Broadway 2 A Day: 2013-2015 (If/Then, Fun Home, Something Rotten and more)

By the grace of God, I will catch up with this challenge - mark my words! I can't believe we're already in 2015. These shows were coming out as a graduated high school - time flies. And as always you can listen to all of these favorite songs on my Spotify. Buckle up this is a long one.

• Rocky
• Have I heard of it before? Yes but I have never seen the movie don't get mad at me
• Did I enjoy it? Andy Karl was great but I don't really think we needed a Rocky musical
• Synopsis: Rocky the Musical is based on the 1976 film of the same name written by Stallone. (Wikipedia)
• Favorite song: Fight From The Heart
• Aladdin
• Have I heard of it before? Of course, this is one of my favorite animated Disney movies of all time. I haven't seen the stage show yet.
• Did I enjoy it? Yes, the added songs really do fit well with the show.
• Synopsis: In Agrabah, City of Enchantment, every beggar has a story and every camel has a tail! Aladdin, a kind but wily, street urchin, falls in love with beautiful Princess Jasmine, who he knows is waaaaay out of his league. It just so happens, however, that the Sultan has declared Princess Jasmine must choose a husband within the next day. After she turns down the offers from various wealthy suitors, Aladdin -- with the help of a fast-talking, magical Genie -- introduces himself as wealthy suitor Prince Ali Ababua. Meanwhile, evil royal advisor Jafar also has his sights set on the kingdom, and tries to convince the Sultan to force Jasmine to wed him. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: A Million Miles Away
• If/Then
• Have I heard of it before? I was obsessed with this music when it came out
• Did I enjoy it? The plot is dumb but the music is good and the entire cast, led by Idina Menzel, is insanely talented
• Synopsis: What if? What if we could know the future effects and consequences of our choices? If we knew how things we turn out, then would we still make the same decisions? This is the premise of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s If/Then: Elizabeth Vaughn has returned to New York City after her marriage fell apart. She is meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends, and is immediately given a choice. Should Elizabeth (as Beth) join her college friend Lucas in the world of community activism and city planning? Or should Elizabeth (as Liz) join her new neighbor Kate to get coffee and listen to a local band? Kitt and Yorkey take the audience through both stories simultaneously, shifting between the worlds of Beth and Liz--and occasionally the two collide. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: Always Starting Over
• Bullets Over Broadway
• Have I heard of it before? Nope
• Did I enjoy it? It was fun but I think I'd have to see it live to really fall in love with it
• Synopsis: Based on the screenplay of the acclaimed film, Bullets Over Broadway is loaded with big laughs, colorful characters and the songs that made the 20s roar. Bullets Over Broadway is ready to bring musical comedy back with a bang. The story revolves around a playwright who needs someone to back his next show and a mobster who needs some way to please his showgirl girlfriend. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: I've Found a New Baby
• Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill
• Have I heard of it before? Only because it stars queen Audra McDonald
• Did I enjoy it? I respect Billie Holiday but this is a bit too depressing for me
• Synopsis: The play takes place in South Philadelphia in March 1959. Billie Holiday is performing in a run-down bar, during one of her last performances before her death in July 1959. She sings, accompanied by Jimmy Powers on the piano, and also tells stories about her life as she becomes increasingly intoxicated and incoherent. (Wikipedia)
• Favorite song: Strange Fruit
• Violet
• Have I heard of it before? Yes! But I only knew one song
• Did I enjoy it? It was good but forgettable in my opinion
• Synopsis: Set in 1964 in the Deep South during the early days of the Civil Rights Movement, Violet follows the growth and enlightenment of a bitter young disfigured woman. In hopes that a TV evangelist can cure her, she embarks on a journey by bus from her sleepy North Carolina town to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Along the way, she meets a young black soldier who teaches her about beauty, love, courage and what it means to be an outsider. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: On My Way (the very same one we sang at PPU graduation)
