Photo: NYTimes.com
Yesterday we happened across — okay, we were urged by our father to happen across — Times tech columnist David Pogue’s song-and-dance ode to the wonders of the iPhone, titled “iPhone: The Musical.” We argued it was more of a karaoke number, but they’re calling it a musical, and if it’s a musical, then it must be reviewed. Here’s New York’s theater critic, Jeremy McCarter, on the latest production to open on
Tech journalism hasn’t heretofore struck me as a hotbed of lyrical craftsmanship, but after watching David Pogue’s mini-musical about the iPhone, I stand extremely corrected. The video is, as Daily Intel pointed out yesterday, hilarious. If you listen closely, it’s also pretty impressively put together. (And I’d listen now if I were you — spoilers abound below.)
The new rhymes on top of the melody to “My Way” are clever — even cell phone/made-in-Hell phone somehow works. Also, the idea of roping in other would-be customers is inspired, as it makes the video seem less like one man’s demented tech obsession and more like an entire city’s demented tech obsession, which is a lot more fun, if freakier. One day we’ll look back — in horror, wonder, or both — to the day that the mania for a new telephone could drive so many mild-mannered New Yorkers to, um, stretch the limits of their vocal bandwidth this way. (Sharp-eyed playgoers may sit up a little straighter when the third volunteer pops up onscreen: That’s Chester Gregory, lately featured in Tarzan on Broadway, and one of the up-and-coming stars of New York musical theater.) Could that be true of Pogue as well? There’s only one way to find out. Do quit your day job, I say to Pogue. You’ll go out there a tech columnist, but you’ll come back a star.
iPhone: The Musical [NYT]
Earlier: ’Times’ Techie Pogue Sings iPhone’s Praises
