Phantom of the Boardwalk?!

[Mike Taylor]

NPR Article Here

Phantom of the Opera sequel to be set in Coney Island NY.

I think Andrew Lloyd Webber is running out of ideas.

[AdminAssistant]

I think Andrew Lloyd Webber is running out of ideas.

Lawdy. Just what we need, another overblown melodramatic musical purely designed to run for 15 years and reap profits.

Webber running out of ideas would mean he ever started out with any good ones. Remember Cats?

[Ratha]

Webber running out of ideas would mean he ever started out with any good ones. Remember Cats?

Hey, don't bash Cats. That was the first live musical I ever saw.

[Eric the Grey]

Hey, don't bash Cats. That was the first live musical I ever saw.

I don't like musicals, and I loved both Cats, and Phantom of the Opera, although I never did get to see Cats live.



Eric the Grey

[Mike Taylor]

I've never seen Cats, but I have to say I was really pleased with Jesus Christ: Superstar and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

[Nurian]

Whiskey Tango FOXTROT??!! What's next?

"In music news, Claude-Michel Schönberg decided that the music of Les Misérables had become dated. He is now reworking his original score to include kazoos."

[AdminAssistant]

"In music news, Claude-Michel Schönberg decided that the music of Les Misérables had become dated. He is now reworking his original score to include kazoos."

Between him and Boublil that would not surprise me at all. Seriously - Miss Saigon. A helicopter landing on stage. WHAT? Theatre =/= Film. We cannot match film in terms of fancy special effects and we need to stop trying.

Focusing on the live, human connection that the theatre brings might actually improve our audiences for theatre across the nation, instead of just the fancy shmancy theatres on Broadway and in the West End. (Seriously, it kind of pisses me off that people will happily trip over themselves to spend $150 to see Phantom of the Opera or Les Miserables, but won't spend $15-30 to support a local regional theatre. GAAAHHH.)

/soapbox

[PepperElf]

dated??

Um.... it's a plot that takes place over a hundred years ago and they're worried about it being "dated"?

O_o

[Nurian]

dated??

Um.... it's a plot that takes place over a hundred years ago and they're worried about it being "dated"?

O_o

I was joking about Les Mis. I hope to God it never gets "reimagined." But hey! They we'd get a new type of energy!
We'd exhume Victor Hugo's body, put a few magnets in his suit and wrap his coffin in copper wire. As he turns over in his grave, we could power Paris!

[AdminAssistant]

I'm sure Hugo did that as soon as the first musical came out. *sigh*

[Nurian]

I don't know. They could have done worse. It's considered a classic now. Just imagine if it were reimagined with Miley Cyrus as Cossette and Keanu Reeves as Javert?

[AdminAssistant]

It's considered a classic now.

By some. When was Les Miz? Late 1980's? In the world of theatre, even musical theatre, that's not really enough time to make it a 'classic'. In my mind, one long-running commercially successful production =/= good or classic or anything. I dunno, I think both it and Miss Saigon are just too sappy and melodramatic and spectacle-centered. Victor Hugo was a Romantic and there is a very very fine line between Romanticism and melodrama.

That said, I would love to see a modern production of Hernani or, even better, Ruy Blas.

Of course, I fully admit my own cynicism towards the entire Broadway system, especially in its current Disney-fied version. There are the occasional gems (Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett starring Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin, The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh starring Jeff Goldblum, and the upcoming Oleanna with Bill Pullman). I would say RENT, but the fact that they let that thing run and run and run, instead of closing the Broadway show and releasing the rights - which would have been more along the lines of what Jonathan Larson wanted....I dunno.