Bite-Sized Broadway is an anthology of mini-musicals. Each musical differs in style, music, and length. Shows run anywhere from seventeen to thirty-two minutes. The remaining time is spent on an interview with the creators of the musicals. The interviews are conducted by Jonathan Lynch. I was first made aware of Bite-Sized Broadway when I was contacted by Andrew Fox on Reddit. He's the sound engineer for the podcast, and is responsible for coordinating the musical scores in each episode. He's also an alumnus from Team StarKid. Team StarKid were an indie theatre troop who produced several parody musicals beloved across the Internet and beyond. Andrew had read some of my previous review I posed in r/audiodrama, and asked if I'd be willing to take a look at Bite-Sized Broadway. I said yes, and now here we are.
As you'll recall from last time, I absolutely adore the theme song that plays at the beginning and ending of each episode. Each episode has their own personalized posters, and they're all great. In fact, if you listen on Spotify, the image you get will be each episode’s poster, rather than the series title card. But we're getting off-track. To the next musical we go.
The sixth musical is The Trial of Bastiano di Bologna. It takes place at the Vatican in the 8th Century. Bastiano di Bologna, the loyal personal assistant of the Pope, has been brought to trial. He is accused of sneaking into the Pope's chambers and attempting to murder the Pope. Bastiano, however, contends that he is innocent. He claims that he witnessed a tiny arm sticking out from under the Pope's miter. Moreover, he claims that there is a tiny man living under the Pope's miter.
Just as a point of clarification. Miters are those funny looking hats that bishops wear. Aaron Jensen said that he got the idea for this musical when he was reading a story in The Weekly World News. It's a parody newspaper along the lines of The Onion. The story he read was about how a second pope was discovered under the Pope's hat. So, he grew the story from there. So, this story isn't based on any actual, or purported, trails within the Vatican. It's not aiming to be historically accurate, hence why the music is so anachronistic for the 8th Century.
Well, we start off with some Gregorian Chant, which would have been accurate for the time period. After that, we quickly transition to a more operatic style of music. In particular, I was reminded of the opera Don Giovani. We start of light and airy with wind instruments, and then get darker and more dramatic, which pipe organ for accompaniment. In particular, the part where the Tribunale tells Bastiano that his fate is sealed reminded me of the end of Don Giovanni. Also, as an aside, we got a surprise appearance by Andrew Fox as a member of the Tribunale. This is rather amusing, given that Andrew is Jewish.
The ending makes pretty good use of the audio-only medium. The Pope is called forward and has his miter removed. We hear everyone gasp, and then the musical ends. So, we never find out if there was a little man under the miter or not. Aaron says he leaves it up to the listeners to decide for themselves. Personally, the impression I got was that there was indeed a tiny pope.
But in more concrete details, I do know that The Trial of Bastiano di Bologna is an excellent mini-musical, and I happily recommend it. It's a historical-ish musical with some fun twists.
Our seventh musical is MTA: The Musical. It's a hot summer day on the New York City subway. Three very different people are standing on the platform waiting for their train. The train keeps getting delayed, and the heat keeps rising. We follow the inner thoughts and internal monologues of all three people as they go on a rollercoaster of emotions while waiting for the train.
I took a two-and-a-half-week trip Washington DC the summer before a graduated from college. It was a walking tour of the city that counted for class credit, and had plenty of free time. As such, I frequently used the Washington Metro subway. It was clean, modern, had plenty of air conditioning, was full of friendly and helpful people, and the train lines were all very easy to navigate. I bring this up because, based on what I've heard, the New York City Metro is the exact opposite of all those things. It probably helps that the Washington Metro frowns upon allowing food and drink, other than water and maybe coffee, onto the trains and into the station. I think I still have my metro card in my wallet, come to think of it. No, I didn't feel any schadenfreude listening to this musical. Why ever do you ask?
Peter Saxe and Christopher Michaels first conceived of this musical as a short film and a live show. They would be ten minutes long and feature no dialogue, other than the occasional announcement over the PA system. All other noises would be the sort ambient noises you might hear on a subway platform. The story would conveyed entirely thought the body language of the actors, to the point that the characters didn't even have names. Obviously, it would be pretty much impossible to do this in a non-visual medium, so this led to the plot being carried by the characters inner thoughts instead. Though, the characters are still unnamed, just like in the original proposal.
Our first song is called, fittingly enough, "MTA." It an upbeat opening number...about how much the three characters hate the MTA. They sing about how there's no air conditioning, cellphone reception is terrible, it's dirty and full of really big rats, among other things. I loved the contrast between the upbeat music and the extremely negative lyrics. It's a good opening number. Also, I definitely did not giggle and chuckle as I marveled at how much better the Washington Metro is. Yep, that totally did not happen.
Next, we have "Look At That." Everyone's frustration with the subway turn to sexual frustration as they ogle each other. They even hallucinate the PA system saying sexy things. Speaking only for myself, I don't usually think sexy thought when the temperature rises. I usually think something along the lines of "damn it, why is it so damn hot?!" I've also never ogled anyone on a subway. Though, that was probably because the experience was still so novel, and I was thinking about the fun things I'd see at various museums. If I had to ride the subway every day for work, I get the feeling the novelty would wear-off pretty quickly. But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be thinking about banging the other passengers. Hey, all I'm saying is that another stereotype I've hear of the New York subway is that people are always masturbating on it. This was another song were the disconnect between the lyrics and the music worked to great effect.
Our third song is "Something More." It's a slow, and surprisingly touching, song where the characters sing about how they don't want to be alone. They're lonely, and they just want to find that special someone. The woman likes the second man, but he's gay and likes the first man, but first man likes the woman, who thinks he's a total meathead. Yeah, even before the love triangle was official revealed in the second song, I saw it coming a mile away. It was pretty obvious based on the mix of people we had. Still, while predicable, the actors all gave great performances. This song was also great at conveying its point about the characters.
Our final song is "MTA (Reprise)". It starts off slower, but then speeds up again towards the end. The characters sing about the MTA suck, but what are you going to do about it? Complaining won't make the train come fast, and at the end of the day, they all need the MTA for one thing or another. And hey, their patience is rewarded. Godot, and by that, I mean the train, finally arrives. Psych! It plows past the station and they're left still waiting, and frustrated as ever.
And so that was MTA: The Musical. It was another shorter musical, but it was still plenty of fun. It got plenty of laughs from me, and even managed to have genuinely touching moments. Chalk another one up for excellent mini-musicals.
Our eighth musical is Sheila the Tiny Turtle. Sheila is a turtle who lives with her family in the Australian Outback. She wants to do big things, but everyone thinks she’s too small. Then, her mother falls ill, and nothing can cure her. Sheila hears that the seeds of the desert quandong tree might be able to cure her mother. However, the path to the tree is far from easy, and danger lurks around ever corner. Undeterred, Sheila sets out into the wilderness to save her mother.
Those of your who have read my review of the audio drama Yowie will recall that I had a love for all things Australia in my younger days. I still have a certain fondness for the Land Down Under. So, this musical had my attention from the start. This is a great musical to share with kids, but that’s no surprise. Caitlyn Burt and Amir Shoenfeld wrote this musical by consulting a children’s book containing folktales from around the world. They liked a Mexican story about the trickster Coyote. However, due to neither of them being Mexican, they felt uncomfortable doing a straight adaption. So, they decided to recast the story in one of their homelands; Australia for Caitlyn and Israel for Amir. They chose Australia due to it have more interesting animals than Israel.
I’ve done something similar. I’ve retold the Japanese folktale of Urashima Taro, but in 19th Century Shreveport, Louisiana. I’ve also retold the Jewish folktale The Golem of Prague, but set in 19th Century South Carolina. In fact, the very first version of The Golem of Prague that I ever read was set in the Roman Empire. You can find both of my stories over on The Moonlit Road.
Before we get into the songs, I just have to ask, why would a family of sea turtles be living in the Australian Outback? The Outback is about as far as you can get from the ocean in Australia. It just makes no sense. The cover art seems to indicate that Sheila and her family are sea turtles. I realize this is a minor issue, but it matters to me. Anyway, enough about that, onto the music.
Our opening song is called, well, “Opening.” It is a rousing folk/country song as Sheila’s brothers sing about how they work hard to provide for their mother, and diss Sheila for being little and weak. The song grows softer and slower as Sheila decide to embark on her dangerous quest. This was an interesting song. I’ve listened to a fair bit of folk music from around the Anglosphere, and I’ve come to appreciate how country music evolved out of folk music. Sometimes the line between the two gets a bit blurred. I got hints of both in this song, but I guess that make sense. Australia is a former British colony, like America, and draws from the same musical tradition. Well, the same initial musical tradition. Country music in America has strong African-American influences as well, but I digress.
