“Mamma Mia!” Is there anything you can’t turn into a musical?
Photo by freakapotimus 
U2 never ceases to amaze me. Although construction of their Dublin skyscraper has been postponed because of economic troubles, the band is keeping busy. Their first studio release in five years debuts in a few weeks, and Bono and The Edge are composing the music and lyrics for a Spider-Man musical-yes, a Spider-Man musical-and it will reportedly be the most expensive Broadway production ever staged.
With great power comes great responsibility. In other words, this has the potential to be powerfully awesome, or just powerfully awful. Live theater relies so much on spectacle and shock value, it’s hard to know what to expect, and my knee-jerk reaction is always, “Really? What sane person would pay to watch that?”
I’ve heard great things about “Bat Boy: The Musical” and “Jerry Springer: The Opera.” But just reading the names of “Shopping: The Musical” and “Emo: The Musical” makes me think people have finally run out of good ideas.
It’s not like older musicals were any less silly. (Ahem, “Starlight Express” anyone?) But plenty of them stand the test of time. “Little Shop of Horrors” is a preposterous but remarkably good show.
Without a doubt, musicals are an acquired taste. But for those of you who don’t wince at the thought of sitting in a dark, crowded room watching grown men and women dance and sing for hours on end, I have some questions: What is the continuing appeal of musical theater, particularly in comparison to film? And if you’ve seen some of the more outrageous musicals, what made them good or bad?
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The continuing appeal of musicals is that some people cannot get enough of them. If they didn’t make these hit and miss affairs, then there would be no new stuff out there at all and we’d all be stuck watching Showboat over and over.
first!
Musicals are amazing, dont diss
Never Forget is my faveeeeeeeee :]
starlight express celebrates the inner angst and loneliness of various kinds of trains come to life – singing, rollerskating, and yearning to follow their dreams. it’s so senseless and weird, i don’t even know where to begin. i’m not really sure what producer decided to pursue this great idea. that said, i’ve seen it, and it’s really quite dazzling. i mean, the actors can roller skate really, really, really well.
yeah I can think of some….
‘Klebold & Harris: Together again’
‘Schindler’s List 2: This Time, its PERSONAL’
Yes, Carrie:The Musical
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_(musical)
Totally, LOVE musicals, I grew up on them, staying at my grandma’s, singing every song along with the movie. It inspires me, and I get goosebumps every time I turn on one. Don’t diss the music!!!
That’s just terrible. This is a frequent discussion in the green room of our department; just because you can add “colon the musical!” onto something doesn’t give you a good reason to do so. Composing music has become relatively unimportant to so many people that we now have jukebox shows, revivals, and other recycled junk. I love Spam-A-Lot and Young Frankenstein because of who wrote them and the movies they are based on, not for their merits as pieces of theatre.
You have to judge the theatrical value of the shows independently (e.g. Bat Boy is rather campy and fun and Evil Dead is one of the most fun theatrical experiences I’ve had), but that doesn’t mean you can’t feel disappointed with producers when they revive something old for financial reasons or Disney releases a movie as a stage show (Little Mermaid, anyone?) or allows performances of “Disney Jr.” schlock. I love Guys and Dolls, for example, but I don’t want to see it revived every 10 years on Broadway, not to mention the local performances.
The Nederlander Theatre just closed Rent and Guys and Dolls is moving in. That’s your stop and think moment.
i saw MAMA MIA the movie on tv and was very disappointed , i found it a childish story, not worthy of ms Streep to play in it . the acting of most of the players was below mediocre.
There is a line from UrinTown:the musical (haha, yes, its real) that talks about how any show can be a sucsess and nothing can wreck it, incluiding bad subject matter, title, or too much exposition. Well, I think that’s true. The thing that makes a musical great like Little Shop is being able to put yourself in the charecter’s shoes.
I am a stage actor and I an constantly being given horrible scripts. My challenge is to make every charecter I play real and living, so that the audience can appriciate that she is a real person and alive. So, I think that is basically it.
well… nothing new to me! All monies in India(where i am from) have tons of song and dance sequences and their relevance to the story is questionable most of the times.
