Successful Musical Sequels?

[Overkill]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 3:17am

Read the Nunsense thread and got to thinking, has there ever been any true success in sequels in theatre? Also, do you think sequels can work on Broadway? Why haven't there been more?

Off the top of my head:
The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public
Annie II
Annie Warbucks
Bring Back Birdie
Love Never Dies
Grease 2 (A movie, I know, but ya know...it was really bad)

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 4:07am

I agree about the Marvin plays. Otherwise, Overkill's list sort of answers his question, "Why haven't there been more?"

And you can add "Let 'Em Eat Cake", a not-so-successful sequel to "Of Thee I Sing."

I think there may have been other sequels in the 20s and 30s when the plots of most musicals made little sense to begin with.

But since the truly "integrated" musical became so popular with "Oklahoma!", a successful musical is expected to have a unique look and sound. A sequel is almost by definition either a repeat or so different from the original that it is disappointing.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 11:36am

Don't forget Divorce Me, Darling! which was the sequel to The Boy Friend. It disappeared into obscurity almost immediately.

Personally, I think the idea of a musical sequel isn't a bad one, but the concept may be better grounded if the source material already found success in sequels as well. If there was already a popular demand for continuation of the story previously established, then there is a better chance it that demand could transfer to the stage if the first production finds success.

[gypsy4]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 12:54pm

I enjoy Annie Warbucks over Annie.

[North2009]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 1:07pm

PLAID TIDINGS

[3bluenight]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 2:10pm

for me i think it has something to do with the nature of the theater. a musical or a play - at least a successful one (arguably), is a total experience. it's hard to recapture that.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 6:00pm

To add to what 3bluenight said, a great play or musical shows us the most important two or three hours in a character's life. Showing us yet ANOTHER two or three hours in that character's life almost has to be a let down.

The exceptions are stories such as detective fiction, where the central character is just a device who always has another mystery to solve.

Sequels in the movies are almost always actually remakes. It's no coincidence that sequels are usually confined to the action genre.

[binau]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 6:04pm

Of course I don't know statistics but I can recall a lot of 'family'/children's movies and comedies that have sequels, too :P. So I don't know if I would say it is "usually" confined to the action genre..

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 11:27am

Snoopy was a sort of sequel to You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. And of course Love Never Dies.

[newintown]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 11:31am

I don't think either of those can be called "successful."

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 11:32am

Not successful in the financial sense, but RAGS was envisioned as a sequel / companion piece to FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 11:52am

The Marvin pieces are so frequently combined though (well - Falsettoland & March of the Falsettos)

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 12:07pm

I'm hoping for a Porgy & Bess sequel!

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 2:21pm

"A lot of", golbinau? You mean like "Sex and the City" and "The Little Fockers" where each sequel is measurably worse than the last?

And children's movies--especially sequels--tend to be action movies, albeit with far lower body counts. I know this because I've had to sit through 17 iterations of "The Little Mermaid" with my granddaughter.

The first "Godfather" sequel was an exception (in which the sequel was a serious film with its own story to tell), as the next sequel proved.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 3:23pm

Anything can try to squeeze a sequel out of it, and plenty of comedy/family books and movies that have done this.

Legally Blonde, Ace Ventura, Dumb and Dumber, Bring It On, The Hangover, Shrek, Alvin and the Chipmunks, American Pie, Bill & Ted, Step Up...I'm sure there are many, many more examples that aren't action movies. You can try to turn anything into a franchise.

I would also guess that horror films have produced more sequels than action movies.

Think about stuff like Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie. Those aren't detective or action based either.

The biggest problem with a stage sequel, for me, is that there is usually no dramatic reason for us to revisit the characters. Unless something is conceived as a trilogy or series of plays, a sequel feels tacked on, unnecessary and usually hilariously absurd.

[sondheimfan2]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 3:45pm

My favorite sequel musical idea is "Say Darling" which was a follow up to "The Pajama Game." Never saw the show, but the concept is interesting to me. Very meta before meta was big.

From Wikipedia:

"In a case of art imitating life not once, but twice, the show is an adaptation of Richard Bissell's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name which chronicled his experience adapting his novel 7½ Cents for The Pajama Game, making it in essence a play of a book about a musical adaptation of a book."

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 4:41pm

I would also guess that horror films have produced more sequels than action movies.

Come to think of it, I believe the most film sequels ever produced in Hollywood were actually rooted in a television series: Star Trek. And the original series that started it all was very short-lived and considered unsuccessful. Only goes to show the power of syndicated reruns. Ten films utilizing not only the cast of the original series, but then phasing in the cast of the first of four spinoffs that aired nearly 20 years after the original once the films found success. Then a reboot film set to give birth to an entirely new series of films using the original characters, but altering their history and relationships. It's probably the most interesting circumstances of renewed interest and success in the history of sequels.

And that's including the New Testament, which I find only slightly more interesting than its predecessor, but tedious, nonetheless.

[ggersten]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 5:28pm

Another Part of the Forest was produced after The Little Foxes and is a prequel, before there likely was such a word.
I have no knowledge if Another Part of the Forest was "successful" financially at the time.
Of course, neither is a musical....
Updated On: 9/26/11 at 05:28 PM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 6:09pm

Falsettos is the only musical success I can think of but since the discussion has now gone legit, Broadway Bound and Biloxi Blues are sequels to Brighton Beach Memoirs

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 6:39pm

When I mentioned "action films", I did so in the broad sense of the word which includes horror movies and most sci fi. Also detective films, war movies, etc. Anything where the plot involves some sort of monster (human or otherwise) inflicting evil on hapless victims. Although sequels tend to be remakes in disguise, you can always find a new group of hapless victims for the monster to threaten, or a new monster for the superhero to fight.

In addition to the Neil Simon plays, there are numerous "sequels" in ancient Greek literature because they usually wrote their plays as trilogies for a day-long festival. Hence, Oedipus eventually gives way to Oedipus at Colonus and even Antigone (though these three plays weren't actually written at the same time or for the same festival or even in that order). A trilogy for their purposes wasn't always 3 plays with a continuous plot; sometimes the relationship between the works was thematic. But "sequels" were written; most have not survived.

[RainbowJude]

Posted: 12/13/11 at 10:09am

Someone I know once said that they would rather have seen EVITA 2: ZOMBIE FIRST LADY than LOVE NEVER DIES if Andrew Lloyd Webber was going to create a sequel to any of his musicals. A truly bizarre idea, yes, and one made in jest, of course, but with all the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Eva Peron's corpse, there just may be something there!

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 12/13/11 at 3:08pm

The mind reels at the possibilities:

CAROUSEL 2: THE NEXT GENERATION
OKLAHOMA 2: DRILL BABY DRILL
AUTUMN REGRETTING
SPIDERMAN 2: PLEASE TURN THE DARK BACK ON

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/13/11 at 3:25pm

Mame 2: Absolutely Fabulous

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 12/13/11 at 8:52pm

GET LOST, DOLLY! The Widow Malloy's Revenge

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 12/13/11 at 9:30pm

FOLLIES 2: Still Here
COMPANY 2: Bobby Turns 36.
LES MIS 2: Zombie Revenge.