Celebrating Musicals Blog Party: Wicked

Miss Dashwood (Or Gertie, as I'm privileged to call her), is a lovely young lady who runs Yet Another Period Drama which has a whole fandom of its own. Seriously. Like fan-girls and fans of fan-girls, etc. She's witty and funny and knows far too many lines of musicals for her own good. You can't read a post without either a song lyric or a movie-quote coming out a couple times. And you know how Sarah and I (and all the rest) love Broadway musicals!
So when dear Gertie went ahead and announced the Celebrate Musicals Week, in fine detail, I knew we had to participate! This blog has been absolutely dull as powder when it comes to "Audience Participation", you know, so we are hoping that if we come to the party, y'all will join us. ;)
The directions for Celebrate Musicals Week are that we, as the bloggers, were to choose one musical (go ahead and cut off my other arm and legs, m'kay?) and write several posts about it throughout the party. (There are to be tags and such as well.) Sarah and I really wanted to do Newsies, but after some thought we changed our minds and we will be focusing on the Wizard of Oz-inspired Broadway musical: Wicked.

Wicked is one of those musicals that you would find yourself humming before you even knew the story behind the show because the music is just that catchy and just that good. I have heard that the books Wicked is based off are no good at all--rather skanky in parts--so please don't trot off and get them from the library. But: "the music! ahhhh, such music..." as Mr. Tumnus would say. It's brilliant. From "Dancing Through Life" to "For Good", from ""Defying Gravity" to "Popular", Wicked is stuffed with the best of Broadway. As far as plot goes, the show follows the lives of Glinda, and the Wicked Witches of the East and West as well as the Tin-Man, the Scarecrow, and The Cowardly Lion of Wizard of Oz fame...but with a definite twist that will leave you on the edge of your seat with a lump in your throat. A must watch for fans of Oz!

 

So to kick off the party, let's start with some facts about this brilliant, passionate show!

• During the first big "quick change" of the show, 17 actors change from the mob to students in 1.5 minutes (including costumes, wigs, and shoes).
• In one year, the costuming department on Broadway used 1,000 feet of steel cable to restring the flying monkeys' wings.

 

• There are 179 different types and finishes of leather used in shoes, gloves, hats, and costume trims in the show.
• The show (on Broadway) uses 250 pounds of dry ice per show, while the traveling casts use 200. 
• The dragon's wingspan is the same as a Cessna 172
• All 90 wigs are made of human hair and specially crafted to fit the hairline of the actor wearing it for the most realistic look!
• Wicked was Broadway's #1 show for nine consecutive years.
• Wicked recovered it's $14,000,000 investment in 14 months. (Most shows take 2-3 years)

  

Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth started the roles and, in my humblest of Broadway-fan's opinions, think that there will never be a pairing quite this amazing. Kristen really is Galinda ("It's Guh-Linda..."), I'm quite certain, and for passion and heart and the ensuing bitterness when that heart is shattered, no one can match Idina Menzel. All you have to do is listen to "Defying Gravity" and hear the pathos in her voice.

In the week to come, stay tuned for our review of seeing the show live, The Modern Girls' Guide to Glitz by Galinda, The Introvert's Guide to Falling in Love and Flying With It by Elphaba, and more! So get your sparkle on, tame a flying monkey, and get ready for a week of  Oz-someness! ;)

Singin' in the Rain!

Hey guys! It's rather a drab and rainy day around here, so to cheer us all up, I'm posting a bunch of funny/pretty/cute/smashing pictures with lines from a song to match! :) Ready?

"What a gorgeous ha! ha! ha! Situation ha! ha! ha! What a startling ha! ha! ha! Revelation ha! ha! ha! ha!"

~Charlotte Church's "The Laughing Song"

"...I'll buy me a brand new dress to wear, I'll scrub my neck, and I'll brush my hair, and start all over again!"

~ "Many a New Day" from Oklahoma!

"I love to walk in the rain! Look for me when it's stormy down some lazy lane--I'll be there..."

"I Love Walk in the Rain" by Shirley Temple

"..Does he send you yellow flowers when the sky is gray, oh hey-ey!He'll find some way to show you, a little bit every day! That's how you know, that's how you know he's your Love."

