This Doesn't Sound Good

#1

This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 6:03pm

My wife and I were talking and we came to the idea that many great Broadway shows sound like horrible ideas if you try to do a one-sentence description for them.

For example, "we're going to take Romeo and Juliet", move it to New York in the 1950s, make the families gangs, and add a score by a classical coonductor." Yeah, that one should work.

Or, "There is a 35-year-old single guy with five sets of married friends. The show shows how they interact in each other's lives." Great.

Yet we know these two were successful.

can you come up with a similarly discouraging summary for a classic, successful musical?

#2

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 6:22pm

My favorite is Sweeny Todd- There is a man and woman who kill people and put them into pies.

---

"I chose and my world was shaken. So what? The choice may have been mistaken. The choosing was not."-Sunday in the Park with George

#3

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 6:25pm

"A young would-be nun is sent to look after seven children. With a guitar and a couple of tunes she single-handedly transforms the family into a popular singing group, steals the heart of their austere sea captain father, and leads them all across the mountains to safety from the pursuing Nazis."

The Sound of Music

---

"This is wanting something, this is reaching for it, This is wishing that a moment would arrive. This is taking chances, this is almost touching, what the beauty is." --The Light in the Piazza

#4

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 6:26pm

A musical about CATS!!!

---

:D

#5

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 6:29pm

If you don't think the Sound of Music and West Side Story sound like good ideas for musicals... I am curious as to what DOES sound like a good idea for a musical? Especially the Sound of Music... The story is already filled with music... before you start to musicalize it.

As crazy as some ideas for musicals are... there are Operas that are far worse...


kmc

---

Jesus saves. I spend.

#6

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 6:33pm

"A musical about vampires!

Wait, no, make that THREE different musicals about vampires, all within about 3 years!! One should be a success, right?

Um... right?"

#7

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 6:33pm

Let's do an opera about Jerry Springer

---

Poster Emeritus

#8

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 6:36pm

Let's write an ENTIRE musical about a spelling bee.

---

"I chose and my world was shaken. So what? The choice may have been mistaken. The choosing was not."-Sunday in the Park with George

#9

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 6:38pm

How about a musical of that Roger Corman B movie "Little Shop of Horrors ?

---

Poster Emeritus

#10

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 6:50pm

"A musical about presidential assains"



P.S Jp- I love your icon. Where did you find it?

---

"I wouldn't let Esparza's Bobby take my kids to the zoo...I'd be afraid he'd steal their ice cream and laugh."- YankeeFan
"People who like Sondheim enjoy cruelty."-LuvtheEmcee

#11

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 7:01pm

"A fat girl gets to be on television and subsequently single-handedly ends segregation in Baltimore."

Interesting, actually...

#12

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 7:05pm

^or better-"a musical based off a john waters movie"

"Young Frankenstein!!!"<-sounds very intriguing....

---

"I mean, sitting side by side with another man watching Patti LuPone play Rose in GYPSY on Broadway is essentially the equivalent of having hardcore sex." -Wanna Be A Foster. "Say 'Goody.' Say 'Bubbi.'" ... "That's it. Exactly as if it were 'Goody.' Now I know you're gonna sing 'Goody' this time, but nevertheless..."

#13

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 7:06pm

A charismatic Jewish man (who constantly breaks the 4th wall to cover exposition) sees 3 of his daughters married, and then Russians come and make all the Jews leave. Oh, and it is like, three hours long.

#14

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 7:16pm

well, of course they're all going to sound terrible when you describe them like that.

#15

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 7:17pm

How about a musical about The Rothschilds ?

---

Poster Emeritus

Updated On: 5/29/07 at 07:17 PM

#16

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 7:22pm

How bout a musical about auditioning for a musical??

Updated On: 5/29/07 at 07:22 PM

#17

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 7:31pm

-A Musical about the Declaration of Independence (1776)
-A Classic Italian Opera re-written by 2 french guys about Vietnam (Miss Saigon)
-The Drowsy Chaperone
-A Musical of the life of Eva Peron

---

What a night! I was in more laps than a napkin!

#18

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 7:49pm

After a guy spends 19 yeas in prison and a bishop gives him two candlesticks which help him start a new life as mayor of a small town, he adopts a prostitute’s bastard daughter and gets followed around for his entire life by a policemen from his old correctional facility.

#19

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 7:53pm

I still can't believe they turned GG into a brilliant show.
I mean the documentary was interesting, but what possessed them to even think it had musical potential is beyond me.
It's a credit to their artistry that they did it so wonderfully.

---

....but the world goes 'round

#20

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 7:58pm

Let's make a musical combining Dr. Seuss books! (I'd see it from that description lol)

#21

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 8:08pm

maybe not a plot summary, but has anyone read the book WICKED? how could ANYONE read that book and think, upbeat (compared to the book) flashy, highly succesfull bway musical

#22

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 8:11pm

Let's make a musical combining Dr. Seuss books!

That actually sounds good, but it turned out to be a flop.

---

I shave me Xanadu every morning!

#23

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 8:12pm

Oh true dat keybowvio

---

I mean, Denzel Washington? Gun to my head..of course.

#24

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 8:13pm

Maybe shows with good short descriptions flop!

#25

re: This Doesn't Sound Good

Posted: 5/29/07 at 8:13pm

So, there's this orphan, a dog, a billionaire, and FDR.

---

Some people paint, some people sew, I meddle.