Bad ideas that worked

#1

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:47am

"For me, I would say Sweeney Todd was a bad idea. Combining Musical Theatre with Horror was risky, but with all the talent involved, it worked very nicely."

I don't think it was a bad idea at all. Sweeney Todd is more a melodrama than it is a horror story and melodrama adapts easily to opera and musical theatre. The songs increase the suspension of disbelief and lift the emotional levels of any story. In an adaptation of a melodrama the songs often suit the already inflated emotional levels.

#2

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:49am

Xanadu

#3

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:52am

Urinetown

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#4

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 11:18am

I agree that Urinetown was really from out in left field, and it works so well.

How about that wonderful musical about a socialite with a towel on her head and her mother living like hermits with their cats on Long Island? Talk about a stupid idea that worked!

I thought they were crazy when they said they were going to make a stage musical out of The Producers.

#5

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 11:24am

you thought Sweeney Todd was a "bad idea" ??

wow... this is a lost cause

#6

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 11:27am

Really, if you look at the basic plots of a lot of musicals, their ideas sound very silly.

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#7

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 11:31am

The OP is saying think about Sweeney Todd on paper. Taking that idea to a producer..."He is a singing barber that slits the throats of his customers and his lady friend then bakes their flesh into pies that she sells..Now, doesn't that scream Tony winning musical family fun?"

#8

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 11:34am

I'm right up there with THE PRODUCERS. I remember thinking this was a ridiculous Mel Brooks idea when I first heard they were adapting the film into a musical.

Same thing with GREY GARDENS, but then I took note of the possibilities when I learned how they were telling the story -- with Act 1 being the ladies in their younger days and Act 2 the period covered in the 1975 documentary.

#9

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 1:55pm

idk if Xanadu was a bad idea since they intended to poke fun at themselves. I think most people just saw it as ridiculous, but hey, it worked! haha.

i still can't get over what Cynthia McFadden said. LOL

#10

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 1:58pm

Definitely Xanadu.. the stage version is just pure fun and the dialogues are witty! love me some DC-B!

J*

#11

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 1:59pm

I must agree with THE PRODUCERS & GREY GARDENS! great shows!

J*

#12

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 4:24pm

1776

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#13

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 4:25pm

Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, Starlight Express, Joseph....

#14

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 4:33pm

'Floyd Collins'. May've flopped, but it's a stunning piece of work.

Although some days I can't quite tell if I love it more than any other show because it's amazing, or if it's more that I get a kick out of the whole "what's your favourite show?" "'Floyd Collins'" "What's that about?" "A man who gets stuck in a cave and dies" conversations that crop up every now and then...

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Updated On: 6/11/08 at 04:33 PM

#15

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 4:44pm

CATS

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#16

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 4:53pm

Xanadu came to my mind before I even opened this...

#17

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 6:40pm

Avenue Q. I know I know. But puppets? Come on, what are we, five years old? Boy was I wrong. Also, Stomp and Blue Man Group.

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The Best Thing Right Now: Hair Revival!

Updated On: 6/11/08 at 06:40 PM

#18

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 6:41pm

URINETOWN, GREY GARDENS, JERSEY BOYS...

#19

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 6:44pm

WICKED.

#20

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 6:51pm

Les Mis

"We're going to take this eight-million page French novel about these miserable guys, put it on stage, and play the same eight melodies over and over again for three hours."

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"Your lyrics lack subtlety! You can't just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!"

#21

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 6:54pm

John Doyle's Sweeney Todd and Company

Let's be serious, I can think of very few people who were on the bandwagon with the actors playing instruments.

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Tick Tock

#22

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 6:58pm

First thing that popped into my head was Legally Blonde. I remember seeing ads for it in the bart station when it was in San Francisco and thought "Hah. I'm so not going to see that. What a horrible idea."
But hey, look at it now...

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"You have two kinds of shows on Broadway – revivals and the same kind of musicals over and over again, all spectacles. You get your tickets for The Lion King a year in advance, and essentially a family... pass on to their children the idea that that's what the theater is – a spectacular musical you see once a year, a stage version of a movie. It has nothing to do with theater at all. It has to do with seeing what is familiar.... I don't think the theatre will die per se, but it's never going to be what it was.... It's a tourist attraction." Stephen Sondheim

#23

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 7:06pm

Urinetown sounds ridiculous on paper...

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#24

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 7:08pm

URINETOWN
LEGALLY BLONDE
JANE EYRE

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#25

re: Bad ideas that worked

Posted: 6/11/08 at 7:13pm

Spring Awakening: "Ooh, let's musicalize a hundred-year-old play about sex and suicide!" Eight Tonys later...

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