War Horse uses a turntable. I've actually worked on smaller shows out here that have used turntables or other stage automation. It's always kind of neat. And also one of the many ways working in theatre can kill you if you're not careful.

I loved Cats way back in the day. I'm quite fond of Wicked (though even musical lovers can be kind of split on Wicked). I'm way super head over heels gaga for Spring Awakening. The productions I've worked on have had a powerful effect on me.

The funny thing about Spring Awakening is that the story itself, stripped of the music, is horribly depressing, and little if anything is resolved or answered. The addition of the music doesn't really change any of that about the story, but it is the music alone that sounds the hopeful voice in the story, that somehow sees beyond the base reality of immediate events and looks toward the future in hopes of something better.

I kind of feel the same way about Les Miz, to a certain degree.

I've never seen Spring Awakening, but I do love it-- I have seen a large number of clips from the Broadway performances, etc.

Sort of relatedly, if you watch Glee, liking musicals sort of brands you (in college anyway, when I went to it) as a Rachel Berry, but with less depth. Theater is SERIOUS BUSINESS, don't you know. I like to think that most people grow out of that, but the college theatre I work at does only really only does really obscure musicals, like Adding Machine, the musical.

I actually think that the music can act as a sort of Brechtian distancing effect, and it allows you to do some really interesting and emotional things (because I feel the Brechtian distancing thing really actually allows you to feel more deeply, as opposed to the stated purpose of action over feeling).

The stagecraft in Les Miz fucking phenomenal. It's one of the things that the movie is missing, actually, is that near-constant sense of movement that you get from actors walking around the moving turntable while the scenery changes. It's kinda sorta replicated with sweeping camera tricks but there's really nothing that comes close to the moment in the stage show where the barricade comes together.

In my high school, the choir was a big deal, and if you were good enough to be in the show choir you were a REALLY big deal, which is maybe why I never related to Glee - my experience was that those kids were the unquestioned top of the social pyramid,

I am just a little bit older than you, and I went to a very small high school. We had "Vocal Ensemble", which just started dancing the year I was a freshman (it was more like a select choir before). I joined in sophomore year and I was one of the choreographers, which may explain how lame it was! We wore white shirts, black skirts/pants, and red glitter suspenders and bow ties! We only got 5 boys because we let a freshman join (that wasn't allowed). I was so excited when I was a senior that our director let me sing alto, because I felt the harmony was cooler, and we had too many sopranos. It was sort of the time of my life in outcast land, as was the musical.

ETA: [link] My show choir/musical junior year in high school

When I was in high school, we had a set with two small turntables. It was cool!

we had a set with two small turntables

did you also have a microphone?

It was where it's at, for sure.

did you also have a microphone?

Well played.

Despite the evidence of my iTunes library, I have deeply mixed feeling on musicals, but I fucking LOVE Les Mis. I have the "dream cast" album (you could tell who had which cast by where they breathed when a half-dozen of the theater nerds were singing in the scene shop in high school. At one point, I knew all the words except a bit of the wedding song, where I couldn't understand what they were saying.*), and it is the Right And Proper cast (Although, I have a vague desire to learn French at some point and then to get the original album).

I expect that, since my family has an abrupt increase in free time on Christmas Day this year, we will be seeing it then.

I've worked on a few shows with turn-tables. One of them did not use it effectively (it was just a way to do a 3-way set change), but the one with the circus theme worked pretty well (I think the turn-table was recycled from the previous show on that stage).

It's kind of sad that the staging of Les Mis has become cliched at this point. I was...I don't even remember where...and there was a "tribute to Broadway" medley stage show thing (think theme park), and they did the marching triangle with 6 people. It was to laugh.

* I know I'm not the only one who had that t insert period of time where I listened to "On My Own" on repeat and cried a lot. Show of hands for teenaged angst.

Hobbit will be our Christmas movie for the next three years. Hopefully this time around with the Jackson Holiday Tradition there will be no heart attack for the apres theatre event.