And the plot ranges from lovestories to crime/ suspense to animation… ANY movie can have songs as far as Bollywood is concerned.
If you keep “logic” out of the way, they are really fun to watch and sometimes the music is so powerful that it makes an otherwise stupid film a blockbuster.
acutally Mamma Mia was a musical before a morning, and sometimes when a movie is turned into a musical its hard to make songs that do withit, so no, not all can be made into musicals
easy… THERE AMAZING!!! Without Broadway I would commit suicicde… jk. but its the fact that what they are doing is right infront of you. Movies they can edit until there perfect. Pop singers HA! some have voices but over all they are a joke no one will remember them years from now. Anyway the recordings on a c.d. can easily be altered, yet still sound lik the persons voice. When your at a musical you know they are good singers and actors because its all happening there in front of you. get an open mind and dont be hatein
source:
over 50 bway musicals seen
bway lyrics of advice:
Little Miss Broadway
Is going to town
That toast of all Broadway
Up town and down
We met them all
With a smile for a crown
For two little feet
On that fabulous street
Oh the talk of the town
Everyone of them proud
Oh, Little Miss Broadway
Up on her toes
With music and laughter
Wherever she goes
Everyone loves her
And everyone knows
She captured Manhatten
From Harlem to Statten
And thousands of folk
Through Miss Broadway
I’m here and you’re here
And thousands more here
But where is Broadway
You’re here and I’m here
We’re marching down here
Oh where is Broadway
Broadway is not what it used to be
We need a new steet
A just for you street
And just for fun
I’ll show you how its done
I’ll build a Broadway for you —
We’ll trade the old for the new —
I’ll make you famous
In old Times Square —
I’ll have your name in neon shining there
You’ll be their favourite child —
We’ll have the crowds going wild —
I’ll build a dream street
Where wishes come true
I’ll build a Broadway for you
I felt that way when they decided to make Legally Blonde into a musical. Then I watched it. Now I love it!
For me, the appeal is the music. I’m a very musical person with ADHD. The music adds interest and holds my attention–especially if I’m able to learn the music beforehand and sing along.
I decided that musicals have gone too far when I heard about plans for Thriller the musical with Michael Jackson already giving the go-ahead.
The only thing you can’t turn into a musical is opera.
I am pretty sure Mein Kampff (By A.H.) would probably be a tough sell in any musical venue.
I am also confident Joe Dirt and positive that Larry King’s TV Show would not make a musical either.
Anything else is fair game, and I am now gonna keep writing the lyrics for my upcoming musical, “CSI Broadway”.
Is it true that somebody is working up a musical featuring the songs of Ted Nugent? There’d be something tough to stage in New York.
It’s all about the Cheese. Cheesiness is good. That’s how High School Musical has sold so much – cheesy, but catchy, and therefore memorable.
I’ve literally just got home from performing in our school play of Grease – one of the greatest musicals ever written. Everyone knows the dance moves to Greased Lightning and everyone, at some point, stands infront of the TV with their hairbrush singing along with Sandy. It works well because it’s cheesy, with great songs, and a great storyline.
I can think of one right off the top of my head.
Rambo, Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan. pretty much any serious war or like superhero movie.
The appeal to me is partially the reality of it. Films,of course, have been recorded previously and we all know that it requires take after take to produce the final result. If you go to see a musical you’re watching real people in front of your eyes who have only been given this one chance to get it right, and if not, cover it up themselves- not stop and start all over again.
And of course the other great draw is the music. Sure, there’s music in movies but musicals have so much more energy and excitement (usually haha).
Also, not living in a big city, I don’t see musicals very often whereas I could go see a new movie every hour if I wanted to.
Okay so I absolutely love CATS, Phantom of the Opera, Gigi, Sweeney Todd, Hairspray, The producers.
These are all sooo good.
AND DON’T DISS MUSICALS THEY ARE AMAZING!!
“Planet of the Apes”…Oh wait, The Simpsons did it, “…I hate every ape, from chimp-an-A to chimp-an-Zee”
the hungry catipillar,
SAW!
