Showtunes Shidae IIa: Post-Debut
Life As An Idol Group
ETA: Changed the video for 'On How To Be Lovely", thanks AG!
This is part of a series of posts, so please read these posts first if you already haven't! Part Ia | Part Ib
Taeyeon: Kids! (Bye Bye Birdie)
Being a leader is no joke, and this song from Bye Bye Birdie! can express Taeng’s frustration with members who refuse to wake up (“Kids! They’re disobedient, disrespectful oafs! Noisy, crazy, dirty, lazy, loafers!”), chodings (“Kids! Kids! Laughing, singing, dancing, grinning, morons!”), and the babble of English, Japanese and Chinese language-practice (“Kids! Who can understand anything they say?”) Even funnier when you realise that she does refer to them as “kids” (eh-deul (ah))!
Tiffany: One Boy(Bye Bye Birdie)
(mainly up until 1:26)
I know Fany is more than sunshine and roses-she has her mature side too, but how can we pass by this gorgeous send-up of teenage pop, One Boy from Bye Bye Birdie? Think of it as her idealistic musical answer to those endless Ideal Type questions. To be sung in a three-part harmony with Sunny and Jessica.
Yoona, featuring the SME PR Department: On How To Be Lovely (Funny Face)
The incessant, trivial questions and the banal answers of celebrity “interviews” are all present in this delightful short trifle. I’d love to see Yoona hoofing in such a manner.
SNSD 9 featuring Suju: Honestly Sincere (Bye Bye Birdie)
(From 4:40-7:57)
The girls get a crash course from their sunbaes on how to attract fans, emote on cue and become glittering Hallyu Stars in Bye Bye Birdie’s “Honestly Sincere” (The original staging has Conrad Birdie, teen pop star, give a corny, pelvic-thrustin’ lesson on his success, in a satire of the shallowness that was the 1950s American pop scene.) I would stage this with the Suju boys milking every moment for its cheesy shtick, and the SNSD9 girls joining in on the lyrics and learning-by-repeating their movements, greasy eyebrow waggles and all.
Jessica: “I Get A Kick Out Of You” (Anything Goes)
Not just because the lyrics go “But practically ev'rything leaves me totally cold…. Fighting vainly the old ennui”, but even more because Sica is a kicker, and her victims even extend beyond her group to Kara’s Hara, who gets a cameo here.
Tiffany: Tomorrow (Annie)
Brighter than mushrooms Fanyfany Tiffany bounces up when the chips are down, and would be the sort of girl to try and cheer you up (and tell you that Jesus loves you!) The song for the eternal optimist, Tomorrow from Annie. I’d stage this on a bare stage, with the requisite mutt. Bonus: Fany in Fanytails and overalls!
Sooyoung, featuring Hyoyeon and Sunny and 9pm: America (West Side Story)
Sooyoung doesn’t just moon around dreaming of finding Mr. Shoulders. She’s a go-getter who can pull off the high-energy sauciness and high-pitched “AI AI AI!”s demanded by the song-and-dance number, America from West Side Story (Not to mention, Sooyoung’s actually been there, practised her English, declared her love of Will Smith and lived to tell the tale.) The dance ensemble will be led by the sexy skirt-swishing duo of Kim “Wapples and New Yawk” Hyoyeon (who started off her dance lessons with Latin dance, no less!) and Lee “Berry good yo!” Sunny. 9PM feature to inject some masculinity. This is what campy Special Stage collaborations should resemble!
Yoona: Hi-Lilli, Hi-Lo
(Skip to 5:57 if you’re not into dramatic context. )
Yoona would make a perfect wide-eyed ingénue, so here’s the rustic little melody, Hi-Lilli, Hi-Lo. Bonus: it features the heroine interacting with puppets, so lots of moments here for Yoona to pull out a soh nyuh’s charm.
Taeyeon: The Man That Got Away & If Love Were All
For Ms. ‘Fourteen Celebs Have Propositioned Me’ are the Garland classic The Man That Got Away and the Noel Coward standard If Love Were All (here, a Garland cover), which fit right in with her soulful diva voice and the latter, with her slightly cynical view of life.
Sunny: When You Got It, Flaunt It (The Producers)
Admittedly, Sunny is no six-foot tall blonde glamazon. She does however, have dangerous curves and professionally-lethal aegyo, both of which she works like a pro, and to Sunny I dedicate this song. One day, if my weesh wish comes true, I will hear her utter the immortal line, “Now, Lola dance!”
Yoona: I Feel Pretty
What’s Yoona without her choding side? West Side Story’s I Feel Pretty her more than relevant lines (“the craziest kid on the block”, “Or too much to eat?”, “Modest and pure, polite and refined, well-bred and mature, and out of her mind!”), moments to look prettily flushed in love, moments to ham it up in big hats and swathes of fabric, and a dance routine to show off her strong, clean lines.
Jessica: As Long As He Needs Me (Oliver!)
Musically and emotionally demanding, this song leaps from taut restraint to full-blown passion. Jessica showed off her ditzy charm in Legally Blonde, but here is a classic, and worthy challenge for her vocal and dramatic ability.
