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"Something Of This Masquerade May Follow"

Posted by:
steven_stuart 04:08 am UTC 03/13/11
In reply to: re: Ryan's 2004 Review Of "The Confidence Man" CD - rockfenris2005 07:39 am UTC 03/10/11

> > Ryan reviewed the CD of "The Confidence Man" seven years
> > ago on Amazon. He gave it five stars. His review:
> >
> > "One of the undiscovered classics of the century. I hope
> > to produce the first Australian production in November
> > 2005. This show has a long and winding history, but I'll
> > leave all that to the liner notes. Ray Errol Fox is one of
> > the greatest lyricists of all time. I have never seen
> > another talent like him - expect for Rupert Holmes - and
> > these are the men I hold among my chief inspiration. Jim
> > Steinman, the composer, whom many of you will remember
> > from Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell has actually re-used many
> > of these tunes in his subsequent projects. If you want the
> > original version of his closing song from Pandora's Box,
> > listen to Track One. "Milady" and "Something of this
> > Masquerade may Follow" were re-used for TANZ DER VAMPIRE.
> > Thank God this was finally released. It's a beautiful,
> > heroic and courageous, discovered-at-last masterpiece of
> > American musical theater. "
>
> It's a horrible review. I wish I could take it down.

Why do you hate it? Your review helps to make people more aware of the musical. I like the last two sentences of the review.

> But "The Confidence Man" is among my Top 12 favourite
> musicals ever. The others are "Carousel", "My Fair Lady",
> "Jesus Christ Superstar", "The Rocky Horror Show", "The
> Confidence Man", "Evita", "Sweeney Todd", "The Phantom Of
> The Opera", "Miss Saigon", "Titanic", "Tanz Der Vampire"
> and "The Scarlet Pimpernel".

Is "The Scarlet Pimpernel" the best Frank Wildhorn show? I wonder why "Jekyll and Hyde" got a British touring production and "Pimpernel" didn't.

> All of these musicals have very beautiful moments that
> almost reduce me to tears. (You're probably wondering why
> "Les Miserables" wasn't mentioned. It's undeniably a great
> musical but I was much more moved by "Miss Saigon", and I
> still am to this day. It's not like that with "Les Mis".)
>
> But "The Confidence Man" has so many beautiful moments,
> for me, but the most beautiful of all is the last song,
> "Something of this masquerade may follow". Wow. You hear
> so many Steinfans saying that "For crying out loud" is
> their favourite Jim song, and I agree with them, but this
> is definitely up there.

A lot of people seem to like "For Crying Out Loud" best.

> I knew that it had the same tune as the chorus for "Braver
> than we are" but there were all these other parts that he
> didn't reuse (Thank God.)
>
> "Something of this masquerade may follow
> Enter someone in disguise
> Clad in truth and cloaked in lies"
>
> The music there is the chorus for "Braver than we are",
> then it changes (and it's very pretty):
>
> "Baring and unmasking every hollow
> And something of this masquerade may follow
>
> Something of this big parade may catch us
> Enter someone beating drums
> Tempting fate and down it comes
> Threatening to discover and dispatch us
> And something of this big parade
> Something of this mass charade
> Something of this masquerade may follow"

The lyrics for "Something Of This Masquerade May Follow" are wonderful. I can see why Ray might have been unhappy if the melody was used for other purposes but I guess "The Confidence Man" wasn't doing much when that happened. What a shame that it didn't reach a bigger audience.

> Love it. Love it, love it, love it, love it, LOVE IT!!!

I agree. I agree. I AGREE!!!!


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Previous: re: Ryan's 2004 Review Of "The Confidence Man" CD - rockfenris2005 07:39 am UTC 03/10/11
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