Sound of Musicals - BBC4 three hour-long tv documentaries

Just caught up with ep 2. I enjoyed that - fascinating stuff.

I can't help thinking that 'A Chorus Line' was the inspiration for today's TV talent shows, with auditionees being encouraged to share their life stories with the voting public.

Thoroughly enjoying this. It's good to see someone treating serious musical theatre as just that and not as a form of escapism. After realising that MT was a serious art form perhaps that's why jukebox musicals came to be. I like the depth that Neil Brand is going to to explain the subtexts and underlying meanings of the music. It seems immaterial to me as to which songs he disects, it serves to show me that there is a whole world of musical theatre song out there to be re-listened to and analysed. Not that I didn't have an inkling that there was more to this than met the eye when i first stumbled across the likes of Sondheim and Co. Looking forward to the last episode to see how he feels that MT has evolved since then.

Bit disappointed with the final episode though I can't quite think why. They crammed an awful lot in, and spent a surprisingly long time on Rocky Horror. No mention of the jukebox musicals. Some of it came came across as promotion for current/upcoming shows

Forgot there was another programme to do with musicals on at 2330. Will watch it on catch-up. Don't think it was anything as in-depth as this though.

Really enjoyed it but needed more; the Ave Q section would have led perfectly into a bit about Mormon, and then Hamilton. Thought Matilda, Once and Chicago were notable "modern" omissions. And Jukebox should have been touched on, especially Mamma Mia.

BOM might not have featured but they didn't half push it in the product placement. In virtually every one of the many shots of the west end their marquee was shown.

Third episode was better but I still got bored with him plonking away on the piano and 'explaining' things to us. Also describing the lyrics of Touch-a-touch me as "pure filth"? I don't think so. It was all very old fogey-ish and smug.

I felt pretty much the same.  Actually they could have moved from the 80s blockbusters to Disney and jukebox musicals, then spent a fourth episode with more in-depth exploration of modern pop culture shows like Rent, Avenue Q, Mormon and finally Hamilton.

When he commented on "Touch-a-touch-me" as pure filth perhaps he was referring to the time when the RHS came out first and people were still more used to sugary musical theatre classics. These days of course there's nothing people haven't heard on the radio/TV a million times before.

I loved the whole series. I almost shed a tear during the Show Boat performance as well. What a wonderful score.

I don't know, it would have been interesting to have a segment on taking a song that's been written as a standalone pop song and making it "fit" into a musical story.  Obviously some shows make more changes than others, and a lot of the songs are just performed as is, but there are some examples out there of clever reworkings.  One of my favourites is the use of Cum On Feel the Noize in Rock of Ages - with a few minor lyric changes it becomes a full out musical number that furthers the story.  Equally there are examples of songs that have been reworked musically for a more musical theatre feel.

A random observation ... for most of the song performances, they've clearly got in people who have played those roles recently.  So how did we end up with Siobhan Dillon doing Evita (not that I'm complaining, I like her very much)?

Really enjoyed the series but like others I think it could have benefitted from a fourth installment. I personally liked his disection of songs and certainly remember people's reaction to Touch-atouch-atouchme and the whole risquéness of the Rocky Horror lyrics. Of course nowadays with graphic lyrics from Book of Mormon and the like nobody would even flinch at such naivety. Times is 'ard.

yep, I enjoyed this, but of course it could have been a longer series, a decade an episode perhaps. I enjoyed some of the students singing, but I hate to admit I cringed all the way through Ms Ruffelle's Send in the Clowns. Oh ghastly!

Why would they mention Wicked in any great detail. It's hardly a ground breaking show.