The Muppet Follies, and other Muppet Musicals

[Jimbob2]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 8:36pm

With their new movie imminent, which musicals would you like to see given the Muppet treatment on the big screen, and how would you cast it? So far, I'm holding out for:

The Muppet FOLLIES: When Kermit and the gang gather one last time at the Muppet Theatre, they're haunted by the ghost of past guest stars and their own lives and loves. In the final 'Gloveland' sequence things become meta-theatrical as Kermit works a puppet of Jim Henson in homage to the great man.

The Muppet EVITA: Casting - Miss Piggy (Eva), Kermit (Che), Fozzie Bear (Magaldi), Sam the Eagle (Peron), Mistress (Janice), The Army played by Doctor Teeth & the Electric Mayhem, featuring special drum pattern breaks from Animal during 'Peron's Latest Flame'.

And in Broadway's first Species-Blind Casting......

The Muppet CATS: Miss Piggy as Grizabella the glamour cat; Kermit as Munkustrap; Fozzie Bear as Old Deuteronomy; The Great Gonzo as Mr Mistoffoles; Scooter the Gopher as Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat; Animal as the Great Rumpus Cat.

[tazber]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 8:54pm

They should do Avenue Q

[CapnHook]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 9:16pm

HAIR

[SNAFU]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 9:32pm

Let My People Come

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 9:36pm

So, I'm the one to make a serious suggestion? Based on Tom Smith's filk...

The Rocky Horror Muppet Show

Starring
Kermit the Frog as Dr. Frank N. Furter
Miss Piggy as Janet Weiss
Scooter as Brad Majors
Gonzo the Great as Riff-Raff
Annie Sue as Magenta
Janice as Columbia
Dr. Strangepork as Dr. Everett (Von) Scott
Link Hogthrob as Rocky Horror
Fozzie Bear as Eddie
Sam the Eagle as the Criminologist
... with special guest appearances from Statler and Waldorf as the audience participation

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 11:03pm

The Muppet Gypsy:

Rose - Miss Piggy
Herbie - Kermit
Louise - The one human actor
Dainty June - Prairie Dawn (sure, Sesame Street, but the Muppets are low on females)
Tulsa - Scooter
Tessie Tura - Gonzo
Electra/Miss Cratchitt - Janice
Mazeppa - Skeeter (sure, never been a major puppet, but low on females)
Pop/Cigar - Statler
Uncle Jocko/Kringelein - Waldorf
Mr. Goldstone - Fozzie Bear

[BDrischBDemented]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 5:19pm

I'm pretty sure I suggested this in a similar post before, but...

The Muppet of the Opera

Christine - Any current interchangeable pop singer
The Phantom - Gonzo
Raoul - Kermit
Carlotta - Miss Piggy
Piangi - Fozzie Bear
Firmin & Andre - Statler & Waldorf
Madame Giry - Hilda
Meg Giry - Yolanda Rat
Buquet - Scooter
Reyer - Dr. Teeth
Opera Orchestra - Electric Mayhem + Rowlf

[lull89]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 8:23pm

One of my favorite podcasts, NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour featured writer Glen Weldon describing his plan for Jesus Christ Superfrog a while back. It resulted in the below Facebook note describing its awesome awesome nature.
Jesus Christ, Superfrog: An Idea Whose Time Will Never Come BUT COME ON IT WOULD BE SO AWESOME

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 7:32am

^ That's actually not bad. I've tried like mad to put together a Muppet cast of JCS for years, and haven't put one together that easily.

Confession: A friend of mine and I have actually created several all-Muppet casts for Annie, Rent, Phantom (yes, Gonzo with his distinctive schnoz gets a mask of his own), Fiddler, Little Shop of Horrors, Sweeney, it's great fun really. The best part is going through the script and finding spots for Statler and Waldorf to interject without ruining the spirit and points of the musical in question. We were initially developing it as a proposal for Disney and the Hensons, but Avenue Q reintroduced an edgier version of the Muppets, and so we were unable to move ahead quite as planned.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 11/19/11 at 12:35pm

^ Re-discovered some of my old Muppet casts from the above post and decided to put them here. Keep in mind, a lot of these are for comedic value, and keeping the hierarchy of the Muppet company in mind; also, full scripts were developed for each of these that ABC rejected. Highlights from each show are seen below. Unless Kermit has a lead role or a walk-on, he is usually just the director of the whole insane production. Orchestrations are always performed by the Electric Mayhem.

