The Best Of Frank Wildhorn
The Best Of Frank Wildhorn
Zeppie2022
Broadway Star Joined: 7/12/22
#1The Best Of Frank Wildhorn
Posted: 5/18/24 at 1:01pm
I find it a bit funny that BWW has a story "Broadway JukeBox: The Best of Frank Wildhorn". He has been trashed for years by the theater critics and quite a few members of this board. I never thought I would see would see a story about him and his music on BWW. Personally, I saw the original J&H and liked it very much. I also saw "Scarlett "Pimpernel" (first version) and it was ok at best. Never saw "Bonnie & Clyde" but definitely liked the cast album. Also, I really liked the songs he wrote for Linda Eder on the album "It's Time".
#2The Best Of Frank Wildhorn
Posted: 5/18/24 at 1:32pm
Jekyll will always be his best work (pre broadway tour years ago and the German version)
#3The Best Of Frank Wildhorn
Posted: 5/18/24 at 5:58pm
Frank Wildhorn shows are my guilty pleasure. Jekyll & Hyde is my favorite of his closely followed by The Scarlet Pimpernel and Bonnie and Clyde.
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
Updated On: 5/18/24 at 05:58 PM
#4The Best Of Frank Wildhorn
Posted: 5/18/24 at 6:25pm
Jekyll & Hyde is my favorite. Wore the concept album out and saw the pre-Broadway tour. I felt it was a far more superior production than the Broadway production. Cuccioli was out for a good portion of the Denver run and I think it was Rob Evan that we had. He was excellent. Denver got a bonus. They sold the most tickets in Denver so as a thank you, Linda Eder did a free concert at the Auditorium Theater, which I attended, and it was the first time she sang Man of La Mancha for the first time onstage.
Just give the world Love.
GottaGetAGimmick420
Stand-by Joined: 12/9/23
#5The Best Of Frank Wildhorn
Posted: 5/18/24 at 6:45pm
That Death Note concept album from circa-2014 is an absolute guilty pleasure. Adrienne Warren is always a pleasure.
I'm just here so I don't get fined
#6The Best Of Frank Wildhorn
Posted: 5/18/24 at 7:50pm
His score to Bonnie & Clyde is very underrated, as is the whole show. I also second the love for the Death Note concept album - I wish it could be produced somewhere stateside.
It's true, his shows haven't had a lot of success on Broadway, although I believe Jekyll & Hyde eventually recouped on tour. Several of his musicals are less than stellar (lookin' at you Wonderland and Dracula) but he's very well produced in Europe and Asia and has earned a couple Tony nominations, so his career is nothing to sneeze at.
"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
Updated On: 5/18/24 at 07:50 PM
Ke3
Broadway Star Joined: 6/25/20
#7The Best Of Frank Wildhorn
Posted: 5/18/24 at 8:31pm
Bonnie & Cylde is by far his best show and it's because his collaborators encouraged him to spring from the material
bwayobsessed
Broadway Star Joined: 5/28/13
#8The Best Of Frank Wildhorn
Posted: 5/18/24 at 8:42pm
I really love Bonnie and Clyde. I really like the score for Wonderland even tho I know it has book issues. I also love Before the Summer Ends from Dracula
#9The Best Of Frank Wildhorn
Posted: 5/18/24 at 9:33pm
I enjoy parts of Bonnie and Clyde and Wonderland. I think the man can do something that many people struggle with and is really important - he knows how to find an interesting and novel melody. I just think he needed/needs the right collaborators to channel that for a musical theatre context. Otherwise it feels a bit shallow and not aligned to the characters, moment and story.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Zeppie2022
Broadway Star Joined: 7/12/22
#10The Best Of Frank Wildhorn
Posted: 5/19/24 at 12:06am
"I think the man can do something that many people struggle with and is really important - he knows how to find an interesting and novel melody. I just think he needed/needs the right collaborators to channel that for a musical theatre context."
Excellent point and I agree 100%.
carolinaguy
Broadway Star Joined: 10/13/06
#11The Best Of Frank Wildhorn
Posted: 5/20/24 at 1:12pm
I like the songs he wrote with Jack Murphy for Linda Eder's It's No Secret Anymore and It's Time albums much more than anything he ever wrote for the stage. I think he's a song writer, not a musical writer. B&C was the only time he ever even came close to trying to have a musical language across a whole show. Otherwise, his songs could be interchangeably plunked into any of his shows.
Just remembering you've had an "and"
When you're back to "or"
Makes the "or" mean more than it did before
#12The Best Of Frank Wildhorn
Posted: 5/20/24 at 1:26pm
The double pre-Broadway cd of "Jekyll & Hyde" is my favorite. Saw the show twice before it opened in NYC - August 1995 in Costa Mesa, and then January 1996 in Palm Springs. Loved it. Then saw J&H in NYC July 1997. So many changes occurred with the Broadway version, and not for the best.
Videos
