Musical Mondays: Documentaries
First off, thanks everyone for reading and happy Labor Day! It’s been a really busy summer, but I’m still trying to give at least weekly reviews. Hopefully if the fall goes a little bit more smoothly I can have a little bit more. Speaking of busy—people can’t always get out to the theater. I’ve discussed movie musicals and television musical episodes, but today I want to highlight two very fun documentaries that show you behind the scenes of two musicals that are at the absolute opposite end of the spectrum of musical theater.
The Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened
Merrily We Roll Along holds a special place in musical theater history. The Broadway musical was put together by legends Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince at the absolute height of their fame. Following two delayed openings and absolute critical panning, it ran for a total of 52 previews and 16 performances before closing. It is a show that ended Sondheim and Prince’s magical run together—a run that included Company, Pacific Overtures, Follies, A Little Night Music, and Sweeney Todd—as the two gentleman wouldn’t work together for more than two decades afterwards.
The documentary is put together by Lonny Price, one of the original cast members who made his Broadway debut in Merrily We Roll Along and is a touching combination of original behind the scenes footage and interviews with the young, excited cast who think the world is their oyster and the actors 35 years later reflecting on the experience. It is both emotional to see the bright eyed young actors thinking nothing can go wrong and beautiful in seeing the path life has taken for so many characters. One of the actors, Jason Alexander, went on to be on a small show called Seinfeld.
Watch this documentary if you like musical theater and want to see an important piece of Broadway history, but also watch this documentary if you like stories of dreams achieved and lost, nostalgia for time, and the beauty and pain of what could have been. If anything, this documentary shows us that even artistic gods are sometimes mortal.
As of 9/2/2018, The Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened is available for streaming on Netflix.
Jedi Junior High
Obviously not all musical theater is Broadway, and there is often something sweet and pure (and adorably bad) about children’s musical theater. Jedi Junior High follows the Arts & Learning Children's Conservatory in Anaheim, California in 2009 as they put on a musical adaption of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. The documentary isn’t as good or as impactful as the above, but it doesn’t need to be—it has little kids dressed as Yoda and Chewbacca. Sometimes you don’t need a ton of impact; you just need to have a good time.
That isn’t to say this is a bad documentary. It’s cute—you will saw “aww” so many times as you see kids discuss how they hope the play gives them more friends, helps them feel less shy, impresses their parents, or any other of supremely relatable things we’ve all felt. You will laugh at the young kid playing Chewbacca who gets the part because he can do the best Chewbacca noise. You will laugh at the wonderful awkwardness of children growing into their own. And you will just have fun watching such a fun, silly collection of costumes.
Watch this documentary if you like Star Wars, but also watch it if you have ever been a kid who was self-conscious about fitting in. It isn’t a long documentary, but it’s definitely a fun one.
As of 9/2/2018, Jedi Junior High is available for streaming on Netflix.