To Be Continued...
ETA: Changed the video for 'On How To Be Lovely", thanks AG!
This is part of a series of posts, so please read these posts first if you already haven't! Part Ia | Part Ib
Taeyeon: Kids! (Bye Bye Birdie)
Click to viewBeing a leader is no joke, and this song from Bye Bye Birdie! can express Taeng’s frustration with members who refuse to wake up (“Kids! They’re disobedient, disrespectful oafs! Noisy, crazy, dirty, lazy, loafers!”), chodings (“Kids! Kids! Laughing, singing, dancing, grinning, morons!”), and the babble of English, Japanese and Chinese language-practice (“Kids! Who can understand anything they say?”) Even funnier when you realise that she does refer to them as “kids” (eh-deul (ah))!
Tiffany: One Boy(Bye Bye Birdie)
(mainly up until 1:26)
I know Fany is more than sunshine and roses-she has her mature side too, but how can we pass by this gorgeous send-up of teenage pop, One Boy from Bye Bye Birdie? Think of it as her idealistic musical answer to those endless Ideal Type questions. To be sung in a three-part harmony with Sunny and Jessica.
Yoona, featuring the SME PR Department: On How To Be Lovely (Funny Face)
The incessant, trivial questions and the banal answers of celebrity “interviews” are all present in this delightful short trifle. I’d love to see Yoona hoofing in such a manner.
SNSD 9 featuring Suju: Honestly Sincere (Bye Bye Birdie)
(From 4:40-7:57)
The girls get a crash course from their sunbaes on how to attract fans, emote on cue and become glittering Hallyu Stars in Bye Bye Birdie’s “Honestly Sincere” (The original staging has Conrad Birdie, teen pop star, give a corny, pelvic-thrustin’ lesson on his success, in a satire of the shallowness that was the 1950s American pop scene.) I would stage this with the Suju boys milking every moment for its cheesy shtick, and the SNSD9 girls joining in on the lyrics and learning-by-repeating their movements, greasy eyebrow waggles and all.
Jessica: “I Get A Kick Out Of You” (Anything Goes)
Not just because the lyrics go “But practically ev'rything leaves me totally cold…. Fighting vainly the old ennui”, but even more because Sica is a kicker, and her victims even extend beyond her group to Kara’s Hara, who gets a cameo here.
Tiffany: Tomorrow (Annie)
Brighter than mushrooms Fanyfany Tiffany bounces up when the chips are down, and would be the sort of girl to try and cheer you up (and tell you that Jesus loves you!) The song for the eternal optimist, Tomorrow from Annie. I’d stage this on a bare stage, with the requisite mutt. Bonus: Fany in Fanytails and overalls!
Sooyoung, featuring Hyoyeon and Sunny and 9pm: America (West Side Story)
Sooyoung doesn’t just moon around dreaming of finding Mr. Shoulders. She’s a go-getter who can pull off the high-energy sauciness and high-pitched “AI AI AI!”s demanded by the song-and-dance number, America from West Side Story (Not to mention, Sooyoung’s actually been there, practised her English, declared her love of Will Smith and lived to tell the tale.) The dance ensemble will be led by the sexy skirt-swishing duo of Kim “Wapples and New Yawk” Hyoyeon (who started off her dance lessons with Latin dance, no less!) and Lee “Berry good yo!” Sunny. 9PM feature to inject some masculinity. This is what campy Special Stage collaborations should resemble!
Yoona: Hi-Lilli, Hi-Lo
(Skip to 5:57 if you’re not into dramatic context. )
Yoona would make a perfect wide-eyed ingénue, so here’s the rustic little melody, Hi-Lilli, Hi-Lo. Bonus: it features the heroine interacting with puppets, so lots of moments here for Yoona to pull out a soh nyuh’s charm.
Taeyeon: The Man That Got Away & If Love Were All
For Ms. ‘Fourteen Celebs Have Propositioned Me’ are the Garland classic The Man That Got Away and the Noel Coward standard If Love Were All (here, a Garland cover), which fit right in with her soulful diva voice and the latter, with her slightly cynical view of life.
Sunny: When You Got It, Flaunt It (The Producers)
Admittedly, Sunny is no six-foot tall blonde glamazon. She does however, have dangerous curves and professionally-lethal aegyo, both of which she works like a pro, and to Sunny I dedicate this song. One day, if my weesh wish comes true, I will hear her utter the immortal line, “Now, Lola dance!”
Yoona: I Feel Pretty
What’s Yoona without her choding side? West Side Story’s I Feel Pretty her more than relevant lines (“the craziest kid on the block”, “Or too much to eat?”, “Modest and pure, polite and refined, well-bred and mature, and out of her mind!”), moments to look prettily flushed in love, moments to ham it up in big hats and swathes of fabric, and a dance routine to show off her strong, clean lines.
Jessica: As Long As He Needs Me (Oliver!)
Musically and emotionally demanding, this song leaps from taut restraint to full-blown passion. Jessica showed off her ditzy charm in Legally Blonde, but here is a classic, and worthy challenge for her vocal and dramatic ability.
To Be Continued...