Jimmy Nederlander to Producer "Thriller" the musical based on Michael Jackson's music video...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11042008/gossip/pagesix/we_hear_______136762.htm

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Is it weird I've always thought a "jukebox" musical based on Michael Jackson could succeed?

For example, you make racial tension a theme. Two characters fall in love (In don't matter if you're black or white/the way you make me feel). She, named Annie, gets pregnant but he denies it's his (Billie Jean). She gets mad and threatens to somehow ruin his life/insult his masculinity (Bad). On the way home, at the end of Act 1, she is attacked and beaten (Smooth Criminal). Act 2..I don't know, throw in some Jackson 5 tunes.

The sad thing is, I am semi serious. I imagine a line of fosse clad street thugs all moonwalking in unison to "Smooth Criminal".


maybe it's just late...

Yeah.

or like this.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=wO0810JIF4Q

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For some reason, all I can picture is that godawful Michael Jackson that they had for the longest time (and for what reason exactly?!) at Disneyland. This just does not sound like the best idea. That being said, if this were to work I absolutely love the basic idea thrown down by ??. But basing it on Thriller kind of ruins that, since the images it conjures up (at least for me) are based a lot on the music video - zombies, the Jackson transformation (no, not THAT one), that...outfit, etc. And it is a very Halloween-ish/over-the-top spooky song. Catchy as hell, but not really a great starting point for a musical. At all. But hey, some people have nothing more than a painting as their starting point and craft an entirely exquisite musical. So it really depends on how it is done.

Updated On: 11/5/08 at 08:10 AM

I hope Lola is available!
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=NCW9Wqa3i-0

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What the ****!!!!

These are not the times to be hitting the PIPE so hard!!!

As Riff-Tina/Leslie Kritzer put it so poetically: "Girl we in a RECESSION!!!!!"

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Updated On: 11/5/08 at 01:48 PM

It's possiable that this could have worked in the 80's. But with Jacko the way he is now, people barely remember why he's famous anymore.

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At least its a little bit original.
We'll see how this goes...

"I can't believe it."
"No, no, no!"
"Worst idea ever."
"What the f*ck?!?!"

. . . Exactly the same sentiments that were said about the Broadway version of an absolutely awful movie produced in the early eighties with Oliva Newton John starring as a muse who comes down to help a dorky boy in skates illustrate album covers . . .

Personally, I think the best-selling record of all time could, if handled properly, be one of the best (i.e., most entertaining) thing seen on Broadway.

Who knows?

Updated On: 11/5/08 at 11:35 PM

Sorry for the double-post, but further evidence as to why a THRILLER musical would be an amazing success with tourists in from Middle America (Yeah, you know, those good ole folks in from the "square red states") is no farther away than YouTube.

Watch on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT6InvLJUzA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwQruqnqLco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EKw_BnA2z8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMnk7lh9M3o

etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.


. . . some of this sh*t is freakin' hysterical . . .