"That's how you know" from Enchanted

 "Oh, the lady in red is fresh as a daisy when the town is in bed. 

Dancing and dining and shining originality.

She's very proper

She's nothing more than a pal.

You'll never stop her

She'll be a dangerous gal." 

"The Lady in Red" by Ricky Ricardo

"The pies and cakes/ a woman bakes/ can make a feller tell her/ that he loves her very much/ so never underestimate a woman's touch!"

"A Woman's Touch" from Calamity Jane

"I say, hey, I be gone today/ but I be back around the way/ seems like everywhere I go/ the more I see the less I know/ but I know one thing:/ I love you!""Say Hey" by Michael Franti

"Standin' on the corner watchin' all the girls go by...."

"Standin' on the Corner" by Dean Martin

"With my high-top collar/ and my high-top shoes/ and my hair piled high upon my head,/ I went to lose a jolly/ hour on the trolley/ and lost my heart instead!" 

"The Trolley Song" by Judy Garland

"In the rain the pavement shines like silver,/ all the lights are misty in the river/ In the darkness the trees are full of starlight/ and all I see is him and me forever and forever..."

"On My Own" from Les Miserables

I hope you enjoyed it! Have a lovely lovely day! ~Rachel

P.S. all photos courtesy of pinterest.com

Planning a Tea! :)

Hello! Sarah and I have been doing a literature-based unit study on the Victorian era called "Where the Brook and River Meet" available at Cadron Creek. We have had such fun doing this in-depth study on the era! I am sure I would never have grown to love Sir Walter Scott, John Greenleaf Whittier, and so many others unless I had dissected and poured over long poetry, learning to find the beauty in it! :) I'm also sure that we would never have been able to quote famous poetry, know about the men and women who wrote it, learned about such "obscure" people as Erasmus of Rotterdam and legions of Greek "great ones" unless we had gone though this study! Already, the information we have gathered has been profitable- since the Victorian Era is one of my favorites, I read a lot about it, and now I have a deeper understanding of that time-period; it is SO much fun to be watching a movie and recognize a quote, or two read in an old diary about a certain author and know about that author and his life...it's amazing! :) I'd say that my knowledge about the era has quadrupled at least...this is a super thorough study, and I highly recommend it! I mean, if an author so much as made a reference to a poem in a chapter title, we read that poem, researched the author, wrote a paper about the author, then if in the poem it mentioned something about a classic ancient Greek person, we researched them....it's really great!
But any how, as a final send-off from this study, Mama commissioned us to host a Victorian tea party for a couple of friends! :) We are so excited! We plan to make a meal with all the proper courses and dozens of eatables, then have a "parlor-party" where we will play, sing, and recite anything Victorian, before going outside to take a brisk walk or play croquet! Sarah and I had great fun designing the menu! We are going to have, among other things, Beef Wellington, French lemon tart, and we are going to make Petit-Fours!!!!!!! :D I love those things! They are so...Victorian! :) I wish we girls could get "The Society For The Suppression of Gossip" down in time to perform it for our guests! That is such a funny play! (And one that Anne Shirley and her friends performed at the school concert! :) But Sarah and I are trying to learn "Night of Stars" from "Tales of Hoffman": a truly beautiful song! (The Charlotte Church version anyway! :) Well, I have to go help with dinner so goodbye! -Rachel

Charlotte Church - The Prayer (with Josh Groban)

Hey everybody~ This is one of my new favorite songs! Awhile back The King's Daughter showed this to me and said that someday she'd like it at her wedding! Agree that it is a beautiful song- only I think that Josh Groban and Charlotte Church are the only pair that could do it this well! :D Enjoy this amazing song! It is so sweet! :) I posted the lyrics below!

I pray you'll be our eyes

And watch us where we go,

And help us to be wise

in times when we don't know

Let this be our prayer

As we go our way

Lead us to a place,

Guide us with Your Grace,

To a place where we'll be safe.

