English, baby!

Musicals

Learn English with this musicals English lesson

Date: Apr 18 2018

Themes: Music, Pop Culture

Grammar: Simple Past Tense

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Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

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2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

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Picture a large room, dark and quiet before a show. There’s a curtain hanging across the stage. Suddenly, soft music begins to play and gets louder and louder as the curtain is pulled up. Then dancers appear on stage. The musical has begun!

Musicals are a much-loved form of entertainment around the world. Before movies were invented, actors were performing on stage, dancing amazing choreography and singing original pieces. Today, musicals are still popular, though many of the lyrics can be quite cheesy. Still, the collaborative work between the musicians and the actors is something you’ll only see on stage. Generally, movies that try to capture a musical on the big screen just don’t succeed. If you’ve seen the magic live, you’ll never be as happy with the movie version.

Jessica and Brian are talking about musicals. Learn about their opinions in today’s English lesson about live performances.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Brian

Jessica

Brian: Jessica, you like musicals?

Jessica: I am obsessed with musicals. I am a huge fan. I know all of the lyrics to many musicals. I know some people think they’re cheesy, but I love them.

Brian: Were you one of those musical theater kids who wanted to be an artist, and you would sing them all, and know all the choruses?

Jessica: Absolutely. Yes.

Brian: There are some musicals where I really do like them, but I feel like because it’s now a phenomenon to make movies into musicals, and I kind of miss having original pieces. Like having a musical of Shrek doesn’t mean anything to me because there’s already a movie of Shrek.

Jessica: Right, exactly. I know. I have trouble with the movie musicals just because watching a musical on stage and with a live orchestra there, all of the musicians playing with the artists on stage, it’s such a collaborative effort. And watching it on film, everything is so overdone sometimes.

Brian: Yeah, I just think they’re not all they’re cracked up to be.

Jessica: Absolutely.

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

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Brian asks Jessica if she likes musicals. It turns out that she loves them! When Jessica was a kid, she learned the lyrics to many musicals and dreamed about performing on stage some day. Even though she’s not an actor, she still likes watching musicals and seeing how the musicians and actors work together.

Although Brian does like some musicals, he’s not a fan of movies that are made into musicals. He’d rather see an original musical than watch something on stage that he’s already seen on his TV. Some of the dance moves that work well in a live performance also just seem cheesy in a movie.

What musicals are popular in your country? Do you like watching performances on stage, or would you rather watch a movie?

Comments

ruiyamamoto

Japan

I love both musicals and movies.
I say each of them has some good points.of course bad point point, too.
you can go catch a movie with only ¥1300 or so in japan.yet you can’t watch musicals at that good price.

S&W

China

I had the same experience with ttsuka and ahmet55.Reffering to the musical movies,what comes to my mind was always a beatiful girl wearing white sari dancing and singing .The scene keep switching from the street to the gorgeous hall.

I love both of them performances on stage or watch a movie.I only care the musica and the performances.

ahmet55

Germany

I’m totally agreed with ttsuka, Indian movies are profoundly mixed up with particular kinds of romantic musicals films. Another thing is that i get familiar with 2 new members in this lesson of English baby. I want to say warm welcome to them. Hope to have a great time with them in lectures ahead.

Apart from the points i made above, I do love to watch actors and actors’ performance on stage in live. I ‘m pretty sure that it would be interesting.

ttsuka

Japan

The first thing comes to my mind, talking bout musical movies, is those Indian movies. Bollywood, is it? I wonder if live musicals are also very popular in India. The second thing comes to my mind is ‘Grease.’ Yes, I did watched it with a movie theatre full of girls, singing along. Oh, wait, then it was a live musical.

PS Are Jessica and Brian new staff or just guests? Hope they will stay.

julito

Argentina

Although I am not much into musicals i remember a very good musical running by the name of “All that jazz”, directed by the famous american coreographer Bob Fosse.

Michele1

Italy

Sometime, also a popular and well organized musicall , live broadcast TV, can evoke feelings, emotions similar those we feel in a theatre.. look at here ( only a excerpt ) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVcDdovVikI

enjoy it…

diva87

Morocco

all,types,is,popular,in,morocco,amazigh,arab,pop,hiphop,rap,,,,,ilove,watching,performance

on,stage,or,tv,or,listen,its,better

Jasonlongo

Congo, Democratic Republic Of The

I like movies than musicals, my opinion, don’t judge me !

Eric_

China

Actually,I seldom hear that there are some musicals performed in my city.

But it reminds me that when I was at univesity, we often watched that kind of show. The actors dance well,sing a lovely touched songs….great indeed:))