The next song is “Offspring Just Spring Off.” Sheila meets some friendly kangaroos, and saves a joey named Ned from an eagle. Ned’s mother, however, is worried about how far Sheila is from home. Mrs. Kangaroo sings a bouncy song about how all mothers, no matter what species, make sure their children are safe and protected. Well, it is certainly fitting that the bouncy song was sung by a kangaroo. We also get to hear lots of fun Australian slang. That, or Sheila and the kangaroos were struck by a sudden bout of aphasia. That was a joke, just to be clear. I actually did enjoy hearing all the slang, and trying to pick-out the bits I was familiar with.
Song number three is called “Dingo.” Funnily enough, this one involves Sheila bumping into a hungry dingo. This one starts off menacing and threatening. I can practically see the hungry dingo circling around poor Sheila. Then, it switches to happy and jaunty as Sheila tricks the dingo into doing her bidding for her. See, Sheila, your mother was right. You are clever, and that’s your greatest strength. Hmm, I guess this is were the influences from the original story of Coyote come in. A great song, I have no complaints.
“Finale” is a reprise of the opening song, but this time Sheila’s brothers are singing her praise. The moral of this musical, if it wasn’t obvious, is that physical strength isn’t everything. There’s always a solution for those clever enough to find it. Sometimes, you just have to persevere. Not much more to say, other than that it was a good note to end on.
And so that was Sheila the Tiny Turtle. A great mini-musical for listeners of all ages. A good place to start if you want to introduce kids to musical theatre.
Our final musical for this season is titled RansomWHERE? This one follows a little old lady who isn’t very knowledgeable about computers. We’ll call her Grandma. Unfortunately, Grandma has been tricked into downloading some ransomware, named AIDA, onto her computer. She has seventeen minutes before it deletes all of her photos. Grandma recruits the help of her grandson Thomas, and together they must find a way to outwit AIDA before it is too late.
My family has had to deal with something very similar to this musical. My paternal grandfather got tricked into giving his personal information to scammers. It took my dad quite a bit of time to get that sorted out. My mom says that there is a special place Hell for people who try to take advantage of the elderly. We had some similar issues with my maternal grandmother. There were certain parts of this musicals where I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or cry. Just to be clear, I did very much enjoy this musical. It was a strong note to end the season on. This also is a special musical, because it is written by Bite-Size Broadway host Jonathan Lynch, along with Eric Gruin and Gil Varod. Well, not much more to add, so let’s get into it.
Our first song is called “You’ll Never See Your Memories Again.” We get lots of electronic and techno notes. That’s to be expected by for a song sung by a computer program. We do get some hints from more conventional interments. I detected some saxophones, trumpets, flutes, and drums among other things. This was almost like a techno/electronic version of “Billing Codes” from Blue Cross Blues. My only complaint is that AIDA’s voice, with its electronic echo, got very annoying very quickly. I’m pretty sure this is intentional, but it was still rather irritating at times.
The second song is “Computers Like You More Than They Like Me.” This one is a tango/salsa number where Grandma pleads for Thomas to help her. It sure was nice of Thomas to agree to help Grandma. He was hard at work contributing to society and…I’m just kidding. Turns out, he was in Grandma’s basement playing video games. He’s a Princeton graduate, but hey, finding a job can be hard in today’s economy. Or maybe he makes money streaming. Hey, it could happen.
Song three is titled “It Can Hear Us.” This one reminded me of “Pay the Bill” from Blue Cross Blues. The music is almost exactly identical. It could be coincidence, but the parallels are uncanny. AIDA has the ability to listen to Grandma and Thomas, and can turn up the computer’s microphone sensitivity way higher than it should. Thomas is baffled, and Grandma thinks that the machine uprising has begun. Frankly, I’m kind of included to agree with Grandma. What if AIDA crashes the economy, or launches the nukes, or (horror of horrors) deletes Grandma’s TiVo recordings?! It was funny when Thomas tries to whisper, but Grandma loudly blurts out everything Thomas is doing.
We end things with “Finale.” Grandma and Thomas crack AIDA and track it back to a nine-year-old boy in Belarus name Alex. Turns out, he made AIDA because he was bored, more than anything. Oh, and he need money to buy sneakers to impress a girl he likes. Grandma sings about the good old days when people went outside and connected with real people in real life. She pleads with Alex to stop messing with people on the Internet, and instead go outside. In fact, Thomas suggests that he and Grandma go outside and enjoy themselves.
