ALL SHOOK UP Negativity- Page 2

[ljay889]

Posted: 8/8/05 at 12:40pm

Did CONTACT deserve Best Musical?

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 8/8/05 at 1:28pm

Chitty Chitty was eligible for best musical. It was NOT eligible for best score, since many of the songs were originally written for the movie, way back when - as y'all figured out.

[liotte]

Posted: 8/8/05 at 2:42pm

I'm reposting my question, since no one seemed to address it earlier:
Why is it ok to take movies, such a Hairspray, Monty Python, Wedding Singer, Color Purple, Tarzan, Lion King, etc etc etc and turn them into broadway shows, but using someone's music such as Elvis (or Abba or Beach Boys) in a creative and fun way to make a musical is viewed in a negative manner??

[MojaniD]

Posted: 8/8/05 at 2:45pm

Liotte,

To partially answer your question, I think it's easier to write a score to an already existing book rather than to take a collection of songs and try to make a coherent story from them.

[leon1489]

Posted: 8/8/05 at 2:47pm

Also think of it like this... if you took out the songs, what would the show be like. For instance, if you take the songs out of Hairspray, you still have the storyline there and it's a relatively strong one. Whereas if you took the songs out of shows like Mamma Mia!, it may not be a very strong story at all.

Before anyone jumps to attack... I'm NOT SAYING that Mamma Mia! is hokey. I'm just saying that's been the case with shows of that nature.

[MojaniD]

Posted: 8/8/05 at 2:49pm

Leon,

You definitely said it better than I did!!

[leon1489]

Posted: 8/8/05 at 2:51pm

Well, you sparked the idea. And I've definitely learned to be diplomatic in what I say, because people tend to get offended on threads.

[mabel]

Posted: 8/8/05 at 2:56pm

I have to say I was pleasently surprised by All Shook Up. I haven't seen Mamma Mia, because I loathe Abba. I thought Good Vibrations was truly awful (seemed much more like one of those hour reviews that you go to at Busch Gardens to get out of the heat for an hour than a Broadway show)...as a general rule, I find the fact that 2/3 of the musicals on Broadway are either jukebox musicals/popsicles or are refashioned musicalized versions of a movie to be kind of annoying. In the end, if it's done well, it really doesn't matter, BUT I do think there's something to be said about a show like Hairspray, DRS, or the Full Monty that have all original music and an essentially new book...Spamalot (while I enjoyed it) irked me for having several carry over songs and whole, HUGE chunks of dialogue carried over from Grail...how it was even nominated for Best Book of a Musical is beyond me! Don't they have to have x-percent be original?!?!? Aaaanyway. I don't think this really contributed much to the discussion, but that's all I've got!

Updated On: 8/8/05 at 02:56 PM

[leon1489]

Posted: 8/8/05 at 2:58pm

See, I love ABBA (lame-o as it sounds), but I found it truly horrifying what they did to the storyline. While I haven't seen it live, I can't imagine wanting to see Mamma Mia! I guess that's the risk they run--you run the risk of runing a good story or good music. But since it's a MUSICAL, taking perfectly good songs and putting it in a crappy show could potentially upset fans of the music.

Disclaimer: These are the personal views of the poster.
Updated On: 8/8/05 at 02:58 PM

[MojaniD]

Posted: 8/8/05 at 3:02pm

Regarding ASU: I appreciated the efforts of Cheyenne and Jenn, but did not like the show.

[mabel]

Posted: 8/8/05 at 3:03pm

Yeah, while I couldn't bring myself to see Mamma Mia (I really don't need to have Dancing Quees stuck in my head all week), I can see where being a fan of the particular artist would be a huge detriment...The idea of turning a bunch of Dylan songs into ensemble numbers w/ dance breaks makes me cringe! I'm definitely not a fan of Elvis, so I think that helped some. I found the most popular songs to be the ones that worked the least, while I enjoyed the performances of the songs that I wasn't really familiar with to be much better.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/8/05 at 3:03pm

I'd certainly say that the book to Mamma Mia is hokey (frankly, "hokey" is about the nicest thing I'd say about). It's adapted from a bad 1960s Gina Lollabrigida movie, "Buena Sera, Mrs. Campbell" and inserting a bunch ABBA tunes into that lame plot doesn't make it any less lame. Among the worst and lazily constructed shows I've ever seen on a professional stage.

[My Name in Lights]

Posted: 8/8/05 at 4:26pm

Re CONTACT winning the Tony...UGH. I don't remember which shows were also nominated that year, but I can't imagine any of them being worse than CONTACT.

The commercials on TV always looked good, and I always wanted to see CONTACT; but unfortunately, I was unable to see it on Broadway live. I did catch the video of the show that PBS showed on TV. Again...UGH!

I laughed once during the first story, and bored by the rest of it. Other than the last story with the girl in the yellow dress that was promoted so heavily on commercials, CONTACT was a big HO-HUM. And then the last story turned out to be predictable anyway.

As we all know, the Tony Awards don't always go to the "best" in everyone's eyes, just the majority of Tony voters' eyes. Even then, they're like every other award: subjective.