Stephen Schwartz new musical is about...- Page 2

[letyourfreakflagwave]

Posted: 5/6/15 at 3:08pm

"Or is this new production an opera?"

 No, it is a musical. I wish they had not changed the title - the working title was "Schikaneder", but this week they announced it has officially been changed to "Emanuel and Eleonore - The Great Love Behind the Magic Flute", which sounds quite cheesy.

However, I as a native German speaker am really excited about the news that Michael Kunze will translate. He's a brilliant writer and lyricist, both in his own original work and in translated librettos. (His translation of Sunset Boulevard is terrific and so much stronger than the original lyrics.)

It's especially great news since Michael once said that he did not translate musicals any longer. The last show he translated was Wicked in 2007, and only because he and Stephen had been old friends and Stephen wanted to entrust him with the job. I am glad to hear that he is getting together with Stephen again, he really is the master of translation and this might be the last show he will ever translate.

[Erzlump]

Posted: 5/7/15 at 3:00am

 

"It wouldn't surprise me if this was a commissioned project."

 It really was commissioned by the VBW.

 

"It's especially great news since Michael once said that he did not translate musicals any longer. The last show he translated was Wicked in 2007[...]"

Kunze translating a Musical again is indeed great news as I always adored his translations and Elisabeth is one of my favorite Musicals of all time. But his Wicked translation - in my opinion - fell short. Maybe it was because the lyrics were to modern or because of all the neologism in the original (or just the lack of german words that rhyme with "green") but many things were lost in translation.

He tried many versions (maybe some german musical fans remember the infamous first version of Defying Gravity with the "Nobody in the land of Oz, not even the Magic Boss" line) and certainly did the best he could, but for me it just didn't work out. 
The Book being translated by someone else (Ruth Deny) also didn't help because lyrics and book really don't go hand in hand now and I always dislike names being changed.

Hopefully Schikaneder will be more up his alley.

[delongpre]

Posted: 5/7/15 at 3:40am

Why would anyone define a composer/playwright according to his flops? ANYONE can write a flop, and thousands do each year. Let's focus on the standouts....the incredible successes. With that, Schwartz is an incredible talent.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/7/15 at 4:38am

"and no I'm not joking. you might not know that Schwartz wrote a little musical called Wicked that some people like.
He also wrote Seance On A Wet Afternoon...."

 To be fair he wrote that as an opera, one for a dying opera company and one that he knew would just get a limited performance.  I'm not saying that means it was any good, but this sounds not at all the same (though I do wonder if it will contain some opera or opera pastiche.)

As for the Hamilton comment--beyond bizarre.  This is not political, doesn't seem to be being done in any similar style to Hamilton, and on and on....

I agree on JV about Schwartz--even if I'd never list him as one of my top composers...  However, I've seen Nunn do great work (often with less great material) on European style operas, SHakespeare, etc...  I kinda see your point about his American revivals (I definitely agree with Oklahoma!--didn't see Night Music, just clips which looked joyless,) but this sounds like, despite Schwartz' involvement, a rather European style musical. 

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 5/7/15 at 10:30am

Stephen Schwartz is one of the most successful composers in broadway history. Only he and Jerry Herman have had three shows with 1500+ performance runs: Wicked, Pippin, Magic Show, and he had a fourth hit Godspell. Corner of the Sky, Defying Gravity and Popular are all among the most popular audition songs, inspiring a future generation of broaday hopefuls. Wicked is still one of the highest grossing shows on broadway almost 11 years running. It's dissapointing to read so much dissing of him on this thread, and it diminishes what could otherwise be a thoughtful discussion....

As one poster said, Stephen can clip coupons at this point and certainly has nothing to prove to anyone.

I'm excited about any new work from a composer who has written songs or shows i've enjoyed.

The new musical concept does not on face sound like a blockbuster to me, and it would be too bad if Schwartz decides not to come back to Broadway with a big concept.  I was excited about the Houdini/Jackman project and disapointed to hear they both dropped out.  

 

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 5/7/15 at 2:57pm

Look, I love romances or relationship drama if the relationship is more turbulent but my first thought was that I would be more interested if this were about Mozart's sister given the recent feminist interest in her life.

[letyourfreakflagwave]

Posted: 5/9/15 at 11:37am

"Kunze translating a Musical again is indeed great news as I always adored his translations and Elisabeth is one of my favorite Musicals of all time. But his Wicked translation - in my opinion - fell short."

 I agree that Wicked is not Kunze's best work. I don't know whose choice it was to change some of the names and I am usually not a big fan of names being changed either, but in the case of Wicked, I can see why they did it. 

"Shiz" may have worked on paper, but when spoken out loud, it sounds like "Schiss" which might have been irritating for the audience. Same goes for "Boq", might have been too similar to "Boq" when spoken/sung out loud. The Morrible/Akaber change was not necessary, but I thought that it still really worked. The only thing I still don't understand is why they changed Dillamond to Dillamonth. 

I always thought that the biggest problem when it came to translating the show into German was that there just is no German equivalent for the word "wicked." It always felt a bit awkward that they just left the word in English at the end of "As Long As You're Mine" (maybe because they wanted to sneak in the title somewhere), but Wicked probably just is a really difficult show to translate.

"Hopefully Schikaneder will be more up his alley."

I think it will be. Viennese history appears to really be his forte and he might feel more "at home" with this one while Wicked might have been more out of his "comfort zone", though he is a really flexible writer of course. And in the case of Schikaneder (yes, I still refuse to use the new tongue twister title), the show will have its world premiere in German so people will not immediately compare it to the original. Early readings might be held in English but unless they record a concept album, we might never get to hear the full English version. Unless the show will be brought to an English-speaking country, which I highly doubt. 

Updated On: 5/9/15 at 11:37 AM

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 5/10/15 at 11:58am

Wish him luck, he went to the same HS as me. (Mineola HS)