While perusing my RSS feeds, my eyes lit upon the announcement of a new Spice Girls musical. Musicals have been on my mind of late, primarily because I’ve been burning off the backlog of unwatched episodes of “Smash“. So I thought I’d take a few minutes to look at new musicals discussed on the pages of Playbill the last month. Note that these are in various stages, from tweeted ideas and concepts to workshop development to regional productions, some announced for Broadway. Many will never make it there.
There Are Strange Things Done in the Midnight Sun… Perhaps the most intriguing of the new musicals — at least to me — is Wanderlust. This musical, premiering at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, is described as follows: “Set in Victoria, British Columbia, at the beginning of the 20th century, Wanderlust is the imagined story of one of Canada’s most beloved and most successful poets, Robert Service. Inspired by the real circumstances of his life, this new musical presents a man eager to leave his position at a bank for the adventure of the unknown in the Yukon gold rush. Keeping him at his desk in part is his affection for his beautiful co-worker, Louise, who is engaged to another man.” Music and orchestrations are by Marek Norman, with lyrics by Robert W. Service, and additional lyrics by Morris Panych (who is also doing the book).
As I was walking back from grabbing my lunch in the cafeteria, Mitt Romney was on the TV there, talking about how he will get rid of Obamacare on Day 1. That made me realize: I know what Mitt Romney is against (pretty much anything Obama), but I don’t know what he favors. For example: