"Beatlemania", a multi-media show with four impersonators playing live played at the Winter Garden for a couple of years prior to "Cats."
Tom O'Horgan, the director of "Hair" and "Jesus Christ Superstar", did a stage version of "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" that toured around in the mid-seventies and played NYC at the Beacon Theatre. Ted Neely starred, and the show was slightly similar to the later film of "Sergeant Pepper", in that it used songs from both "Pepper" and "Abbey Road" and attempted to tell a story entirely through song.
You can find old souvenier programs from both at some of the Times Square-area theatre stores.
I think the Beatles music could make a decent enough musical, since those kinds of things are the hot things. What kind of story, tho, is the problem lol
"I think the Beatles music could make a decent enough musical, since those kinds of things are the hot things. What kind of story, tho, is the problem lol"
I like the Beatles A LOT, and that's a big understatement. But I cringe at the thought of someone making a musical out of their songs.
Yes, I've seen all of those . But those are different. The Beatles were directly involved (well, except for Yellow Submarine, they didn't do much on that), and they sang all the songs themselves. I'm not sure about having a Beatles musical done "Mamma Mia" style.
Yes, we need a Beatles musical. In a perfect Broadway world every show owuld be like Movin' Out and MAMMA MIA!. We would have Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Rick Springfield, and Kiss musicals. Would that be wonderful everybody? lol
When someone does this type of musical, they try too much to be the original artists... They need to make the songs their own. Take 'Movin' Out' for example. I've heard the cast album, it sounds like a Billy Joel cover. The guy, his name slips my mind for the time being, does a great job, but copies the songs: same runs and intonation as Billy. I'd like to see some of these songs used different than the norm. For example (and I just pulled out '1' and chose a song at random), you could change the temp of 'Elenor Rigby', making it somewhat of a ballad, or at least a slower song, telling the audience how the character of Elenor Rigby died. You could also make some songs into interesting chorus numbers, i.e. She Loves You (sung to the main character). However, some song could not be changed, and would be great musical songs as is, namely Yesturday.
OK, those are my thoughts. And it appears that I've lost my CD... oh well, I'll continue to listen to Rent lol