I saw both the stage version as well as the movie Version of MAMA MIA and in my opinion the stage version is much better.
They even have a musical where they discuss singing off-key.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xKl0e8jALY
Anything can be made into a musical if it has a fanbase, a good plot line, catchy songs, and a good composer.
And, actually, my friends and I tried to make Saw the Musical once using a camcorder and it did NOT WORK. So, the first commenter is correct.
I would Like Somebody To Turn The Female Mensturation Process Into A Musical,Prefferebly Mine Considering It Is By Far The Worse,Should Anyone Take Me Up On This Offer I’ll Help
~
I always give this quote from the Broadway musical “The Drowsy Chaperone” when describing musicals – “I know it’s not a perfect show, but it does what a musical’s supposed to do. It takes you to another world, and it gives you a little tune to carry in your head for when you’re feeling blue.”
I think the previous posters have it right. Simply put – Live theatre is amazing! There’s nothing like seeing a Broadway show.
When acting in movies you have multiple chances to get it right. The director didn’t like the scene?… he yells “cut” and you start again. With theatre you have one chance to get it.
But the thing that gets me personally is the music. I can’t tell you how many Cast Recordings I have on my iPod. A good score for me can make up for a lacking story. Plus, Broadway actors have to perform those songs 8 times a week. Movie stars record themselves in a studio, and lipsynch to it while filming. To me there’s no comparison.
It’s also like a luxury item. You can go to the movie theatre at any time in any city and see 20 different movies for a reasonable price. Unless you live in the NYC area, you can only catch a show when it comes around.
The only thing that you can’t turn into a musical is a Lil Wayne Record.
Jeffrey Dhalmer… the musical
you couldnt turn MY life into a musical. I would have to shoot you. and if you did it would be full of screamo deathmetal and mcr music. so HA! I found something you CANNOT turn into a musical.
Musicals just have this energy that’s infectious. I mean, if you’re having a bad day and then go and watch the music man, or 42nd street, or wicked, I can almost guarantee that the singing dancing and bright colors will cheer you up, even if it’s only a microscopic improvement.
Aha ha…ha. There’s a friend of mine trying to write Saw: The Musical.
I think…some things are better left alone. But I can’t help it, I love musical theatre. I’m currently in Roger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, and…well, it’s just fun. There’s a certain kind of magic in the musical numbers, dancing is fun, and honestly?
I think life would be better if we randomly burst into song and dance.
I love to joint with friend all over the world and be more
aquainted with friends.
I WISH THE WORLD WAS A MUSICAL
Of late, it has been a trend to put movies onstage as musicals and for some it works. But trying to capture a musical in a movie just doesn’t seem to work as well. Take a look a Hairspray – a movie to musical to movie. The Broadway show is quite different from the original movie. The show leaves the audience with lifted spirits and dancing in the aisles…the movie…just doesn’t. You can’t capture the thrill of a live musical (or play for that matter) on film. There’s just something magical about the “what ifs” when you are watching something live. There is no stop, rewind, or edit button.
Not every movie should be a stage play, but there are some that have turned into classics: Thoroughly Modern Millie, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, The Producers…
I honestly don’t get people who say they’d never go to see a musical or a play…I can’t imagine my life without them!
Musical theatre is one of the great American pastimes. While some are “hammy”, others are extremely thought provoking (West Side Story? Carousel? Rent?)
As a straight guy with few theatre-loving friends, I’m sort of a closet musical lover. While I am at work (shhh!) I often peruse the storylines for musicals on very helpful sites like StageAgent.com (http://www.stageagent.com/browse/showtype/musical).
About once a month I do make it to the theatre. Sure, sometimes I am disappointed with a production. But once in a while, a show is great. And when you see a great musical LIVE, it leaves you with a tingly feeling that no movie can compete with.
There is just something about humans telling a story right in front of you instead of computer screen. Don’t get me wrong, I still watch my fair share of movies. but the Broadway Musical still owns my heart!
WICKED the musical!!! my fave musical hands down!!
