Shows that would have been great with a different composer

[Fantod]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#1

Posted: 12/19/14 at 3:58pm

I'm not saying these shows are bad, but just that they would have been great or at least a lot better with different composers.

My list:

Sunday in the Park With George - Richard Rodgers
Marie Christine - Kurt Weill
Giant - Jerome Kern
The Secret Garden - Victor Herbert
Side Show - John Kander
The Producers - Jerry Herman
Wicked - Arthur Schwartz
The Mystery of Edwin Drood - Arthur Sullivan

[Mr Roxy]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#2

Posted: 12/19/14 at 4:09pm

Interesting

Agree with some & disagree with others.

Poster Emeritus

[henrikegerman]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#2

Posted: 12/19/14 at 4:10pm

Song of Norway - Fela
Fela - Grieg
A Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder - Salieri


Updated On: 12/19/14 at 04:10 PM

[ohjustjake]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#3

Posted: 12/19/14 at 4:11pm

I'm really intrigued about the Side Show and John Kander idea.

[ggersten]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#4

Posted: 12/19/14 at 4:33pm

Rodgers and Hammerstein on Assassins.
What If? (5)

[dramamama611]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#5

Posted: 12/19/14 at 4:34pm

ANY show would have been different: there is absolutely no way to determine better. The road not taken and all.

If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.

[ggersten]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#6

Posted: 12/19/14 at 4:34pm

Sondheim on Bye Bye Birdie
Sondheim's Birdie

[Fantod]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#7

Posted: 12/19/14 at 4:36pm

dramamama, yes I know that there would be no way to tell. I should probably rephrase my question as which composer had a style of music that would fit better with a musical.

[ggersten]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#8

Posted: 12/19/14 at 4:37pm

Loesser on Sweeney Todd
Herman on Sweeney Todd
Sweeney Todd

[ggersten]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#9

Posted: 12/19/14 at 4:38pm

Irving Berlin on West Side Story
West Side Story Berlin Style

[ggersten]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#10

Posted: 12/19/14 at 4:39pm

Bock & Hartnick on A Chorus Line
A Chorus Line

[darquegk]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#11

Posted: 12/19/14 at 4:46pm

The Addams Family should have been a Shaiman and Wittman show.

I disagree strongly about Victor Herbert doing Secret Garden- I'm not a huge fan of the novel, but I think Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman were brilliant when they turned Act 1 into a gothic horror melodrama. The only trouble is that they went completely soft and in a different direction for Act 2, glossing over all the dark elements AND the vaguely murderous subplot.

[Fantod]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#12

Posted: 12/19/14 at 5:01pm

Forgot the main reason why I created the thread:

Sunset Boulevard - Richard Rodgers

[degrassifan]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#13

Posted: 12/20/14 at 12:23am

Rodgers and Hammerstein tried to tackle Pygmalion and turn it into a musical, but they couldn't. I think it would've been interesting to see what they would've come up with had they succeeded in their endeavor.

[icecreambenjamin]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#14

Posted: 12/20/14 at 12:27am

Some of these baffle me. I'm not sure if they would have been "better."

Just different.

[Fantod]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#15

Posted: 12/20/14 at 12:42am

Care to be less vague?

[CarlosAlberto]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#16

Posted: 12/20/14 at 12:54am

Forgot the main reason why I created the thread:

I just want to forget the thread.

#toomuchtimeonyourhandsfindanotherhobby

[Fantod]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#17

Posted: 12/20/14 at 1:11am

Then don't reply and bump it...

[GavestonPS]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#18

Posted: 12/20/14 at 5:45pm

Hell would freeze over before Rodgers would attempt SUNDAY. Rodgers' entire approach was to load Act II with reprises so the audience would walk out humming the tune. How would he manage that with SUNDAY, where Act II takes place in a different century with different characters? (This isn't the only reason, but it's an important one.)

Nor would Rodgers have touched ASSASSINS. Let's recall that this is the composer who nixed the original (and brilliant) lyric to "We're Gonna Be Alright".

SUNSET BOULEVARD might well have worked with a Rodgers score, though we'll never know because he didn't write that sort of thru-sung poperetta.

***

As for the other suggestions and with all due respect, Fantod, the honest answer is that NONE of the shows could have been written with your alternate composers, because the alternates would have made them entirely different shows.

[1000songs]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#19

Posted: 12/20/14 at 5:54pm

I actually think Bullets would be great if it actually had one.

[baal]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#20

Posted: 12/20/14 at 5:58pm

Although Sunset Boulevard is my favorite score from Lloyd Webber, I would love to see what Erich Korngold would have done with the material.

Updated On: 12/20/14 at 05:58 PM

[philly03]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#21

Posted: 12/20/14 at 6:06pm

I think some of these shows, such as Side Show, are "popular" because of Henry Krieger's score.. not necessarily because of the subject matter.

There have been numerous different attempts at Jekyll & Hyde musicals for example, but the reason why Frank Wildhorn's is so popular is because.. well, because of the bombast, pop-y score that he created.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#22

Posted: 12/21/14 at 1:00am

The beauty of Sondheim's score to Sunday is that, like Georges, he is using pointillism to create art: the art of minimalist music is showcased by Sunday because of the complex and beautiful lyrics. You can HEAR Georges paint in "Color and Light". The songs are all related: In particular, "Move On" is an extension and development of "We Do not Belong Together", which is an extension and development of the lyrical section of "Color and Light", which can be found in the interlude of "Sunday In the Park With George". Rodgers never really developed off his other songs, they may be written in the same style, but they are much different. The best he does is reprise, which, as Gaveston pointed out, is wildly inappropriate in this show. What makes "Move On" cathartic and serve as a closure to the love story of George and Dot is that Sondheim manages to connect George to 19th France through music, which makes the reappearance of Dot not only more believable, but ultimately more moving.
As for Hammerstein, his lyrics are often wonderful, but he writes very poetically. The verse of Hammerstein would both undercut and diminish the power of Sunday. In particular, "Children and Art", one of the most moving songs ever written, would never register in waxy poetic verse, nor would "Lesson #8" (nor would the songs that, figuratively, Rodgers and Hammerstein would have written, I expect). Besides the point, Rodgers would have never agreed to write Sunday. After the failure of Allegro, he never experimented wildly again.
And why do we need a Rodgers and Hammerstein version of Sunday In the Park With George? With the tones of surrealism and artistic crisis, the show that LaPine wrote is already in Sondheim's voice and tone. As is Marie Christine with LaChiusa. Why ask for new versions of already existing shows. Especially when Sondheim and LaChiusa already did it better.

"Sticks and stones, sister. Here, have a Valium." - Patti LuPone, a Memoir

[Fantod]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#23

Posted: 12/21/14 at 1:31am

Well I was just creating discussion, and I never said my opinions were correct, I just think that if these composers tackled these stories, the results would be, in my opinion, either a better fit or a better show. I wasn't saying that the shows would be at all similar, just the same basis of a story (novel, movie or original idea) and a different composer with an entirely different take on it. The playwright would be different to. I'm not suggesting the exact same show with different music, I'm saying the same story adapted differently.

[Fantod]

Shows that would have been great with a different composer#24

Posted: 12/21/14 at 1:39am

Specifically for Sunday, I think that a more lyrical and gentle approach to the story of an artist could be more poignant and less mathematical. Hammerstein would obviously write the book and lyrics so you wouldn't have Lapine's book with Rodgers' music, it would be totally different. I just think that the story could benefit from the R&H style of adaptation. Do you have an opinion on stories that could have been adapted better with different composers, Sally?