Shows that would have been great with a different composer- Page 2

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 12/21/14 at 1:56am

As with any show that has been adopted multiple times (Wild Party, Phantom) there is always a winner and a loser. There is always an interest of what might have been, but especially for a show like Sunday, where it is not adapted from a piece but rather an overlaying idea around a piece, it seems a little silly as Sunday woud never have been written without Lapine and Sondheim. It is worth mentioning though, that, knowing Rodgers and Hammerstein, I suspect they would have made the first act the entire show, and ended with Georges and Dot reunited. Because of the surrealist seond act (something I doubt Hammertein would have ever thought of) it is just not a piece for R&H. And as the entire payoff of the show is te seond act, what's the point?
If I were to pick, I woud want a better team for the Addams Family. Lippa and co. just write an inferior version of La Cage and removed what made the Addams memorable.

Updated On: 12/21/14 at 01:56 AM

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 12/21/14 at 2:02am

And to me, Sunday is anything but mathematical. Just because Sondheim can effectively create and maintain a love motif does not take away from the score - but, to me, heightens it. And the pointillism music to me sounds like painting - motifs that serve to create great warmth and connection. And as for poignant - what more can you ask of "Children and Art" (one of the only songs and moments in theatre that has moved me to tears), "Lesson #8", and "Move On", not to mention "Finishing the Hat"?

Updated On: 12/21/14 at 02:02 AM

[Fantod]

Posted: 12/21/14 at 2:07am

Different strokes for different folks
And I was just clarifying because I thought you might have misunderstood the topic.
Like I asked before, do you have an option on what shows would have been better in a different approach?

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/21/14 at 7:08pm

Personally, I'm not a fan of SUNDAY, but it's hard to imagine a more lyrical score (with the deliberate exception of a couple of numbers).

***

If you had asked me beforehand, I would have said Kander & Ebb were the perfect team for KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, but the (dis)proof is in the pudding. Since I love the novel, I'd like to see that story done by any of the younger generation, particularly Adam Guettel (with a book by Tony Kushner).

But I'm sure Hal Prince was the "muscle" on the show, so to get a different result, you'd need a different director.

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 12/21/14 at 10:14pm

ALW tried to get Alan Jay Lerner to work on the book or lyrics (I don't remember which -- maybe it was both) of The Phantom of the Opera. Alas, Mr. Lerner got cancer before he could really get going, and died shortly after he dropped out of the project.

Had AJL been able to take part in POTO, we might have seen the back story that other versions often include, such as the music lessons. As it is, there is no clue in the ALW version about why Christine is so frightened by her teacher, the Angel of Music, and about how he became her teacher. In my opinion, ALW's POTO did not need a sequel, but a PREQUEL might have been useful.

[justoldbill]

Posted: 12/21/14 at 10:20pm

KISMET- Edvard Greig
SONG OF NORWAY- Alexandre Borodin

[Fantod]

Posted: 12/21/14 at 10:23pm

I actually would have loved to have seen Phantom done as an actual opera around the time of the novel's publication, possibly by Puccini.

[RW3]

Posted: 12/26/14 at 5:30pm

Spider Man: Turn off the Dark with Stephen Trask.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/26/14 at 7:48pm

In my opinion, ALW's POTO did not need a sequel, but a PREQUEL might have been useful.

Hijacking the thread for a moment to say that many "phans," as they call themselves, also wished for a prequel, based on Susan Kay's Phantom to be specific.

[phantom8019]

Posted: 3/14/15 at 6:22pm

How about Legally Blonde with a score by Cy Coleman?

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 3/14/15 at 6:49pm

I think the most intriguing notion listed here is the idea of GIANT done by Kern. I see why the idea arose, what with it being another Ferber epic written around the same time as SHOW BOAT.

For the record I adore the musical of GIANT that we have, but I find it fascinating to think how different but also glorious it could have been if done as something of a follow up to SHOW BOAT with the same team.

[Fantod]

Posted: 3/14/15 at 7:21pm

Ferber's novels I think are difficult to musicalize. Often you get a great score, one that is sweeping and beautiful, but the books ends up sloppily paced. Show Boat is clearly the best adapted of the three Ferber novels turned into musicals, but the book to that show is still massive in scope and the production needs to be handled correctly to work. I would have liked to see Giant given a similar treatment, as I find LaChiusa's music too difficult to palate for such a wonderful story. Saratoga Trunk thankfully has a wonderful cast album, though from what I understand the show suffered from the problems I mentioned earlier.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 3/14/15 at 8:50pm

I wish those "What If" clips that were posted up thread were more entertaining. They're sort of boring. The most interesting thing was finding out Amy Adams (yes that Amy Adams) designed the costumes.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 3/14/15 at 10:34pm

I would love to have seen what David Yazbek could have done with Bullets Over Broadway.

