TINA's future (November 2021 and beyond)- Page 6

[Melissa25]

Posted: 1/22/22 at 9:58am

BroadwayNYC2: I think my issue with bio-musicals is that most of their lives just aren’t that interesting.

This is why I appreciate the musical dramas more than the jukebox musical.  My favorites include Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, End of the Rainbow and Dinah Was.  They are riskier to do and clearly do not earn as much as a Vegas blockbuster but they stay with me longer.

In fact I just realized it has been 23 years since I saw Dinah Was at the WPA theater.  I loved Dinah Washington’s music and would like to see perhaps a revival or a new take.  In Quincy Jones 2001 bio Q, he states "Dinah could take the melody in her hand, hold it like an egg, crack it open, fry it, let it sizzle, reconstruct it, put the egg back in the box and back in the refrigerator and you would've still understood every single syllable."  I love it and would love to see and hear that on stage again. 

 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/22/22 at 3:53pm

My opinion of the Jukebox Musical has always been:

They should be constructed with dialog-only scenes for the "plot," intercut with concert-style musical numbers. Like CABARET without the 'character songs.' Don't try to shoehorn in songs to move the plot. Are there any juke shows that function like that? This cannot be a revolutionary idea!

Or more revues like Smokey Joe and Ain't Misbehavin'.

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 1/22/22 at 7:13pm

Bettyboy72 said: "When will producers learn that it’s incredibly difficult to create a show based upon an iconic legendary female artist. It’s always going to pale in comparison. First there is too much to fit into the book and they are almost always sanitizing the hell out of it."

YMMV but having seen a couple of these, my issue was not that the lead performers couldn't equal the person they were trying to embody. All these musicals just have pretty weak books. There's a way to do a biopic/biomusical that isn't this flimsy. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/22/22 at 9:06pm

Yet they all have established playwrights writing them. And none of them sans Jersey Boys have proven to be "hits." 

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 1/22/22 at 9:38pm

they usually have a weak book because most of the time the person who it is about or their estate gets involved and washes the actual story (see Motown where Berry Gordy made himself a literally victim even though he screwed people over for decades)

Jersey Boys worked because Frankie Vali didn't make them shy away from anything and was willing to actually have the story told

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/22/22 at 9:59pm

I just don't think bio musicals are all that interesting. Most of the time we know what happened to them and there's no mystery or excitement. As terrible as Escape to Margaritaville was, at least there were twists and turns and weird sequences. As opposed to Tina which doesn't really get interesting until the end.

I still The Cher Show should have been set as one of her tours - since she notoriously toured and then could have flashbacks to her life because if you've seen her on tour she tells all these stories. The framing device was awful. 

Summer I hardly remember. 

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 1/22/22 at 10:04pm

RippedMan said: "Yet they all have established playwrights writing them. And none of them sans Jersey Boys have proven to be "hits.""

I agree that bio-musicals are probably my least favorite genre of musical. And Jersey Boys is the best of the bunch I’ve seen which is faint praise as I still think the book isn’t very good. It’s the music that saves it. Still, I’d argue that there is at least one more “hit” bio-musical: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. I had no interest in seeing it and I still haven’t, but it was arguably a hit.

I used to think I hated all/most jukebox musicals, but actually I like/love many of them as long as they are accompanied by an original book/story and/or aren’t biographical: American idiot, Mamma Mia, Moulin Rouge, Jagged Little Pill…   

 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/22/22 at 10:24pm

Yes! I knew I forgot one. Beautiful was/is indeed a hit. And I have to say, at least on Broadway, had such a gorgeous, interesting scenic design. I'd recommend it just for that. But that show was pretty decent, but it's like we know what happens... she starts off as a nobody and becomes famous. Oh hum. No suspense. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/22/22 at 10:59pm

RippedMan said: "Yet they all have established playwrights writing them. And none of them sans Jersey Boys have proven to be "hits.""

Beautiful and Mamma Mia! printed money for years (as did We Will Rock You in London). Ain't Too Proud, Motown, Rock of Ages, Boy From Oz, and Movin' Out all recouped. Not much worse than Broadway's overall track record for new musicals making money.

But yes, generally they hire someone overqualified to write the book (yet not well-versed in the musical theatre world), and then throw too many problems at them wrt interpolating hits from the songbook. I hope Dominique Morisseau and Lynn Nottage can earn a tidy sum from these shows that allows them to keep writing challenging, interesting plays.

[David10086]

Posted: 1/22/22 at 11:39pm

The one jukebox musical I wish someone would write and produce is one based on Mama Cass  Elliott. She lived a short but sensational life with so much talent and so much promise. 

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 1/23/22 at 5:07am

RippedMan said: "Yes! I knew I forgot one. Beautiful was/is indeed a hit. And I have to say, at least on Broadway, had such a gorgeous, interesting scenic design. I'd recommend it just for that. But that show was pretty decent, but it's like we know what happens... she starts off as a nobody and becomes famous. Oh hum. No suspense."

