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The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, "A Shoggoth on the Roof"
The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society
Okay, so musicals aren't exactly standard Brain fare. I'm willing tobet, however, that enough of you read and enjoyed the (LIMPID!)scribblings of H.P. Lovecraft as kids that the idea of nailing hisplots and characters down on top of the (NON-EUCLIDEAN!) music from Fiddler on the Roofwill probably appeal to... well, at least one or two of you, anyway.What you get on this set of CD-Rs is pretty much what Lovecraft fanswill expect: a very, very silly (RUGOSE!) musical about the goings-onin Arkham, Mass., as the Armitage family tries to marry off its eldestdaughter to the Whateleys, and Great Cthulhu returns to destroyeverybody. There's also some (SANITY-BLASTING!) silliness involvingparanormal investigators poking around the town graveyard and HerbertWest re-animating dead things in the background, and none of it willmake any sense whatsoever if you haven't read any Lovecraft, but...well, dammit, it's funny, and the convoluted (OTIOSE!) "history" of theplay (detailed on the Society's web site and on the VCD documentarythat's available with the music if you want it) is presented in thesame quasi-plausible format that makes HPL's writing so enduring.Music-wise, there's nothing gibber-inducing going on here: it soundspretty much exactly like a budget recording of Fiddler (IA! THEBLACK GOAT IN THE WOOD WITH A THOUSAND SPAWN!), with competent singersand music cranked out on a single cheap keyboard. Really seriousexperimental-music fans will roll their eyes at the notion of spendingup to $25 on this nonsense, but I've bought more stupid novelty recordsin my life and enjoyed them a lot less. For those curious, a bunch ofother MP3 samples are available from the Society's site along with alink to a downloadable version of the "documentary" on the play.
Okay, so musicals aren't exactly standard Brain fare. I'm willing tobet, however, that enough of you read and enjoyed the (LIMPID!)scribblings of H.P. Lovecraft as kids that the idea of nailing hisplots and characters down on top of the (NON-EUCLIDEAN!) music from Fiddler on the Roofwill probably appeal to... well, at least one or two of you, anyway.What you get on this set of CD-Rs is pretty much what Lovecraft fanswill expect: a very, very silly (RUGOSE!) musical about the goings-onin Arkham, Mass., as the Armitage family tries to marry off its eldestdaughter to the Whateleys, and Great Cthulhu returns to destroyeverybody. There's also some (SANITY-BLASTING!) silliness involvingparanormal investigators poking around the town graveyard and HerbertWest re-animating dead things in the background, and none of it willmake any sense whatsoever if you haven't read any Lovecraft, but...well, dammit, it's funny, and the convoluted (OTIOSE!) "history" of theplay (detailed on the Society's web site and on the VCD documentarythat's available with the music if you want it) is presented in thesame quasi-plausible format that makes HPL's writing so enduring.Music-wise, there's nothing gibber-inducing going on here: it soundspretty much exactly like a budget recording of Fiddler (IA! THEBLACK GOAT IN THE WOOD WITH A THOUSAND SPAWN!), with competent singersand music cranked out on a single cheap keyboard. Really seriousexperimental-music fans will roll their eyes at the notion of spendingup to $25 on this nonsense, but I've bought more stupid novelty recordsin my life and enjoyed them a lot less. For those curious, a bunch ofother MP3 samples are available from the Society's site along with alink to a downloadable version of the "documentary" on the play.
