#26
Posted: 11/26/06 at 11:09am
Okay. Let me break this down:
The audience consists, the way I can see it from here, of two groups: a) Dawnn Lewis fans (a very limited group in and of itself, based on the response to her name here), and b) people who dug the movie (of which there are a lot more).
Group B is going to be the most likely buyer. What Group B are being presented with is a book based (in all but character names) on Paul Rudnick's earlier draft for a version to have starred Bette Middler, and an entirely new score.
Word of mouth from Group B will not be impressive, because they're not being presented with something that resembles the movie closely enough for them to remember it. "We saw the SISTER ACT musical and it was good" is probably going to be a rarely heard phrase once it hits New York.
My advice to whoever is the show doctor:
-- Bring in the Motown, and Marc Shaiman's arrangement of it
-- Keep the book because it's based on a draft that is structurally better than the film, but bring portions of it closer to the film where possible
Do this, and I can guarantee a hit for a Disney audience. That, and maybe a limited time only run in the slower season featuring Whoopi Goldberg as Deloris to really sell some of the higher-priced seats.
The audience consists, the way I can see it from here, of two groups: a) Dawnn Lewis fans (a very limited group in and of itself, based on the response to her name here), and b) people who dug the movie (of which there are a lot more).
Group B is going to be the most likely buyer. What Group B are being presented with is a book based (in all but character names) on Paul Rudnick's earlier draft for a version to have starred Bette Middler, and an entirely new score.
Word of mouth from Group B will not be impressive, because they're not being presented with something that resembles the movie closely enough for them to remember it. "We saw the SISTER ACT musical and it was good" is probably going to be a rarely heard phrase once it hits New York.
My advice to whoever is the show doctor:
-- Bring in the Motown, and Marc Shaiman's arrangement of it
-- Keep the book because it's based on a draft that is structurally better than the film, but bring portions of it closer to the film where possible
Do this, and I can guarantee a hit for a Disney audience. That, and maybe a limited time only run in the slower season featuring Whoopi Goldberg as Deloris to really sell some of the higher-priced seats.
"There is no problem so big that it cannot be run away from."
~ Charles M. Schulz
