"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/20/18
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#1
Posted: 4/26/26 at 8:23pm
Here's a game, inspired by a brunch conversation about Beaches this morning...
Who would you hire to improve (or re-do) a flop show?
For BEACHES, it seems obvious to focus on creatives with experience doing shows about young women:
- SCORE: Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman (+ a few songs from the movie), with a musical style that tracks the evolution of the decades
- BOOK: Kimberly Belflower
- DIRECTOR: Jessica Stone
- LEADING LADIES: Gracie Lawrence and Helen J Shen (with no separate teenage versions)
Set design by anyone inventive who can give us good-looking sand and water in the beach scenes. Costumes by anyone who understands period specificity. Like Beowulf Boritt and Linda Cho.
Put it in a 1,000-seat house (like the Barrymore or Longacre) where an intimate story can thrive. Add 3 people to the onstage cast for greater age/racial diversity and less doubling. Cut the band down to 12. Charlie Rosen can stay on as orchestrator. Bette Midler gets a fat financial offer to be an honorary producer and does a few media appearances.
ALL PROBLEMS SOLVED in a fictional world!
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#2
Posted: 4/26/26 at 8:38pm
Oh this is one of my favorite games.
If &Juliet had the same exact book but songs by Alan Menken and I'd probably think it was cute.
As I said in the thread about it, if I were producing a Coyote Ugly musical, Tesori is doing the music.
I wish Sondheim wrote the Sunset opera.
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#3
Posted: 4/26/26 at 9:02pm
I completely agree with this BEACHES fix.
Shaiman KNOWS how to right for this style and would have been great. If they got WBMW, Think It's going to Rain Today, Otto Titsling and The Glory of Love. It would have completely felt fully realized. I would have been curious what someone like Derek McLane would have done for set design.
I would love DOLLY the Musical to be fixed by getting Jason Howland or Des Mcanuff to take on the direction, Kristin Chenoweth to take on Dolly (or Megan Hilty a secondly), I would love David Korins for set design, and I love to have a Harvey Fierstein dramaturgical work on the book.
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#4
Posted: 4/26/26 at 9:10pm
Queen of Versailles with Tesori and Tony Kushner.
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#5
Posted: 4/26/26 at 9:21pm
Just imagine if Sondheim had said yes to GROUNDHOG DAY.
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/20/18
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#6
Posted: 4/26/26 at 9:31pm
Kad said: "Queen of Versailles with Tesori and Tony Kushner."
This is good.
And tell it from the perspective of the niece who comes to live with them or the house staff.
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#7
Posted: 4/26/26 at 11:21pm
EDSOSLO858 said: "Just imagine if Sondheim had said yes to GROUNDHOG DAY.
"
To be fair, I don’t think there was anything necessarily wrong with Groundhog Day.
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/20/18
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#8
Posted: 4/26/26 at 11:34pm
Theatrefanboy1 said: "I would love DOLLY the Musical to be fixed by getting Jason Howland or Des Mcanuff to take on the direction, Kristin Chenoweth to take on Dolly (or Megan Hilty a secondly), I would love David Korins for set design, and I love to have a Harvey Fierstein dramaturgical work on the book."
Did you mean a different Jason? Jason Howland is the Great Gatsby/Little Women composer? But yes, that show sounds like it has a super weird creative team for what it actually is.
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#9
Posted: 4/27/26 at 12:46am
I was thinking QoV with Weidman could be interesting, but Tesori/Kushner would work too
Stand-by Joined: 5/19/20
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#10
Posted: 4/27/26 at 4:37am
EDSOSLO858 said: "Just imagine if Sondheim had said yes to GROUNDHOG DAY.
"
Groundhog Day is incredible as is and doesn't need fixing
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#11
Posted: 4/27/26 at 7:28am
ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Theatrefanboy1 said: "I would love DOLLY the Musical to be fixed by getting Jason Howland or Des Mcanuff to take on the direction, Kristin Chenoweth to take on Dolly (or Megan Hilty a secondly), I would love David Korins for set design, and I love to have a Harvey Fierstein dramaturgical work on the book."
Did you mean a different Jason? Jason Howland is the Great Gatsby/Little Women composer? But yes, that show sounds like it has a super weird creative team for what it actually is."
The Prom, with an entirely different ending, where she remains single at the end, she doesn’t get another prom and she simply says “I might not have a girlfriend, or a prom, or a town / but I have MY SELF.” A score written by She and Him (Zoey Deschanel’s musical group), directed by Billie Aken-Tyers and choreographed by Bo Park.