La luce che tu dai

I pray we'll find Your light

Nl cuore restera

And hold it in our hearts

A ricordarci che

When the stars go out each night

L'eterna stella sei

Nella mia preghiera

Let this be our prayer

Quanta fede c'e

When shadows ill our day

Lead us to a place

Guide us with your grace

Give us faith, so we'll be safe

Sognamo un mondo senza piu violenza

Un mondo di giustizia e di speranza

Ognuno dia la mano al suo vicino

Simbolo di pace, di fraternita

La forza che ci dai

We ask that life be kind

E' il desiderio che

And watch us from above

Ognuno trovi amore

We hope each soul will find

Intorno e dentro se

Another soul to love

Let his be our prayer

(Let this be our prayer)

Just like every child

(Just like every child)

Needs to find a place

Guide us with Your gace

Give us faith, so we'll be safe

E la fede che

Hai acceso in noi

Sento che ci salvera

Sorry that the formatting is off! :P -Rachel

In Which I am a Seamstress :)

`Ello Gov'na'! :) I don't know...that was just as sort of English sounding opening for a post on a very English day! :) I have had a perfectly lovely afternoon! One of my friends called me up this morning and asked me to come over and pick their cherry-trees with her! I was so excited, but then it began raining in earnest, and her Mama didn't want us to be out in the rain and catch cold. We are all walking on tip-toe till Saturday when we have our voice recital. No colds till then please! :) But then her older sister invited me to come work on my Scottish dress, and so I did. This dress has been trying to be made since....January? I bought the material and cut everything out and then...our machine quit. I shall not go into gorey details because they would bore you and irritate me! :) The Walkers were just about to move in, and so I felt that the Lord was just telling me that now was not the time to do it. So I packed it all away in my sewing box, and laid it aside. I knew that if I persisted in trying to make it my agenda, I would be constantly snarled because I knew my agenda was not the one I needed to focus on in this season. So I had almost forgotten about my Scottish finery laid away in the sewing box. Then The King's Daughter and I talked about it again. She offered to make it for me, since she had made her's and numerous other sewing projects since my burial of my hopes! ;) So with a very willing heart I gave her the project, and today I went over there and worked away at it with a good will! We were all three out in the room over their barn: a perfectly lovely apartment. The walls are painted the sweetest forgetmenot color, with white trim, and the floor is wood. At one end is a quaint little double-wide window looking out upon the prettiest garden this side of the Mississippi River! (Mr. T. keeps a Mr. MacGregor garden with not A SINGLE WEED!!!) Anyway, the rain was pouring down in torrents upon the tin roof as we sewed and sang together! I have little recollection of a wet afternoon more pleasantly spent! :) I worked on the blouse on Maryanna's machine, and The King's Daughter nearly finished the skirt on another! All that is left to do can probably be accomplished in another good afternoon's time. We must finish the blouse and make the vest. I am so excited! The Lord is rewarding my waiting with a most lovely chance to be with my sweet "sisters" in that pretty room! :) Yay! Three cheers for Scotland's traditional costume! (The King's Daughter and I plan to wear our outfits together one Sunday! :)
-Rachel

