Bad ideas that worked
Bad ideas that worked
sondhead
Broadway Star Joined: 10/25/06
#2re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:47am
"For me, I would say Sweeney Todd was a bad idea. Combining Musical Theatre with Horror was risky, but with all the talent involved, it worked very nicely."
I don't think it was a bad idea at all. Sweeney Todd is more a melodrama than it is a horror story and melodrama adapts easily to opera and musical theatre. The songs increase the suspension of disbelief and lift the emotional levels of any story. In an adaptation of a melodrama the songs often suit the already inflated emotional levels.
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#3re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:52amUrinetown
Cheyenne Jackson tickled me. AFTER ordering SoMMS a drink but NOT tickling him, and hanging out with Girly in his dressing room (where he DIDN'T tickle her) but BEFORE we got married. To others. And then he tweeted Boobs. He also tweeted he's good friends with some chick on "The Voice" who just happens to be good friends with Tink's ex. And I'm still married. Oh, and this just in: "Pettiness, spite, malice ....Such ugly emotions... So sad." - After Eight, talking about MEEEEEEEE!!! I'm so honored! :-)
#4re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 11:18am
I agree that Urinetown was really from out in left field, and it works so well.
How about that wonderful musical about a socialite with a towel on her head and her mother living like hermits with their cats on Long Island? Talk about a stupid idea that worked!
I thought they were crazy when they said they were going to make a stage musical out of The Producers.
TooDarnHot
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/7/08
#5re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 11:24am
you thought Sweeney Todd was a "bad idea" ??
wow... this is a lost cause
husk_charmer
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/19/06
#6re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 11:27amReally, if you look at the basic plots of a lot of musicals, their ideas sound very silly.
http://www.youtube.com/huskcharmer
sally1112
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/13/04
#7re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 11:31amThe OP is saying think about Sweeney Todd on paper. Taking that idea to a producer..."He is a singing barber that slits the throats of his customers and his lady friend then bakes their flesh into pies that she sells..Now, doesn't that scream Tony winning musical family fun?"
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#8re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 11:34am
I'm right up there with THE PRODUCERS. I remember thinking this was a ridiculous Mel Brooks idea when I first heard they were adapting the film into a musical.
Same thing with GREY GARDENS, but then I took note of the possibilities when I learned how they were telling the story -- with Act 1 being the ladies in their younger days and Act 2 the period covered in the 1975 documentary.
ragg_ballad
Stand-by Joined: 3/25/08
#9re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 1:55pm
idk if Xanadu was a bad idea since they intended to poke fun at themselves. I think most people just saw it as ridiculous, but hey, it worked! haha.
i still can't get over what Cynthia McFadden said. LOL
#10re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 1:58pm
Definitely Xanadu.. the stage version is just pure fun and the dialogues are witty! love me some DC-B!
J*
#11re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 1:59pm
I must agree with THE PRODUCERS & GREY GARDENS! great shows!
J*
WOSQ
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/18/03
#12re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 4:24pm1776
"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable."
--Carrie Fisher
#13re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 4:25pmCats, Jesus Christ Superstar, Starlight Express, Joseph....
#14re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 4:33pm
'Floyd Collins'. May've flopped, but it's a stunning piece of work.
Although some days I can't quite tell if I love it more than any other show because it's amazing, or if it's more that I get a kick out of the whole "what's your favourite show?" "'Floyd Collins'" "What's that about?" "A man who gets stuck in a cave and dies" conversations that crop up every now and then...
Updated On: 6/11/08 at 04:33 PM
#15re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 4:44pmCATS
"I'm an American, Damnit!!! And if it's three things I don't believe in, it's quitting and math."
#16re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 4:53pmXanadu came to my mind before I even opened this...
#17re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 6:40pmAvenue Q. I know I know. But puppets? Come on, what are we, five years old? Boy was I wrong. Also, Stomp and Blue Man Group.
The Best Thing Right Now: Hair Revival!
Updated On: 6/11/08 at 06:40 PM
WiCkEDrOcKS
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
TooDarnHot
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/7/08
BDrischBDemented
Broadway Star Joined: 11/13/05
#20re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 6:51pm
Les Mis
"We're going to take this eight-million page French novel about these miserable guys, put it on stage, and play the same eight melodies over and over again for three hours."
"Your lyrics lack subtlety! You can't just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!"
BNN
Broadway Star Joined: 12/12/05
#21re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 6:54pm
John Doyle's Sweeney Todd and Company
Let's be serious, I can think of very few people who were on the bandwagon with the actors playing instruments.
Tick Tock
#22re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 6:58pm
First thing that popped into my head was Legally Blonde. I remember seeing ads for it in the bart station when it was in San Francisco and thought "Hah. I'm so not going to see that. What a horrible idea."
But hey, look at it now...
"You have two kinds of shows on Broadway – revivals and the same kind of musicals over and over again, all spectacles. You get your tickets for The Lion King a year in advance, and essentially a family... pass on to their children the idea that that's what the theater is – a spectacular musical you see once a year, a stage version of a movie. It has nothing to do with theater at all. It has to do with seeing what is familiar.... I don't think the theatre will die per se, but it's never going to be what it was.... It's a tourist attraction." Stephen Sondheim
#24re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 7:06pmUrinetown sounds ridiculous on paper...
"I told you, NO Rodgers and Hammerstein!"- Bart Simpson
#25re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 7:08pm
URINETOWN
LEGALLY BLONDE
JANE EYRE
And you think of all of the things you've seen, and you wish that you could live in between ,and you're back again only different than before...
After the Sky.
-Into the Woods (Jack)
#26re: Bad ideas that worked
Posted: 6/11/08 at 7:13pmSpring Awakening: "Ooh, let's musicalize a hundred-year-old play about sex and suicide!" Eight Tonys later...
I know you.
I know you.
I know you.
