I was listening to "Listen by PattynEmily" and Patty mentioned how she was watching Jumanji and then the two of them began discussing about Jumanji becoming a musical. So, would you go see a musical adaptaton of Jumanji?
Seriously, this is scrapping the bottom of the barrel. This shows how bereft of ideas we are capable of. Better still, it shows how to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
Actually, I think this thread more reflects the foolishly limited ideas of what musical theatre is that is held by some posters on a chat board, not that anyone is running out of ideas. Ideas come from everywhere and Broadwayvmusicals are not the breadth of musical theatre and vice versa. First of all, who would have thought that James and the Giant Peach could successfully be adapted to the stage, but it has... Thank you Pasek and Paul. How many people decried that when it was announced just because it is based on a children's novel? Some certainly did. Who would have thought Peanuts would succeed of stage before You're. A Good Man, Charlie Brown won over audiences? Beyond that, have none of heard of TheatreWorksUSA or ArtsPower? They tour countless stage adaptions of children's literature each year to communities where kids may have limited to no other access to love musical theatre. None of them would be called Broadway Musicals but they are just as legitimate.. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day... Junie B. Jones... Harry the Dirty Dog... Pinkalicious... Bearenstein Bears... Click, Clack, Moo.... many, man, many, MANY more. I still have incredibly vivid memories of seeing their tours of Hansel and Gretel, Pinocchio, Wizard of Oz, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, etc as a child and how excited I was to see the announcement and school permission slip each time they came to town. When will people here learn the every stage musical is not Broadway aimed and that is just as it should be. The world of the stage is far, far greater than that. Jump hi could have great potential
An intimate musical closely based on the original children's book could probably work beautifully with the use of classic stage effects and puppetry. I just don't see an adaptation of the movie being as quite redeeming or imaginative. The character of Allan Perish would have to be entirely rewritten for it to work that way.
As per usual, no one bothers to read my post or to actually talk about anything because we are too busy being too good for anything and clearly any stage work must be created for Broadway. Lord...
This would be a great piece for a company like PigPen (Chicago) to take on and adapt. They could do some truly magical things with it, in my opinion. Maybe even Lookingglass (Chicago). No New York company that I know of is brave or creative enough....
