Has there ever been a successful Bway musical that used existing songs?
Has there ever been a successful Bway musical that used existing songs?
Joined: 12/31/69
#1Has there ever been a successful Bway musical that used existing songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 5:48pm
Not a jukebox musical or a review, but a successful Broadway musical that took pre-existing songs and dropped them into a new book?
I ask because as much as I love a Bullets Over Broadway musical I can't see this working without a new score.
Updated On: 4/19/13 at 05:48 PM
#2Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 5:49pmOne example would be CInderella.
"I think lying to children is really important, it sets them off on the right track" -Sherie Rene Scott-
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#2Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 5:54pmI thought Cinderella used the original Rodgers & Hammerstein score? BoB is planning on taking period songs by various composers and putting them on stage in a new book.
ghostlight2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/5/04
#3Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 5:56pmContact.
#4Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 5:56pmJersey Boys comes to mind because it isn't per se a juke box musical but rather uses a book written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice and the songs of Frankie Valli and Four Seasons to tell the story. More like a VH1 Behind the Music.
"I wish the stage were as narrow as the wire of a tightrope dancer, so that no incompetent would dare step upon it." Goethe
#5Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 5:58pmWhy are you excluding jukebox musicals? Pre-existing songs dropped into a new book is what a jukebox musical is. Why would those be excluded?
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#6Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 6:02pm
My One and Only and Crazy For You both used Gershwin songs with an original plat (the latter is LOOSELY based on Girl Crazy, but barely anything of the original plot remains).
And now we have Nice Work If You Can Get It - but it's not a hit...
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#7Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 6:04pm
Contact is exactly what I was thinking of- even if it's not really a "book musical" per se.
And I exclude jukebox musicals because they use a group of songs that are somehow already a package- a performer or composer. An of course because there have been a lot of successful ones- even though the one that came to mind when I read about BoB was"Happy New Year" which stuck Cole Porter songs into a wonderful Phillip Barry play and stunk to high heaven.
DrJekyll
Chorus Member Joined: 3/24/12
#8Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 6:20pmAhem, "Contact" was not a musical...not in the true sense of the word anyway.
#9Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 6:29pm^Well, the Tony committee considered it a musical so...
DAME
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/15/04
#10Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 6:30pmRevival of Promises, Promises
HUSSY POWER!
------ HUSSY POWER!
#12Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 7:35pm
Return To Forbidden Planet
....but the world goes 'round
Updated On: 4/18/13 at 07:35 PM
Jonwo
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/16/06
#13Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 7:36pmWould 42nd Street count or is that under the same category as Crazy for You and Anything Goes as it has songs from its original source material plus pre existing songs?
#14Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 7:38pm
The problem is the licensing fees for using more than one composer's songs. It makes it a lot more impractical, whereas if you're doing a jukebox show, it's essentially "bundling" a bunch of "products" under one licensing contract.
Something like "Moulin Rouge!" would be a nightmare to license as a stage production.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#15Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 8:49pmThey did a tour of Moulin Rouge in Europe, but they couldn't get the rights to all the songs, so they added others instead- I believe the show contained "I Will Survive," among others.
#16Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 8:54pmI always thought it would be cool for there to be a musical build of already known (and exclusively) Broadway songs.
Broadway Star Joined: 12/31/69
#17Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 9:09pmBest, am reading this wrong or is that "Moulin Rouge" approach exactly what they are going to do here? I am assuming they are going to have their cast sing a "Woody Allen" assortment of Gershwin, Porter, Hart et al.
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#18Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/18/13 at 9:17pmMamma Mia - existing ABBA songs with a new (flimsy) story wedged in.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
Updated On: 4/19/13 at 09:17 PM
#19Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/19/13 at 9:58am
Joe, I believe they are ... but I'll bet Woody Allen isn't aware that licensing songs for films and licensing them for a stage production are two entirely different beasts.
The one advantage is that the songs he wants to use are all "old" now. That doesn't mean they'll be easy to obtain or even cheap. Cheaper and easier than new(er) songs, sure. Some of them may have passed into public domain already, since the era of music he wants to use is roughly 80 to even 90 years ago.
But remember, this was the original idea for Funny Girl -- to license her original songs (Second Hand Rose, My Man, I'd Rather Be Blue, etc.), and they couldn't get them (or afford them) for the Broadway production. So they had original songs written to take their places. When it came time to do the film, they used the original Brice songs (as intended from the start), because budgets are a lot higher for films. Plus the "distribution" of films is/was a lot more defined than licenses for Broadway, national tour, international tour, stock, pro, amateur, etc.
It gets really complicated.
Most jukebox shows today come from a single composer's (or more accurately, a single licenser's) catalogue. It's a lot easier to bundle and negotiate when you're dealing with one source.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Updated On: 4/19/13 at 09:58 AM
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
CurtainPullDowner
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/4/04
#20Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/19/13 at 10:13amJERSEY BOYS is a jukebox musical.
dreaming
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/24/09
#21Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/19/13 at 10:30am
Any jukebox musical, plus Crazy for You, Nice Work if You Can Get It. So plenty of shows have used pre-existing songs.
Updated On: 4/19/13 at 10:30 AM
Marcellus2
Chorus Member Joined: 2/16/12
#22Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/19/13 at 12:24pmFootloose used preexisting songs and original songs. I'm not sure if the show counts as a success, but it ran almost two years.
#23Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/19/13 at 1:12pm
I'm guessing Bullets score is not strictly limited to "The Great American Songbook", and is incorporating lesser-known Tin Pan Alley and novelty Vaudeville tunes that fit the plot and characters.
Book-specific songs were pretty rare back in the 20s. It's not a hard trick to interpolate these songs into a new musical set in that period. Nice Work managed to bungle the assignment, but they were dealing with a truly lousy book. If the Bullets screenplay is any indication, it's a given that the Bullets musical's book is light years beyond Nice Work already. (Can you tell I'm excited for Bullets Over Broadway?)
Nice Work also used extremely well-known songs, which are great unto themselves, but done to death. Who really needs to see yet another staging of 'S Wonderful or Fascinating Rhythm?
#24Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/19/13 at 1:32pmMy first thought was TOMMY. The songs already existed in a kind of rough structure on the 1969 album, but the 1993 book by Townshend and McAnuff put together a more cohesive plot that was very much different from the album and film.
"I shall stay until the wind changes."
#25Hss there ever been a successful Bway musical that used exisitng songs?
Posted: 4/19/13 at 2:51pmThe Broadway musical tweaked the story, but not significantly enough that it would be considered entirely new or separate from its source material.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
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