This is Just Weird

Hey guys! First of all, let me tell those of you who didn't see on the post below.... that I have begun another blog, (operating as a link from this) for my writing-things! (i.e. poetry, stories, thoughts on writing, etc.) I figured that I'd make those topics their own little resting place and that way only those of you who wanted to read my scribblings could go over there and follow it, or use my link on the sidebar here. Anyway, it is called The Inkpen Authoress. (Click on the name if you please! :) So we both will still be posting here, but my writing things are at the new blog.
New topic.
What do we kids do to amuse ourselves while riding to and from jobs? Well, today Sarah, (for some reason) started a game where you sing only the first word of a song, and everyone else guesses what song it is. That was random, fun, and even Dad played it. I was singing the word "I" and trying to get them to guess the right song, and all Sarah would do is sing, "have a mule and her name is Sal!" and then we'd crack up laughing, and I warble my little "I" over again. This time Sarah replied, "Love my mule and her name is Sal?" "Raised my mule and her name is Sal?" and generally made herself and us crack up.
We experienced the first of the summer's landscaping trials this afternoon: Some of you may better like to call it "The `go-green' sandwich melt". (Which in plainer language is when you make a meat sandwich at home, bring it in the car, and by lunchtime, the cheese is in an insipid state where it is neither melted nor unmelted, and the meat is neither thoroughly hot nor cold, and your lettuce is steamed, and the mustard sort of sticks to everything else. :( Not tasty)
Sarah and I sat there cracking jokes about our sandwiches and trying to choke them down. Sarah did a "Vitameatavegamin girl" shiver at her first bite. I made a resolute face and mined toward the middle. She pretended she was a termite. I wailed, "Fire in the hole!" and took a big bite which I regretted. We looked at eachother and I tipped my sandwich in a friendly manner saying, "Sarah..stuff, stuff, stodge, stodge!" and we both tried to continue. Finally I gave up. Sarah won hands down by pretending to be Templeton from Charlotte's Web, singing the "Smorgasbord" song the whole time. I just laughed and comforted myself by the recollection that any homeless people rummaging through trashcans would find a nice, melty, neither-here-nor-there sandwich to make up their dinner. *Copies Sarah's shiver!*
Oh! And on the way home we were in the midst of a raving, tearing thunderstorm and so Daniel turned on Lord of The Rings music to match the weather, and we scared ourselves silly! ;)
-Rachel

Ball Preparations :)

"Bed, bed, I couldn't go to bed,

My head's to light to try to set it down,

Sleep, sleep, I couldn't sleep tonight,

Not for all the jewels in the crown!

I could have danced all night,

I could have danced all night,

And still have begged for more.

I could have spread me wings,

And done a thousand things,

I've never done before....."

Around here, we love dancing. And we have a pet peeve: DANCING WITHOUT MUSIC!!!!!!! You really will end up gallumphing if you don't have some sort of something to help you go along gracefully! :) But since most of the time we don't like having to drag a c.d. player into the front yard, we just sing the music. True, we sound choppy since it is hard to keep a steady voice, sing "The Port Royal Gallop" and do a polka all at the same time, or to dance the "Ship's Cook" and sing "The Maid That Sold Her Barley", but we do it all the same! Waltzes are easier- Sarah and I simply start into "Ten Minutes Ago I Met You" from Rogers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella".

"Ten minutes ago I met you,

I looked up as you came through the door-

My head started wheeling

You gave me the feeling,

The room had no ceiling or floor.

Ten minutes ago I saw you,

And you murmured a `how do you do?'

I wanted to ring out the bells

And to....(I forget the words)"

It's alot of fun really! :) So, another thing we have been doing, (and this for brushing up before the ball) is asking eachother for a dance, and practicing accepting and refusing partners graciously. Sarah finds excessive amusement in dumbfounding me. Last night, she came up and said, "Do you have a partner?", with an air of expectant gallantry. I modestly said, "No." and then, instead of asking me, she walked away!!!!! I didn't know what to say, and pretty soon she fell on the ground laughing at me. We are constantly quoting the scene from "The Sound of Music"

"Leisl, who are you dancing with?"

"Nobody..."

"Oh yes you are!"

"May I have this dance?"

"I would be delighted young man!"

The reason we are practicing refusals, is because we have decided that we don't want to do the Waltz (the Spanish waltz is fine) or the Polka with any young men except for Daniel or Matthew. They are rather close-ish dances to do without some embarassment and uncomfortableness on the girl's part at least. Yes, Sarah is quite a clown about it all- she has set up every swingin' scenario you could imagine- she went down on her knees and asked me, she grabbed my shoulder and asked me, she tapped me on the shoulder, she bowed, she chased me around on her knees like some very short and scary man....she really is very inventive. You know me! I make an elaborate bow to Sarah and ask her for a dance in the most correct and pretty language. But when she asks me, she pretends she is chewing on a straw and says, "Ya' wanna dance?" What would we do without personalities?

