Flashdance the Musical - Fast tracked to America

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 11/29/08 at 5:56am

Flashdance is currently touring the UK and playing to packed out audiences which is brilliant for a brand new musical.The show will transfer to the West End next year after the tour closes.
Produces are so happy with the show and its success that they are planning to tour it around the states as soon as next year.

here are some clips of the show
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KR73PNJ3Z_0

The clips dont do the show justice at all though.We had it at our theatre for a week and the show was brilliant, all the staff were expecting it to suck lol.The new score is very catchy and contains some great songs which stand up well against the few existing songs (What A Feeling, Maniac, Manhunter).

The choreography is brilliant.
Im sure it will do well in the states

[tourboi]

Posted: 11/29/08 at 6:10am

Who is producing it?

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 11/29/08 at 6:13am

David Ian is involved, i know hes produced the UK one too

Posted: 11/29/08 at 6:14am

Who wrote the new songs? Years ago Giorgio Moroder who did the synth score and some of the songs liek What a Feelin was working on a full new score for a musical--but I have a feeling it never happened.

Who did the "brilliant' choreography? I dunno, the movie is a guilty pleasure, I love Moroder's cheesy music to bits, but I really really don't see this working (LOL the choreography at 1:32 has me in hysterics)
Updated On: 11/29/08 at 06:14 AM

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 11/29/08 at 6:28am

Like i said the choreography is brilliant, the video is not a great representation though.They mix together so many styles of dance often in the same song (Maniac is played as 5 different styles of music to match the dance in a brilliant section with the girls)

There is also no question of 'it working' it already is, the show has opened to surprisingly ecstatic reviews.

The Book is by Robert Cary (he is also writing Heartbreakers and the Thomas Crown Affair musicals)

Music and Lyrics by Robbie Roth

Directed by Kenny Leon (Also directed Broadway hits such as Raisin In The Sun, Radio Golf, Gem of the Ocean)

Choreography by Arlene Phillips

Oh also the book has been fleshed out quite a bit (especially in Act 2) so the plot whilst hardly challenging is not non existent like the film

Updated On: 11/29/08 at 06:28 AM

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 11/29/08 at 7:39am

Ugh. What is it with propping up corpses of 80s pop culture and wheeling them around Broadway like they're in "Weekend at Bernie's"?

Let's just face it - the water drop is obviously going to be the high point of the show. The Wedding Singer did it fine already, people.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 11/29/08 at 7:48am

Its nice when people judge shows before even seeing them

The water drop is OK but no one really gave a damn about it, the rest of the show is what had audiences on their feet

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/29/08 at 10:13am

I think this video shows what it will look like a little better:
Flashdance

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 11/29/08 at 10:15am

Am I in a grumpy mood, or is that unimpressive?

[evadiva]

Posted: 11/29/08 at 2:46pm

From what I saw I don't really care for the woman playing Alex.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 11/30/08 at 5:54pm

The woman playing Alex is actually very good.

I was surprised how much i enjoyed this, i really thought it would be shocking but it won me over after it playing a week at the theatre i work, it sold out every night and ours is a 2000 capacity theatre

[dramamama611]

Posted: 11/30/08 at 7:52pm

I could see how it "might work" as a staged musical, but I didn't care much for what I saw...but it will be interesting to see what happens.

[Lynnespock2]

Posted: 11/30/08 at 8:12pm

Not impressed, but Sueleen, that Flashdance is too funny!!

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/30/08 at 11:33pm

I can't wait for the stage musical version of Dance Flick!
Dance Flick: The Musical!

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/1/08 at 9:55am

As I often say about these DNR shows that are resussisitated anyway: how good could it be? The kitsch film works spectacularly well because Adrian Lyne found a visual style that captured the era and the romanticized Pittsburgh working class ambiance. It's a glossy, definitive 80s fantasy, the logical real "sequel" to the 70's SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER. But you cannot easily translate something that's basically a sustained music video without getting ... a music video with dialogue.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 12/1/08 at 10:35am

Have you seen the show?
As i said, the book has been very much fleshed out as the film had a storyline which was written on a stamp.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/1/08 at 11:04am

Well, if the clip is all I have to go by, it looks like the lesser of the the 3F films (Fame, Footloose and Flashdance) may have the most promising stage transfer. But that's not really saying much. The stage production of Fame was an about-face from the gritty charm of the film and became a bland precursor to High School Musical. The Broadway production of Footloose was a brilliant idea that was staged so horribly I could only imagine that it must have been some sort of intentional sabotage.

Is the Flashdance musical supposed to be updated to present day? Other than the music and dated choreography, I don't notice anything distinctly 80s about the production. I think I saw a pair of legwarmers and the signature torn sweatshirt, but the setting seems a bit ambiguous. And that video does feature some rather embarrassing choreography reminiscent of Hoy, No Me Puedo Levantar (Spain's hit 80s musical based on the the music of Mecano), but maybe it somehow works in context?

From what I've seen, it looks like a successful touring show, but not necessarily ripe for Broadway. But then, Dirty Dancing is a hit, so maybe this will be HUGE! I would love to read the reviews to get a better picture.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 12/1/08 at 12:00pm

Its still set in the 80s but in a non tacky way.It foes not advertise the fact it's the 80s except for the orchestrations on many of the performance songs which drag you kicking and screaming in to the 80s and the choreography also has a very 80s feel, mixing the genres most popular throughout that decade

The set is pretty much a steel box with a bridge with other pieces that fly in, the steel box is covered in steel to represent the factory (this sometimes worked, sometimes did not)

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 12/1/08 at 12:15pm

Arlene Phillips is still choreographing????

[LadyDramaturg2]

Posted: 12/1/08 at 12:28pm

Who's producing again?
David Ian and -- any others?

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 12/1/08 at 12:36pm

Not sure who else

and yeah Arlene Phillips is still doing choreography, im normally not a fan of hers, its all very much the same in other shows (including some i worked on as a dancer) but i liked her choreography in this

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 12/1/08 at 12:38pm

What a feeling...

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 12/1/08 at 12:47pm

BorstalBoy we get that you dont seem to like Movies turned musicals (which is odd since this is old practice) but you aint even seen this one

[CurtisTaylorJr2]

Posted: 12/1/08 at 12:56pm

Looks a bit cheesy, especially some of the dance steps.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 12/1/08 at 12:57pm

lolololol Its Flashdance, of course its cheesy

But its well made cheese, and the dancing is 80s