Jukebox Musicals?- Page 2

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 6:42pm

"Well, so far, the only one I've ever liked was Billy Joel's "Movin' Out"."

The main reason it worked IMO was the dancing was absolutely terrific, especially John Selya !!

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 6:44pm

I know this may get a lot of "groans" (lol) but I bet you could make a decent musical from Barry Manilow's catalog and or life story.

Updated On: 2/3/15 at 06:44 PM

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 7:54pm

"I don't mind jukebox musicals at all, just as long as they're done right. I think it's nice to see more of them following the Jersey Boys blueprint (Beautiful, On Your Feet) than the Mamma Mia! blueprint (Good Vibrations, Rock of Ages)."

I've skipped most of the jukebox musicals. The only ones I've actually seen are Mamma Mia and Good Vibrations and I have a soft spot in my heart for both. I happen to like ABBA and while I think they tried a little too hard to get all those songs in there, for the most part it kind of works. And they let themselves be as flamboyant and ridiculous as an ABBA musical should be. As for Good Vibrations, I can't help it. I enjoyed it. And it was the first and only time I've ever had a box seat so that was an experience in and of itself peering into the wings and being super close to the lifeguard stand on stage. Oh, Good Vibrations. Help Me Rhonda? Now that's shoehorning. I also like the Jersey Boys OBCR but I've never bothered to see the show.

A big struggle with jukebox musicals is that pop songs generally aren't written the same way as musical theater songs. You can sometimes find story songs but they don't communicate information in the same way. There are either big information dumps (though I guess you could say the same thing about the opening song in Hamilton) or the songs are too simple and repetitive.

I think I'm actually on the side of making a story out of the songs instead of telling the life story of the artist. I find that it's too distracting wanting the performers to be something they're not.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 8:08pm

The worst Jukebox musical was Million Dollar Quartet. Hated every second of that show and don't get me started on dee sniders chrismas tale which was a bomb that exploded in my face and made me hate rock in a musical for ever!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 8:14pm

Totally disagree

[AKarp2013]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 8:16pm

One jukebox musical that I always feel is overlooked is "All Shook Up." I am not a huge fan of jukebox musicals -- the only ones I find to be quite good being "Beautiful" and "Jersey Boys." But I found "All Shook Up" to be a terrific example of what a jukebox musical could be.

To me it didn't set itself as just an excuse to put a number of Elvis Presley songs here and there around a story. When I saw it, I found it not only to be fun and energetic, but well written, well directed and designed and the orchestrations and arrangements by Stephen Oremus to be through the roof stellar, elevated by a stellar cast.

It was funny, sweet and charming and was disappointed that it didn't become as successful as I thought it would have been.

Updated On: 2/3/15 at 08:16 PM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 8:23pm

^All Shook Up is the only show I ever walked out on during intermission.

Different strokes.

[jiff]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 9:15pm

Whenever I hear Barbara Streisand ask at the beginning of one of her songs "What are you doing the rest of your life?" It reminds me of women like Nancy Wilson, Shirley Bassey., Cleo Lane...etc There was a sort of yearning in the glamorous type women that these women captured in their music. Women who made candle light dinners, wore beautiful dresses, and asked the men in their lives "What are you doing the rest of your life?" Another song captures this time period: "The Days of Wine and Roses." I guess the tv show Mad Men does this somewhat. But I would like to see a juke box musical with a main sort of Nancy Wilson type character singing stuff like "Guess Who I Saw Today?" About women who bet everything on love, and believed in glamour (yet all they got were jerks, and as older women, paint threw on their fur coats). Of course this would be before women stopped caring about what men were doing the rest of their lives.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 9:59pm

"There was a sort of yearning in the glamorous type women that these women captured in their music. Women who made candle light dinners, wore beautiful dresses, and asked the men in their lives "What are you doing the rest of your life?"

I've always wanted to see a musical about one of the girls who "sang with the band." I know that was somewhat covered in "New York, New York", but the focus of that was the couple. I want to see the girl singer who is glamorous on stage, but also what her offstage life was like.
Link

[Hackasaurus_Rex]

Posted: 2/4/15 at 5:17pm

"Yes, we know that jukebox musicals are kind of lazy..."

We don't know that. And I find this opinion so puzzling... and completely unfounded. How are they lazy? Yes the composer/lyricist position is omitted from the creative team, but everyone else is working just as hard as those creatives working on a completely original musical... in fact, one could argue that the librettist for a jukebox musical is possibly working harder because on top of the book scenes they are also reworking existing material to move story without the benefit of a composer/lyricist helping them.

The fact is jukebox musicals are no more lazy than a musical that is an adaptation of previous source material. In the case of an adaptation the book writer didn't come up with the story (something that can be just as difficult as coming up with the music).

Your point is completely ignorant of the process that goes into actually creating any kind of musical. It's like saying, "We all know ballets are kind of lazy because there is no singing."

[lotiloti]

Posted: 2/4/15 at 5:35pm

Manilow jukebox musical already done, 'Copacabana'