BEACHES Previews- Page 6

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/5/26 at 11:07pm

I will once again point out that the librettist and lyricist of the musical wrote the novel BEACHES and was not actively involved with the movie. And she is the one who has been pushing this musical-boulder up the hill for the past few decades. So of course she is going to favor "her" version of the story, screen iconography be damned.

[pmensky]

Posted: 4/5/26 at 11:17pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "I will once again point out that the librettist and lyricist of the musical wrote the novel BEACHES and was not actively involved with the movie. And she is the one who has been pushing this musical-boulder up the hill for the past few decades.So of course she is going to favor "her" version of the story, screen iconography be damned."

No one needs a reminder that she wasn’t involved in the movie. That’s obvious, and it shows. If you’ve been pushing the same boulder up a hill for decades and still refuse to engage with the screen version that made the title iconic, that’s not a defense, that’s the problem. Broadway is a terrible place for that kind of tunnel vision, and this production is about to prove it.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 4/5/26 at 11:17pm

pmensky said: " What matters is that the production was able to license Wind Beneath My Wings, which makes it clear they were not completely restricted from the film’s musical world. No producer was going to move forward with a Beaches musical that didn’t include that song, and everyone involved would have known that.

There are also clear examples of shows that secured major pop catalogs when that was the creative direction. Moulin Rouge did it. And Juliet did it. These productions show that if a team wants the music, it is possible to pursue it.

Which is why the real limitation here wasn’t rights. It was the writers choosing to be too precious about their own score. They made the one concession they had to make in order to get the show produced, but they were not willing to build a version of Beaches that reflected the musical identity people associate with a title this iconic. That choice belongs to them, not to the rights situation."

The Wind Beneath My Wings predates the movie by several years and Bette was like... the 8th cover of it. Getting the rights to that song is going to be infinitely easier to getting the rights to the film. Not saying you're wrong about it being stubbornness and not rights, but the Wind Beneath My Wings being in it is not an indicator of it. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/5/26 at 11:21pm

And don’t forget a good portion of the songs in the film are not original and written for it, save for “Otto Titsling” and “Oh Industry”

[jazzicat]

Posted: 4/6/26 at 12:39am

And those are the exact songs everyone wanted.