Non-Movies that Would Make Great Musicals?

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 6/4/18 at 10:52pm

I was thinking about what non-film material would be a great fit for a musical adaptation. I thought this thread could be a place for us to share some of our pipe dreams of what we'd love to see adapted into a musical. I admit that I sometimes create playlists centered around an imagined story or adaptation I created in my head.

One of my playlists is a musical adaptation of a graphic novel named Solanin:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanin

It's actually one of the best things I've read. It's been nominated for a few literary awards. It's a slice-of-life story about a college graduate in Japan who works at an office job in Tokyo and lives with her boyfriend whom she met in college. He works as an illustrator for a press company who once dreamed to make it big as a musician. Both of them are not really satisfied with post-graduate life but aren't really dissatisfied either. They and their friends are just navigating around.

I know it sounds incredibly ordinary but this story is incredibly poignant and a nuanced look at every day people and I think could really work as a musical with the right musicians and book writers behind it. And music plays a big part in the story and character's lives. 

I thought it'd be great if indie artists like Vienna Teng, Alex Wong, or somebody more famous like Rivers Cuomo or Sufjan Stevens would tackle this on. I also think it'd be a cool direction for Broadway to explore.

Updated On: 6/4/18 at 10:52 PM

[(Insert Clever Name)]

Posted: 6/4/18 at 11:08pm

I feel any and all of John Grisham’s books could make good plays. I mean plays loosely as they would be angels in America in length.

[Sondheimite]

Posted: 6/4/18 at 11:11pm

Oh, I have so many ideas.

So much so that I've paid money to own the ideas and am smart enough not to share them until they've come to fruition   
 

But, in a nonsensical universe, I'd love to see a musical about the making of Spiderman:  Turn Off the Dark because I feel like it's a much better story than... Spiderman:  Turn Off the Dark.  

Updated On: 6/4/18 at 11:11 PM

[Fan123]

Posted: 6/5/18 at 6:13am

I haven't even read it, but the premise of recent book 'Space Opera' sounds like it could be a fun, zany musical:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24100285-space-opera

[lotiloti]

Posted: 6/5/18 at 7:45am

TV Movie 'Queen of the Stardust Ballroom' (basis for 'Ballroom' musical)

Releasing on blu ray August 7th.

Loved this movie.

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 6/5/18 at 5:04pm

Sondheimite, I would pay good money to see that. Kind of like the Broadway equivalent of The Disaster Artist. Shall we write it together?

Anyway, I believe there's never been a "true" video game musical (Pokemon Live notwithstanding) because many folks feel that games don't have quality dramatic arcs. That said, they are dead wrong, and I would LOVE to be the one to get a Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy onstage.

I mean, LAWD, listen to this or this. They're right up there with the best modern compositions.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 6/5/18 at 5:22pm

A friend of mine thought of this one, not me, but I figured I'd share it here anyway because it's great:

"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" with a score by Lin-Manuel Miranda 

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 6/5/18 at 5:37pm

I don't think they'd be good but I think if they could get the rights, a FRIENDS or Gossip Girl musical is inevitable.

I'd like to see a good Scheherazade musical. Maybe something like Kismet that references some classical music. https://youtu.be/uj0UBMgR2gk?t=15 Or you could use one of the many historical fiction-style books as a starting place for the libretto. You could have a lot of spectacle and meta-ness with the storytelling and there's a more personal central conflict between Scheherazade and the sultan to ground it. Though it would definitely be unwieldy in the wrong hands.

I know it's a movie but I think they could make a really fun kids musical out of Life Size. It also feels like they good make a good musical out of Titanic, maybe cutting out the framing device entirely.

It's easier to pick movies because you can see how to tell a self-contained story in a 2 or 3 hour musical. There are a lot of classic novels to go to but aside from Phantom, I feel like the adaptations have not been that successful (Jane Eyre, The Woman in White, Anna Karenina, Gone with the Wind, Rebecca, etc.).

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/5/18 at 6:23pm

JBroadway said: "A friend of mine thought of this one, not me, but I figured I'd share it here anyway because it's great:

"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" with a score by Lin-Manuel Miranda"

Not sure anyone would put a ton of money into a Junot Diaz project until the cloud of all his sexual misconduct allegations are cleared up, especially in the #MeToo era.

