ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals. — Page 3

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#51

re: ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals.

Posted: 12/13/04 at 5:14pm

I'd agree if something was known about Seurat to base the story on, but nothing is. It's not as if Lapine read a bio or something and then started improvising -- there was no biographical information left behind about him of any kind (this isn't like what Laurents did writing the book for Gypsy where he used the basic outline of Gypsy Rose Lee's story, but fictionalized many of the characters and events -- Seurat left behind NOTHING but his paintings). Lapine and Sondheim looked at that painting for hours, days, weeks and then went away and dreamed up a story about the kind of person who would have created such a painting. They didn't "fictionalize", they flat out wrote fiction. Sunday is COMPLETELY original.

"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie [http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/] "The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney

Updated On: 12/13/04 at 05:14 PM

#52

re: ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals.

Posted: 12/13/04 at 5:33pm

I agree with you there Margo. But if you want to be extremely technical then the musical is not original.

BSoBW2: I punched Sondheim in the face after I saw Wicked and said, "Why couldn't you write like that!?"

#53

re: ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals.

Posted: 12/13/04 at 5:51pm

If we're discounting musicals based on real events, I don't think A New Brain qualifies either, since it's based on William Finn's life.

#54

re: ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals.

Posted: 12/13/04 at 6:43pm

Well, then I guess you can discount Caroline, or Change, since it evidently has some extremely loose basis in Tony Kushner's life.

#55

re: ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals.

Posted: 12/13/04 at 6:43pm

Alfred Uhry, who rote the libretto for PARADE had a grandmother - a Jewish woman who lived in Atlanta - who's best friend was the widow of Leo Frank. That grandmother was also his inspriation for the title character of DRIVING MISS DAISY.

There was a made-for-TV movie about the Leo Frank case with Peter Gallagher as Leo and Jack Lemmmon as the Governor.

#56

re: ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals.

Posted: 12/13/04 at 5:58pm

The Frogs- based on an extremely old play by Aristophanes

Sunday In The Park With George- based on a very real painting and the story of a very real man who painted it

Parade- based on a true story

Rent- based on an opera, La Boheme

Hedwig- based on the Symposium

Urinetown- inspired by Malthus' Principle of Population

Into the Woods- based on a slew of existing fairy tales

Assassins- based on history

Chicago- based on a play

Dreamgirls and Bye Bye Birdie- inspired by The Supremes and Elvis

Steel Pier- inspired by They Shoot Horses, Don't They

La Cage Aux Folles- based on a movie

42nd Street- based on a movie

Millie- based on a movie

BOTH The Wild Partys- based on a poem

A New Brain- based on Finn's own experiences

Everything comes from SOMEWHERE. It's not to say that RENT isn't an ORIGINAL telling of La Boheme or that LITTLE WOMEN isn't an original telling of the book.

#57

re: ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals.

Posted: 12/13/04 at 6:12pm

I have to say that shows are doing well whether they are completely from the imagination or not... so I don't find it worrisome. But for those shows that we think are original, don't you think they still incorporated things that they had previously seen done? It's pretty hard to pull something out of absolutely nowhere, but to those who can do it, be my guest.

#58

re: ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals.

Posted: 12/13/04 at 7:28pm

Nothing comes from nowhere. But inspiration doesn't mean derivation.

#59

re: ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals.

Posted: 12/13/04 at 7:46pm

BROOKLYN!! Inspired by........

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

#60

re: ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals.

Posted: 12/13/04 at 6:52pm

Trash.

"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie [http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/] "The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney

#61

re: ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals.

Posted: 12/13/04 at 8:14pm

Well, if we are going to get so precise, NOTHING is original. No one just thought up the idea of something. If the shwo includes people, it is not original. Becuase the play is based on something already existent. Oh great now I am getting all philisophical.

#62

re: ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals.

Posted: 12/13/04 at 8:19pm

funny post theatre guy 2 because i had that exact conversation at my girlfriends showcase the other day with her old voice teacher and some friends...all we could come up with was avenue q

#63

re: ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals.

Posted: 12/13/04 at 8:20pm

As so often happens, Sunday in the Park With George applies here:

"I've nothing to say."
"You have many things."
"Well, nothing that's not been said."
"Said by you though, George?"

There's only a limited number of stories to be told. It's all in how you tell them.

Updated On: 12/13/04 at 08:20 PM

#64

re: ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals.

Posted: 12/13/04 at 7:23pm

Haha

I think this thread proves that most of the greatest works of theater are not "original." I feel like people complaining about movies being made into musicals would be like complaining about a book being made into a musical. If that were the case we would have Les Miz, Oklahoma, The Sound of Music, Guys and Dolls, etc. As long as the show is good, who cares where the writers got the insperation for it.

#65

re: ORIGINAL Broadway Musicals.

Posted: 12/13/04 at 8:22pm

The troubling thing is when it looks like producers said, "Ooh, that movie made lots of money! It'll probably make a lot of money as a musical!" rather than somebody seeing a movie and being inspired by its inherent qualities to musicalize it, like, say, Sondheim with Smiles of a Summer Night.

Updated On: 12/13/04 at 08:22 PM

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