The Beautiful Game reworked as The Boys In The Photograph

[Adam Chris]

Posted: 6/9/08 at 1:34pm

Sorry if this has been discussed before but I just realized that Lloyd Webber & Ben Elton are rewritting The Beautiful Game with a new title The Boys In The Photograph. Apparently the workshop production was presented this last April at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts with a professional production to premiere in Canada for 2009.
http://www.lipa.ac.uk/publicperformances/theboys.asp
Does anyone know anymore about this?
Did anyone see the re-worked show?

I wonder if Our Kind of Love will be removed from The Beautiful Game (or TBITP) and reworked into the Phantom 2 show.

Thought this was interesting.


Updated On: 6/9/08 at 01:34 PM

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 6/9/08 at 1:41pm

Yeah, I've heard something of it. I think I said something like "Whose freakin' idea was it to re-name the show with the most cliched image ever created?!"

Honestly, the only way I see this show working is if the plot, book, and some of the songs were either re-written from top to bottom or just removed.

First order of business, Mr. Webber: get rid of that awful awful awful song The First Time. Write something with a little bit of sexual heat instead, something that's... passionate, maybe?

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/9/08 at 3:30pm

I actually liked The First Time. In context of the show, it really worked as it portrayed the awkwardness of wedding-night jitters. It was rather cute and poignant. It was one of the many songs that worked better for me on stage than just hearing the recording. I do remember All the Love I have seeming completely out of place, however.

I do think The Boys in the Photograph is a terrible title. It sounds more like a musical about gay men. And I really hope they keep Our Kind of Love in the show. When I saw the show during its final performance in the West End (Lloyd Webber was just a few rows behind me), Hannah Waddingham literally stopped the show with that song. She finally had to acknowledge the audience to get them to settle down. It was glorious.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 6/9/08 at 3:36pm

I was in the Workshop for the original in London (not the main show though as i got another job), i loved the show.

The new production is pretty good but i felt it was missing something, most of the score was intact but the book was shifted around quite a bit.

[Adam Chris]

Posted: 6/9/08 at 5:02pm

songanddanceman2,

was Our Kind Of Love still in the show?


thanks!
adamchris

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/9/08 at 5:45pm

Saw the show near the end of its run during the summer of 2001 and was quite taken with it. The music still haunts (via the CD),though it's an unlikely sucess on this continent. I thought Lloyd Webber pushed the envelope. Even if he recyled a bit -- the soaring big Sir Andrew Number, "Our Kind of Love" is a reworking of the PHANTOM sequel aria, "The Heart is..." (something) -- there's a real feeling of time and place, and the show doesn't end up sanitizing the Troubles or tacking on a happy ending. I'd love to see it again, though I, too, found the original production pretty remarkable, in staging, casting, and design.

[jacco]

Posted: 6/9/08 at 6:34pm

The Beautiful Game is actually one of my favourite Lloyd Webber shows on stage. Not on cd though....

[Justin_]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 12:17am

The show is trying out in Manitoba & Toronto next year with Erica Peck from WWRY and Richard McMillan from the Lion King.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/120410.html

[Tag]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 12:20am

As of right now the Toronto run is cancelled.

[fiyero8132]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 12:58am

I live in Manitoba and I'm quite looking forward to seeing the premiere of this show at Manitoba Theatre Centre! Exciting. And random. Manitoba - what the F?

[ladybegood]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 9:52am

Was very surprised to see BustopherPhantom refer to the title of "The Beautiful Game! as having the most cliched image ever created! Drrrrh!

And the awful truth really is that that subject matter is never going to have a very wide appeal whatever the show is like. In many ways it ought to be more popular in America, though, since the troubles were largely kept going by American money.

But I too would like to know whether "Our kind of love" was included in Liverpool. It might still have been removed since of course, but I had understood that "The heart is slow to learn" was back in the Phantom sequel.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 10:01am

As far as i can remember that song was still in in Liverpool

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 1:34pm

And the awful truth really is that that subject matter is never going to have a very wide appeal whatever the show is like.

I would agree except that the story is told using the old standby Romeo and Juliet/West Side Story format, which is universally recognizable. But I do believe the title of the show should be something a little more universal and relevant to the plot than "The Beautiful Game" (not a particularly recognizable expression in the US) or "The Boys in the Photograph" (WTF?). Personally, I would use the title from the song "God's Own Country", which sums up the religious views that fuel the story. The sport is merely a substitute for the ballroom and town square scenes in Romeo and Juliet. The Protestants and the Catholics represent the Montagues and Capulets, and their conflict is the catalyst for the romanticism and tragedy of the story. The foundation of that conflict in The Beautiful Game is laid out in "God's Own Country". Hence, there is your title.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 1:55pm

I remember during the workshop process there was a lot of talk about the name of the show, another name was used too but i can't remember what it was

[ladybegood]

Posted: 8/26/08 at 5:00pm

I am not too sure about actually putting "God" in the title, but I do agree with the principle. "The Beautiful Game" as a title seemed good except that it is a euphamisn for football (or soccer in America), and it was actively deceptive re content and offputting for that.

And although there are parallels to the warring Montagues and Capulets etc, the difference is that there was always some disassociation from the factional violence. In this country at least, and that is nothing on what it must be like for those who had to live through it in Northern Ireland, the troubles are still too recent and too real and too ugly.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 8/26/08 at 5:18pm

I wasn't really impressed with this show when I saw it in London. I also wasn't impressed with Whistle Down the Wind. I think ALW is either losing his touch or just slapping material together and throwing it on stage without thinking it through.

And by the way, he was supposed to produce (not write) a stage version of A Star is Born. Whatever happened to that?