In Search Of The Lost Musical
Our House.
We Will Rock You.
Mama Mia!
Shout!
What do all these musicals have in common?
Stumped? Well, I'll tell you. They all lack a spark of originality. Yes, they came up with a half-way plausible plot. However, where's the bespoke music? All they've done is use/steal/cover (delete as you feel appropriate) the relevant tunes.
Before there's an argument, yes, I do know there were two new songs for Our House written by Madness. But then again, where's the hard work from the show's musical team? Isn't getting the original inspiration to do the hard work more than just a little... well... it's a hell of a cop-out, really, isn't it?
'What brought this on?' I hear you cry, 'Please say you haven't been watching that crap with Lloyd Webber!'
No, don't worry; car-crash TV is the wife's area of interest. I've just been reminded of how bloody good the songs were from the film production - so I went out and bought it.
It got me to thinking, though. Through my hormone laced youth, I didn't really think it was seemly for me to enjoy musicals (read 'too gay'), but I'm heading into middle-age, and I've come to admire the crafting that went into the songs. Lionel Bart, Rogers & Hammerstein et al were in a class of their own. Who do we have these days to fly the flag (yes, you can have a rainbow-coloured one if you so wish)? Bloody A.L-W.
Don't get me wrong, I'm appreciative of the fact he's the only one who can be bothered to write show tunes these days. The thing is, both he and the rest of the world are suffering from a monopoly situation. Because there is no competition, A.L-W. can do just about what he likes - which is possibly why he appears to have hit the 'cruise control' button for his career over the last few years.
There's another factor though. In this day and age of blockbuster films and high-tech visual effects, musicals don't really have much of a chance to make it to the big screen unless they've been hanging around theatre-land for a long, long time. I maybe wrong, but I think Chicago has been the only one to surface in recent times. Other than that, new musicals are going to struggle in the provinces before making it in the West End or on Broadway.
I know it's never going to happen, but it would be nice if some film studio big boss turned around and told some of his underlings to find a story worth turning into a musical and then going out and finding a talented scribe to write something original.
Otherwise, it's just going to be a slick production with some classic pop songs.
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Not to kill this thread
Not to kill this thread before it even gets started, but ...
Singin' in the Rain is regarded as one of the greatest musicals of all time. However, none of the songs was specially written for the film. They all had been written by Arthur Freed and appeared on the hit parade in years previous.
Ditto for The Bandwagon, which also frequently appears in those greatest lists.
So while Our House and We Will Rock You don't appear to be trying to hard, they are nevertheless the fag end of a Glorious Tradition.
Time to revive the thread...
Did I mention Singin' In The Rain? I know that one well...
OK - let's list some musicals that had tunes written for them
Wizard Of Oz
Seven Brides For Seven Brothers
Rocky Horror Show
Grease
Guys And Dolls
Don't get me wrong - I'm all for music in films; The Blues Brothers is a corker (with a crap plot, I have to admit). I just want to see a little more originality.
'We're on a mission from God'
A plot doesn't get better than that.
As agreed by
Mark, Luke and John, I presume?
Sir Andy and Sir Tim
Lloyd Webber is to the decent show tune exactly what Sir Alex Ferguson is to genetic engineering. And as if that weren't hindrance enough, he's doubled his ineffable suckiness with a lifelong (and presumably voluntary) partnership with Tim Rice - a man who doesn't craft a lyric into shape so much as cudgel it whimpering to the ground, like a big-eyed baby seal.
Quite a few careers are inexplicable, but these two go way beyond that. Their success is a mystery so unfathomable it's bordering on the theological.
There are different kinds of musicals
1. There's the revival of the classic like "Sound Of Music" where people go along to see a live version of something they've already seen in the cinema. Massive free publicity courtesy of the BBC helps in these cases.
2. There's the big Andrew Lloyd Webber extravaganza where the spectacle seems almost as important as the songs and book. Witness the number of non-English speaking tourists who queue up outside "Phantom of The Opera".
3. Juke Box Musicals such as "Mama Mia" and "We Will Rock You" where the object is to cram in as many well known pop hits as possible and to encourage as much audience participation as possible.
And if anybody thinks it's easy to have a hit doing any of these, just ask Madness, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan and lots more who tried number three and failed.
