[Seriously]

Opening in November, "Imagine This" at the New London Theatre.

[Oxford Simon]

*looks confused*

[Haz]

is this the one that was in plymouth (?) last summer, or have i confused myself?

[Oxford Simon]

is this the one?

www.imaginethismusical.com

[MaisieM]

Good news indeed. I saw this last summer in Plymouth and thought then that it was worthy of a wider audience. It wasn't perfect by any means (the book certainly needed a little work) but the music is beautiful and the cast they had (inc. Peter Polycarpou) were excellent.

Another new musical for the WE (and a non-fluffy one too)

[MaisieM]

Must be that musical. Sorry, but the music sounds pretty dreadful to me.

And it has lyrics like "by helping them imagine life as it should be, they're not here - they are free". I actually find a sentiment of that cliche-ridden banality quite insulting when dealing with this subject matter (ie people facing death in the Warsaw ghetto). And that 'Far From Here' song on the website is even worse.

Why oh why do so many new musicals have such terrible lyrics? Even 'Marguerite' had its fair share. To me, there's just no excuse for putting third rate poetry on the West End stage. It's like something happens to people when they are writing musicals, and they think they can suddenly get away with these lazy rhymes and cliches.

'Betwixt' wasn't perfect, but at least it had quite a smart book and lyrics.

I take your point. It will be interesting to see what changes they haven made (if any) to the lyrics and/or book. I would like to reassure you that the songs do come across much better when performed. The subject matter is dealt with very carefully indeed. There was nothing trite or cliched about the staging in Plymouth of what, is of course, difficult subject matter.

[Orchestrator]

Why oh why do so many new musicals have such terrible lyrics? Even 'Marguerite' had its fair share. To me, there's just no excuse for putting third rate poetry on the West End stage. It's like something happens to people when they are writing musicals, and they think they can suddenly get away with these lazy rhymes and cliches.

This is a very good question, maybe deserving a thread of its own. I wonder if the composers, directors and producers are sometimes as much to blame as the lyricists. Zippel wrote really marvellous stuff until he worked on Woman In White, which has some of the most embarrassing lyrics I've ever heard. But maybe the English language should also take some of the blame - opera in English is sometimes just as bad.