Well this was a fun song to end on. It was fun, but reality was not kind to this song. As of this writing, we are experiencing yet another spike of COVID-19. Please get your vaccinations, if you haven’t done so already. So, Grandma and Thomas might not even be able to go outside. But maybe that’s for the best. Grandma sings of her fun youth activities, such as setting trees on fire, pulling the family dog’s tail, and crushing frogs with her bare hands. Yeah, Thomas might want to keep Grandma far away from any matches or lighters. The more time they spend fooling with technology, the less time Grandma has to set the neighbors’ trees on fire. Still, they make new memories as long as they have each other, indoors or outdoors.
And so that was RansomWHERE? A fun little musical that I found relatable in more ways than one. It was also an excellent note to end the season on. My only compliant, and this is hardly unique to RansomWHERE?, is that I wish the full Bite-Size Broadway theme song played at the start of the episodes. They did that for the first few episodes, but they don’t any more. I like the full theme song! But, that’s a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things.
Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.
Those of your who have read my review of the audio drama Yowie will recall that I had a love for all things Australia in my younger days. I still have a certain fondness for the Land Down Under. So, this musical had my attention from the start. This is a great musical to share with kids, but that’s no surprise. Caitlyn Burt and Amir Shoenfeld wrote this musical by consulting a children’s book containing folktales from around the world. They liked a Mexican story about the trickster Coyote. However, due to neither of them being Mexican, they felt uncomfortable doing a straight adaption. So, they decided to recast the story in one of their homelands; Australia for Caitlyn and Israel for Amir. They chose Australia due to it have more interesting animals than Israel.
I’ve done something similar. I’ve retold the Japanese folktale of Urashima Taro, but in 19th Century Shreveport, Louisiana. I’ve also retold the Jewish folktale The Golem of Prague, but set in 19th Century South Carolina. In fact, the very first version of The Golem of Prague that I ever read was set in the Roman Empire. You can find both of my stories over on The Moonlit Road.
Before we get into the songs, I just have to ask, why would a family of sea turtles be living in the Australian Outback? The Outback is about as far as you can get from the ocean in Australia. It just makes no sense. The cover art seems to indicate that Sheila and her family are sea turtles. I realize this is a minor issue, but it matters to me. Anyway, enough about that, onto the music.
Our opening song is called, well, “Opening.” It is a rousing folk/country song as Sheila’s brothers sing about how they work hard to provide for their mother, and diss Sheila for being little and weak. The song grows softer and slower as Sheila decide to embark on her dangerous quest. This was an interesting song. I’ve listened to a fair bit of folk music from around the Anglosphere, and I’ve come to appreciate how country music evolved out of folk music. Sometimes the line between the two gets a bit blurred. I got hints of both in this song, but I guess that make sense. Australia is a former British colony, like America, and draws from the same musical tradition. Well, the same initial musical tradition. Country music in America has strong African-American influences as well, but I digress.
The next song is “Offspring Just Spring Off.” Sheila meets some friendly kangaroos, and saves a joey named Ned from an eagle. Ned’s mother, however, is worried about how far Sheila is from home. Mrs. Kangaroo sings a bouncy song about how all mothers, no matter what species, make sure their children are safe and protected. Well, it is certainly fitting that the bouncy song was sung by a kangaroo. We also get to hear lots of fun Australian slang. That, or Sheila and the kangaroos were struck by a sudden bout of aphasia. That was a joke, just to be clear. I actually did enjoy hearing all the slang, and trying to pick-out the bits I was familiar with.
Song number three is called “Dingo.” Funnily enough, this one involves Sheila bumping into a hungry dingo. This one starts off menacing and threatening. I can practically see the hungry dingo circling around poor Sheila. Then, it switches to happy and jaunty as Sheila tricks the dingo into doing her bidding for her. See, Sheila, your mother was right. You are clever, and that’s your greatest strength. Hmm, I guess this is were the influences from the original story of Coyote come in. A great song, I have no complaints.
“Finale” is a reprise of the opening song, but this time Sheila’s brothers are singing her praise. The moral of this musical, if it wasn’t obvious, is that physical strength isn’t everything. There’s always a solution for those clever enough to find it. Sometimes, you just have to persevere. Not much more to say, other than that it was a good note to end on.