Musicals always make me sing!
Im such a musical freak.
So, if they can make shrek a musical, then spider man is no surpise to me, =)
I often find that people who hate musicals have only seen the film version and people who love them watch them live. Musicals simply don’t translate to movies well.
Things that amaze you on stage (someone flying past the audience, people throwing flames, magical beings of any kind, dance moves you couldn’t imagine trying to accomplish, notes you couldn’t believe they hit, etc etc etc) a lot of times don’t translate well on the big screen (“I did that on my computer just yesterday”) not to mention the energy of the actors and audience as you watch something live. You just don’t get that experience in a movie theater.
Aw, don’t say that. Musicals are amazing works of art, and it takes so much hard work and dedication to pull them off – like films, they’re huge team efforts. But the reason we all love a good musical is that there’s something a lot more sincere about a stage performance. Something more genuine. Plus, would you honestly watch Hannah Montana for three hours on a TV screen – with her voice SO edited, or Idina Menzel – live and in person, with those raw, trained vocals? Seriously… what has this world come to?
RENT is my all-time favorite. :]
Movies, which are shot on location, and spend months in post production, are designed to be”real,” even when its Luke and Leah in outer space.
A musical stage production doesn’t have that ability, and so it must, to some extent, require the audience member to put off the reality of the moment and use his or her imagination.
Its not about the sets, or the staging, or the cosutmes or lights. it isn’t the music. Yet it is all of these things. Like good sex, Its about the transformation that occurs in the mind of the participant.
The music helps to tell the story in ways that simple action cannot. It adds an emotional element that wouldn’t otherwise be there to tell us who the characters are, or that advances the plot. Often, the lyricist can weave humor and subtle secondary messages into the lyrics. The same is true of the dancing, and even the lighting.
The “acquired taste” is simply allowing yourself to be immersed in the story with out requiring it to be real.
Some stories can actually be told better with music and dance than they can as straight drama. Consider Don Quitote. Straight drama would be long and tedious to today’s audience. The musical Man of La Mancha is entertainingm, and gets the point across quite well.
Now, I will admit, I like some musicals. I do not like Opera (doesn’t that hurt??) but I have sat through a few ‘classic’ and a few ‘modern’ musicals.
But I do draw the line at something like ‘SpiderMan the Musical’
Yep..that’s gonna be a box office smash. Can’t wait until Halle Berry does a stage version of ‘Catwoman.’ The theme song, by Elton John will be..”Don’t Cry Over Spilt Milk, Just Get Even.”
{rolling eyes}
I love musicals. They should come back in Hollywood.
I love musicals. I know they can be a little corny at times but they are a good escape for me from my tired sad life. If it is not my style of musical I just don’t go see it. I know someone else is really gonna enjoy it.
There are some things that can be better conveyed with song than with mere words. One can find an emotional depth that mere spoken words are unable to accomplish.
I even wrote a musical (actually, three, but two are still a WIP) and was surprised how difficult it was to actually do such a task.
Even when i do throwaways for musicals, there still has to be SOMETHING there, even if it is truly and totally silly.
Didn’t “The Producers” show us you COULD make a musical on anything?
For me, the best musical of stage and screen has to be
“The Rocky Horror Picture Show”!
It’s just so infectious with its songs and sheer tongue-in-cheek view of musicals!
The way the audience dresses up and actually ‘gets involved’ with the show is something unique… I have never seen another show where the audience does this!
“Long Live Rocky!”
Anyone who is truly a musical lover is not considering crap like “Spiderman the musical” an actual musical. I ask you, how many people who claim to not like musicals have actually heard of Merrily we roll along, Company, Once Upon a Mattress, and other fantastic musicals that aren’t as well known nowadays?
You know, this is your blog and you can write whatever you want on it, but I happen to love musicals and I find your post offensive, comparing crap like Shrek the musical to real musicals. You don’t seem to know anything about real musicals.
Also, do you even know how much work goes into musicals? You need to be a triple threat: singing, acting, and dancing. That’s a lot of work, so don’t diss the musical and imply that you know what you’re talking about, because you don’t. Seriously, shut up.
