It's been a while since I read Maguire's novel, but doesn't the musical hint that the widely-accepted story of "The Wizard of Oz" is in-universe propaganda?
If this is a big budget movie, there's one piece of obvious casting that the Broadway crowd keeps missing: Andy Serkis as Chistery and probably Dr. Dillamond too.
So now we know it's an old piece- I wonder if its specific origin is even traceable? It has the look of nineteenth-century Punch caricatures or Bab Ballad cartoons.
I wonder... the thing that makes me suspect it might be an existing icon is that Lovett resembles the show's design, but Sweeney does not resemble Len Cariou or the frumpy dockworker design created for the Broadway version of Sweeney's look.
Was the "small, flamboyantly dressed angry man" who represents Sweeney Todd on the original album cover created for the show, or does he predate the play? I know his accompanying Lovett caricature is original, due to its resemblance to Angela Lansbury, but I've seen the Sweeney caricature show up in a number of other places, always without the razor, as a piece of kitsch Victoriana. (Notably, he's on a Collective Soul album cover.)
Curious that Eddie Perfect, a cult figure in Australia but utterly unknown and unproven in the West, wound up attached to two different major musical adaptations this year... here's hoping Beetlejuice turns out well, anyway!
Musicals that you want to see as movies Jul 21
2018, 10:52:41 PM
Aronofsky would make a very interesting film, but my pitch is this: Wes Anderson directs a film version starring Colin Meloy as Pierre with the rest of The Decemberists as the orchestra.
Is Jul 21
2018, 10:51:27 PM
Imagine, for reference's sake, if Jesus Christ Superstar had portrayed Jesus explicitly as a grotesque caricature: a mincing, flamboyant and catty drama queen who sneers at the poor and disdains the masses, putting on a good face until his disgust at the people around him creeps through. A Jesus who leers lecherously at his male followers, openly mocks Mary Magdalene when she tries to comfort him, and finally kicks a poor person on "Heal yourselves!" A Jesus sneering down from the cross, grinnin
Are these comments reprehensible? Yeah, pretty much. But this isn't exactly a shock; he's an Australian comic of a certain age who has always said these sorts of things. We're just less and less likely to laugh and applaud.
Amanda Dehnert's ANNIE Jul 15
2018, 09:35:07 PM
The irony is that the pro-FDR, anti-Hoover musical IS an ironic reimagining and commentary on the original, which was radically conservative to the point that Warbucks died of a broken heart when a liberal president was elected.
Probably because in terms of most people's understanding of the text of a show, book music and lyrics are sacrosanct, only being changed by direct permission of the rights holders, while the physical production, choreography, sets and so forth are traditionally not sacrosanct, and in most cases EXPECTED to be changed.
West Side Story, Fiddler and A Chorus Line are the major exceptions to this rule of thumb.
Other than Lin-Manuel Miranda, the majority of Puerto Ricans I know personally (as the son of a Hispanic immigrant) have an instinctive dislike towards West Side Story as the well-meaning pop culture source of many enduring prejudices and slurs against them. I suspect many Puerto Rican artists would say something like "must we rehash this bugbear of old-timey racism, instead of creating new Puerto Rican-American art authentically?"
They've done high-profile new-choreography versions in Europe. I would imagine if Ivo van Hove wants to get the rights to do a completely new staging and choreo, he'll find a way to make it happen.
Is Roxanne still mashed up with "Tanguera" by Mariano Mores? I didn't see that on the list of songs, and without the Tanguera elements, the song would seem sort of blasé.
