TheatreBoard Listening Party - 2. Anyone Can Whistle

That was rather fun: some bright, bouncy songs to lift the day with a couple of lyrics that genuinely made me laugh out loud ("You should stick around and kill him. [What?] Nothing"). I particularly liked "Ready, Set, Not Yet", "No Reason", "Say My Name" and "Creepy Old Guy". (One of the YouTube comments for the last of those was "This is going to my 'musical songs I would get sued for singing' list".)

I never got around to watching the film so I had to follow along with a synopsis to work out what was going on. It helps a lot.

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How often should we do these? We ought to space them out enough that people have a chance to listen and comment without feeling that they're left behind and we don't want it to be a chore trying to keep up, but if they're too infrequent people will probably not bother.

I did listen to a few tracks some weeks ago but have forgotten them already.
Will download tonight and have a listen properly

I will get round to listening, but I’ve temporarily got two friends staying who needed a place to stay to be able to get to work (I know I know, avoid sleepovers). Looks like tomorrow will be my listening day, because I really want to sit there and listen with no distraction, headphones on.

My thoughts on 'Beetlejuice':



Favourite song: 'Say My Name'

Favourite lyric: (lyric joke spoiler) "The universe is random." "Yes, but... random for a reason!"

Dreamcasting a role: Tough. Maybe a younger Jim Carrey as BJ? Swapping the role of Adam with another character actor for every other performance, that could be a fun casting gimmick.
West End Live songs: I'm not very familiar with West End Live, but I'll go with 'The Whole Being Dead Thing', 'Day-O', and 'That Beautiful Sound'.
Next album ideas: maybe a new one that's going to be released soon, such as 'Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future' or the UK 'Amelie'?



Other thoughts: For me this is an in-between sort of album. There's nothing wrong with it, and it's pretty good fun to listen to. But it doesn't have any theme or character that personally speaks to me to make it a sentimental favourite, and it isn't brilliant enough to become a favourite just for being that amazing. A lot of albums fall into this category.


I feel as though I'm missing something on Lydia's character... I can understand a grieving teenager wanting to scare or even evict her family as a way of acting out / getting attention. But how does that progress to her enjoying scaring random people in 'That Beautiful Sound'? It's almost as though we're missing a Sweeney Todd 'Epiphany' type moment - "They all deserve to be scared", ha. It's not a huge thing, but it niggled at me this time around when I listened.

I listened this morning and it was a great distraction. I didn't look at song titles etc as I was listening but I loved how it sounded and can tell it would be a lot of fun! Very visual I'm sure. Will certainly be listening again.

Glad this was chosen as the listening party - will certainly be listening again and hoping it will eventually come to the West End.

I found this a bit of a drag to be honest. It starts decent enough, with a couple of songs that felt reminiscent of songs I’d already held, such as ‘The Whole Being Dead Thing’ and ‘Spooky Mormon Hell Dream’ (from Book of Mormon). Similarly, I thought ‘Ready Set, Not Yet’ felt like a ‘Brad and Janet’ (Rocky Horror) kinda moment.

I think the highlight for me was Home. I appreciated the moment of seriousness in a comedy musical, and thought it was a great vocal from Sophie Anne Caruso. To be honest they had a good run of songs towards the end but they are still pretty average.

Lyrically it wasn’t great and nothing really stood out. I’ve never seen the movie and I enjoyed trying to work out what was happening along the way. If it ever gets to London I’m not sure it would do well to be honest. I’d cast Simon Lipkin as the title character though, because (listening to it) I feel like I’ve seen him in similar roles before.

Listened to it on my way to work yesterday. Fun but not memorable. Quite liked a few numbers at the time but vant remember a single one now. Liked the calypso/salsa style of some of the numbers.
Think the main reason it didn't do much for me is that I've never seen the film so really dont know what the musical is about.
Passed an hour away though.

Poll added to suggestions thread