THE STING To Play on Broadway

[Blackbird3]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 10:56am

Via Deadline:

The latest film tapped to tap its way to the Broadway stage is George Roy Hill’s 1973 Oscar winner The Sting.

Bob Martin, who won a Tony as co-writer of the nostalgia drenched The Drowsy Chaperone, will team with Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann, who won Tonys for the decidedly unconventional, entertainingly agitprop musical Urinetown.


`The Sting’ Will Sing On Broadway In Latest Film-To-Stage Adaptation

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 10:58am

Well, I like that team.

[BroadwayBen]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 11:07am

Hard story to musicalize. All plot and intrigue, no comedy or emotion. Should be interesting...

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 11:19am

All I keep thinking is how funny it would be to have "The Last Ship" and "The Sting" playing on Broadway at the same time.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 11:52am

Dear Sting Creative Team:
Ask yourselves the following questions.

"Can we tell the same story better?"

"What do these people have to sing about?"

Discuss.

[ggersten]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 12:22pm

Off the top of my head:

Opening number - After the first con - Luther and Robert Redford sing about how to do a con.
Next: Luther sings about the future where he is out of the con. He is killed. Robert Redford continues about the future in his "I Want" song.
Next: Paul Newman sings about the great cons in his past as he tells Redford that Redford doesn't have what it takes.
Next: Cop chasing Redford laments about what a great country this used to be.
Next: Robert Shaw sings about power - how he loves it.
Next: Redford goes to the cafe - he has a duet with the girl behind the counter about life, love and how they are at the bottom.
Next: Picking the crew
Act 1 Finale - extended - The Card Game

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 12:24pm

...But does that make the material any better? Just because it's in song and on stage?

[Kad]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 12:35pm

I like that team a lot. It's an odd choice for something like this, which makes me hopeful.

[newintown]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 12:38pm

Note to the adapters of this one: Remember these three words - Dirty. Rotten. Scoundrels. Also these three - Leap. Of. Faith.

Musicals about cons are legion, but unless you have comic royalty writing and starring (like The Producers), or unless the story is less about the con and more about the characters development (say The Music Man), you're on dangerous ground...

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 12:59pm

I love this idea and yes, I do think it could be musicalized. There are plenty of scenes and characters that could be quite brilliantly set to music (the carousel scene immediately springs to mind). My question is, how do you successfully depart from the iconic Joplin film score without sounding too much like the score from Ragtime?

[dreaming]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 1:06pm

They just need to get the rights to "The Entertainer". That's the song that really is burned in my brain from the film.

What is the timeline for this?

[newintown]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 1:11pm

The Sting is set in 1936; Joplin died in 1917, and "The Entertainer" was a hit in 1902.

The only reason anyone would think that The Sting needs to be set to ragtime music in general or "The Entertainer" in particular is because they have no imagination and only want to see a live version of the movie, with a few songs added.

This is how we get mediocre theatre like Rocky, the Musical.

[lotiloti]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 1:23pm

Dear God, NO !

[dreaming]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 1:24pm

Oh I agree that Rocky is crap. But, the only thing I remember about "The Sting" was the use of "The Entertainer". (I don't love the film-but I was way too young when I saw it to really appreciate it.)

They could simply interpolate it.

And there is no timeline for when they hope this is going to get off the ground, is there?

[newintown]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 1:30pm

I suppose my question is - why would they interpolate "The Entertainer?" It has nothing to do with either the period or the story. Is it just pandering to familiarity? Like adding "I'm A Believer" to Shrek or Vic Mizzy's TV tune to The Addams Family?

Kotis and Hollmann have more integrity than that, I think - I would imagine that they would prefer the score to be theirs, not shared (or upstaged by a facile and irrelevant interpolation).

[dreaming]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 1:46pm

Well because it might be the one distinctive part of the film-which, for better or worse, is going to be the typical audience member's frame of reference. (And it's used for a very specific purpose-I do remember that.) The film is highly regarded and I think the creatives used the song (and the rest of the score) very well. I hardly think it would diminish the other 99% of the music to use this.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 1:52pm

I'm already putting my index finger next to my nose.

[newintown]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 1:54pm

So - it would be to just pander to familiarity?

Promises, Promises was very successful without using the (hugely famous at the time) Theme from "The Apartment." Hairspray did well without using any of the songs from the source film's successful soundtrack. The Wiz omitted "Over The Rainbow." Mame was a hit adaptation without any of Bronislau Kaper's beautiful film score.

It's an easy choice to try to duplicate the successful elements of the source; but the more admirable work is creating a new piece that doesn't merely recycle familiar bits and pieces, but goes beyond.

[madbrian]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 1:58pm

I'm a HUGE fan of the movie, and in my countless viewings, I've never thought there was a musical hiding in there. However, if it were to be done, I think it would benefit from a completely new score, with no allusions to the movie soundtrack. The brilliance of this movie would be difficult to recapture on stage, and anything short of that brilliance would be a major disappointment.

[dreaming]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 1:59pm

Yes, I suppose it would be to pander, because whether you and I like it or not, it's a business. I do actually think the song works really well and there is artistic merit in including it.

I think "The Wiz" is an unfair comparison here-it's a re-imagining of "The Wizard of Oz" much in the same way as "Wicked" is. And look at the audiences of the past vs. now-the people who make up the majority of the paying audience WANT some familiarity. (And for heaven's sake, even I, who HATE the stupid film to musical transfers, think the song, which is only part of the 'overture' and then used in a few quick sequences to signal something occurring, think it's a MINOR quibble at best.)

[newintown]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 2:09pm

I understand your point completely, and think it's very valid. Where we might disagree, though, is the philosophy on how necessary it is to spoon-feed the audience what we think it expects.

If Shrek had been a better show, it wouldn't need to include "I'm A Believer," ditto for The Addams Family and its TV theme song, or Rocky and "Eye of the Tiger."

I think it would be more interesting to see an adaptation that doesn't adhere in any way to the musical language of the film, but rather finds its own language - and that may be (I hope) what actually happens.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 2:12pm

If the audience leaves feeling disappointed that they didn't hear The Entertainer, the creative staff has not done it's job. But this imaginative, smart, talented and risk-taking group of artists are going to do their jobs.

[dreaming]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 2:28pm

The song is actually called "Theme Song from 'The Sting'" in a few sheet music editions I've seen. I would be shocked if it doesn't appear in there. (I think this is a stupid movie to make into a musical-I think it's got no character development and will become a big, long mess. But I'd like to be proven wrong.)

Updated On: 5/28/14 at 02:28 PM

[newintown]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 2:42pm

If it is truly called "Theme Song from 'The Sting'" then that's dang bogus. As noted above, "The Entertainer" was written a good 70 years prior to The Sting, and was far from obscure.

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/28/14 at 2:57pm

"The Entertainer" is a public domain piece by Scott Joplin. "Theme from 'The Sting'" is an arrangement based on "The Entertainer," copyrighted to Marvin Hamlisch. I've seen both versions on paper.