Flashdance the Musical - Fast tracked to America- Page 2

[vagary66]

Posted: 12/1/08 at 2:34pm

I'm waiting for Red Dawn, the Musical. Why is it that there are no original ideas for musicals anymore??

Other ideas:

Punky Brewster
Perfect Strangers (You can actually get Mark Lynn Baker for it!)
Working Girl based on the music of Carly Simon (the more I think about that one the more I think it actually might work!)

[TheCharleston]

Posted: 12/30/08 at 11:25am

I smell a a FLASHDANCE Schiller....

how are you able to respond to every single response in this thread? You're watchin this thread like a dog

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 12/30/08 at 1:04pm

I have no problem with movies being made into musicals at all. But could we have some imagination, please? The screenplay for FLASHDANCE is inane even by eighties standards. Take away the stunning beauty of Jennifer Beals and a great title song...there ain't much there.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 12/30/08 at 5:13pm

yeah im a Schiller, ive been on here for years before flashdance was even spoke about as a musical, but i guess i must have secretly known and joined up in anticipation lol

Im just someone who saw the show and was shocked at how good it was and thinks it deserves a chance, and since not one of you have seen it i guess that means i have more to say on it.

And borstalboy as ive said, the book has been changed

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/30/08 at 5:19pm

The producers shouldn't release clips of the musical if they don't want them to "judge" the show.

Looks awful.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/30/08 at 5:47pm

Is it like Dirty Dancing, where it's really a play or is it an actual musical?

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 12/31/08 at 10:06am

Its a musical, with around 4 of the films songs and a pretty impressive new score

[TheCharleston]

Posted: 12/31/08 at 12:20pm

"impressive" ... that's YOUR opinion

not sure how many would agree with you (and yes, I've seen it jackass)

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/31/08 at 12:36pm

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

I don't get it. If it's set in the 80s, then it should look like the 80s. Otherwise, what is the point of using 80s choreography and orchestrations? It sounds as if they are either unfamiliar with the 80s or too lazy to try. One of the few things I enjoyed about Footloose on stage was that the show abandonded the 80s and focused on the story. It was able to utilize the songs from the film, but still remain updated. Flashdance needs to get off the fence and pick a period. They can represent the 80s in a non-tacky way and still remain accurate. Choosing to half-ass the design is far tackier.

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 12/31/08 at 1:27pm

I hate this idea (actually, when I clicked on this thread I thought it was about "Dirty Dancing: the musical", but I think I hate this idea more), BUT, it's bound to be, if not a hit, it will at least run a season and then tour.

So, it will, at least, keep a theater open and actors employed.

So, I wish it well.

(And Borstalboy, I love you!)

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/31/08 at 1:43pm

Wow, it looks awful.

http://www.flashdancethemusical.com/sights_and_sounds/videos.php

Watch the first video. The ensemble singing is.. something.

Question - Did they have to get rights to use the torn grey sweatshirt? Otherwise, isn't this just like the Cabaret debacle from another thread? If not, why?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 12/31/08 at 3:30pm

I'm curious...what did they change? For those of you who haven't seen the movie, here's my synopsis as only someone who saw it and loved it as a child could explain:

It begins all gritty and blue collar (but keep in mind this movie was directed by Adrian Lyne so the grit, like, gleams and glows) in a steel mill with hardhats and sparks flying everywhere. One of the welders whips off their masks and--surprise!--its the stunning Jennifer Beals! She plays Alex, a rough girl who is so lower-class blue collar that her home is a warehouse roughly the size of the Louvre. Alex isn't just a hardhat-wearing construction worker...she also works nights as a dancer at a dance club. But she's not a stripper! That's what her sister turns into, but I'm getting ahead of myself. She and her buddies work at a kind of place where hot girls get onstage and do music videos. But Alex has bigger dreams...she wants to be a prima ballerina, a REAL dancer but what's a lower class girl like Alex to do except hang around an old woman who used to be a star and run in place in her warehouse home while the audience get turned on by her taut, bitchin' thighs. She gets a shot at an audition for a ballet company but the poor girl is totally intimidated when she sees all those rich-girl ballerinas in training and realizes that she doesn't know chignon from souffle. What's she to do?
Well! After some misunderstandings with her hot boyfriend and some sleazy business with her sister (who gives up on her dreams after she falls on her ass ice skating to Laura Branigan's "Gloria"...I think there's a lesson there), she gets another audition for the ballet company.
Imagine the scene: A dark wood, intimidating rehearsal hall (that gleams, of course) with a dais of prim, rich fogeys with pinched faces that read "Abandon all hope". One even has a nose-blowing problem. Alex begins to dance and then--oh no!!--has to stop and start over, her hands trembling as she readjusts the record player...its terrifying! She starts over, feeeeeling the music, dancing HER way, expressing her art: Moving like a berserk eggbeater, prancing the length of the table pointing at each auditor, jumping like Superman the entire length of the rehearsal hall before tumbling into a super-cool back spin! The auditors melt with awe at such ingenuity...their jaws fall open, they can barely contain their applause! Even the nose blowing guy starts in enthusiastically to the beat of the music.
Apparently the company decides that this spunky young talent is exactly what they want for their next Ballanchine program because the final shot is Alex bounding out to meet her boyfriend and his cool car...he even has roses! Just like a real ballerina would get! Meanwhile the soundtrack pounds it home "I can really have it all". Freeze. And fade to black as the cinematic ghosts of Mahogany and Rocky smile.

So what did they change?

Updated On: 12/31/08 at 03:30 PM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/31/08 at 3:39pm

Well, they added flat ensemble singing.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 1/1/09 at 9:58am

I cant believe im spending time defending this show lol

The Old Lady from the film has been replaced and the character is now her mother who's pretty much beaten down by life and just trying to keep her head above water whilst trying to support her daughters dream of been a dancer.

The love story is fleshed out a lot more

An extra character , a former old boyfriend of Alex is added in, hes a junkie desperately trying to get his life on the straight and narrow but hes fighting a loosing battle and has a pretty tragic scene that includes one lead character been killed.

Her Best friend also has a lot more of a role, she works with her but wants more, she starts listening to the wrong people and is taken in by a lie which almost costs her to do something she would never have normally done (she also gets one of the best New songs in the show called The Long Way Home)

A lot of the factory stuff has been beefed out, especially to do with the closure of the factory and the person responsible.

Alex is also a lot more fleshed out, we see her no nonsense side but also get to see her unravel (in a brilliant dance scene.

There is probably more but it was a few months since i watched it now, oh and Borstalboy if you look at most musicals and type out their storyline you would see that whilst Flashdance the movies book was weak (i hated the film) it was not that much different from many others of the 70s and 80s.

As for the 80s thing, what i meant to say is that the show does not use the 80s as a hook (ala Wedding Singer etc) its not full of nods and winks to the decade, it just happens to be set in the 80s and tells us this through choreography and costumes

as for the idiot who called me a Jackass, well that was a bit uncalled for, and been in america i would Love to know where you watched it.

Oh and the person who insulted the ensemble, i have been in ensembles in London/Tour etc for years and this has to be one of the best ive seen (as the critics pointed out)

Updated On: 1/1/09 at 09:58 AM

[TheCharleston]

Posted: 1/1/09 at 12:10pm

"I cant believe im spending time defending this show lol"

then DON'T !! give it a rest.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 1/1/09 at 12:17pm

Good answer on how you actually saw the show