I've only ever seen three
One was a No. 2 (the original West End production of Sweeney Todd with Dennis Quilley and Sheila Hancock) and the other two were No. 3s (Buddy, which I got guest tickets for from a cast member - it was unexpectedly great fun: basically a dramatised tribute act before tribute acts existed - and Ain't Misbehavin', which was more a concert in costume than a play with tunes).
No. 1 appears to have disappeared completely. Has there been a traditional British musical - by which I mean a "fourth wall" play where the cast just happen to burst into song every now and then - since Lionel Bart packed up picking a little pocket or two?
(I was mildly tempted to go and see Mamma Mia in Madrid, but the idea of watching faux Frida and Agnetha sing "Fernando" and "Chiquitita" in proper Spanish instead of Swedish-accented English was a bit too much to get my head around.)
Sondheim
I saw that production of Sweeney Todd as well. I'm not sure I would put it in the second category. It was a spectacle, but not a particularly popular one. And I would struggle to call it a musical -- it is closer to opera. (Certainly much closer to opera than Lloyd-W/Rice's doggerel.)
I suspect that the economics of West End theatre is such that it would be difficult to go back to the older musical tradition. Perhaps the future is film? Once was a great example.
Not seen it, but..
From what I can make out, the difference between musicals and operas is that musicals are basically plays where the cast spontaneously break out into song and/or dance.
An opera is no speech, all caterwaul... er singing...
'Juke Box Musicals'...
Good phrase.
Are there not any more new musicals, though? I know it was an A.L-W jobby, but at least 'Bombay Dreams' was original.
Maybe we could cudgel some of these so-called 'street-wise' acts (step forward, Mike Skinner et al) to come up with something new.
Actually, I seem to recall there is one.. Avenue Q, a muppets and people production for adults.
Hmmm. For a truly British take, I reckon we ought to go for a comedy musical, penned by the likes of Half Man Half Biscuit or even (and I know I'm going to get stick for this one) Goldie Lookin' Chain
Oh yes - note to Mr Idle. 're-hashing former glories' is not the same as 'making a hash of former glories.'
The great musicals
I stand by your earlier opinion that straight men are genetically disposed to find muisicals emetic.
Good ones? Erm, Spinal Tap; The Wicker Man; ..... that's it I think.
Not a Fan
Of most musicals. But I do find the sheer 'what were they thinking' that surrounds the stinkers highly entertaining. Wouldn't you have liked to have been on the next table to the producers when the first night reviews for Carrie: the musical came in - yes, that's right, a major new musical based on the Stephen King pyschoshocker. And wasn't The Edge involved in some terrible musical based on Clockwork Orange in the mid-eighties?
I love musicals
And I really don't think it has anything to with whether the ongs are already hits. Yes it's lazy but some of them have been massively popular and some have bombed so there's got to be more to it than simply throwing soemthing familiar together and hoping people buy tickets. Rogers and Hammerstein always go down a storm in my book, and the classics like Singing in the Rain, Wizard of Oz, Bugsy Malone etc I could watch all day.
Lloyd Webber's aren't entirely to my taste I'll admit but i am going to see Aspects of Love on Wednesday so I'll withhold judgement until then.
One thing that has happened
One thing that has happened as a result of the shows mentioned in the original post is that the collected works of Queen, Abba, Rod Stewart etc now get swept up whenever The X Factor or any show like it does "Songs from the Shows" as a theme night – I was passing through the room when I heard the announcement "...singing the title song from the hit musical Tonight's The Night..." – "Songs from the Shows" actually means the likes of "On The Street Where You Live" and "If I Were A Rich Man" but you probably won’t see anyone singing them on the X Factor.
As for new ones, musicals are not cheap to stage – a friend who worked front of house at "The Mousetrap" for a while told us the reason that it and "The Woman In Black" were running for so long was because they weren’t expensive to keep going (limited casts, not much scenery), whereas the likes of "Miss Saigon" with it’s full orchestra, full cast, complicated staging and helicopter (amongst other things) cost a lot to keep going so it makes a difference when the audience drops off.
Another thing is that theatre composers like Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz also write for Disney ("Enchanted" being their latest) and their work gets far more exposure and success that way.