| re: THE LAST SHIP, KINKY BOOTS, CAPEMAN, TOMMY... and other Bway musicals by pop composers | |
| Posted by: | MarcoBarco 05:18 pm EST 11/24/14 |
| In reply to: | THE LAST SHIP, KINKY BOOTS, CAPEMAN, TOMMY... and other Bway musicals by pop composers - GrumpyMorningBoy 03:56 pm EST 11/24/14 |
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| The factor you're not addressing is the book, which is usually the reason a show works or doesn't, and by book, I mean not just the dialogue but, more significantly, the story, the idea, the theme, the "why we should give a damn." The failure of the shows you mentioned above has much more to do with the books of those shows than the scores. I'm not saying that pop songwriters are particularly great at writing theatre songs... most of them don't know there's a difference. But look at KINKY BOOTS - it has a good story, a good theme, a reason to give a damn, and an experienced bookwriter at the helm. And I really like Cyndi Lauper's score, but if she were writing a different project with a less effective collaborator, she might not have fared so well, and that wouldn't say anything about her ability to write a good theatre score. | |
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| re: THE LAST SHIP, KINKY BOOTS, CAPEMAN, TOMMY... and other Bway musicals by pop composers | |
| Posted by: | Circlevet 09:08 pm EST 11/24/14 |
| In reply to: | re: THE LAST SHIP, KINKY BOOTS, CAPEMAN, TOMMY... and other Bway musicals by pop composers - MarcoBarco 05:18 pm EST 11/24/14 |
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| Kinky Boots is a cliche from beginning to end, I didn't give a damn and the score, for me, failed on every level. I found it a painful evening in the theater. Sting has written true theater songs and, despite a book that demands you get on the allegorical train, I found it superior to Boots on every possible level. | |
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| re: THE LAST SHIP, KINKY BOOTS, CAPEMAN, TOMMY... and other Bway musicals by pop composers | |
| Posted by: | BestFriend 12:09 am EST 11/25/14 |
| In reply to: | re: THE LAST SHIP, KINKY BOOTS, CAPEMAN, TOMMY... and other Bway musicals by pop composers - Circlevet 09:08 pm EST 11/24/14 |
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| The thread is about what works. That and your opinion clearly diverge. An allegory is a story that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning. To create one, a pop star has to create a story that stands on its own, not just serve as a vehicle for nice songs. That requires effective collaboration with a book writer. | |
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| re: THE LAST SHIP, KINKY BOOTS, CAPEMAN, TOMMY... and other Bway musicals by pop composers | |
| Posted by: | PizzaRoll 06:05 pm EST 11/24/14 |
| In reply to: | re: THE LAST SHIP, KINKY BOOTS, CAPEMAN, TOMMY... and other Bway musicals by pop composers - MarcoBarco 05:18 pm EST 11/24/14 |
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| Isn't conduct also a big part of it? Like, Sting has worked on Last Ship for years with a top-flight team of theater names, and, on the whole, has played by their rules. Whereas, say, Paul Simon, if I remember correctly, got off on the wrong foot with a lot of people by not only brazenly pronouncing the boldness of his work, but denouncing the lack of it elsewhere. And then there's the likes of Elton John and Bono and The Edge, who couldn't - wouldn't? - be present at vital moments in their shows' respective developments. | |
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| On CHESS, SPIDER MAN, SPRING AWAKENING and TOMMY | |
| Posted by: | GrumpyMorningBoy 05:52 pm EST 11/24/14 |
| In reply to: | re: THE LAST SHIP, KINKY BOOTS, CAPEMAN, TOMMY... and other Bway musicals by pop composers - MarcoBarco 05:18 pm EST 11/24/14 |
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| I was looking forward to this part of the conversation. I think most all of us would agree with the classic truism that a great book is what makes for a great musical. But with a few of these, we're gonna have to look at the exceptions. Does TOMMY have a great book?!? I really don't know if we can say that it does. If you're not tripping on something, it's gotta seem downright bizarre. I suppose there's an interesting premise at the start, and a somewhat satisfying ending... but egads. The middle is nearly in Lewis Carroll territory. Thankfully, Des McAnuff took pop songs that go absolutely NOWHERE dramatically -- how many times can a person sing "Tommy can you hear me?" without it being repetitive -- and staged them so well that the plot kept propelling forward. Same for Michael Mayer on SPRING AWAKENING. By and large, those are pretty much pop songs with pop lyrics -- look at "My Junk" -- and yet things rarely felt static in the Bway production. The anachronistic microphones, profanity and dance probably helped a great deal, but... ... the actual story and setting was what kept us hooked. And you could subtract any number of songs and the show would have still worked. We can only wonder if Michael Bennett might have been able to pull a better plot out of the mishmash book for CHESS in London, via some brilliant staging, but I think CHESS is a perfect example of a beautiful score done in by its dumb book. But among all the post-mortem analysis on SPIDER MAN, I think many would agree that if the show had had a stronger script and story, the ho-hum score by Bono & the Edge might not have mattered so much. - GMB | |
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| re: On TOMMY | |
| Posted by: | jero 07:26 pm EST 11/24/14 |
| In reply to: | On CHESS, SPIDER MAN, SPRING AWAKENING and TOMMY - GrumpyMorningBoy 05:52 pm EST 11/24/14 |
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| I disagree completely. My thought leaving Tommy was "one deaf, dumb and blind kid on stage was enough.' that christmas scene-the acid queen.. so boring to my eyes. I saw it before I deemed it acceptable to leave at intermission. I also missed the rawness of the Who.. the broadwayification of the singing didn't fit well with me. | |
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