Sondheim should write "Virginia Woolf" the musical

[dfwtheatreguy]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 11:42pm

listening to the London version of "Follies" it struck me that, during the song "Country House", that Sondheim really has a grasp on marital dischord.

using "Country House" as a jumping off point, "Virginia Woolf" would be spectacular in Sondheim's hands.

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 1:49am

And one song would be as much musical material any composer would be able to extract from Albee's play. A total washout for musical adaptation.




Crazy Billy
Delivering Telegrams

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 2:07am

Yeah, but no.

I love you, Hunty!

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 2:37am

Why anyone would want to turn this horrible play into a musical is beyond me. Horrible people being even more horrible to others, what a fun night of theatre that would be.

Posted: 12/29/07 at 11:29am

Sondheim gets approached to adapt plays into musicals all the time. Neil Simon approached him to adapt "The Front Page." He reports Sondheim asked: "Why do the Characters sing?"

I wonder, why would George & Martha sing?

[Chason]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 11:58am

I think that Virginia Woolf is one of the best plays in theatre history. It's angry, funny, and sad. It leaves a LUMP in the throat. It's WAY too serious to be a musical, though. That would just defeat the entire purpose of it.

[tazber]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 12:29pm

I agree with pretty much everythig Chason said.

No one could capture the nuance and complexity of those themes in a musical without corroding the original intent.

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 12:31pm

I think Albee would shoot anyone trying to adapt his work. He's very particular about his works, from what I've heard.

[thibodeaux]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 1:39pm

I don't really think ANYTHING is "too serious" to be made into a musical. Some of my most favorite musicals are dreadfully serious...

While I don't think VW would translate well into a musical, I don't think that it would be an impossible feat to do. It would be hard, sure, and I think the overall story would lose something, but it could be done!

Albee is an enigma. His works are like musicals themselves in the dialogue, the way of speech. Musicals...without music. Or something.

I say leave Albee alone. And he probably feels the same way.

[Chason]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 2:52pm

"While I don't think VW would translate well into a musical, I don't think that it would be an impossible feat to do. It would be hard, sure, and I think the overall story would lose something, but it could be done!"
_______________________________________________________________
But why BOTHER? If the story is going to "lose something" then maybe it shouldn't even be attempted. And it never will, so why am I even worried about it? Let's just turn Cat on a Hot Tin Roof & Suddenly Last Summer into musicals, as well.

[thibodeaux]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 3:11pm

I never said DO IT, I just said it could be done. And lots of stories are adapted and get lost, it happens all the time.

But without doing it, you can never tell. Some things are adapted and gain! And are you ever really able to know before you start?

And if you're going to bring up Williams into musicals, let us not forget the chilling opera version of STREETCAR. That worked!

Posted: 12/29/07 at 6:21pm

If you're hell bent on musicalizing a dramtic classic play, let's start with "The Glass Menagerie." That would work.

[LostLeander]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 6:28pm

Albee would slash Sondheim's throat if he even laid his fingers on that play.

That said, I would actually love to see what LaChiusa would do with that. Though Sondheim writes bitter women and bottled up men remarkably well.

I just want to hear just one solo for Martha, though.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 9:10pm

Wow, I read the title of this thread entirely different (and inappropriate).