Broadway 2 A Day: 1991-1994 (Falsettos, The Who's Tommy, Passion)

Welcome back, yes we're still doing this. And we're into the 90s already! This next group of shows is all over the place so let's dive right in.

• Crazy For You
• Have I heard of it before? No
• Did I enjoy it? It was fine
• Synopsis: Crazy For You -- the “new Gershwin musical comedy” with a book by famed comedic playwright Ken Ludwig -- is the classic tale of a boy, a girl, and a theater in need of salvation. Stage-struck Bobby Child works as a banker for his overbearing mother, Lottie, but spends his off-hours practicing dance routines and sneaking in to audition for Zangler’s Follies, the most popular show in New York City, helmed by Bela Zangler, a temperamental Hungarian producer. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: Someone to Watch Over Me
• Five Guys Named Moe
• Have I heard of it before? No
• Did I enjoy it? No, jazz is just not my thing
• Synopsis: The show is a musical revue using the hit songs of Louis Jordan, the great 1930s composer and saxophonist who brought a popular new slant to jazz that paved the way for the rock-and-roll of the 1950s. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: I Know What I've Got
• Falsettos
• Have I heard of it before? Yes, this is one of my favorite shows of all time
• Did I enjoy it? Of course, I think this is a criminally underrated show but it's also very sad
• Synopsis: Falsettos is the story of a large, eccentric, and dysfunctional -- but loving -- Jewish family in New York at the end of the 1970s. Initially, Marvin seems blessed with the perfect family. He has a caring wife, Trina and a young son, Jason. Nevertheless, the family is soon broken apart, when the homosexual Marvin leaves Trina for a man called Whizzer. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: The Games I Play
• Jelly's Last Jam
• Have I heard of it before? Nope
• Did I enjoy it? No, again too much jazz
• Synopsis: Jelly's Last Jam is the story of the jazz pioneer, Jelly Roll Morton. The show starts with Jelly playing piano in the whorehouses of Storyville and finishes with Jelly being a star living in Chicago. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: The Jam
• My Favorite Year
• Have I heard of it before? No
• Did I enjoy it? I will give anything Tim Curry is in a listen
• Synopsis: It’s 1954, and young Benjy Stone is realizing his life-long dream of writing for television, working as a freshman writer on TV’s most popular comedy show: King Kaiser’s Comedy Cavalcade. Life is crazy but exhilarating, and just when he thought it couldn’t get any more interesting, Benjy is assigned as chaperone (read: babysitter) to swashbuckling veteran Hollywood star, Alan Swann. Swann has been Benjy’s movie idol and inspiration since he was a child. Benjy was raised by a single mother, and used to fantasize about Swann being his real father. It’s a dream come true, until he meets the real Swann and realizes that life is much more complicated than it ever looks in the movies. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: If the World Were Like the Movies
• The Goodbye Girl
• Have I heard of it before? Yes but I knew nothing about it
• Did I enjoy it? It had a couple good songs
• Synopsis: Set in New York City, "The Goodbye Girl" tells the story of an unlikely romance between Paula, a bitter, single mother who has been jilted one too many times, and Eliot, the opinionated actor who shows up on her doorstep with a lease to sublet her apartment. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: How Can I Win? (just for Ms. Bernadette Peters)
• The Who's Tommy
• Have I heard of it before? Yes, Point Park put this on one year and I've been obsessed ever since
• Did I enjoy it? I really do love this show and soundtrack even though the premise is very sad
• Synopsis: After witnessing the murder of his mother's lover by his father, Tommy is traumatized into a catatonic state. As young Tommy floats through life in post-World War II England, he suffers abuse from sadistic relatives and neighbors. In his adolescence, Tommy discovers a talent for playing pinball and is catapulted into stardom. When his mother, Mrs. Walker is finally able to break his catatonic state, Tommy is transformed into an international pinball superstar, inspiring youth around the world. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: Sensation 
• Blood Brothers
• Have I heard of it before? No
• Did I enjoy it? I kind of zoned out during this one to be honest
• Synopsis: Opening in 1960s Liverpool and moving forwards in time to the early 1980s, Blood Brothers revolves around twin boys Mickey and Edward. With seven older siblings, their mother, Mrs. Johnstone, cannot afford to keep both babies and she agrees to give one away to the wealthy Mrs. Lyons. Separated at birth, they are brought up in completely different environments within the city. When they are seven years old, Mickey and Edward meet each other for the first time and realize they share a birthday. They immediately become best friends and blood brothers, but are still unaware of their true relationship. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: Tell Me It's Not True
• Kiss of the Spider Woman
• Have I heard of it before? Yes but I did not realize how upsetting the plot actually was
• Did I enjoy it? There's some good songs but it's just so sad
• Synopsis: It is the 1960s in Argentina, a time of civic, economic, and cultural turmoil. Window-dresser Luis Alberto Molina is in the third year of his eight-year prison sentence for sexual deviancy and corrupting a minor. He lives in the fantasy world of cinema, often visited by the beautiful Aurora, his favorite film star. And while he loves her, he fears the Spider Woman, a vampy diva who kills men with her kiss. One day, Marxist revolutionary Valentin Arregui Paz is pushed into this cell after being tortured. Valentin is hostile, secretive, and confrontational towards the chattering Molina, and even draws a line down the center of the cell to keep Molina away from him. But Molina is a caring man, and tends to Valentin after brutal torture, and even keeps Valentin’s secrets while sharing his daydreams of Aurora. The men develop a trusting relationship that extends beyond simple friendship into a true love and dedication to each other. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: Kiss of the Spider Woman
• A Grand Night for Singing
• Have I heard of it before? No
• Did I enjoy it? It's a revue so good songs but nothing unique
• Synopsis: A Grand Night for Singing is a musical revue showcasing the music of Richard Rodgers and the lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II. (Wikipedia)
• Favorite song: Overture
• Passion
• Have I heard of it before? Yes but never gave it a full listen
• Did I enjoy it? Yes, but I think I would need to see it to get the full experience
• Synopsis: It is 1863. At a remote outpost in Italy, Captain Giorgio Bachetti and his beautiful lover Clara engage in a passionate relationship through letters, only reuniting through brief moments during Giorgio’s leave. But while he is at the outpost, Giorgio meets Fosca, the sickly and unattractive cousin of his superior officer. Focsa becomes obsessed with Giorgio and falls desperately in love with him. Giorgio refutes her advances, but cannot stay away from her, and finds himself understanding and appreciating her devotion to him. While he does love Clara, she is in Milan, and is married to another man. Giorgio realizes that he must make a choice and decide what kind of love he wants to have in his life. Will he continue the happiness of letters and an occasional reunion with the beautiful and devoted Clara? Or will he give in to the unrestrained passion of the sickly and obsessive Fosca? (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: Loving You
• Beauty and the Beast
• Have I heard of it before? Who hasn't?
• Did I enjoy it? Of course, I think this is one of Disney's best screen to stage adaptations 
• Synopsis: Based on the smash hit 1991 Disney movie and dating back to a late 18th-century classic French fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast tells the story of Belle, a beautiful and intelligent young woman who feels out of place in her provincial French village. When her father is imprisoned in a mysterious castle, Belle’s attempt to rescue him leads to her capture by the Beast, a grisly and fearsome monster, who was long ago trapped in his gruesome form by an enchantress. The only way for the Beast to become human once again is if he learns to love and be loved in return. There is a time limit, too: once a magical rose loses all of its petals, all hope will be lost and he will stay a Beast forever. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: Home