Posted: 10/4/16 at 2:42pm
Phantom of the Opera was huge. Jekyll and Hyde was a success.
So what went wrong with the Broadway versions of these classic horror stories?
Updated On: 10/4/16 at 02:42 PM
Posted: 10/4/16 at 2:45pm
Horror is a hard genre to musicalize. You have exceptions, like Sweeney Todd, Phantom, and Jekyll and Hyde, but it's hard to combine the sensationalism of terror with the sensationalism of singing and dancing.
Posted: 10/4/16 at 2:46pm
Jekyll and Hyde didn't recoup despite a 3+ year run, so labeling it a "success" is up for debate. The retooled revival in 2013 opened and closed in a blink.
Updated On: 10/4/16 at 02:46 PM
Posted: 10/4/16 at 2:51pm
Jason Ginsburg, did you join today just to spread your blog post wider? How enterprising!
Posted: 10/4/16 at 2:51pm
I really wouldn't consider Sweeney, Phantom, or Jekyll and Hyde to even be horror, per se.
Posted: 10/4/16 at 3:15pm
ROCKY HORROR flopped. It's a spoof of the genre and also sic-fi though.
Posted: 10/4/16 at 3:24pm
Would love to see Toxic Avenger get a chance to flop/succeed on Broadway. Heard they were going to try and bring the Houston 2012 cast in but there's been no news for a while.
Posted: 10/4/16 at 3:58pm
The English version of Dance of the Vampires was a sick joke. If done faithful to the Austrian/German one, it's an absolutely amazing show that would do well here or in the West End
Posted: 10/4/16 at 7:12pm
West End, maybe. Here, the brand is tainted. People still bring it up constantly as a reason vampire musicals "don't work." No one would be willing to risk investment money on it here. (Trust me, I know for a fact. You can PM me if you really want the gory details.)
Posted: 10/4/16 at 7:21pm
Very true. I just hope that someday there's an English language production of it, otherwise I'm gonna have to brush up on my German.
Posted: 10/4/16 at 7:44pm
I don't know if and who's opinion of horror, but there's Carrie, The Woman In White, Love Never Dies,Ghost (?) , Lizzie Borden. Eye of the beholder I guess, some become cult classics.
Posted: 10/4/16 at 10:36pm
Anyone who thinks Dracula the Musical was faithful to the book has not read the book.
Updated On: 10/4/16 at 10:36 PM
Posted: 10/5/16 at 6:15pm
I think you have to throw American Psycho in there too.