I also love the design for Beautiful. I have only seen the show on Broadway, but I will be seeing the national tour this Wednesday night! I'm looking forward to it, and I am prepared for the set to be scaled back.

[kurtal]

Posted: 1/23/22 at 1:02pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "I hope Dominique Morisseau and Lynn Nottage can earn a tidy sum from these shows that allows them to keep writing challenging, interesting plays."

This statement decreased my general antipathy towards jukebox musicals better than anything else ever has.  

Get that check, y'all.

 

[Jarethan]

Posted: 1/23/22 at 1:38pm

Miles2Go2 said: "RippedMan said: "Yet they all have established playwrights writing them. And none of them sans Jersey Boys have proven to be "hits.""

I agree that bio-musicals are probably my least favorite genre of musical. And Jersey Boys is the best of the bunch I’ve seen which is faint praise as I still think the book isn’t very good. It’s the music that saves it. Still, I’d argue that there is at least one more “hit” bio-musical: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.I had no interest in seeing it and I still haven’t, but it was arguably a hit.

I used to think I hated all/most jukebox musicals, but actually I like/love many of them as long as they are accompanied by an original book/story and/or aren’t biographical: American idiot, Mamma Mia, Moulin Rouge, Jagged Little Pill…

You should break down and see Beautiful.  While not a masterpiece, it is very enjoyable.  It is much better in the script department than all the juke box musicals about the composer or star. 

 

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 1/23/22 at 2:42pm

Jarethan said: "You should break down and see Beautiful. While not a masterpiece, it is very enjoyable. It is much better in the script department than all the juke box musicals about the composer or star."

I most probably will if I ever have the chance to see it on tour. 

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/23/22 at 3:44pm

RippedMan said: "Yes! I knew I forgot one. Beautiful was/is indeed a hit. And I have to say, at least on Broadway, had such a gorgeous, interesting scenic design. I'd recommend it just for that. But that show was pretty decent, but it's like we know what happens... she starts off as a nobody and becomes famous. Oh hum. No suspense."

 

I had assiduously avoided BEAUTIFUL because it was a jukebox musical and I'd suffered through THE BOX FROM OZ years earlier. However, a friend of mine was in BEAUTIFUL and invited me to the show as his guest. To my surprise, it was a very good show and I enjoyed it very much. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I tried SUMMER, some time later. I couldn't believe how horrible that one was.

 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/23/22 at 3:59pm

Agreed, Beautiful is a solid show and probably why it ran for so long. It's not exciting but the music is fun the direction is fun. Summer was just trying too hard to do something different. 

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 1/23/22 at 5:13pm

I'm surprised they haven't tried to stunt cast this show yet considering how bad sales are

[Melissa25]

Posted: 1/23/22 at 6:46pm

There was an actual commercial for Tina on this morning during CBS News Sunday Morning. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/23/22 at 8:23pm

BoringBoredBoard40 said: "I'm surprised they haven't tried to stunt cast this show yet considering how bad sales are"

With whom?? Can't see any MAJOR star dying to go into that show. The one great role (Tina) is an absolute monster to play and requires incredible stamina. All the other parts are pretty thankless and it would look weird to be promoting a star Ike or mom in the TINA musical. And casting a "Broadway name" would be entirely useless.

It may simply be there's no appetite for this show on Broadway.

[David10086]

Posted: 1/23/22 at 11:08pm

Melissa25 said: "There was an actual commercial for Tina on this morning during CBS News Sunday Morning."

That could have aired in select markets. That commercial didn’t air on my broadcast this morning. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/23/22 at 11:10pm

Yes TV advertising for any Broadway show will usually be limited to NYC or tristate area.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 1/23/22 at 11:15pm

It may simply be there's no appetite for this show on Broadway.

Then why is it still open?

 

[HogansHero]

Posted: 1/23/22 at 11:27pm

While, obviously, there is not "no appetite," it is equally obvious that there is not much of one, as evidenced by the paucity of attendance. There are numerous reasons that have been conjectured about here and elsewhere but manifestly it is not "still open" because of an appetite for the show. 

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 1/23/22 at 11:51pm

January even in non-pandemic years is the month where shows go to die. And it’s also true that no matter how anemic Tina’s grosses would be right now without the pandemic, obviously Covid has decreased them further. And I do think the show was doing pretty well pre-pandemic. But something else occurred to me today. If the pandemic hadn’t happened and Tina had been able to continue its run uninterrupted, there’s a good chance Tina would have closed more than a year ago. How many times have we seen shows do well out-of-the-gate then exhaust the interested demographic fairly abruptly? That seems to happen a lot with bio-musicals. I do think this will do well on tour though. 

[adotburr]

Posted: 1/24/22 at 11:20am

BoringBoredBoard40 said: "I'm surprised they haven't tried to stunt cast this show yet considering how bad sales are"

NaTasha Yvette Williams is joining TINA on Feb 04. Although not stunt casting, she's a name theatre people might/will recognize and could draw people in.