Lizzie

Have you ever heard of Lizzie Borden? In 1892, Lizzie was accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an ax but was acquitted. The murders continue to remain unsolved and is one of the most famous murder cases in the United States.

There are even rumors of the Borden house being haunted. Spooky.

There are a million theories as to what actually happen, including what possible motivation she might have had such as "lesbian rage," revenge against her father for sexual abuse, etc.

Whatever happened, someone made an awesome musical from the story.

Introduction
Lizzie is a rock opera retelling the story of how Lizzie Borden murdered her controlling stepmother and abusive father.

As a fair warning, there is a fair amount of strong language in the show and some lesbian smoochies between Lizzie and Alice. And blood. Lots of blood. Like, spurting blood. Everywhere.

Just so's you know.

Soundtrack
I love this soundtrack. It has a fabulous combination of head banging rock songs ("Gotta Get Out of Here" and "Why are All These Heads Off?") as well as some sweet, melodious songs ("If You Knew"). Overall, all of the songs are well sung. Did I mention that this is a four woman show? How COOL is that?! I mean, and a band, of course. But four actors: Lizzie, her sister Emma, their maid Bridget, and her friend/lover Alice. That's amazing.

I believe we have established after Elisabeth and Jekyll and Hyde that I like creepy, dark stories and music. So, naturally, I love Lizze. Because, come on. Well sung, fun, creepy songs about murder. What's to hate?

Favorite Song
It's always hard for me to choose my favorite songs from musicals. There are songs that I LOVE to listen to, but aren't necessarily my favorite song, per se, and then it's a matter of sorting out what is just fun and what is my favorite and is there really a difference (sometimes yes, sometimes no). Such is the case with Lizzie. While I absolutely love listening to the faster, harder songs like "Why are All These Heads Off?" and "Somebody Will Do Something," I don't know that I would say they were my favorite songs.

But they are awesome. So good. Sooooo good.

So, I'm going to go with one of the "prettier" songs sung by Alice. "Will You Stay" is when Alice reveals to Lizzie that she has had the biggest lady crush on her forever and it is about the prettiest thing ever. It's slow and melodic with some beautifully belted lines. And Ryah Nixon does a fabulous job of it all.

Unfortunately, this is one of those shows that has very few videos on Youtube with just the soundtrack music. Sad, I know. But that's life. But preview the song on iTunes! It's gorgeous.

The Show
I went and saw the show at Portland Center Stage with a friend from school... and then a week later with an old college roommate. Yes, I saw it twice. And it was TOTALLY WORTH IT. Especially with my student discount!

I loved the industrial looking set: lots of metal scaffolding and pretty minimal on props. I like that a lot. I also love huge sets that spin around and do awesome cool stuff a la Beauty and the Beast or Phantom of the Opera. But I think the minimal set really suited the show, particularly with such a small cast and strong music. And I loved having the band on the stage with the actors, giving it a bit of a "rock concert" feeling (to me... I've never been to an actual rock concert, though, so maybe I'm wrong and I just liked it).

The actors were all amazing. I love, love, LOVED the woman who played Bridgette. She was so much fun to watch act. And Emma's voice was beautiful. Who am I kidding, everyone was amazing. They had a different feel from the soundtrack, but just as high quality. I loved it and it really made me want to make sure I keep an eye out for more of their musicals so I can go see them.

Favorite Part
All of it. Honestly. I loved every moment in that theater. I swear it. But there were two parts that really stood out for me and both are times with the entire cast together.

The first was near the beginning of the second act when the police are doing their investigation. The song is called "Questions Questions." This particular clip is not from the production I saw, but it's one of my favorite groups that I've seen in videos online. The costumes are very different from what they did in the Portland production, which were much simpler and didn't change to a "rocked out" version until the finale.

The second scene I want to highlight is "13 Days in Taunton" which covers the trial itself. I think that this portion of the show really shows the rock opera part of this show. I particularly love how it doesn't have to be "pretty." It's gritty and explosive. I love it. In the production I saw, they had Lizzie separated from the rest of the cast rather than in a line up like in this video and, while I like the simplicity of the line up, I also think the visual created by having Lizzie separated was interesting, too.

How do you feel about rock operas like this? Does it bring a new element to Broadway or is it too unpolished for it? Is having the grungy rock music set in the 1800's too strange or are shows like this and Spring Awakening more interesting because of the choice in music?