The Giver: The Musical?

[suicidalmickeymouse]

Posted: 2/29/08 at 8:21pm

Would anyone else like to see this (based off the book by Lois Lowry)? I think it'd be pretty cool!

[crazytown]

Posted: 2/29/08 at 8:28pm

Woah, that book takes me back, all the way to elementary school. Didn't the community not have music or something like that? How could you make a musical out of a story where music doesn't exist? Maybe a play.
Updated On: 2/29/08 at 08:28 PM

[MungoGypsy8232]

Posted: 2/29/08 at 8:49pm

I actually think it would be more powerful as a musical because the music would come from the people themselves and how they are feeling, which is essentially what the book is about.

[acrocksyo]

Posted: 2/29/08 at 8:56pm

The people don't have feelings. It's a society devoid of anything emotional. The book is about what people would have to sacrifice in order to have a utopian society. I mean come on they take pills so they don't have sexual thoughts. It would be a weird musical. A play would be better

[jwonjy119]

Posted: 2/29/08 at 8:57pm

I thought they were already in the works of making a movie.

[acrocksyo]

Posted: 2/29/08 at 9:01pm

It is already a play.

The Giver

Updated On: 2/29/08 at 09:01 PM

[musicalmaster703]

Posted: 2/29/08 at 9:08pm

lol cool

[Act4ever]

Posted: 2/29/08 at 10:21pm

Yeah, we're doing it at The Theatre School at DePaul University (theatreschool.depaul.edu) this year. (The play that is...) I've read it... read the book. It's much better.

[blueaureka]

Posted: 3/12/08 at 6:10pm

Well actually there is a musical of The Giver. I'm from Bartlesville, OK and one of our '95 graduates works in New York City on Broadway Musicals and he actually wrote the music for the musical. His name is Nathan C. Christensen. Our Jazz Choir sang some of the songs from The Giver including Snow and Sun, the first memories recieved by Jonas. It was really fun!

[broadwayfan7]

Posted: 3/12/08 at 6:22pm

I'd love to see a production of it. Either a play or musical.

[winston89]

Posted: 3/12/08 at 6:30pm

It looks like from that Playbill article that it was more orented towards children's theatre (the play based on the novel that is.)

I would like to see something that is more adult based because that can easilly be done with this work.

And if memory serves, they didn't have music eiather. I remember the final scene was where Jonas took his baby brother far away from the town that they lived in and he finally saw color for the first time, saw snow, and heard music.

[musicallover2008]

Posted: 3/12/08 at 7:22pm

I have to ask, Giver:The Musical, Are you kidding? I just finished designing sound for the play version of "The Giver" and after reading the book again, and reading what Lois Lowery said about "The Giver" it is important that music is not part of the play until the end when Jonas hears it. The Giver is the only one who has heard music and he doesn't share that memory. That is part of the beauty of "The Giver." For that, "The Giver" as a musical would be a terrible idea and defeat the purpose of the whole story.

[shh282]

Posted: 3/12/08 at 8:07pm

You'd have to have like a screen in front of everyone - because there was no color anywhere. It'd be difficult to do and probably would not have a good end result

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 3/12/08 at 8:35pm

I worked with a guy who designed the lighting for a stage production of The Giver, not sure if it was a musical though. I don't see it working well as a musical, as a play or movie yes, but it doesn't feel like musical material to me.

[suicidalmickeymouse]

Posted: 3/12/08 at 8:45pm

I think that you could just have all the colors be drab, no "screen" needed. Also, you could play up the lights as well, for example, according to the Grimmerie, Elphaba always has a green light on her to accentuate her makeup. Also, I think that the citizens could have very boring, monotonous 3 note songs, almost like a chant. I could see the Giver and Jonas having some wonderful songs together, changing the storyline a little to have Jonas hear music before he arrives to Elsewhere. I could also see Jonas' little sister, Lily, having solo.....

Just my thoughts.

[LittlexFallxOfxRain]

Posted: 3/12/08 at 10:17pm

That's interesting. I personally love the book. I don't know if it would work as a musical though.

[TheatreFreak05]

Posted: 3/12/08 at 11:50pm

I think they should rewrite the stage adaptation and make it less of a children's play. This would NOT work as a musical in my opinion, but I could definitely see this as a play.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 3/12/08 at 11:55pm

The hardest part would be deciding on an ending...considering it's not very clear *what* happens to Jonas at the end.

[DidYouReallyHearMe]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 5:38am

I saw a beautiful production in Orlando, FL of a new adaptation of the book. Not a musical however, because as stated in a post above, there is no music to be heard until the end of the book.

But the entire production was done with grey's, whites, and black's until The Giver introduced these things to the young boy.

It was visually stunning and well acted. Wonder what happened to the playwright, I should go through my old programs and see if I still have one from The Giver.

[acrocksyo]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 9:29am

Bleh or we can just leave it as a wonderful book! And if you changed the ending to make it more clear to what happens to Jonas, it would take away the point of the book, leaving the utopia and going into the unknown. I think Lowery made a good point with how she ended the book, leaving it open ended, because in life there are not always happy endings.

[Act4ever]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 9:36am

I know that our production isn't using grey's, white's, and black's... but they chose a color pallatte that represents "no color"

[BroadwayBound062]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 9:43am

I'd love to see this musicalized...its such a great story and i can see the world singing

[lildogs]

Posted: 3/13/08 at 9:48am

I was in a tour of this YEARS ago...we used computer screens to show the colors and the things Jonas saw after he escaped...it was all in greys, like the other posters mentioned.

The kids seemed to enjoy it, though the production was low-budget to say the least.