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch
• Have I heard of it before? Yes, I love the movie and was glad this show finally got a Broadway run
• Did I enjoy it? This show can be a bit depressing but the pop/rock ballads really do hit
• Synopsis:  Hedwig and the Angry Inch tells the tale of how a “slip of a girlyboy” from communist East Berlin, Hanschel, becomes the “internationally ignored song stylist” known as Hedwig after a botched sex-change operation. The show daringly breaks the fourth wall, as Hedwig directly tells the audience of her past tribulations and heartbreak in the form of an extended monologue paired with rock songs. With a little help from her band and her backup singer Yitzhak, Hedwig examines her quest for her other half, for love, and ultimately for her identity. Featuring a groundbreaking rock musical score by Stephen Trask, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is hilarious, harrowing, and essentially uplifting for anyone who’s ever felt different. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: The Origin of Love
• The Last Ship
• Have I heard of it before? Nope
• Did I enjoy it? Extremely forgettable, although Sting wrote the music 
• Synopsis: The Last Ship is set in the English seafaring town of Wallsend, a close-knit community where life has always revolved around the local shipyard and the hardworking men construct magnificent vessels with tremendous pride. But Gideon Fletcher dreams of a different future. He sets out to travel the world, leaving his life and his love behind. When Gideon returns home 14 years later, he finds the shipyard's future in grave danger and his childhood sweetheart engaged to someone else. As the men of Wallsend take their future into their own hands and build a towering representation of the shared dream that defines their existence, Gideon realizes that he left behind more than he could have ever imagined. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: If You Ever See Me Talking to a Sailor
• A Night with Janis Joplin
• Have I heard of it before? Nope
• Did I enjoy it? Honestly - this is another jukebox musical that didn't need to exist
• Synopsis: The musical is presented as Janis Joplin, backed by a band of hippies, performing a concert in 1970, shortly before she in fact died of drug overdose, at age 27. (Wikipedia)
• Favorite song: Piece of My Heart
• Honeymoon in Vegas
• Have I heard of it before? Only because I was mad it replaced Newsies at the Nederlander when it opened
• Did I enjoy it? Yeah this was fun and had some toe-tappers
• Synopsis: Honeymoon in Vegas is a comedic eye-popping spectacle based on the film of the same name. The musical follows its characters through New York, Las Vegas, and Hawaii as they grapple with past relationship traumas and future expectations. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: I Love Betsy
• An American in Paris
• Have I heard of it before? Of course
• Did I enjoy it? Yes but the dancing in this is the real star
• Synopsis: The musical is set in the City of Lights, Paris, as it emerges from the shadows of World War II. As the weight of the Nazi Occupation begins to lift, the city’s inhabitants come alive and rediscover life’s grandest possibilities. An American veteran and aspiring painter, Jerry, is still reeling from the war when he discovers the girl of his dreams: Lise, a captivating young dancer at the ballet. Jerry falls in love with the mystery girl as soon as he spots her in a crowd on the street. By chance or fate, Jerry and Lise are brought together at a ballet rehearsal, where Jerry has come to visit his friend Adam, the company’s composer. While there, Jerry catches the eye of Milo, an American heiress and Adam’s patron. To add more confusion to this love triangle, Lise is already engaged to marry Henri, a rich young business man, who dreams of being a performer, himself. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: I've Got Beginner's Luck
• It Shoulda Been You
• Have I heard of it before? This is another one I only know of because of The Tony's
• Did I enjoy it? It was fun but not going into the regular rotation
• Synopsis: The bride is Jewish. The groom is Catholic. Her mother is a force of nature, his mother is a tempest in a cocktail shaker. And when the bride’s ex-boyfriend shows up, the perfect wedding starts to unravel faster than you can whistle “Here Comes the Bride! Plots are hatched, pacts are made, secrets exposed – and the sister of the bride is left to turn a tangled mess into happily ever after! (Playbill.com)
