TOMORROW ON OUTQ: SHOWTUNES! (REALLY)

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET I go on the SIRIUS XM channel OutQ. I am a weekly contributor to The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. Tomorrow I will

veer slightly from my usual comfort zone and talk about showtunes, albiet ones that are pretty rocking.  That's because The Tonys are this weekend. And while I'm not a Broadway guy, this year's Best Musical nominees are pretty rocking.

First is Green Day's American Idiot: The Musical which I saw a few months ago.  I enjoyed it, but the story didn't knock me out. I liked the music.  To me, there's something inherently funny about a musical - people just breaking into song.  The Simpsons have been genius at parodying this (see below video).  Still, if you can get over that, you can have a good time at a musical. In the case of American Idiot though, it was more like a cover band or a musical revue.  I guess I had higher hopes for it, but I have to admit I had fun. So, I'll be playing some songs from the cast recording, as well as some of the original versions, and also Green Day's new version of "21 Guns" with the cast.

Fela! On Broadway is the stage adaptation of the life of Nigerian musical legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Look him up, his music is very different from western rock and pop, it is very funky. I have a song from the cast recording and a Fela original.

The Million Dollar Quartet is about the four Sun Records legends who recorded together... once. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. I'm not sure how they turned this into a show - or if it is just another review. Either way, the source music is mind blowing, hopefully they do it justice.  I don't have that soundtrack yet, hopefully I can grab it in the morning.

Memphis: A New Musical is, as it says, actually new.  Which seems to be a new concept for Broadway - I'm not an expert but all of their shows based on things we've already seen and heard? I have a few songs.  I read that Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan wrote a lot of the songs.  It's pretty impressive. You can hear his Elton influence, but Elton was influenced by Memphis soul and R&B.

Well, I'm not a Broadway expert, so if you're listening, call in and help me out!

Anyway, here's one of my favorite showtunes, courtesy of The Simpsons.  "See My Vest." And by the way, I'm an animal lover, this is just a parody, I'm not endorsing Mr. Burns' wardrobe and neither were The Simpsons' writers.

SPIDER-MAN UPDATE

The Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark official website (for those of you who don't know, this is the Broadway production featuring music by Bono and The Edge that is the bane of my existance and probably Larry Mullen's as well) says that the show starts previews on February 25. But Alan Cummings, who was so great as Nightcrawler in X-Men 2 and who is playing The Green Goblin in this mess, tells The New York Times that that is not the case. You want to see a cool music production on Broadway? Try Fela, about the life of Fela Kuti, or the upcoming Green Day inspired American Idiot. I say this as a huge U2 fan, this Spider-Man thing is just corny!

JAY-Z, WILL AND JADA PINKETT SMITH SIGN ON TO CO-PRODUCE FELA!

Fela! opens next Monday, so I'm not sure how Jay-Z, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have just now signed on as producers for the show. But anything that brings more attention to the show - and the life of it's subject, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, is a good thing. Probably like a lot of other rock fans, I got into Fela through Flea, who brings him up a lot. His music is hard to explain, it's very political but also very funky, and all of his songs seem to take up a full side of a LP record. It's like jazz: I'm not an expert, but I enjoy listening to it. I am actually really curious to see this show, although I tend to avoid Broadway.