GLEN BALLARD Discusses THE ROSE Musical and PINOCCHIO Live-Action Remake on the Eleven Podcast

The co-writer and producer of Jagged Little Pill shares an update on some other projects

Jagged Little Pill

Glen Ballard, co-writer and producer of Jagged Little Pill, has a couple of exciting projects up his sleeve at the moment! In the first episode of the new season of the Eleven podcast hosted by William Connolly, he shares adapting The Rose for the stage. He also discusses the live-action remake of Pinocchio. Check out some snippets of the conversation below.

On developing The Rose into a stage show...

It's going really, really well. I'm writing it all myself on a music sample, and I think there are 16 songs for the show. There's one song I didn't write called The Rose, which I'm definitely going to use! I'm actually waiting for a book writer named Meg Miroshnik to deliver me the book any day now, and I'm so excited about it. I've written so many songs for it already.

First of all, I didn't really love the songs in the movie, with all due respect. They're not memorable, except The Rose is, and it's not in the movie, it's at the end and so... (laughs) she does not perform it in the movie. So most people, when they think of the movie, think she's doing The Rose...nope, no no no, she did it after that.

For me, it's exciting because we're actually updating it. This is one where we are taking the liberty to update it because it was sort of the Janis Joplin story, but sort of not. I don't want it to be sort of anything; I want it to be what this is.

It's not going to be the sort of the Janis Joplin story; it's the same character, the same situations but slightly different. That's all I can say, but we have a great team, so we're just waiting to... we could even get a showcase or at least a workshop relatively soon.

And he tells no lies when it comes to Pinocchio...

It's going great; it's going great! I've done a bunch of movies with Robert Zemeckis. Alan Silvestri has done all the movies with Robert Zemeckis, so to be reunited with him and sort of creating a song score has been great. We did it with The Polar Express in 2005, and so we kind of have been there together to do that, and we understand the challenges of what putting songs into a movie is.

It's not the easiest thing now because the audiences don't necessarily understand movie musicals; there's not that any of them. So it's a real challenge to figure that out but, again, Pinocchio, the original, had three iconic songs in it: "When You Wish Upon A Star", "I've Got No Strings" and "Hi-Diddle-Dee-De" - we're going to use those songs, you know that, but everything else is new.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that we have Tom Hanks as Geppetto, and he's doing two songs in the film. And Luke Evans is The Coachman who is an incredible performer. Cynthia Erivo is singing "When You Wish Upon A Star", so, again, it's an embarrassment of riches.

We have some of the most talented people in the entire world - and one of the most incredible directors, and he's telling us to write all these songs. So it's like, 'OKAY!' It's really turned out well.

We have a lot of work to do, but that's the movie business! Honestly, to make this movie during the pandemic was no small feat, and it added to the whole stress of it, but it's actually turned out great, so I'm very excited about it!

Episodes of Club Eleven Podcast are available now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify



RELATED STORIES

1
JAGGED LITTLE PILL Will Not Reopen Following Covid Suspension Photo
JAGGED LITTLE PILL Will Not Reopen Following Covid Suspension

The Grammy and Tony Award-winning musical JAGGED LITTLE PILL, inspired by the seminal rock album of the same name by seven-time Grammy Award winner Alanis Morissette, will not reopen from its recent suspension of performances due to positive COVID-19 cases detected within the company. All tickets for canceled performances will be refunded at the original point of purchase.

2
JAGGED LITTLE PILL Cancels Performances Through December 21 Photo
JAGGED LITTLE PILL Cancels Performances Through December 21

Weekend performances of Jagged Little Pill have been canceled due to the detection a limited number of positive COVID test results. Performances are canceled through December 21 and will be refunded at the point of purchase. .

3
JAGGED LITTLE PILL Cancels Thursday Performance Due To COVID-19 Photo
JAGGED LITTLE PILL Cancels Thursday Performance Due To COVID-19

Tonight’s performance of Jagged Little Pill has been canceled out of an abundance of caution, due to the detection of a positive Covid-19 case in the company.

4
JAGGED LITTLE PILL Sydney and Perth Engagements Announced Photo
JAGGED LITTLE PILL Sydney and Perth Engagements Announced

The Australian tour of JAGGED LITTLE PILL, premieres now in Sydney before moving to Perth and then back to Sydney. Get the full schedule here.

Buy at the Theatre Shop T-Shirts, Mugs, Phone Cases & More

Videos


TICKET CENTRAL

Recommended For You