Best book writer for bio-musicals

Often times it seems the weak point in bio musicals is the book. I wonder what people think is the best book for a bio-musical or best book writer.

I don’t know that any bio musical’s book thus far would enter even the top 20 of my list of best books of a musical. I think the best we’ve seen have been serviceable and know to largely stay out of the way of why people are there: the well-known and beloved music. I think Beautiful and Jersey Boys do that more or less successfully, but both pale when compared to shows like Fun Home, A Little Night Music, Gypsy, or Little Shop.

Bio-musical books are tough. They’re dealing with a set of preexisting songs, so the music doesn’t evolve out of the book- the book exists to provide a framework for the songs. And the songs usually have little to nothing to do with the events of the artist’s life being depicted, so you get major emotional moments with vague or general lyrics or you get diegetic performance (ie- characters in concert or in a studio).

And of course, the artist’s estate or the artist themselves have a heavy say in how exactly they want their life presented- and often want something that is ultimately flattering and inspiring.

Updated On: 5/9/23 at 10:57 AM

Agree with the above posters about Jersey Boys. I think what a lot of bio musicals are missing is a strong structure or framework to tell the story in, which makes it feel less like a Wikipedia list of facts. The fact that Jersey Boys was about 4 different members of the band who often disagreed about events I think helped it, as we got to see what each perspective was like (and the seasons helped chart the general trajectory of the band too). Meanwhile, I thought Ain't Too Proud just had too many characters and the constant revolving door of band members made it hard to keep track of who to care about.

Rick Elice who co-wrote the book for Jersey Boys later went on to write The Cher Show which I thought was a decent effort, but seemed a little messy. Also, for me personally, whenever there's a jukebox about a female musician, one act inevitably seems to deal more with her marital/relationship struggles, and that act always ends up being far weaker to me, like act 1 in The Cher Show, act 2 in Beautiful, act 1 in Tina, etc. I get that it's an important part of their lives, but what I'm interested is more of their artistry and how they got to where they are that they're big enough to warrant a musical about them.

I thought MJ was actually one of the better attempts (if you discount the omission of any Michael Jackson controversy). It structured the show around a specific period of time and an interesting moment in his career, and the flashbacks seemed to make sense for creating a picture of who he was and how he got to be there. We got to see his artistry in action with how he ran rehearsals, as well as his foibles with his demands and spur of the moment ideas. The main part that didn't work for me was just the ending, where it seemed like it didn't know how to wrap up the show, but I thought the journey to get there was quite well done.

I didn't think A Beautiful Noise was that bad, just a little boring as a lot of people had mentioned. There were no real stakes to anything, and I wish more of the therapy conversation had come in sooner since there was no real context for why he was in therapy or what he was trying to work on until the end (maybe others who are familiar with Neil Diamond would've known, but I did not). I had really loved Bohemian Rhapsody (also felt like it had a stronger structure with its bookends), so I had a bit higher expectations for A Beautiful Noise, but I can't say it was terrible.

I like Lynn Nottage. She is an example for me. And in general, the genre of bio-musicals and biographies is fascinating. I know this well because I work for the site https://penfellow.com/biography-writing/ and write various biographies and memoirs for those without writing skills or who cannot structure ideas. I am glad that my biography writing helps beginners in this genre, where you can find incredible success stories that motivate you.

Updated On: 6/25/23 at 07:32 PM

Jersey Boys and Beautiful are the gold standard for me too. MJ reminded me too much of a documentary I saw about one of his tours.

"Bio-musical books are tough. They’re dealing with a set of preexisting songs, so the music doesn’t evolve out of the book- the book exists to provide a framework for the songs. And the songs usually have little to nothing to do with the events of the artist’s life being depicted, so you get major emotional moments with vague or general lyrics or you get diegetic performance (ie- characters in concert or in a studio)."

I thought "Jersey Boys" did a good job using the songs to depict their life by having different narrators during the show. The narrators told the audience about particular event and then there were "Four Season" song that related to that event.

"And of course, the artist’s estate or the artist themselves have a heavy say in how exactly they want their life presented- and often want something that is ultimately flattering and inspiring. "

These shows usually follow the same formula. The artist overcomes the odds (being poor, drugs, bad relationships etc.) and rises above it to become a star. Most of the "bad" things in their life are public knowledge so the estate will agree to have it be part of the show, provides balance to the happy ending in most cases.

"I don’t know that any bio musical’s book thus far would enter even the top 20 of my list of best books of a musical. I think the best we’ve seen have been serviceable and know to largely stay out of the way of why people are there: the well-known and beloved music. I think Beautiful and Jersey Boys do that more or less successfully, but both pale when compared to shows like Fun Home, A Little Night Music, Gypsy, or Little Shop. "

I agree 100%. The music is what the audience is there for and as you said the book is there to stay out of the way and provide framework for the beloved music.

The great success of Jersey Boys’ libretto is the element of pastiche: the relatively rote bio musical story… delivered in the style of a Martin Scorsese film. It works because the Four Seasons are not only minor gangland figures in Scorsese’s NJ/NY/Vegas era, they’re crossing paths with real world figures associated with Scorsese.

Everyone seems to have treated "bio-musical " as referring only to jukebox bio-musicals. My first thought when I read the heading was Hamilton/Miranda.

On the narrower topic, I agree with what seems a consensus.