All around our house we are buzzing about the ball. Last night I set to putting a French tuck (by hand- reenactor fashion you know ;) into my skirt with as much goodwill as any young woman ever has when preparing her finery for her first ball. I only hope that I get asked to dance, because I would rather dance with a blind mule than sit and watch people doing it when I can't! The King's Daughter and I have already pledged each other that if we both are left to dry-rot along the side, we'll dance with each other! :) Well, I had better go! -Rachel

P.S. Thank you Eric and Charity for becoming our 31 and 32 followers!!!! :) We hope you enjoy reading this blog and continue to visit and comment!:D

Home-grown Talent Show.... :{

So, what is the newest amusement for us around here? What would you say to a talent (or rather, untalent) show? Yep. That is what we girls have been doing in some of our spare moments. It is really not as grand as it sounds- at all. We gather up the Walker girls and ourselves, and head out to the front lawn where everyone does whatever they can think to do.
Really! It is so much fun! I'll give you a peek into one of these shows...
Abby and Bethany stand up and blush, then argue about the words to the "Matchmaker" song. Finally, Bethany begins singing, but Abby stops her, and they start over. Stop again. Start again. Finally, I herd them off the stage and put on the next act: Anna and Emily singing some song. They forget the words and shrink back to their seats. Sarah and I give a despairing smile to the others as we realize that we'll have to carry the show. I get up there and recite "The Highwayman" in a fashion that would make Anne Shirley proud. Sarah and I sing "By the Light of The Moon" ala Fred and Ethel Mertz.
Then Gracie and Bekah get up there. Grace giggles while Bekah runs around singing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" at the top of her lungs. Literally, just those five words. She can't remember the rest. We shoo them off by politely clapping, and then I get back up in front of everyone and sing opera. :) Or at least, my version. It is composed of mostly imitating the lady in Anne of Green Gables, and finished with a warbling "O Promise Me" song, sung purposely to make the little girls crack up. At last we begin to try to be serious. Abby and Bethany take turns jump-roping for us. Then they do a "Virginia Reel" while either Sarah or I sing "The Maid That Sold Her Barley" for accompaniment. Leah may go shyly up and perform a little song, and Anna or Emily will try singing "Come Thou Fount", but get embarassed halfway and go sit down.
Sarah and I are at it again with "Carolina in the Morning" (with a dance) or "The Old Kent Road". Then, our girls sing "Be Thou My Vision" in three part harmony. The only people left to clap by this point are Bekah and Grace who have been yelling the whole way through.
I send Leah to bring the other girls back. We are finally all seated, and Sarah and I finish our little show with "Angel of Music" from "The Phantom of The Opera".
By the end we aren't sure if we have any talent, but we have had fun and have spent a profitable 1/2 hour spending time with each other! -Rachel

Ane Daft Yang Limmer's Skirling

Hi! (the title is Scottish brogue for "One Crazy Young Woman's Skirling" (skirling is the way they describe a bagpipe's sound, so maybe it isn't the most flattering adjective for my singing!))This is me, Rachel! We are about to leave for a very spur of the day ;) get-together with the Wilsons! Yay! I don't think we've done something like this since last February, so I'm really excited! (guys, seeing you for an hour or so after church just wasn't cutting it even for the Dads I guess! :) I am so excited! Anyway, there is something strange going on with my mind- some of you may remember me writing about the odd things I think of when I am working with Dad. Well, I have been reading Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott. (It is all about Scotland and very exciting and I highly recommend it if you want to become familiar speed-reading Scottish Highland Brogue. Anyhow!) So this is the thing: maybe my mind is too occupied with Scotland right now, but the only songs I can think of are Scottish songs, and words to Scottish songs I've read. My mind was like this today:

(singing to myself) "Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonny Dune
How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair"

The next minute- "I saw a thrush!
Sitting on a bush
And the song he sang was "A Jug of Punch" o-de-lie-delay!.."

(by the way, the words to the rest of it are not very good so I haven't learned it but the tune is catchy! :)

Then- "My love is like a red, red rose
That's newly sprung in June,
My love is like a melody
That's sweetly played in tune...."

Then, "....hmmmm (can't think of the words then a rousing: "The Maid that Sold her Barley!"