We even thought it out further, with featurettes including interviews with Sondheim (or creators of other shows) and so forth. We eliminated it from our final proposal because we were worried the "Muppet theater" idea was getting too involved.

Some casts:

Little Shop of Muppets (hehehe, get it? oh boy, it's cringe-inducing from here on out)
Seymour.............Scooter
Audrey..............Miss Piggy
Mushnik.............Sam the Eagle
Orin................Gonzo
Crystal.............Janice
Ronnette............Annie Sue Pig
Chiffon.............Skeeter
Audrey II...........voiced by Dr. Teeth, Muppeteered by Bunsen Honeydew, Beaker, Sweetums
Peter Bernstein.....Clifford
Mrs. Luce...........Mildred
Skip Snip...........Rizzo
Patrick Martin......Convincing John
Wink Wilkinson......Fozzie Bear
Arthur Denton.......Crazy Harry

Highlights of the above production would have included Scooter taking an extremely long time getting Miss Piggy inside the plant puppet, and when she's pulled through, she can be audibly heard screaming "WATCH IT!!!!"; Sam the Eagle discovering his inner performer during the course of "Mushnik and Son" and extending the "Tevye moment" by about 20 minutes; and let's not forget the special gas mask (accommodated to fit Gonzo's head). Kermit has a walk-on as the first customer who wants to buy $50 worth of roses. (And he does break the fourth wall in doing so. After his first line, he says "I'm in this one too, folks, but only for a little bit.") The Audrey II-type character from Fraggle Rock puts in an appearance attempting to upstage everyone during "Ya Never Know" while Scooter holds him.

Also, a special post-bows moment: after curtain call, the shop set splits in two to reveal the traditional Electric Mayhem set. Audrey II Pod 4 is then pushed to the back of the stage under a spotlight (with Sweetums still inside to lip-synch), and the Electric Mayhem take the stage to perform "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space."

Annie
Annie...................Prairie Dawn
Daddy Warbucks..........Kermit
Ms. Hannigan............Miss Piggy
Grace...................Annie Sue Pig
Rooster.................Gonzo
Lily....................Janice
Sandy...................Sprocket
FDR.....................Sam the Eagle
Bundles McCloskey.......Fozzie
Bert Healy..............Dr. Teeth
Company.................Everyone else

Why Gonzo, you might be asking? Think about his obsession. Would you put it past him to play a character named ROOSTER? The main running gag in this one was that Miss Piggy schemes to play Annie, even though she's WAY too old for the part (although most Muppets don't have a specific age, this would imply that she's at least in her early 40's). The other big gag we were thinking about doing was having the always-smiling Dr. Teeth play Bert Healy, thus turning "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile" into a jazz/fusion number. One gag we were forced to drop because it seemed more of a copy than an homage was Fozzie Bear playing FDR, and constantly forgetting that he wasn't supposed to stand up, a bit I originally saw done on The Simpsons where Krusty the Clown is in Sunrise at Campobello and forgets to stay in the wheelchair.

Chicago
Velma Kelly..........Miss Piggy
Roxie Hart...........Skeeter
Billy Flynn..........Gonzo
"Mama" Morton........Janice
Harrison.............Sam the Eagle
Amos Hart............Droop
Mary Sunshine........Mildred
Bandleader...........Dr. Teeth
Go-To-Hell Kitty.....Mokey
Ensemble.............Everyone else

Note: Mildred's casting was only if we went with the Christine Baranski interpretation. If not, the role would have been played by the Newsman in drag. And of course, Camilla would cluck her way through the role of the Hunyak.

[nyguy828]

Posted: 11/24/11 at 8:42pm

This thread made me think of my own Muppet Cast for Anything Goes. Here's what I came up with:

Billy Crocker: Kermit The Frog
Reno Sweeney: Miss. Piggy
Hope Harcourt: Like the Phantom idea of Christine being played by a human pop singer, I thought the same idea would fit here.
Moonface Martin: Fozzie Bear
Sir Evelyn Oakleigh: Gonzo
Erma: Janice
Reno'a Angels: A bunch of female pig puppet characters
Elisha J. Whitney: Sam The Eagle
Mrs. Evangiline Harcourt: Mildred
Ching and Ling: Animal and Crazy Harry
Bishop Henry T. Dobson: Scooter
Captain: Bunson Honeydew