[Gizmo6]

Posted: 6/5/18 at 6:49pm

There was supposed to be a musical about Dorian Corey from Paris is Burning. I don’t know if it ever happened but I think it would have made a great musical.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 6/5/18 at 9:42pm

haterobics said: "Not sure anyone would put a ton of money into a Junot Diaz project until the cloud of all his sexual misconduct allegations are cleared up, especially in the #MeToo era."

 

Oh dear, unfortunately Diaz was one that slipped by me in the avalanche of names. This is the first I'm hearing about it. What a shame. 

 

[Whatshisname]

Posted: 6/5/18 at 10:05pm

Defending Your Life

[Oak2]

Posted: 6/5/18 at 10:19pm

I'm not sure if it could actually be "Great", and if done wrong it could certainly be a train wreck (which would be great in a different sort of way), but I wouldn't mind someone trying to make a musical adaptation of one or more of Terry Pratchett's Discworld stories - perhaps a combination of many in one show. On a similar note, I could see Good Omens making a fun show.

[Sondheimite]

Posted: 6/5/18 at 10:57pm

I'm one of the few people who loved (and still love) Lazarus.

But I'd love for a Ziggy Stardust musical staring Donald Glover and the titular character.  

[TheSassySam]

Posted: 6/5/18 at 11:27pm

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe feels like it was practically written for the stage. 

 

Yes, there's a movie, but the book is so rich and wonderful that I believe it could be easily adapted as a musical. 

[Fan123]

Posted: 6/6/18 at 5:12am

I second the Scheherazade idea. I suppose Ghost Quartet sort of counts, but a good 'specific' adaptation would also be interesting.

Oak2, there is a Good Omens musical in development:

https://www.goodomensthemusical.com/

[CorkySt.Clair]

Posted: 6/6/18 at 8:35am

Whatshisname said: "Defending Your Life"

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!!

[BwayLB]

Posted: 6/6/18 at 9:07am

If you were speaking to the 14 year old version of myself (I'm 25 now), he would be saying Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends from Cartoon Network. If Spongebob can make it to Broadway, so can the Foster's gang

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 6/6/18 at 10:09am

TheSassySam said: "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe feels like it was practically written for the stage.

Yes, there's a movie, but the book is so rich and wonderful that I believe it could be easily adapted as a musical."

 

There was talk of a musical in 2005, but I don't know if anything has come of that. http://www.playbill.com/article/stage-version-of-fannie-flaggs-fried-green-tomatoes-is-broadway-bound-producer-seeks-playwright-com-125817

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Posted: 6/6/18 at 10:18am

Dan Baum's NINE LIVES, which chronicles a group of New Orleanian families between Hurricanes Betsy and Katrina, had, if I'm not mistaken, been acquired (and possibly even announced) for the stage a few years ago. Apart from being one of the best historical fictions I've ever read, the musical possibilities are obvious.  Unfortunately I don't think anything's come of it since.

Updated On: 6/6/18 at 10:18 AM

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 6/6/18 at 10:29am

Here's a bunch off the top of my head:

Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye 

Thornton Wilder's The Long Christmas Dinner

Ann Pratchett's Bel Canto

Stephen King's short stories in a Creepshow-esque format

The life and works of Janet Frame

Gary Soto's Living Up The Street

Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian

The life and works of Spalding Gray

Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman!

[Fan123]

Posted: 1/30/19 at 3:08am

Randomly, I read today that the book I mentioned above, 'Space Opera', might actually end up being adapted into a movie musical.
https://www.tor.com/2018/06/01/space-opera-catherynne-m-valente-movie-adaptation-la-la-land/
Clearly I made this happen by suggesting it here, lol.
(Yes, this is technically old news, but new to this board as far as I know.)

[EdEval]

Posted: 1/31/19 at 11:36am

The stage version of Arsenic and Old Lace would be wonderful with a Sondheim score and Patti Lupone and Bernadette Peters as the sisters and Nathan Lane as brother Teddy!

[NOLAguy]

Posted: 1/31/19 at 11:58am

The Night Circus would be so beautiful and magical

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 1/31/19 at 1:42pm

I don't know about a musical, but I've been toying with the idea of turning the 9 plays of John Cariani's Almost, Maine into a song cycle. I would start working on it, but I can't figure out how to get in contact with John Cariani...