And so that was Sheila the Tiny Turtle. A great mini-musical for listeners of all ages. A good place to start if you want to introduce kids to musical theatre.
Our final musical for this season is titled RansomWHERE? This one follows a little old lady who isn’t very knowledgeable about computers. We’ll call her Grandma. Unfortunately, Grandma has been tricked into downloading some ransomware, named AIDA, onto her computer. She has seventeen minutes before it deletes all of her photos. Grandma recruits the help of her grandson Thomas, and together they must find a way to outwit AIDA before it is too late.
My family has had to deal with something very similar to this musical. My paternal grandfather got tricked into giving his personal information to scammers. It took my dad quite a bit of time to get that sorted out. My mom says that there is a special place Hell for people who try to take advantage of the elderly. We had some similar issues with my maternal grandmother. There were certain parts of this musicals where I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or cry. Just to be clear, I did very much enjoy this musical. It was a strong note to end the season on. This also is a special musical, because it is written by Bite-Size Broadway host Jonathan Lynch, along with Eric Gruin and Gil Varod. Well, not much more to add, so let’s get into it.
Our first song is called “You’ll Never See Your Memories Again.” We get lots of electronic and techno notes. That’s to be expected by for a song sung by a computer program. We do get some hints from more conventional interments. I detected some saxophones, trumpets, flutes, and drums among other things. This was almost like a techno/electronic version of “Billing Codes” from Blue Cross Blues. My only complaint is that AIDA’s voice, with its electronic echo, got very annoying very quickly. I’m pretty sure this is intentional, but it was still rather irritating at times.
The second song is “Computers Like You More Than They Like Me.” This one is a tango/salsa number where Grandma pleads for Thomas to help her. It sure was nice of Thomas to agree to help Grandma. He was hard at work contributing to society and…I’m just kidding. Turns out, he was in Grandma’s basement playing video games. He’s a Princeton graduate, but hey, finding a job can be hard in today’s economy. Or maybe he makes money streaming. Hey, it could happen.
Song three is titled “It Can Hear Us.” This one reminded me of “Pay the Bill” from Blue Cross Blues. The music is almost exactly identical. It could be coincidence, but the parallels are uncanny. AIDA has the ability to listen to Grandma and Thomas, and can turn up the computer’s microphone sensitivity way higher than it should. Thomas is baffled, and Grandma thinks that the machine uprising has begun. Frankly, I’m kind of included to agree with Grandma. What if AIDA crashes the economy, or launches the nukes, or (horror of horrors) deletes Grandma’s TiVo recordings?! It was funny when Thomas tries to whisper, but Grandma loudly blurts out everything Thomas is doing.
We end things with “Finale.” Grandma and Thomas crack AIDA and track it back to a nine-year-old boy in Belarus name Alex. Turns out, he made AIDA because he was bored, more than anything. Oh, and he need money to buy sneakers to impress a girl he likes. Grandma sings about the good old days when people went outside and connected with real people in real life. She pleads with Alex to stop messing with people on the Internet, and instead go outside. In fact, Thomas suggests that he and Grandma go outside and enjoy themselves.
Well this was a fun song to end on. It was fun, but reality was not kind to this song. As of this writing, we are experiencing yet another spike of COVID-19. Please get your vaccinations, if you haven’t done so already. So, Grandma and Thomas might not even be able to go outside. But maybe that’s for the best. Grandma sings of her fun youth activities, such as setting trees on fire, pulling the family dog’s tail, and crushing frogs with her bare hands. Yeah, Thomas might want to keep Grandma far away from any matches or lighters. The more time they spend fooling with technology, the less time Grandma has to set the neighbors’ trees on fire. Still, they make new memories as long as they have each other, indoors or outdoors.
And so that was RansomWHERE? A fun little musical that I found relatable in more ways than one. It was also an excellent note to end the season on. My only compliant, and this is hardly unique to RansomWHERE?, is that I wish the full Bite-Size Broadway theme song played at the start of the episodes. They did that for the first few episodes, but they don’t any more. I like the full theme song! But, that’s a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things.
And so that was all that episodes that are out so far from Bite-Sized Broadway. A musical snack that keeps you coming back. It is a fantastic musical anthology podcast, and I can't recommend it enough. We've had a fantastic first season, and I can’t wait to see what season 2 has to bring. Speaking of which, do you have an idea for a mini-musical? Well, Bite-Sized Broadway is taking submissions. Who knows, maybe your idea will be an episode on season 2.
Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment