So Obviously, it's been getting on everyone's nerves lately that pretty much every single big movie out there is being turned into Broadway musicals.
There of course have been several successful ones (The Full Monty, The Producers, Hairspray, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Spamalot, Legally Blonde, Billy Elliot, Shrek, Once, Kinky Boots, etc.), and there also have been some flops (Big, Cry-Baby, 9 to 5, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Ghost, Leap of Faith, Big Fish, etc.), and some more ether in development right now, or even coming soon (Ever After, Rocky, Magic Mike, Mean Girls, The Princess Bride, Amelie, Honeymoon in Vegas, Groundhog Day, etc.)
Though with all of that said, even some of the older musicals were based on movies (The King & I, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Oliver!, Applause, A Little Night Music, Nine, Little Shop of Horrors, La Cage aux Folles, Sunset Boulevard, etc.), so I've decided to write about some films that I think should be made into stage musicals, and here they are!
50/50 *Book By Jeff Whitty *Music By Robert Lopez *Lyrics By Kristen Anderson-Lopez
Basquiat *Book By Doug Wright *Music & Lyrics By Lin-Manuel Miranda
Edward Scissorhands *Music By Duncan Shiek *Book & Lyrics By Steven Slater
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind *Book By Marsha Norman *Music By Jeanine Tesori *Lyrics By Amanda Green
For Love of the Game *Book By David Lindsay-Abaire *Music & Lyrics By Jason Robert Brown
The Help *Music By Stephen Flaherty *Book & Lyrics By Lynn Ahrens
Hugo *Book By John Logan *Music By George Stiles *Lyrics By Anthony Drewe
Lovelace *Book By Douglas Carter Beane *Music & Lyrics By Benji Pasek & Justin Paul
Silver Linings Playbook *Book By Harvey Fierstein *Music & Lyrics By Nell Benjamin & Laurence O'Keefe
Sixteen Candles *Music By Tom Kitt *Book & Lyrics By Brian Yorky
So what do you all think of these ideas? What are some (non-musical) films you'd like to see be turned into a Broadway musical? Who would you like to do the scores?
Pete's Dragon. You take the film as is, re-add some cut portions of lyric that are on the soundtrack, and have the gimmick be that you don't see the dragon till the end of the show (you wonder if it's all in the kid's head), a conceit that was planned for the film but dropped once they saw Elliot's design and wanted to showcase him more as a character.
Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Honestly, I think this should have been Mel Brooks' first choice for "second show" way ahead of Young Frankenstein. As Gil Varod adeptly pointed out in his Broadway Abridged adaptation of the latter, Men in Tights is a logical choice for musicalization: a standard, coherent musical comedy ready plot with a sensible arc, four songs that are already part of the score, and larger-than life characters. Please, Mel, if you have anyone who's reading, don't let a Blazing Saddles musical tarnish everyone's good memories of you, and of the film. Make a sensible choice, replicate The Producers' success more closely, and give one of your less-known films a second lease on life. It helps that the Robin Hood market is one that isn't really cornered in musical theater. No one's done a major musical of Robin Hood, played straight or comedically, since that operetta back in the late 1890s. You could be the only one on the market with no competitors. This would do you a world of good compared to $450 tickets for jokes people laugh at before they come along, occasionally interrupted by songs.
Men in Tights I think could work although they'd to rework some of the jokes as some of them have dated especially the Kevin Costner accent joke.
I'm intrigued how School of Rock would work as a musical, I think it should have an original score rather than existing rock songs, Andrew Lloyd Webber is producing but I think he should co-compose it with someone like Tim Minchin.
A League of Their Own Weird Science - with a David Yazbeck score The Warriors - with a Ryan Scott Oliver score Practical Magic - with a Jeanine Tesori score Ruthless People Mrs. Doubtfire - with a Pasek and Paul score For the Boys (though this one is musical but I love it!) High Anxiety - another Brooks musical I'd like to see before Blazing Saddles Haunted Honeymoon The Little Rascals Weekend at Bernie's The Shining - but maybe as an opera instead
This is already in development. They are courting and trying out different writing teams right now, as they'll be using an original book and score based on and inspired by the movie -- why they don't use the original music from the movie is beyond me.
No idea if it's public knowledge or not, but I guess it is now. We'll see if anything ever comes of it.
"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES---
"THERE'S A SPECIAL KIND OF PEOPLE KNOWN AS SHOW PEOPLE... WE'RE BORN EVERY NIGHT AT HALF HOUR CALL!"--- CURTAINS
I've always loved the idea of HOLES as a musical, though I'm not sure it would work. Maybe they could have modern music for the camp scenes and really lush musical-theatery sound for the flashbacks with Sam & Katherine and Madame Zeroni.
It is based on a book though, so it might not count in this context.
Dangerous Liaisons - Yes I stole that from Smash but give it to Adam Guettel and it could be a dark, gorgeous masterpiece. Mannequin Drop Dead Gorgeous Nightmare on Elm St. Bewitched (based on the tv show not the God awful movie) Bruce Almighty She Devil Death Becomes Her Tootsie The Big Chill Romancing the Stone God's Behaving Badly A James Bond Musical - A terrible idea but I just want a stage diva to sing Nobody Does It Better and Skyfall
Was going to add Defending Your LIfe but you beat me to it!
I was asked to collaborate on a musical version of THE BIG CHILL, but I felt then and I feel now that it is already a musical. Yes, it's more Brechtian than R&H, but the emotional high points are already musicalized with pop songs from the characters' youths.
I feel the same about my favorite film, MURIEL'S WEDDING: it's already an ABBA musical much better than MAMMA, MIA!, even if, with one exception, the characters don't do the singing.