IYO: Can Any Idea Be Made Into a Musical?

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IYO: Can Any Idea Be Made Into a Musical?

Posted: 1/6/08 at 5:27pm

(Canadian-like) What do you think, ey?

"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum

re: IYO: Can Any Idea Be Made Into a Musical?

Posted: 1/6/08 at 5:41pm

In short, yes. Some things are more difficult, and aren't as natural for adaptation, but I beileve anything can be made into something with the right creative team. Not saying everything will always work, but you have to be optimistic. There are so many books, plays, musicals, movies, etc. that nobody thought could ever work. But all it took was the right creative team and viola!

Example: The musical theatre world had written off Pygmalion as unadaptable. The Lerner and Lowe took a crack and the reast is history.

PLEASE! Do not post anything negative or dramatic! DidYouReallyHearMe has LOST the ability to ignore such posts and he will comment! Please, help him.

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re: IYO: Can Any Idea Be Made Into a Musical?

Posted: 1/6/08 at 5:43pm

I think that anything CAN be made into a musical; however, that doesn't mean everything should be!

re: IYO: Can Any Idea Be Made Into a Musical?

Posted: 1/6/08 at 5:47pm

Absolutely NOT. The character must reach a point to where singing is the only way to express the emotion. Not all plots allow are need that.

The reason Sondheim doesn't have many "cut" songs from shows is that he always asks himself first: "why should this character sing?"

These horrible jukebox musicals of late is a great example of why every idea cannot be made into a musical. A jukebox musical with a good idea; a singable idea can work.

"It's not so much do what you like, as it is that you like what you do." SS

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx

re: IYO: Can Any Idea Be Made Into a Musical?

Posted: 1/6/08 at 6:38pm

Sure, I think almost any book, movie, play, etc., could be musicalized. Some material just doesn't lend itself to the stage, but I think a good creative team could musicalize almost anything.

Whether it would work, or if it should be made into a musical at all are two very different questions. There are some things that I feel just plain out shouldn't be turned into musicals(ex: anything involving comic book characters), which is why I'm sort of weary about the upcoming Spider Man musical.

"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible

re: IYO: Can Any Idea Be Made Into a Musical?

Posted: 1/6/08 at 7:03pm

Anything can be made into a good musical. It's all about the execution.

Sweeney Todd, Assassins, Bat Boy, Grey Gardens... ridiculous ideas for musicals, but all executed very, very well.

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re: IYO: Can Any Idea Be Made Into a Musical?

Posted: 1/6/08 at 7:06pm

London did shows of Mutiny On The Bounty, Metropolis, & A Clockwork Orange

This should answer your question

Poster Emeritus

re: IYO: Can Any Idea Be Made Into a Musical?

Posted: 1/6/08 at 7:18pm

Problem with Young Frankenstein: Mel never asked himself whether or not the characters should sing.

That's why the end of the first act lasts 10 minutes longer than it should.

re: IYO: Can Any Idea Be Made Into a Musical?

Posted: 1/6/08 at 7:24pm

"Anything can be made into a good musical. It's all about the execution.

Sweeney Todd, Assassins, Bat Boy, Grey Gardens... ridiculous ideas for musicals, but all executed very, very well."

The reason those shows worked is because they all have heightened dramatic issues and characters. Not every idea has those elements. You need to move into song to express some of the emotions these characters are feeling or experiencing.

They are not ridiculous ideas for musicals.

"It's not so much do what you like, as it is that you like what you do." SS

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx

#10

re: IYO: Can Any Idea Be Made Into a Musical?

Posted: 1/6/08 at 7:39pm

A musical about cannibalism and a serial killing barber...
A musical about Presidential assassins...
A musical about a fictional tabloid monster...
A musical about a couple of cat ladies living in squalor...

If someone would have pitched me those ideas I would have laughed in their face. You can find a way to weave "heightened dramatic issues and characters" into just about anything. The problem with a lot of shows that don't work is that the writers aren't able to do that successfully. Those are all ideas for musicals that should have been too silly to work, but were executed well because the creators understood how to craft a dramatic piece. There are certainly ideas that would much more easily lend themselves to musicalization.

"I seem to have wandered into the BRAIN load-out thread... "
-best12bars

"Sorry I am a Theatre major not a English Major"
-skibumb5290

Updated On: 1/6/08 at 07:39 PM

#11

re: IYO: Can Any Idea Be Made Into a Musical?

Posted: 1/6/08 at 7:58pm

I agree, theActr. While the songs in those shows all come from some dramatic need to move the characters from talking to singing. The particular dramatic issues that drive the songs are not the ones that existed in the original idea/source material.

Look at Bat Boy. The only drama in the source material was the fear this creature generated in others. So that's one song. But developing the core idea led to songs about all kinds of hidden dramas that all feel natural to the source material.

You can find drama and emotion in anything. The art of adaptation is finding that hidden drama in the most unlikely of stories and developing it. I really think that art is limitless. The right idea just needs to find the right artist at the right time.

Art has a double face, of expression and illusion.

#12

re: IYO: Can Any Idea Be Made Into a Musical?

Posted: 1/6/08 at 9:13pm

Britney the musical as done by Stephen Sondheim, Bob Fosse, and David Merrick...

Hmmm

Sorry, I just had to throw that image out there.

Madame Morrible: "So you take the chicken, now it must be a white chicken. The corpse can be any color. And that is the spell for lost luggage!" - The Yellow Brick Road Not Taken

#13

re: IYO: Can Any Idea Be Made Into a Musical?

Posted: 1/6/08 at 9:19pm

TheActr97J,

Adam Guettel, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, and Bill Finn all answered yes to this question when asked by Pia Lindstrom. They gave the very reasons you mentioned. Subject is different than plot. I think any concept can be made into a musical. Any idea can. Making it work might be harder for some ideas than others. I suppose it depends on who's doing it. I don't think Webber could have done Sunday in the Park with George. And Sondheim didn't seemed to think that Sunset Blvd. would have been a good fit. I think you can find drama(meaning conflict)in just about any situation.

#14

re: IYO: Can Any Idea Be Made Into a Musical?

Posted: 1/6/08 at 9:34pm

There are only so many "plots". What makes it unique is the concept around it and any concept is at least viable. Arguably some ideas are more successful than others but you could at least musicalize pretty much anything.

yr ronin,
joey

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