Grammy Win for Unofficial Bridgerton Musical

[soulmistin]

Posted: 4/3/22 at 8:43pm

Am I the only one who feels astonished and a little horrified at this? In my opinion it was clearly the academy trying to garner attention. I am a Bridgerton super fan (20+ guilty pleasure binges) and I could not even bring myself to finish this in one sitting. The only song of merit was the one that went viral, and even that was… okayish?

I can’t imagine an academy member actually sitting down and justifying why a breathy, ill constructed borderline pop album solely for teenagers to use as a Tiktok audio deserves more esteem than a Sondheim, Dylan, or any other score. 

[OffOnBwayHi]

Posted: 4/3/22 at 10:42pm

You are not alone. Yeah, this is a mess, but also historic in a weird way. TikTok is really powerful, and this is clear evidence. lol

With that said, thank God Broadway is back! lol 

[briankershawjr]

Posted: 4/3/22 at 11:23pm

And this is why the last two comments were in the minority… I thought it was amazing!!!

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 4/4/22 at 2:42am

They gave Louis CK a Grammy tonight too, so clearly the voters have no taste 

[John Adams]

Posted: 4/4/22 at 8:25am

soulmistin said: "Am I the only one who feels astonished and a little horrified at this?"

Most definitely not.

There appears to be absolutely no established criteria re: how or why any schlub (not the this year's winner should be considered as 'schlubs', mind you) could win in this category. Just look at how the Grammys can't even determine a consistent, respectable title for this category (history pulled from Wikipedia): 
In 1959 the award was known as Best Original Cast Album (Broadway or TV)
In 1960 it was awarded as Best Broadway Show Album
In 1961 it was awarded as Best Show Album (Original Cast)
From 1962 to 1963 it was awarded as Best Original Cast Show Album
From 1964 to 1973 it was awarded as Best Score From an Original Cast Show Album
From 1974 to 1975 it was awarded as Best Score From the Original Cast Show Album
From 1976 to 1986 it was awarded as Best Cast Show Album
From 1987 to 1991 it was awarded as Best Musical Cast Show Album
From 1992 to 2011 it was awarded as Best Musical Show Album
From 2012 it has been known as Best Musical Theater Album

It's not lost on me that even the album's title declares itself as being, "Unofficial".

Not a "real" show in terms of actually being produced anywhere? Looking to complete your EGOT Bingo card? Don't worry - the Grammys have you covered! That title of the award will change almost on a yearly basis, so you're bound to come up a winner at some point...

[DaveyG]

Posted: 4/4/22 at 9:12am

I heard that they keep changing the criteria because the category has been in danger of being dropped. Not enough eligible material, the same names over and over, etc. So they expanded the parameters and that’s how you get a travesty like this. 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/4/22 at 9:15am

So, this wasn't actually produced ANYWHERE as a production, right?   SMDH.

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 4/4/22 at 9:25am

It would have been funnier if the Ratatouille musical won.

[Dylan Smith4]

Posted: 4/4/22 at 9:51am

I was surprised by this too. I was thinking ALW Cinderella or the Les Miz Staged Concert would win. Mostly rooting for Carrie Hope Fletcher because she deserves all the awards in my opinion! That woman has incredible talent!

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 4/4/22 at 10:12am

I absolutely love the album from start to finish, so I'm glad it won. Every song worked for me on the first listen, which rarely happens, and I've listened to it straight through many times since then. 

 

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 4/4/22 at 10:33am

It should be said that for burgeoning musical theatre writers, the biggest hurdle is always securing adaptation rights for a source material. Unless you're Pasek and Paul, it can be near-impossible to get estates or agents to even respond to your emails, let alone say yes. So my two takeaways from this are:

1. It's incredibly frustrating that two people who effectively committed copyright infringement won a Grammy, while the rest of us are scared of getting sued out of existence for even trying.

2. I'm cautiously optimistic that this (along with the Ratatouille musical) will inspire rights-holders to be less precious about their intellectual property and allow musical adaptations from less established writers.

[Fan123]

Posted: 4/5/22 at 6:36am

I guess in the spirit of the 'unofficial' nature of this album, there might be some 'unofficial' further development and production/s sooner or later, with or without the sanction of the album's creators. So that might eventually take care of this show having a production onstage, or at least on some online platform. (If the 'Bridgerton' rights holders allowed this album to exist, where would they draw the line in that regard?)

Otherwise, the album wasn't amazing IMO, but I think the creators have talent and I'd be interested in seeing what they do next.

