First of all... As I wrote in my last post, when you're heading to Amazon to shop for gifts this holiday season (and all year 'round), just go to Smile.Amazon.com instead. You'll end up in the same place except when you go to Smile, it'll ask you to pick a charity (you'll choose New Line Theatre, of course), and then whenever you buy anything through Amazon Smile (bookmark it!), New Line gets a small donation. And it really adds up! Last season the total in Smile donations was about $200! Imagine if all the New Liners used Amazon Smile this holiday season...!
So what do you get for the musical theatre fanboy and fangirl who have it all? Funny you should ask. Sure, there's lots of cool musicals-related stuff on Playbill.com, Amazon, Etsy, Ebay, but here are some really cool, really special gift suggestions that most people won't think about...
The Zombies of Penzance script, score, and cast album Yes, available now on Amazon, the book and lyrics for The Zombies of Penzance, which just made its world debut with New Line last month, the entire text of the show, for you to read and giggle over. (Did you catch that reference to Aqua Teen Hunger Force?) The full Zombies of Penzance piano-vocal score is also available on Amazon, and you can also buy our live cast recording of the show, featuring the St. Louis cast, recorded live at the Marcelle!
New Line Gear We've got a lot of cool New Line gear on CafePress -- we've got New Line t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs and glasses, greeting cards, teddy bears, rugs, lacquer boxes, pillows, clocks, jewelry, shower curtains, Christmas stuff, stuff for kids and pets! Some of this cool gear would make amazing holiday presents for St. Louis musical theatre lovers!
It's a Musical! 400 Questions to Ponder, Discuss, and Fight About -- This quiz book is filled with 400 questions designed to make the serious musical theatre fan think about musicals, on Broadway and across the country, how they operate, how they interact with each other and with the Real World, how they are related, how they have and haven't changed over the years, what they have been and what they are becoming in this new Golden Age of the American Musical Theatre. Por ejemplo...
What theatre song always puts you in a good mood?
Name a strong black leading character in a musical.
Quote one dialogue line from a musical that totally encapsulates that show.
What's your favorite Act II opener?
Name a theatre song in which the singer is lying.
What musical would be hardest to explain to someone who knew nothing about it?
What's your favorite Kander & Ebb vamp?
You can flip through this book, land on any page, read a question, and test yourself on your knowledge, insights, and opinions about musicals. Or you can make it a game with your similarly obsessed friends. Or you can use it to humiliate posers who only pretend to know our beloved art form. Your choice. But wield your power carefully. The primary purpose here is just for serious, hardcore, musical theatre fans to have lots of musical theatre fun with other serious, hardcore, musical theatre fans. Or with themselves. But remember -- alone is alone, not alive.
It has also occurred to me that this book would be a useful teaching aid for theatre teachers, to get their students thinking more substantively about our art form. It's a Musical! is now available on Amazon too!
Tickets Yes, New Line has two really exciting shows coming up, and any musical theatre lover would be delighted by tickets to one or both. Our new, incredibly intimate production of La Cage aux Folles runs Feb. 28-March 23. Taking the show down to human scale will reveal so much in this beautifully crafted show. And in June, we managed to secure the rights for the new rock musical Be More Chill, based on the bestselling novel, running May 30-June 22. Even though the show opens on Broadway in March, we still have the rights, so you can see this wildly popular new show right here in St. Louis! You can buy La Cage tickets here, and Be More Chill here.
Cool Theatre Books Over time, I've created lots of lists for my blog, including several lists of cool theatre books, videos, etc., all of which would make excellent gifts for musical theatre lovers! Take a gander at these links. Or you can browse the subject index for my blog, and find lots of other cool stuff...
Great Musical Theatre Books
Great Non-Musical Theatre Books for Musical Theatre People
Cool Lesser-Known Movie Musicals on Video
Cool Novels That Musicals Are Based On
Great Movies About Musicals
Great Musical Theatre Documentaries
Musicals Live on Video
My Books Yes, I'm going to do some brief self-promotion for a second. Take a visit sometime to my Amazon Author Page, with my six analysis books, one history book, scripts and vocal selections from a few of the shows I've written (Attempting the Absurd, Johnny Appleweed, In the Blood, AstroTurf, Head Games, A Hot Cup of Murder), my one novel, several collections to which I've contributed, and also something I've always wanted to publish, a collection of my songs from the nine musicals I've written, cleverly titled Songs from the Musicals of Scott Miller. You're bound to find something that looks like fun...
Be More Chill If you don't know this novel or musical, you should. It's about to open on Broadway, and it's really special. If you haven't yet heard "Michael in the Bathroom," you will soon. Last year it was all about Hamilton themed gifts. This year it's Be More Chill. Here are the novel, the cast recording, and the vocal selections. If you don't get these for someone else, get them for yourself.
Brian Reedy's Art This is one of the cooler things you'll find on Etsy, created by Brian Reedy, brother to New Line's resident graphic artists, Matt Reedy. He's already made a Hamilton woodcut, and an Audrey II linocut, both incredibly cool and both for sale in Brian's Etsy store.
Broadway Pops I have fallen in love with Funko Pops figures -- they're so odd but so wonderful. In recent months, Funko has released several Little Shop of Horrors figures, as well as two versions of both Danny and Sandy in Grease.
But it gets even better. You can commission special orders from her! Would anyone really think I could have that information and not act on it? I couldn't help myself. So I asked Amanda to create a trio of figures for me, Billy Crocker, Reno Sweeney, and Moonface Martin, in the original 1934 Anything Goes. See the photo to see how cool they turned out! Amanda is totally open to suggestions...
Imagine Pop versions of Dolly Levi, Lola, Zaza, Evan Hansen, Capt. Macheath, Hedwig, Tracy and Edna Turnblad, William Barfee, Harold Hill, Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart, Berger and Claude, Marvin and Whizzer, Melchior, Wendla, and Moritz (oh my!), Princeton and Kate Monster, the Rent kids, the three American Idiot guys, the three Heathers, Edgar the Bat Boy... The mind reels...
Surely all these great gift ideas will cover even the most difficult-to-shop-for artsy friends and family members. We just made holiday shopping totally easy on you. You're welcome.
And finally, if that special someone really is impossible to shop for, make a donation to New Line in their name! What could be nicer for a musical theatre fan than to make sure New Line keeps producing amazing, unique, thrilling musical theatre.
I'll leave you with one of my favorite theatre lyrics, which seems particularly potent these days, from the song "Christmas Day" in the musical Promises, Promises:
If Christmas Day is really in your heart,
You don't have to save up
All your love to give once a year...
Long Live the Musical! And Happy Holidays!
Scott
0 comments:
Post a Comment