Assassins.

It was a nail-biter, people. Sondheim took it by nine votes. Who would have thought puppets could put up such a fight?

Thanks for the fun, folks. It’s been a blast. We’ve learned a lot and had enough fun to want to do it again.

That’s right. We’ll be doing this over and over and over again over at Tournament of the Random. The first tournament will be Guilty Pleasures.

Four conferences (Food, Movies and TV, Music and Random Stuff) will duke it out for the title of Most Pleasurable Guilty Pleasure. And to make it more interesting, you’ll get to choose the competitors.

Starting next week, you’ll be able to leave a comment telling us your favorite guilty pleasures. We’ll thin and seed them and the tourney starts Monday, October 5. Also, let us know if you want to be one of our hardy analysts.

The battle has just begun.

See how Assassins was declared the ultimate winner right here.

dudududududududududdudududududududu…

(8) AVENUE Q vs (1) ASSASSINS

Come back Monday for the championship round and the FINAL POLL.  Which musical will reign over all others?  YOU DECIDE!

Songs for a New World versus Avenue Q – A song cycle up against a musical with a storyline. Fair fight? I think not. To be fair, and not to try and sway voters, but Avenue Q clearly will come out on top. Just the other day Avenue Q made headlines because the entire world thought that it’s 6 year run was coming to an end, but little did we know that they were just moving down the street to an Off-Broadway theatre. Songs is nothing more than that: songs. Jason Robert Brown had a handful of songs that he had no idea what to do with so he threw them all together and tried to tie them together which, in my opinion, he did poorly. It does, however, have a few gems so I give JRB some credit. But my vote definitely goes to the little musical that could. Who ever thought it was possible for sex-crazed puppets to beat out L. Frank Baum’s re-imagined world.

So why do crime dramas do well on TV?  Because we all like to see suspense and killing.  Both of these have that in spades but are we really that into ideological wack jobs that on most levels can’t get the job done?  I mean, seriously…. Squeaky Fromme singing about killing?  Sure, she was part of the Manson family, but killing presidents is not as easy as everyone may think.  Now folks in the Windy City, those are some guys who know how to whack somebody. In this case the killers are all women, but they get the job done!  The movie aside, I believe the show holds up well.  Sexy ladies and slick lawyers trump even John Wilkes Booth in a slugfest.

You had a good run,  Guys and Dolls. And nice showing, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. But time for you to go.

On Monday and Tuesday, Assassins will take on Chicago. Then voting will close for that battle. On Wednesday and Thursday, Songs for a New World will take on Avenue Q. On Friday we’ll announce that winner. Then, the week after that, you’ll be able to vote on your champion that entire week.

Turnout was low this week, and we had some surprisingly close races. Will a higher turnout favor the number-one seeded Assassins? Or will everyone who saw Chicago the movie come out in droves? We’ll never know unless you get everyone on the planet to vote.

Analysis next week will come from Cowboy of the Stage John Kirby.