[jv92]

Posted: 3/14/15 at 11:59pm

What a bizarre thread. OF COURSE, any Sondheim show would have been better without Sondheim in Fantod's opinion.

What's more bizarre, it that Jerome Kern died seven years before GIANT was published, and that Arthur Schwartz was long gone before the novel WICKED was published. So how the hell could they have adapted source material that didn't EXIST when they were alive?


Another useless thread by "Son of After Eight"...no, I'm sorry...Fantod.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 3/15/15 at 12:51am

"The Addams Family should have been a Shaiman and Wittman show."

I'm with you, darquegk. I would have loved an Addams Family that was an adaptation of the first movie with Shaiman expanding on the work he did scoring that film. Somehow I can kind of imagine Christine Ebersole doing some wonderful things as Abigail Craven/Dr. Pinderschloss.

And in my mind the opening of Act 2 is stunning, with Gomez and Morticia beginning their waltz on a bare stage that suddenly is filled with the extended Addams clan and leading to the Mumushka.

[Fantod]

Posted: 3/15/15 at 1:08am

Obviously this was just a fun thread. More of a what if than actual possibilities. Also, I do not hate Sondheim as a composer, in fact I like a lot of his work. I also don't hate Sunday in the Park With George. I find the show rather dull, and I think that a more romantic approach to the show could have benefitted it, but as it stands it isn't bad. And I wouldn't want to see A Little Night Music or Pacific Overtures with music by anybody else. It's funny how anytime anybody says anything negative about Sondheim, people automatically assume that they hate him. I find him to be an extremely interesting composer, and I appreciate a lot of his work more than I like it, but in the end I am just kind of in the middle with him. I neither hate nor love his work.

[broadwayboy223]

Posted: 3/15/15 at 1:12am

The First Wives Club with Lawerence O'keefe doing the score. On a side note I'd love to see Sondheim adapt a John Cassevtes movie into a musical. Women under the influence or Opening Night.

[NoName3]

Posted: 3/15/15 at 6:11am

Of course we almost had Annie Get Your Gun by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields.

And I was amazed to read the following last night on Wikipedia:

"Sandy Wilson, who had achieved success with The Boy Friend in the 1950s, had completed the book and most of the score for Goodbye to Berlin, his adaptation of I Am a Camera, when he discovered that producer David Black's option on both the 1951 Van Druten play and its source material by Christopher Isherwood had lapsed and been acquired by Harold Prince. Prince commissioned Joe Masteroff to work on the book. When Prince and Masteroff agreed Wilson's score failed to capture the essence of late-1920s Berlin, John Kander and Fred Ebb were invited to join the project."

Also, Sondheim briefly considered writing a musical version of The Visit for Angela Lansbury as well as a musical based on Sunset Boulevard.

Updated On: 3/15/15 at 06:11 AM

[NoName3]

Posted: 3/15/15 at 6:58am

. Updated On: 3/15/15 at 06:58 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/15/15 at 7:55am

I don't know that they would have been better, but I would love to hear:

"Carrie" - Stephen Sondheim
"Bullets Over Broadway" - Jerry Herman

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/15/15 at 9:55am

Batman, with score by Sondheim instead of Jim Steinman. I greatly enjoy Steinman's gothic rock opera, but I think that if he didn't probably consider it beneath him, the themes of madness, nihilism, duality and the arbitrary nature of good and evil that Batman has come to symbolize would fit Sondheim well.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 3/16/15 at 4:21pm

The Sandy Wilson "Welcome To Berlin" demo is in circulation, and is rather fascinating in light of how brilliant and iconic CABARET would become.

[NoName3]

Posted: 3/16/15 at 6:49pm

"I actually would have loved to have seen Phantom done as an actual opera around the time of the novel's publication, possibly by Puccini."

I see what you did there.

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 3/16/15 at 8:01pm

I would like to hear what Sondheim's interpretation of Sunset Boulevard was. I also wonder what shows like West Side Story and Gypsy would be like if Sondheim had written the music as well as the lyrics.
I guess Sondheim was also approached with the idea for Parade and turned it down.