Musical Adaptation of EMPIRE RECORDS - News & Discussion Thread

Trip Cullman, RNJ, Kathryn Allison, Drew Gehling-- take my money now.

Any insider reports on this? I watched this film a crazy amount of times growing up, so have a soft spot for the source material. Wondering if they intermix original songs with period recorded works?

This excites me. Happy to hear Heikkinen is doing the book but that score had better have that early/mid 90s feel or the fans are gonna riot.

Lunalaaaaaaaa said: "Amazing news!! Wouldn't Drew Gehling be busy with Almost Famous though?"

^ Same with music director Bryan Perri

I wasn't a huge fan of the film...but can totally see this being musicalized.

https://www.playbill.com/article/empire-records-musical-to-make-world-premiere-at-new-jerseys-mccarter

I'm so happy for Damon Duanno, after being so underused in a small role in The Lonely Few!

This began previews! Would love thoughts if anyone makes it out to the McCarter in the coming weeks.

I saw yesterday's matinee performance. I'm going to put much of the information behind a spoiler break just in case. Pre-show, the director said it was the third preview, and they're still doing a lot of work on the show.

Overall, I enjoyed it. It hit a lot of the beats of the movie while cutting a handful of the extraneous plotlines. The score has a lot of mid-'90s rock vibes -- several songs had a strong Alanis Morissette vibe to them. There were a lot of ballads, and I think there's a lot of work to do to bringing both variety and cohesion to the score. Several of the songs felt very similar, and Corey and Gina's musical identities in particular would really benefit from some differentiation. The show has a good amount of potential.

I think the biggest challenge is that it doesn't quite know what kind of show it wants to be -- an issue it shares with the source material. It's part Jagged Little Pill, part In the Heights, part High Fidelity...but not quite comfortably any of those things. I think with an ensemble piece, it's really helpful to have one key central character (a la Usnavi) that serves as the guide to the world. Joe could be this. Or Mark, perhaps. Or maybe even Lucas. But right now the plot, while perfectly fine in its components, doesn't feel like it has a cohesive flow to it.

And I really think there's a missed opportunity to give each character their own clear and distinct musical style -- something that we see a bit more of in the movie. Mark is the pop-punk kid. AJ could be super into The Gin Blossoms. Debra is the Liz Phair or PJ Harvey of the group...and then have their songs evoke the artists that reflect their tastes -- and why they work in a record store.

Regarding the performances, I thought they were strong across the board. Analise Scarpaci as Debra is probably the standout -- giving Jo from Jagged Little Pill. Lorna Courtney is excellent vocally, but Corey is underwritten. Tyler McCall delivers all of Lucas's one liners well...but doesn't have much more to do than that (he would work so well as the fourth-wall breaker were the show to have one). Liam Pearce was earnest as AJ -- there were some distracting sound issues where I could hear every breath he took while he sang, which was annoying. Eric Wiegand's Mark is big and makes a lot of choices. I liked what he was going for, but I can see the characterization being divisive. I wish Michael Luwoye's Joe was a bit more consistent as a character, but I think that's a book issue and not a performer issue. And Taylor Iman Jones as Max was a nice surprise, bringing heart to a character that's a bit of a throwaway in the movie.

Damon Daunno as Rex is interesting. He performs it well, but I don't know that the show has quite figured out how to make this plot line and character work. He's not quite the sleaze ball that we saw in the movie. They hint at him being more of a washed up addict, and I kind of wish they leaned into that more. It's a conundrum because it's such a central piece of the movie (I mean people literally celebrate Rex Manning Day), so you can't cut it. And he's clearly meant to be a bit of a cautionary tale -- but a caution against what is unclear.

Anyway...I'll be interested to see how the show develops through this run. There are good bones here, and I could see it gaining some traction. Wishing it luck!

I saw this on Saturday and loved it! The performances and set were amazing, and I really liked the music a lot. Definitely a few tweaks they can make if they’re aiming for a Broadway run, but honestly it was more entertaining than most of the new musicals on Broadway last season (and I saw them all except for The Great Gatsby)! I’d definitely recommend checking it out if you can!

How is this comparing to all the other rock-and-roll-subculture-age-ish musicals that have flopped lately? I have not seen the show but unintentionally and very indiscriminately have sort of compartmentalized this in my mind with the likes of Almost Famous, Rock and Roll Man, Heart of Rock and Roll, A Sign of the Times, Rock of Ages (many of which are all different shows dgmw) … and I just can’t help but think that whatever this bubble of wannabe rock and roll/recordshop-culture musicals is oversaturated these days. People don’t seem to be as into it. Not a slight against the subject matter at all, just some thoughts I suppose.

I am in my 20’s and have never seen the movie, nonetheless heard of it until the show was announced FYI.

Glad the show is getting lots of positive notes. Also very curious what the future holds and would love input.

Updated On: 10/6/24 at 06:13 PM

EDSOSLO858 said: "This supposedly has the Jones afterLeft on Tenth. Shame it won’t be coming to Broadway with Pearce."

If so, I’ll eat my hat. I thought a different musical already has that theater?