Bombshell - Do you think it would work as a show?- Page 2

[Emma White]

Posted: 3/12/14 at 7:52pm

"but the songs are for most part generic, modern pop ballads that are belted out--nothing that approaches the "real Marilyn" is in the show. "

This could be said easily about Evita vs. Eva Peron's actual voice. I don't really think it matters. Nobody wants to see a musical where all the songs are done in that Marilyn voice, honestly. A two-hour Marilyn impression would get really old, really fast.

I think that with a good amount of reworking, it could work very well. The music is actually quite good.

[Steve721]

Posted: 3/12/14 at 8:13pm

Eva Peron wasn't a singer. Marilyn, on the other hand, had a very distinctive way of singing that is now iconic. When Tracie Bennett played Judy Garland in "Over the Rainbow", she at least tried to sound like Garland.

Someone mentioned Frank Wildhorn, and Jekyll & Hyde is exactly what the Bombshell songs from Smash remind me of. The J&H songs and music do nothing to evoke the era of that show--they could be plopped into and would serve just as well for any other bad musical set in any other era. The same thing is true of the Smash songs.

[bwayobsessed]

Posted: 3/12/14 at 8:18pm

Fanny Brice most certainly did not sound like Barbara Streisand.... regardless, I love a lot of the songs in Bombshell, but they need reworking as none of them are "book" songs, they're all show stoppers. Personally, I think Hit List could be much more successful.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 3/12/14 at 8:20pm

And Barbra Streisand sounded nothing like Fanny Brice. (Sorry, bway. I posted before I saw your post.)

HOWEVER, Marilyn Monroe is an icon and (ETA as Carlos pointed out) we've all seen/heard countless recordings of her singing. In SMASH, it bothered me every time an actress belted a Monroe song. We all know Monroe didn't sound like that.

But the bigger problem was there was never a consistent conflict spelled out in BOMBSHELL, not even one as weak as that of FUNNY GIRL. Some sort of radical rewrite (actually "write" because BOMBSHELL on TV was never really written) is necessary and that will almost automatically mean a radical revision of the score.

Could there be a stage musical based on Monroe's life? In theory, certainly. But didn't somebody already try that? (ETA, yes, again, somebody else mentioned this. Sorry.)

Updated On: 3/12/14 at 08:20 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/12/14 at 8:57pm

If Marilyn: An American Fable, with Scott Bakula and a number done in a bubble bath with chorus boys (?) couldn't be a hit how could this stand a chance?

I actually really do enjoy the score of Bombshell, but as Gaveston says it simply has no dramatic tension or purpose--it would be a slog of a night, even with the camp.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/12/14 at 9:26pm

I don't necessarily think a musical about Monroe would need to limit the vocals to be "true" to her- she could easily both the voice we know when "performing" and belt to express her inner life.

But the Bombshell score is a nearly non-stop belt-fest.

And none of the songs MEAN anything.

You could just do a Marilyn-themed revue with them. They don't flow organically out of action or character. They exist because it's Smash and the whole schtick was that it's a musical TV show.

It's hard to really even describe it as a "score." It's at most a concept album, at present. It's not a musical.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/12/14 at 9:53pm

Every time I see diamonds I wish were all free I think of Marilyn.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/12/14 at 10:42pm

That lyric really sums her up.

[Steve721]

Posted: 3/13/14 at 11:05am

"Fanny Brice most certainly did not sound like Barbara Streisand."

Unfortunately, I doubt that many of the people who've seen Funny Girl even know who Fanny Brice was, much less how she sounded.