MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING musical, featuring Burt Bacharach catalogue songs

This has just been announced for the Ogunquit Playhouse this summer.

Any musical adaptation that chooses to use pre-existing songs just kind of makes me shrug...


My Best Friend’s Wedding
Thursday September 26, 2024 – Sunday October 27, 2024
Book by Ron Bass & Jonathan Harvey
Based on the TriStar Pictures Film Screenplay by Ron Bass
Featuring the songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David
In association with Crossroads Live

My Best Friend’s Wedding is based on the wickedly funny film of the same name and features some of the most iconic pop anthems ever written by the legendary Burt Bacharach and Hal David, including I’ll Never Fall in Love Again, I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself, Walk on By, I Say A Little Prayer and What’s New Pussycat?. Fiery food critic Julianne Potter has always turned her nose up at romance. It’s the reason she broke up with her sweetheart Michael O’Neal. When she hears he’s about to be married, she vows to win him back for good, but with perfect Kimmy in the way, it’s not as easy as she first thought. Can she derail her best friend’s wedding in time and keep Michael all for herself?



More info & the rest of their season: https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/MY-BEST-FRIENDS-WEDDING-World-Premiere-More-Set-for-Ogunquit-Playhouse-2024-Season-20240130

Beats me. Unless the strategy is avoiding Broadway altogether and just focusing on touring and licensing, where "story you know + songs you know" could be more of a lowest-common-denominator selling point?

What's weirder about the MYSTIC PIZZA musical is that they fully scrapped another version with an original score by Melissa Etheridge, book by Sas Goldberg, & directed by Gordon Greenberg (which I believe had workshops). And then it was replaced with the Sandy Rustin/Casey Hushion jukebox version.

Seeing as this is Ogunquit Playhouse, can we expect Sally Struthers as Old Joe in Waitress, Madame Armfeldt in Night Music, and one of the mothers in "My Best Friend's Wedding"? ahahaha

Not saying it's good or bad but they seem to be churning out the direct-to-regional premieres. I don't see any of the new stuff they do going to Broadway or anywhere near.

With Crossroads co-presenting this they are definitely using this as a tour launch.

I think with My Best Friend's Wedding, it's specifically because the soundtrack was famously half Bacharach covers, including the dinner scene with "I Say a Little Prayer." Their motivation in going jukebox over original score may have been not to compete with the film's memory and lose.

This show was originally going to premiere in the UK starring Alexandra Burke a few years ago, but COVID put paid to that.

Regarding hypothetical composers for a non-jukebox version, I don't think she would do it given its similarities to 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend', but I could see Rachel Bloom writing a fun score for this story.

g.d.e.l.g.i. said: "I think with My Best Friend's Wedding, it's specifically because the soundtrack was famously half Bacharach covers, including the dinner scene with "I Say a Little Prayer." Their motivation in going jukebox over original score may have been not to compete with the film's memory and lose."

I think you're exactly right about this, but I also believe it's the reason why the show will fail as a stage musical.

When these songs are sung by professional musical theater performers, all the "realness" of how and why they were used in the film will be lost.

The reason they worked so well in the movie was that they were sung by actors who were portraying non-musical characters. They appeared to be real people in relatable, spontaneous, situations. Their vocals were charmingly amateurish and ordinary.

To try and replicate that same naturalness from the movie, in a stage musical defeats the purpose of using professional singers in a musical. I hate the thought of the wedding rehearsal dinner scene ("I Say a Little Prayer") being ruined by turning it into a beautifully sung musical theater number.

Better to pay $3.99 to rent the movie on Amazon. Other than the cell phones, the rest of the movie still stands up very well, and all of those actors were in their peak physical forms. (They all still look good now, but HOLY COW, they were exceptionally beautiful back then...)

Kathleen Marshall directing

Here's a friendly reminder that they'll stop making these lazy shows as soon as you stop buying tickets to see them.

I have tickets to see this. I always love what they do at the Ogunquit Playhouse. This is quite a cast for them. Very excited.

barcelona20 said: "I haven't seen the show, but watched the promo video and Matt Doyle is singing Promises Promises. I know they're using all Burt Bacharach music, but has a musical ever used a song written specifically for another musical before? I'm drawing a blank."

Besides Frank Wildhorn who reused the song Only Love, with same lyrics I believe, from The Scarlet Pimpernel into his newer musical Rudolf......Jerry Herman took the tune of his song Showtune from his musical revue show and changed the lyrics for Mame's It's Today.

The upcoming Muriels Wedding will be In a similar predicament when it uses Abba songs(which were also in Mamma Mia) in addition to its original score..

Not sure how I feel about the title song from “Promises, Promises” being used in this. I think I would personally find it pretty distracting, more so than other songs from that score if they were recycled for this show.