to track down information on "Tokyo Revue", a 1959 Japanese film. There are two fascinating stills from it in "Gotta Sing Gotta Dance" (Kobal 1971, Hamlyn pub.), and a very sparse listing on the British Film Institue site (dating it as "1957" with "300 dancing girls". IMDB, usually a good source, does not have it at all. A Japanese friend briefly researched this for me on Japanese internet. Apparently in Japan they called it "Tokyo Odori". It was a 'revue' film by Shochiku Girl's Opera Company that was disbanded about 1996. Tetsuo Takada was a director. That was about all she found. If you know any more, or can suggest any promising links, I would be much obliged.

Just as our operetta films (and musicals in general) have borrowed from the rest of the world, so have there been many foreign echoes of Busby Berkeley and the like over the years. That this occurred in '50s Japan (with little notice) is intriguing. The only Japanese musical I have on DVD is "Carmen Comes Home" (1951), very good considering it was the first color feature film from that country.

Although I do note that you supply an excellent link to British musicals, it would be nice to see a few other non-US links.

Dave Ecklein

John Kenrick said...

Welcome, Dave -- I would love to post more non-US links on Musicals101, but it is hard to find such sights. There are more of them than when I started over a decade ago -- in fact, many of my most popular links are based in Europe, such as the Cast Album Database. But if you know of other sites I should include, please let me know -- I am open to suggestions!

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