Author Topic: Movies to musicals  (Read 5149 times)

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dallas10086

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Movies to musicals
« on: Feb 19, 2014, 01:37 pm »
Legally Blonde, Ghost, Sister Act, The Wedding Singer, Kinky Boots, Big Fish, Far From Heaven, Bridges of Madison County, and now Heathers...

What does everyone think of Broadway's recent infatuation with turning mediocre-to-decent movies into large scale musicals? Companies like Disney do it fairly well, but sometimes I hear some of the titles going up and I think...Huh? Why?

babens

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Re: Movies to musicals
« Reply #1 on: Feb 19, 2014, 01:56 pm »
Adaptation has been the backbone of musical theatre for a long time.  Back in the "Golden Age" the go to source materials were books and plays.  Nowadays movies have fulfilled the role of books and plays as the pop -culture touchstones that audiences already know, so it makes sense that they have also taken over the role as the primary source material for musical adaptations.

bkrst275

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KMC

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Re: Movies to musicals
« Reply #3 on: Feb 19, 2014, 04:35 pm »
Huh? Why?

$

And I don't mean that in a bad way.  If people are going to buy tickets that's good news for everyone in the business.

Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action. -T. Roosevelt

BARussell

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Re: Movies to musicals
« Reply #4 on: Feb 21, 2014, 03:27 pm »
Huh? Why?

$

And I don't mean that in a bad way.  If people are going to buy tickets that's good news for everyone in the business.

Yes it is...Plus most of the movies these musicals are based off of are based off of novels anyway so just think of it that way.
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On_Headset

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Re: Movies to musicals
« Reply #5 on: Feb 23, 2014, 01:31 pm »
Honestly, I'm prepared to tolerate these movie-musicals, if only because I despise jukeboxes. (Some jukeboxes aren't bad--American Idiot comes to mind--but for every good one there are easily 5-6 dreadful, insulting cash grabs.)

That being said, my city's major commercial producer just announced their next season, and it includes... drumroll please... a production framed entirely around the achievements and accomplishments of the Baby Boomer generation. A multimedia extravaganza celebrating the best people, songs, incidents of this amazing, super, mint-scented demographic.

And, at that point, I'm left to wonder why they don't just dispense with the show altogether and have the ushers give the audience handjobs instead.

KMC

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Re: Movies to musicals
« Reply #6 on: Feb 23, 2014, 09:31 pm »
Honestly, I'm prepared to tolerate these movie-musicals, if only because I despise jukeboxes. (Some jukeboxes aren't bad--American Idiot comes to mind--but for every good one there are easily 5-6 dreadful, insulting cash grabs.)

That being said, my city's major commercial producer just announced their next season, and it includes... drumroll please... a production framed entirely around the achievements and accomplishments of the Baby Boomer generation. A multimedia extravaganza celebrating the best people, songs, incidents of this amazing, super, mint-scented demographic.

And, at that point, I'm left to wonder why they don't just dispense with the show altogether and have the ushers give the audience handjobs instead.

I think many of us understand and sympathize with the lack of new and emerging works on the commercial level, but why would you ever insult paying customers with such a broad stroke?

I hope the producer where you work doesn't frequent these boards; if I saw this from an employee I'd fire them.

Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action. -T. Roosevelt

On_Headset

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Re: Movies to musicals
« Reply #7 on: Feb 24, 2014, 02:34 am »
Quote
but why would you ever insult paying customers with such a broad stroke?
Because I think productions like this are insulting to paying customers. These shows don't just blur the lines between art and marketing, they erase them altogether. If we, as an industry, are only capable of generating new content which has been designed from the very beginning to appeal to succulent demographics, to be as unchallenging as possible, to resist anything in any respect political or "difficult", and to otherwise avoid anything which might upset the Red Hat Ladies, then we might as well drop this pretension to be creating "art" in the first place and admit that we're really just a sub-unit of the advertising and publicity industries. (Yes, yes, I know that theatre has never been "pure" and that commercial concerns have always been prominent, but if we now inhabit a world where these concerns routinely trump everything else--where shows are not drafted by playwrights and composers and subsequently commercialized, but rather drafted by committees of publicists and market researchers and, subsequently, playwrights are permitted to fill in the few blanks remaining--surely this is something weird if we want to keep thinking of ourselves as a fundamentally artistic endeavour?)

It's not even that this type of theatre is bland, it's that it literally amounts to sucking up to its own audience. Far from challenging them to explore new ideas or engage in theatrical traditions, we're tucking them into bed with a warm glass of ovaltine, a kiss on the forehead, and a reminder of how special they are.

I certainly don't expect a commercial producer to pack a mainstage season full of Ibsen and mystery plays, but if all you have to say to your audience is "Hooray for you! For (s)he's a jolly good fellow, for (s)he's a jolly food fellow...", then yes: I think that speaks to a degree of cynicism about the intellectual capabilities of your audience, as if they couldn't even handle something really really hardball like "Salad Days" or "The Boyfriend". (Nope, gotta give them a toothless jukebox instead. It's all they can possibly handle...)

Never mind that these shows have the effect of hollowing out audiences. (Sure, you're getting tour buses full of baby boomers now, but if half the performances in your season don't sell a ticket to anyone below the age of 35, what are you going to do in ten years? [And let's not even pretend you'll exist in twenty...])
« Last Edit: Feb 24, 2014, 02:38 am by On_Headset »

KMC

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Re: Movies to musicals
« Reply #8 on: Feb 24, 2014, 08:34 am »
Your argument certainly has merit and I agree with the principle of what you're saying, I just question if incendiary comments towards potential employers and customers are the best way to affect change. 

Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action. -T. Roosevelt

MandalynM

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Re: Movies to musicals
« Reply #9 on: Feb 24, 2014, 01:37 pm »
I have to admit, I was excited to see Heathers was coming into musical form. This from a person who doesn't prefer musicals over straight plays. However, that movie was an awesome movie and I remember it fondly as a teenager, why not bring something out from obscurity and revive it? Think about the movie Kinky Boots, how many people actually saw it in theaters are at home? Now because it is out there again and in a bigger form, the message it brings comes with it. I dont think our profession is simply to entertain, but also to enlighten and educate. If we can use movies that people have somewhat forgotten and put a campy musical moral into it, great! These can be used as great education tools. Heathers is about bullying, which is a big deal right now. Kinky Boots- acceptance of something different, Back to the Future- living life to the fullest.. Why Not bring these morals back in a fun entertaining way that people will pay money (and our salaries) to enjoy? I don't think everything has to be a negative. We have to look at the positives!

Mandi

MatthewShiner

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Re: Movies to musicals
« Reply #10 on: Feb 25, 2014, 05:16 pm »
Here we go - often these musicals are put forward to make money - they are commerce, they are there to entertain, to make money, and return on the investment.

That's what commercial theater is  If it's art, then that is frosting on the cake.

One of my favorite games to play is to find a musical not based on a previously written work, history or movie?  It's hard.  Why?  Because if you are going to sink twenty million in a new musical, you want to know the source material is already proven.

Either you like it or your don't - but it employs a hell of a lot of people in this industry.

BUT . . . not all theater is that way, not all theater is directed to the masses.

[I should disclose I have done one of these movie to musicals, and start another this year . . . ]

I like to compare theater to restaurants . . . most popular restaurant in the world?  Subway.  Not he best food, and it doesn't pretend to be anything other then what is.  The fantastic bistro that seats 30 people, and the chef comes around to every table - maybe the best restaurant you have ever been to - but chances are it's not going to make as much money in the world.

Theater is both entertainment and art, commerce and other things all combined . . . I learned a long time ago I have very little to do with the artistic merit of show - those things are out of my control when I am just the SM . . . so I go along for the ride regardless of what the scale and scope of my show is.
« Last Edit: Feb 26, 2014, 09:31 am by MatthewShiner »
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Anything posted here as in my own personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of my employer - whomever they be at a given moment in time.