Portal:Musical theatre/Selected picture
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Stephanie J. Block as Elphaba flies above the Ozians in Wicked's act one finale; "Defying Gravity".
Wicked is a Tony award-winning American musical produced by Universal Pictures with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and a book by Winnie Holzman. The story is loosely based on the best selling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. The musical is directed by Joe Mantello, with musical staging by Wayne Cilento.
The musical, following Maguire's novel, is a re-imagining of L. Frank Baum's classic story, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the point of view of the witches of Oz, set mostly prior to Dorothy's arrival from Kansas. The plot also makes several references to the classic 1939 film.
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The show is explicitly an homage to the PBS children's television program Sesame Street. Both Marx and puppet designer/original cast member, Rick Lyon have previously worked for Sesame Street, as have the other puppeteers in the original cast. However, unlike Sesame Street, Avenue Q openly addresses adult topics such as racism, infidelity, and masturbation; in fact, because of its adult language and content and "full puppet nudity" (including simulated sex between puppets), the show specifically disclaims any connection to the Children's Television Workshop or The Jim Henson Company. In an interview with Britain's The Times, addressing the question of potential conflicts with Henson, Marx claimed, “During early previews in the States we invited Jim Henson's widow and children and they could see that what we were doing was a homage and love letter to 'Sesame Street.'”
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The original illustration by Émile Bayard, upon which is based the ubiquitous logo of Les Misérables.
Les Misérables (pronunciation /le mi ze 'ʀɑHb/), colloquially known as Les Mis, is a musical composed in 1980 by French composer Claude-Michel Schönberg on a libretto by Alain Boublil. Through-sung, it is perhaps the most famous of all French musicals and one of the most famous and most performed musicals worldwide. On October 8, 2006, the show celebrated its 21st anniversary and became the longest-running West End musical in history and is still running (though it has changed venues). The musical is based on the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. Its Tony award-winning score includes the songs "I Dreamed a Dream", "Do You Hear the People Sing?", "One Day More", "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" and "On My Own." Another popular song is "Master of the House".
Les Mis tells the stories of paroled convict Jean Valjean who, failing attempts to find work as an honest man with his yellow parole note, tears up his shackles and conceals his identity in order to live his life again; the police inspector Javert, who becomes obsessed with finding Valjean; Fantine, the single mother of Cosette, who is forced to become a prostitute to support her daughter; Marius, a French student who falls in love with Valjean's adopted daughter Cosette; Eponine, the young daughter of the Thénardiers who falls in love with Marius; the Thénardiers, who own an Inn and exploit their customers; and Enjolras and the other students, who are working toward freeing the oppressed lower class of France.