• Favorite song: Jenny's Blues
• Doctor Zhivago
• Have I heard of it before? Unfortunately
• Did I enjoy it? It's got some pretty songs - just listen to Anastasia instead
• Synopsis: Doctor Zhivago is an epic romance set during the final days of Czarist Russia, the First World War, and the chaos of the Russian revolution. Raised as an aristocrat, Zhivago is a political idealist, physician, and poet who is torn between a life with his devoted wife, Tonia Gromeko, and the passionate and mysterious Lara Guishar. Zhivago is not alone in his yearnings for Lara, competing for her affections with the young revolutionary Pasha Antipov and the aristocrat Viktor Komarovsky. (Playbill.com)
• Favorite song: When the Music Played
• Finding Neverland
• Have I heard of it before? Yes, I really like the movie and think this show captured that spirit
• Did I enjoy it? Yes! (but I wish they hadn't replaced Jeremy Jordan with Matthew Morrison)
• Synopsis: It’s 1904, and successful London playwright J.M. Barrie has a serious case of writer’s block. While he is working on a new play, he recognizes that there is nothing original about it and the characters and plot are simply recycled from plays he’s already written. Despondent at the potential end of his career, Barrie meets a lovely and caring widow, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, and her four sons (George, Peter, Jack, and Michael) in Kensington Park. They embark on adventures of imagination together - all except Peter, unwilling to play and still reeling from his father’s death. As Barrie helps Peter learn to play again, his writer’s block gives way to a new art form: children’s theatre. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: Believe
• Fun Home
• Have I heard of it before? Anyone in the LGBTQ+ community (or the alphabet mafia as we say) has heard of this show
• Did I enjoy it? Dang it's sad, but also so good
• Synopsis: Fun Home traces the coming-of-age of lesbian author Alison Bechdel, from her youth to her years at Oberlin College, and finally to the present, where Alison, now grown, is struggling to write her own graphic autobiography. As Alison reflects on her past, she struggles to make sense of it, particularly her relationship with her father, Bruce, a closeted gay man and the owner of the family business -- the Bechdel Funeral Home (“fun” home, as it’s known to young Alison and her brothers). As she watches her father’s self-loathing consume him, Alison recognizes her own experience of discovering, and ultimately embracing, her identity. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: Ring of Keys (The Tony's performance makes me cry)
• Something Rotten
• Have I heard of it before? I saw it on Broadway and then saw the National Tour, I love this show
• Did I enjoy it? If you listen to one show from this particular blog - make it this one
• Synopsis: Welcome to the Renaissance, where the Black Plague has ceded power to the Puritans, farthingales and codpieces are the latest fashion trend, and the biggest celebrity in England is a playwright named William Shakespeare. In the midst of all this excitement, brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom are trying to keep their acting company afloat. In a desperate attempt to out-Bard the Bard, Nick consults with a soothsayer, who informs him that the future of theatre involves acting, singing, and dancing -- sometimes all at once! As the Bottom brothers strive to write the world’s very first “musical”, they find themselves caught in a bitter battle with the Bard. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: Hard to be the Bard
• The Visit 
• Have I heard of it before? Nope
• Did I enjoy it? Chita Rivera is amazing, but no
• Synopsis: Claire Zachanassian, a famously wealthy woman, decides to return to her hometown of Brachen, Switzerland, for the first time since she left it, at 18 years old. The inhabitants of the town, now utterly impoverished after “The War”, are hopeful that Claire might offer financial support to revive their community. In fact, Claire has returned to Brachen for one reason, and it’s not philanthropy: she wants revenge. Meeting her former lover, Anton Schell, for the first time since her departure, Claire finds familiar emotions bursting to life; the pair are haunted by their former selves. In this remarkable allegory about aging, greed, and the violent power of love, a town is forced to face its demons while a woman makes her final, powerful step towards absolution. (Stage Agent)
• Favorite song: Love and Love Alone