And then the words I somehow remembered from reading them in a book somewhere:

"Have Ye Heard of Kate Kearney?
She lives on the banks of Killarney,
From the glance of her eye
Shun danger and fly,
For fatal's the glance of Kate Kearney."

So I am trying to think of something else to sing, and by the way, I am almost, almost done with Rob Roy. I hate that Diana Vernon must go to a convent! But I'm sure in the next few pages Rob Roy will help Frank Osbaldistone get her out of that predicament! :) -Rachel

Hullo Folks!

Hey guys! Wow! It seems like a long time since I've posted. (I being the Rachel-who-even-her-own-cousin-has-a-hard-time-spelling ;) Any-hoo! Today was choir practice. We had a loverly time as usual, and almost perfected "Hallelujah, Praise The Lamb" which is beautiful with three part harmony. I get the "angel" sounding part! :) Actually, I am tenor for the first chorus, silent in the verse, then second soprano for the next chorus and the bridge. Very exhausting to remember! But it sounded great. Oh! Sarah and I got a set of real wood bedroom furniture! Yesterday we sanded and oil primed it all. I don't really know what "style" it is, only that it is wavy and feminine, and old-fashioned. We are painting it cream colored like French Provencial sort of. Anyway, we'll do a post with pictures of it and everything when we are done. Let me do something fun: Here are three questions that each of you must answer as honestly as you can:

What is a nickname you hate but that your family calls you? I don't have many nick-names

What is the worst birthday or Christmas present you've ever had? I remember being really bashful because two people had given me the same present when I turned 5 of 6.

Are you a picky eater? If so, are you expecting your spouse someday to cope with that? ;)
I am only a picky breakfast eater, and since I'll be cooking I can eat whatever of the breakfast of the day I want and leave the rest to my husband! :)

Well, sorry this is short, but I'm on a new computer-time budget that we are trying out due to the black-hole blogging can be! ;)
Oh!!! The biggest news! I am completely and utterly done editing my book, so next I'll send it to test families to read and fill out a constructive-criticism sheet, and then off to the publisher or printer! (We aren't positive which yet!) So quite a triumph for an aspiring authoress! :)

-Rachel

The Girls' Chorale

Hi Everybody! This shan't be a long post at all- just warning you! Today we four eldest girls went over to the Thompsons to begin our Girls' Chorale. When we got there, Mrs. Thompson and Maryanna were still at the dentist, so we played a convenient game of volleyball! Then we began. After testing our voices a bit, Mrs. Thompson decided that Sarah and Joanna will sing alto, Maryanna and I will sing tenor, and the rest will do soprano. She wants us to be able to hear the parts when we sing, so we practiced that a bit, and the proper way to breathe. The songs we practiced were Amazing Grace sung to the tune of "Happy Wanderer", "Be Thou My Vision", and "The Whipporwill Song". We had a great time after floundering about figuring out the parts. It actually sounded good! The plan is to learn how to sing in 3 or 4 part harmony and to go to nursing homes and sing to the people there, perhaps sing at church sometime, and then have a concert! I'm really excited! I love to sing! After the class, Joanna gave us apple turnovers to eat!Yum! I have surrendered my pride to the fact that her's far surpass mine. Now Daniel shan't have to make a "diplomatic choice" between the two. As Lady Cluck from Robin Hood exclaims in her thick Scottish brogue, "Ye got me!"
Speaking of Daniel, today was his first time voting- Yay! We are swiping Meredith's idea and having a victory party later tonight. It'll be a late one!
Oh! On a very random note, Joanna leant me her really thick collection of Jane Austen's novels. I am beginning Persuasion, and I am convinced that it does not work to try to read the first chapter about the "baronacies" book while in a room with two sisters playing Scrabble-take-two on the floor, one pounding out the battle song from The Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe on the piano, and Daniel medatatively strumming his guitar in the easy chair. I slopped through that chapter and came to blog instead! :) (oh the sins of this present generation of youngsters!)
Well, as that last sentence made me feel as if I were some "tech girl" and must hie away to another bit of Persuasion in a different room to preserve my dignity as a "book worm"! Toodles!

-Rachel