Spring's Musicals and Their Online Presences

I'm thinking about musicals today. Maybe it's because the week is heavy that way. Applause at City Center starts up tomorrow. Also there are press performances for The Blue Flower at the Prospect Theater Company, Next to Normal at Second Stage, and "Slug-Bearers" at the Vineyard.

Beyond this, I've been getting a lot of press releases about websites going live for the musicals opening on Broadway. The first – which has been up and running for a bit – is for Passing Strange (opening Feb. 28). They've just added a new mp3 to their downloads section. You can check this one out at: http://www.passingstrangeonbroadway.com/

Over at http://www.acateredaffaironbroadway.com/, which has been adding features this week, you'll find that the company and creatives are sharing their wedding stories in a sort of blog-like fashion. No downloads yet, but you can share your own wedding story and photos. ("Catered Affair" is due to open at the Walter Kerr on April 17.)

Now with In the Heights, which is opening at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on March 9, their site is up and fully functional – with a media player that has a couple of selections and their television commercial. They've even got the code available for you to embed this as a widget on your own blog or other personal online page. You can find the "Heights" site at: http://www.intheheightsthemusical.com/

Of course two of the musicals that are part of Broadway's spring season come courtesy of the Roundabout Theatre Company (http://www.roundabouttheatre.org) - Sunday in the Park with George and Lincoln Center Theater (http://www.lct.org) - South Pacific.

I've tracked down the pages (not yet active) for the other Broadway musicals scheduled for the spring. Gypsy has a front page at http://www.gypsybroadway.com/ and Cry-Baby has their online turf marked out at http://www.crybabyonbroadway.com/ (sorta cool poster btw).

Of course, if you're looking for some background information on the off-Broadway openings that are more immediate – you can find things at each of the theater's respective websites:

· Prospect Theater Company - http://www.prospecttheater.org/
· Second Stage Theatre - http://www.2st.com/
· Vineyard Theatre - http://www.vineyardtheatre.org/

For more specific information about "Blue Flower" (which I adored at NYMF a few years back), you can check out Jim Bauer's website - http://www.dagmartheband.com/. Tom Kitt (who's written "Normal") has reserved a domain (tomkitt.com) and for "Slug-Bearers" – both Ben Katchnor (librettist) and Mark Mulcahy (composer) have sites. You'll find them at: http://www.katchor.com/ and http://www.markmulcahy.com/

Finally, for Aplause, Peter Filichia over at TheaterMania has done a couple of terrific pieces on the show and its history. Check them out at:

Background Applause, 2/04/2008
http://www.theatermania.com/peterfilichia/index.cfm?mode=viewEntry&id=CE117234-65BE-CE32-688CBB6FB2F9630E

Applause, Applause, 2/06/2008
http://www.theatermania.com/peterfilichia/index.cfm?mode=viewEntry&id=E62FC3F7-65BE-CE32-6B0A4E8EE0CC4632

Finally, In This House - a new musical from Sarah Schlesinger, Mike Reid and Jonathan Bernstein has just opened out in California at Playhouse West in Walnut Creek. I was intrigued by the review it got this morning in The Contra Costa Times and figured I'd share that as well:

Musical form gets a makeover in 'House'

Andy