[briankershawjr]

Posted: 4/5/22 at 7:31am

I don’t understand so far you on here… stop being so jealous of their success 

when Hoda interviewed them last year for Today it was reported that Netflix ,Shonda Rhimes and Julia Quinn gave them their blessing to write musical ..,,

They did not do anything without them knowing…

Also a lot of musical theater lyricist and composer start writing without the rights at first or trying to get the rights to the piece… 

Stephen Schwartz with Wicked is a good example

I wish that people would praise them instead of saying they find this illegal.., come on

Also Pasel and Paul did not start out with big names … it took them a long time

Barlow and Bear are amazing!!! And the reason the won was they connected with their audience 

Even Andrew Lloyd Webber was impressed with them by having them over to talk and play

I would say I could see them as big as Pascal and Paul

 

[jdrye222]

Posted: 4/5/22 at 9:11am

A major problem is that the academy changed the way they vote this year in a way that requires voters to essentially forfeit the total number of categories they vote in if they choose a smaller “field” like Musical Theater (which is its own field with only one category). — Voters all vote in the 4 major categories, and then must choose 3 fields in which they can vote in “up to” 10 categories — but many fields have 1 or 2 categories only. So if you choose those fields and use your 3 fields in those with fewer categories, you give up votes. It would be possible to be maxed out on your ballot and only have voted in 7 categories (as opposed to 14). Many voters are outraged by this change (which was made under the guise of being MORE inclusive, but surely it had the opposite effect, it was so idiotic and without any understanding of anything).  

I’d like to know what the total number of votes were in that category (and the other categories that were their own field) - I guarantee it was a minuscule number of votes compared to previous years and to other categories this year. Very few voters want to shrink their influence even more by voluntarily lowering their vote span. And they shouldn’t have to.  The Academy really needs to figure this out - because I guarantee that the voters who know about (and care about) music and want to have an impact with their vote just did not want to use up their votes in this one category. 

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 4/5/22 at 9:23am

Queen, ABBA, Aerosmith, and the Beach Boys have a combined zero Grammys. Alvin and the Chipmunks have five. The Grammy's haven't been respectable ever.

[soulmistin]

Posted: 4/5/22 at 12:32pm

briankershawjr said: "I don’t understand so far you on here… stop being so jealous of their success

when Hoda interviewed them last year for Today it was reported that Netflix ,Shonda Rhimes and Julia Quinn gave them their blessing to write musical ..,,

They did not do anything without them knowing…

Also a lot of musical theater lyricist and composer start writing without the rights at first or trying to get the rights to the piece…

Stephen Schwartz with Wicked is a good example

I wish that people would praise them instead of saying they find this illegal.., come on

Also Pasel and Paul did not start out with big names … it took them a long time

Barlow and Bear are amazing!!! And the reason the won was they connected with their audience

Even Andrew Lloyd Webber was impressed with them by having them over to talk and play

I would say I could see them as big as Pascal and Paul

"

Oh God, this is the worst kind of response by far. Not everyone who disagrees with you is jealous, and that’s such a low hanging fruit type of argument to make. People are allowed to have criticisms over the quality of the work, chalking it up to some personal issue is just petty.

[briankershawjr]

Posted: 4/5/22 at 12:50pm

To the one who says my statement was weak, I was not trying to argue with anyone. I stated my opinion. I am allowed to to do this, as are you. I am responding to the ones who acted like they were jealous that they won the award. 

The beauty of music is not everyone has to like the same music. Musical Theater is the same. I love musical like My Fair Lady or Sound of Music along with new ones like Wicked, Dear Evan Hansen and ALWs Cinderella. 

Bartlow and Bear are upcoming composers and the Grammys wanted to recognized them for their hard work. Again you can disagree with me on this. 

If they did not win, I wanted Cinderella to win, but I have a feeling after being shut out in almost all categories at the Olivier's , they had slim to none chance of winning

Les Miz Live, I did like but there are tons of recording of this, I personally think enough of Les Miz recording. btw I love this musical

The other one, is new and not a lot of people know it, in a normal setting without the Covid period would have one. 

 

[latitudex1]

Posted: 4/6/22 at 11:31am

briankershawjr said: "To the one who says my statement was weak, I was not trying to argue with anyone. I stated my opinion. I am allowed to to do this, as are you. I am responding to the ones who acted like they were jealous that they won the award.
"

You're on a discussion board. Your opinion can be challenged and questioned respectfully.