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#12
Posted: 4/27/26 at 11:02am
Tammy Faye with a David Yazbek score and a writing team that understands the assignment would've been incredible. I know Tootsie was a flop but the way he was able to tighten the screws musically was so impressive. Faye in purgatory having her life relitigated as an episode of PTL Club that slowly spirals out of her control and forces her to face the damage she's caused? Imagine Jessica Hahn getting the classic Yazbek manic bimbo number, only as a We Both Reached For The Gun moment where Faye is trying to convince herself that Hahn was just a slut, and the truth keeps slipping out as the song gets more frantic.
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#13
Posted: 4/27/26 at 11:59am
ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Theatrefanboy1 said: "I would love DOLLY the Musical to be fixed by getting Jason Howland or Des Mcanuff to take on the direction, Kristin Chenoweth to take on Dolly (or Megan Hilty a secondly), I would love David Korins for set design, and I love to have a Harvey Fierstein dramaturgical work on the book."
Did you mean a different Jason? Jason Howland is the Great Gatsby/Little Women composer? But yes, that show sounds like it has a super weird creative team for what it actually is."
Sorry, not Jason Howland... Marc Bruni director of Beautiful: The Carole King Story.
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#14
Posted: 4/27/26 at 1:48pm
Queen of Versailles could’ve been a great Frankel and Korie project and worked as a spiritual successor to Grey Garden.
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#15
Posted: 4/27/26 at 2:52pm
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown with direction by either Michael Arden or Tina Landau.
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/20/18
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#16
Posted: 4/27/26 at 3:24pm
LMM and the HEIGHTS team also could have done a great job with WOMEN ON THE VERGE back in 2010.
Or keep Yazbek, let Almodovar write the book with a collaborator, and hire a different director. Michael Mayer or Diane Paulus come to mind and feel more “fun” than Sher. Or George C. Wolfe.
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#17
Posted: 4/28/26 at 11:29am
Please give Time Traveler's Wife to Ingrid Michaelson and Jordan Harrison.
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/18/17
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#19
Posted: 4/28/26 at 5:21pm
BwayLB said: "Give Xanadu a new book writer"
I couldn't disagree more. The book of Xanadu was hilarious, told a nice, compact story, and used the songs to great comedic effect. Beane took a notoriously sub-par movie and turned it into a joyful, laugh-a-minute satire, and he was absolutely the right person for the job.
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#20
Posted: 4/28/26 at 5:30pm
kdogg36: BwayLB said: "Give Xanadu a new book writer"
I couldn't disagree more. The book of Xanadu was hilarious, told a nice, compact story, and used the songs to great comedic effect. Beane took a notoriously sub-par movie and turned it into a joyful, laugh-a-minute satire, and he was absolutely the right person for the job.
I agree and would love a Xanadu revival.
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#21
Posted: 4/28/26 at 5:35pm
Yeah, Xanadu worked because of Beane's (very funny) book which managed to somehow be both sincere and a send-up.
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#22
Posted: 4/28/26 at 5:43pm
And while I'll say High School Musical 1-3 are much more solid dramaturgically than the original Xanadu film, I'd LOVE a Douglas Carter Beane (or Robert Carlock) half parody, half loving millennial tribute of THAT trilogy sort of jammed together into one semi-coherent storyline.
It's a peak piece of millennial nostalgia, with some of the best theatre-pop songs of two decades.
Chorus Member Joined: 3/5/11
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#23
Posted: 4/28/26 at 11:06pm
The Devil Wears Prada
Director/ Choreographer- Christopher Gatelli
Book Writer- Emerald Fennell
Composer- Rachel Bloom
Costume Design- Paul Tazwell
Then write Miranda to have the same vocal range as Desiree in Little Night Music, and you can parade a heaping list of character actresses like they tried to do with Norma back in the 90s:
Parker Posey, Jane Lynch, Bianca DelRio, Heather Headley
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/20/18
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#24
Posted: 4/28/26 at 11:56pm
bmwpjager said: "The Devil Wears Prada"
Your suggestion is great. Way back during its Chicago run, I had said it should be Michael R. Jackson & Aline Brosh-McKenna writing, Marianne Elliott directing, and a speak-singing Miranda like Lindsay Duncan.
"Fix" a musical by giving it a new team#25
Posted: 4/29/26 at 12:29am
"Big", a musical about the tension between the freedoms of youth and the wisdom of age, should perhaps have had a writing team with a median age under fifty.
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