Ryan's Reviews

Dracula the classic novel by Bram Stoker published in 1897 would appear to have all of the ingredients for a highly successful stage musical. Jonathan Harker who works as a solicitor is travelling on business in Transylvania to help facilitate the move of a mysterious character named Count Dracula. Dracula is shifting to London where he roams by night feasting on the blood of victims and turning them into the undead. It's up to Jonathan and his fiancée Mina and their good friends to stop the evil Count. What we have here, if you ask me, is a thrilling plot for a script, lending itself to a powerful and romantic score which could range from classical music and operetta to even rock. (There's a reason Jim Steinman writing the score for a musical about vampires seriously works. If you don't believe me, "Tanz der Vampire" has been performed throughout Europe since 1997.) Scenically, there's a great contrast between different locales, from the shadowy worlds of Tra...

If I had to name some of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century, well I wouldn't actually. I would turn around and just walk out of the room, open up the door, walk across the front yard and keep right on going all the way down the road to the nearest bus stop so I could get as far away from dodge as I possibly could. I'm not even going to begin contemplating answering that question. How could I? So many celebrated and talented artists have existed in the span of a century I don't even think it would be possible to really answer that question. And yet when you look at it from another angle, so far as I'm aware one of if not the greatest band of the twentieth century was the eight musicians who played on board the RMS Titanic. Yes. The band that played on until the very end which consisted of these eight gentlemen, a combination of the Violin, Cello and Piano Trio of Georges Krins, Roger Bricoux and William Brailey, and the Quintet with Bandmaster and Violinist ...

It never ceases to amaze me. The discography of Sir Elton John born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 27 March 1947 is one of the most expansive and impressive I’ve come across. I’m just going to fire off his albums here, if you don’t mind, since I think it bears repeating: Empty Sky (1969), Elton John and Tumbleweed Connection (1970), Madman Across the Water (1971), Honky Château (1972), Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973), Caribou (1974), Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy followed by Rock of the Westies (1975), Blue Moves (1976), A Single Man (1978), Victim of Love (1979), 21 at 33 (1980), The Fox (1981), Jump Up! (1982), Too Low for Zero (1983), Breaking Hearts (1984), Ice on Fire (1985), Leather Jackets (1986), Reg Strikes Back (1988), Sleeping with the Past (1989), The One (1992), Made in England (1995), The Big Picture (1997), Songs from the West Coast (2001), Peachtree Road (2004), The Captain & the Kid, a sequel to Captain Fantas...

Coming up on one year this year since maestro Jim Steinman took his final flight to Never Land ("You can fly and never land/And never need to sleep/But will it ever be enough?/You know that it'll never be enough") and I'm listening to the original "Bat out of Hell" album on my headphones. Released on 21 October 1977, "Bat out of Hell" was the debut album of Meat Loaf with songs by Jim Steinman, which stands in the top 20 greatest selling albums of all time, along with AC/DC "Back in Black", Pink Floyd "The Dark Side of the Moon", Michael Jackson "Thriller" and more. The result of two people meeting at an audition, Jim's musical "More Than You Deserve" staged between the Public Theater's triumphs with "Hair" and "A Chorus Line". From there, they got together and rehearsed a series of songs with just vocal and piano accompaniment. Jim would pound the piano, and then hold up his hands...

While putting together my review on the 1979 soundtrack "The Rose", Bette's album preceding this one, I came across this interesting bit of IMDB trivia. Apparently, according to a book called "The Academy Awards: The Complete Unofficial History", Bette had turned down parts in "Nashville" (1975), "Rocky" (1976) and "Foul Play" (1978), so she could play the main role in "The Rose". She felt it would "make her an instant screen icon". Between that, and stories about Bette being involved at some point or another in movies like "Annie", "Sister Act" (Dolores Van Cartier played by Whoopi Goldberg) and "The Lion King" (as Mufasa's Queen Sarabi), I just have to say: WOW! Bette's next project following "The Rose" was both a concert film and an accompanying live album by the name of "Divine Madness". It was also her first release for the 1980s, a decade which (by 1...

It was the first major film role for Bette Midler. It was also the first time a soundtrack primarily sung by Bette Midler would be released in tandem with one of her movies, something that would happen again with "Beaches", "For the Boys" and the 1993 TV version of "Gypsy". The film, which was a fictionalized story on singer Janis Joplin, earned four Academy Award nominations including Best Actress in a Leading Role (Bette), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Frederic Forrest), Best Film Editing and Best Sound. Today I'm going to be looking at that classic soundtrack, with songs like "Whose Side Are You On?", "Midnight in Memphis", "When a Man Loves a Woman", and more, very much including one of the most important songs of Bette's career, one of her most beloved and remembered to this day, "The Rose" written by Amanda McBroom and produced by Paul A. Rothchild. The soundtrack was produced by Rothchild, a renowne...

October 1979 saw the release of Bette Midler’s fifth studio album "Thighs and Whispers" on Atlantic Records, and let me tell you this! I am just a recent arrival at this party, but so better later than never! What, Bette late? Never! Half the reason I kept trying to hunt this one down on CD was because of the opening song "Big Noise from Winnetka" which I knew from Bette's 1980 live album "Divine Madness", and I really wanted to hear the full studio version on CD. It was marvellous! It was magically cool! It was awesome! But as brilliant as I found this whole thing to be, was almost as terrible trying to find myself a CD copy! Madness! And nothing to do with divine! Finally, after about what might have been a year, I saw it and couldn't believe my own eyes. There it was, Bette Midler's fifth studio album sitting right there on CD, just waiting for me to reach out and grab it, and hopefully some other eager pair of eyes wouldn't reach out an...