Listen – if ANYONE can make the signing of so boring a subject as the signing of the Declaration of Independence into a musical, then ANYTHING can be made.
I refer to the Pulitzer Prize winning musical 1776. Not just a musical. A GREAT musical.
There are those who would simply reply to your question with:
“If you have to ask, you wouldn’t understand the answer anyway – so why bother ”
Others might say, “Brandy?! Good Grief, it tastes like mouthwash;” or “Jeremy? What kind of name is that?”
Opinions, my dear Jeremy, are what makes the world go round – or at least make it a more interesting place on which to live… and everyone’s got one. So I respect your opinion and only ask that you reciprocate.
Admittedly, musical theatre can be an acquired taste, but how one can exit a theatre after “My Fair Lady,” “Grease,” “The Sound of Music,” “South Pacific,” “Oklahoma,” or “Mamma Mia” without tears and chills is beyond me. But, then again, I love most of them – even “Little Shop of Horrors.”
For one of the other answers, I reply for the record that I’m a 60-ish, professional, straight male; and I had tears and a big grin at the end of “Mamma Mia;” both on stage in New York and at home with the DVD. Even my 15-year old grandson sort-of admitted he liked it (and that’s a big deal – I mean ABBA, c’mon).
I thought Meryl Streep was magnificent, as was the rest of the cast of both the stage and film versions of “Mamma Mia.” Is she the best female vocalist of all time? Hardly, but she did pretty well for an actress of her age and calibre who (to my knowledge) has never before sung within a big-budget production.
Same for Pierce Brosnan. Of the two – who knew? Then add a young woman who will become a huge star, Amanda Seyfried, mix in a few other interesting casting choices and you have a wonderful movie well worth the price of admission (or at least four bucks at Blockbuster).
I did draw the line once and got myself kicked out of my college drama class and club (and risked a for-credit “F;” or in this case, lack thereof) by refusing the lead in “Little Mary Sunshine.”
But I was a young student at the time and after all, The Beatles and Rolling Stones were locked in a Rock ‘n’ Roll battle at the time and I was way too cool to embarrass myself like that in front of the entire student body dressed as a Canadian Mountie.
Plus I can’t sing, never could, but the drama teacher thought I could and that was that.
As it turned out, ironically that “F” got me in front of a guy in a Canadian Mountie hat for 13 of the more miserable weeks of my life as I was prepped to become a soldier. But I digress.
Of course there are movies, books, short stories, screenplays, poems and other sources for which a musical is probably not appropriate. “Silence of the Lambs” may be one. Yet somehow, somewhere, some day, I can hear “It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it’s told.” set to music.
-a guy named Duh
(from the YA Radio board)
RIP: Paul Harvey
My mom loves musicals and used to drag my sister and me to them all the time. I am always in awe at the actors and actress, I could never get on stage, and I suck at singing. movies scenes could be done dozens of times before the actors get them just right. In musicals they can’t make mistakes, and they don’t because they’ve spent hours and hours for years getting their part down. It’s just entertaining to see normal people transform into these amazing characters – I know that’s what the movies are like too, but the singing is the sing I like the best. Not every actor can sing, and not every singer can act, which makes you appreicate more, plus after the show, all the people are all smily and laughing when they sign your playlist. people rarely get to meet their favourite movie stars
Entire article is too long for me, but to answer the question in the title – try to make a musical out of The Passion of The Christ.
I HAATE musicals! I don’t understand how someone can sit and watch a bunch of people yelling their lines at each other or even worse: singing them! It is draining, it fatigues me to just hear teh first couple notes. I wish they never ever make them again!
I totally disagree what you said about Mamma Mia
you are way out of line. I’m also a fan of that movie
and it’s so awesome I even sing to it a lot. To all who
do watch it is not a true fan of any movie that tells the
true meaning of musicals. As for Pierce Bronson &
Meryl Streep you are dead wrong about these great
and talented people of all times.
I think Merlyn Streep was AMAZING in this movie!!!