Imagine what Disney movies would be like if only the princesses and princes were allowed to sing, and not the villains. For one, we wouldn’t have the fantastic homoerotic song about Gaston, or the epically explained plans of Ursula. This is the world Muzzled: The Musical takes audiences.
I admit, I’m both a huge Disney princess fan, as well as addicted to the next great unorthodox musical. Give me Dr. Horrible, Bat Boy, or Barackula (it’s Halloween, look it up – it’s fitting) any day. So when I started hearing about a princess musical with both Ashley Clements and Mary Kate Wiles (Lizzie and Lydia Bennet from The Lizzie Bennet Diaries), I was ready.
Muzzled tells the story of Malfalia (Ashly Burch), a Blackheart who wants to sing and be a princess. Music gives people power, so years ago when the Blackhearts lost the Song Wars, the King forced them to stop singing by enforcing a musical muzzle on the entire group. This created pain whenever a Blackheart tried to sing, as well as whenever a prince or prin
cess chose to inflict pain on them. When Malfalia figures out how to rid herself of the muzzle, she infiltrates the castle undercover in order to take revenge.
This musical was beyond what I had expected from the trailers, and I was even more pleased when the Black Matron appeared, played by none other than Juliet Landau (Drusilla, Buffy the Vampire Slayer). The first season of this musical also features Jeff Lewis (The Guild), Maxwell Glick (Lizzie Bennet Diaries), Joey Richter and Lauren Lopez (Team Starkid), as well as many other fantastic actors. While this is only 3 episodes, the story of season 1 sets up a well-rounded story that will lead into (hopefully) a second. The music, catchy and mind-haunting, is also available on iTunes and amazon, and possibly wherever else you see digital music. Check it out here.
And because today is Halloween I wanted to throw in two other treats:
- If you are in the Akron, Ohio area this weekend, check out Oddmall at the John S. Knight Center. I’m sure you’ve heard enough about it on the podcast and that you already realize how awesome it will be.
- The Bizarre States podcast
Jessica Chobot and Andrew Bowser discuss the newest in bizarre stories, the occult and monsters from the internet, as well as “true” spooky tales sent in from listeners. Recently Chobot returned from England with stories about the Jack the Ripper tour, and others shows have been experimenting by focusing just on listener stories about the paranormal. While the podcast teetered off a couple months ago as it became a lot of NSFW discussion between the hosts, conversation has finally returned to the topics at hand and has become a very enjoyable spooky podcast. If you enjoy true ghost stories, this is definitely work check out. I will warn listeners however, that while we are a family friendly podcast, Bizarre States is still not for all listeners.
