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| re: The Encores "Not Pal Joey" | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 10:56 am EDT 10/06/23 | |
| In reply to: re: The Encores "Not Pal Joey" - KingSpeed 03:53 pm EDT 10/05/23 | |
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| Many of the songs in CFY were written for story-based musical theater. Many of them were written for story-based movies. Some of them were written as stand-alone songs in follies show. One of them is a piano roll that George wrote when he was a piano salesman. One of them is a concerto that Gershwin wrote for classical orchestras. While a good chunk of the songs were written for Girl Crazy, Ludwig also pulled a bunch of the other songs in order to fit the plot of the musical he was writing, including using one song that had been effectively lost until 1982. It may not be a full-fledged jukebox musical, but it was a significant step along the way, and it uses a great deal of songs that weren’t intended for musical theater as we know it. |
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| re: The Encores "Not Pal Joey" | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 12:33 pm EDT 10/06/23 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 12:30 pm EDT 10/06/23 | |
| In reply to: re: The Encores "Not Pal Joey" - Singapore/Fling 10:56 am EDT 10/06/23 | |
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| The 1962 off-Broadway production of Anything Goes (with Hal Linden as Billy) scrapped some of the original score, and added SIX songs that weren't from the show originally. But it wasn't what I'd call a jukebox musical. It still isn't, even in its current version, which got rid of (only) 4 of those added songs, restored most of the original ones, and then went ahead and added more songs that had nothing to do with the original show. I don't think that padding an existing show with extra songs (something that's been done a fair amount) is "jukebox" or even "on the way to jukebox." Neither was adding "I Say A Little Prayer" and "A House Is Not A Home" to the revival of Promises, Promises, neither is adding the film songs into Grease, etc. How about performances of Fidelio that add the Leonore #3? :-) |
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| re: The Encores "Not Pal Joey" | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 01:23 pm EDT 10/06/23 | |
| In reply to: re: The Encores "Not Pal Joey" - Chromolume 12:30 pm EDT 10/06/23 | |
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| I agree about Anything Goes (or even the new Pal Joey), but the ratio in Crazy for You is quite different, though, as is the construction of the play. The script is wholly original, with Ludwig keeping only the starting premise of Girl Crazy (Easterner goes West and falls in love). The score includes 21 songs, of which only 6 are from Girl Crazy. Of the remaining, 4 are from the movie “A Damsel in Distress”, 3 are from the movie “Shall We Dance”, 2 are from “Treasure Girl”, and then 1 each from “Oh, Kay!”, “George White’s Scandals” (being “Stairway to Paradise”, which is not sung in the show but serves as the main theme for the showgirls’ entrance), “Ladies First” (which featured the first song written by the Gershwin brothers), and “Primrose” (which was written for the West End and didn’t premiere in the States until 1987), as well as excerpts from the musical pieces Rialto Ripples and Concerto in F. The resulting musical is much more like the films “An American in Paris” and “Funny Face” - both arguably jukebox musicals by the common definition of a show featuring songs not written for it - than it is “Girl Crazy”. It’s not a show with some interpolations, it’s something crafted entirely from the ground up pulling from the Gershwin oeuvre. |
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| re: The Encores "Not Pal Joey" | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 04:41 pm EDT 10/06/23 | |
| In reply to: re: The Encores "Not Pal Joey" - Singapore/Fling 01:23 pm EDT 10/06/23 | |
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| Yes, but even so, I tend to define jukebox musicals as those that use pop/rock catalogues, not so much the kind of standards that were (yes) part of the pop music before that. I'm not sure I'd qualify Ain't Misbehavin' or Sophisticated Ladies as jukebox. Nor shows like A Class Act, Starting Here Starting Now, or Closer Than Ever, that contain songs by Broadway writers, with a mix of songs both written for the theatre and not. For me, the early jukebox shows were ones like Leader Of The Pack and Smokey Joe's Cafe - shows that took pre-existing rock/pop songs and used them in either book or revue formats, either to highlight the careers of the singers/writers, the era, or a new story fashioned around the songs. Whereas shows like My One And Only or Big Deal or Side By Side By Sondheim were not jukebox. YMMV, of course. :-) |
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| Smokey Joe’s Cafe isn’t a jukebox musical either. | |
| Posted by: KingSpeed 04:54 am EDT 10/07/23 | |
| In reply to: re: The Encores "Not Pal Joey" - Chromolume 04:41 pm EDT 10/06/23 | |
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| It’s a revue. | |
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| Smokey Joe’s Cafe is a jukebox musical. | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 11:06 am EDT 10/07/23 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 11:06 am EDT 10/07/23 | |
| In reply to: Smokey Joe’s Cafe isn’t a jukebox musical either. - KingSpeed 04:54 am EDT 10/07/23 | |
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| I don't see why revues can't be jukebox shows, especially if they're using a pop/rock catalogue. | |
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| re: Smokey Joe’s Cafe is not a jukebox musical. | |
| Last Edit: KingSpeed 09:46 am EDT 10/10/23 | |
| Posted by: KingSpeed 09:40 am EDT 10/10/23 | |
| In reply to: Smokey Joe’s Cafe is a jukebox musical. - Chromolume 11:06 am EDT 10/07/23 | |
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| The songs aren't used to tell a story. It's just a revue. | |
| Link | Wikipedia: Revues are not jukebox musicals |
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| Smokey Joe’s Cafe is a jukebox musical. | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 09:06 pm EDT 10/10/23 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 09:02 pm EDT 10/10/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Smokey Joe’s Cafe is not a jukebox musical. - KingSpeed 09:40 am EDT 10/10/23 | |
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| It's a floor wax AND a dessert topping. I don't see what's wrong a jukebox musical also being in a revue format. We will just have to agree to disagree, and let's please end this here. Too many awful things going on in the world right now. | |
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| re: The Encores "Not Pal Joey" | |
| Posted by: EvFoDr 05:18 pm EDT 10/06/23 | |
| In reply to: re: The Encores "Not Pal Joey" - Chromolume 04:41 pm EDT 10/06/23 | |
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| We clearly need a universal definition :-) Even Wikipedia says 'The origin of the phrase "jukebox musical" in its current meaning is unclear.' And the first example they list is Bubbling Brown Sugar in 1976, with a special mention to The Beggar's Opera. I personally never thought of revues as jukebox musicals because I think Jukebox musicals use their songs to tell a story with a plot, and usually not associated with the original artist/context of the songs. This to me excludes things like Ain't Misbehavin'. And I would never remotely consider the Maltby and Shire revues you list. A Class Act is an interesting case. It is jukebox in the sense that the songs are used to tell a story that is different from the one(s) they were originally written to tell. But also strikes one as not jukebox since all of the songs are written in a very recognizable modern musical theatre styles--meaning definitely not pop songs. Putting it Together is also an interesting case. It is not a traditional revue. The songs tells a loose story, or at least outline a series of events and sktech characters that are different from the ones in the shows they come from. I think people don't use the terms jukebox because it's Sondheim and because the songs were written for the theatre in the first place. This article was interesting to me as well. The author breaks Jukebox musicals down into many sub categories that I hadn't really contemplated. |
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| Link | Jukebox Musicals |
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