What happened to originality?
What happened to originality?
#1What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:31am
Is anyone else tired of musicals/plays inspired by movies? What has happened to originality? Come on - Shrek The Musical? Disney? Anything with someone who appeared on American Idol or won a contest to star in it makes one stand at TKTS and think 'not so much'. Why would I want to plunk down $120 for a ticket to that? Clay Aiken billed as an "International Superstar" on what planet?
Anyone else craving originality?
Even a poor tailor is entitled to some happiness.
#2re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:34amWhat did happen to originality? How many times are we going to have new threads covering the same topic over and over with someone lamenting the lack of originality on Broadway?
#2re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:46amI was just about to post something very similar, Cats!
"Broadway...I'll lick you yet!"
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#3re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 1:07amThe really original musicals we all remember have almost always been the exception, not the rule with Broadway... Look at a random New York season like say 1954, and I doubt it will seem all that groundbreaking or original.
#4re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 1:08amnothing is original. Before movies musicals were based on books and plays, which were based on operas or folk tales
MusicAndPassion
Broadway Star Joined: 9/14/05
#5re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 1:52amI think originality is still alive and well in the plays of New York. Check most Off-Broadway and Broadway plays. Except for revivals most of them relate to themes of today. You have disfunctional families, drug and alcohol abuse, abuse of political power, politics, affairs, sex, war and so much more.
#6re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 2:00amLook at this week's grosses and you'll see why there is little originality..
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
deadparrot
Featured Actor Joined: 1/2/07
#7re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 2:09am
As others have stated above, musical theatre has never been a particularly original medium--people who think they remember a great golden age of originality are deluding themselves. Look at the classics--nearly all are adapted from some other source material, be it a book, play, movie, etc.
Comment on and debate the quality of today's musicals all you want, but let's not revise history here.
Cartwheel
Broadway Star Joined: 6/24/07
#9re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 11:51am
"Anything with someone who appeared on American Idol or won a contest to star in it makes one stand at TKTS and think 'not so much'."
So? Go ahead and skip a great performance if you are so particular about the way Idol stars got into the show business. 
Most "proper" actors would soil their pants if they had to compete with 100,000 other hopefuls to even get close to winning a role, and then had to have several months worth of auditions, where their every note and move was critiqued on national TV. It's not for the faint of heart.
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
Cartwheel
Broadway Star Joined: 6/24/07
#11re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:08pmWhile the homophobia may have prevented Clay from winning American Idol, he still accomplished a hell of a lot more than many whiny losers that are so resentful of his path to success. And that is exactly my point.
#12re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:09pm
What happened to originality?
Well, that's an original question, for sure.
In Soviet Russia, Wicked hates you too!
#13re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:10pm
Many of the books/plays/folk tales that are deserving of being musicalized already have been so it's not such a huge thing for them to cast their eyes to Hollywood. As many other posters have stated there isn't a whole lot of original material out there.
Not long ago TCM aired the film version of the Matchmaker with Anthony Perkins. I think I actually enjoyed it more than "Hello, Dolly". I found it to have much more wit and charm.
And just because people have a different way of saying "look at me - I have talent" than they did 50 years ago doesn't mean they actually have less talent than anyone else. Sure, there are people from AI that I, personally, don't like but I don't think they're undeserving.
"All our dreams can come true -- if we have the courage to pursue them." -- Walt Disney
We must have different Gods. My God said "do to others what you would have them do to you". Your God seems to have said "My Way or the Highway".
#14re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:17pmName the latest original musical (besides In the Heights and 13).
<--- the set of A Midsummer Night's Dream that I was assistant stage manager for during the 2007 season at the STNJ outdoor stage.
-Dre- You must remember all the same that at the crux of every game is knowing when it's time to leave the table... And it's important to be artful in your exit. No turning back, you must accept the con is done... It was a ball, it was a blast. And it's a shame it couldn't last. But every chapter has to end, you must agree.
~Dirty Rotten Scoundrels~
There's a special kind of people known as show people. We live in a world full of dreams. Sometimes we're not too certain what's false and what's real. But we're seldom in doubt about what we feel.
~Curtains~
It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to, than I have ever known.
~A Tale of Two Cities ~
~Dirty Rotten Scoundrels~
~Curtains~
~A Tale of Two Cities ~
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#15re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:30pm
While the homophobia may have prevented Clay from winning American Idol, he still accomplished a hell of a lot more than many whiny losers that are so resentful of his path to success. And that is exactly my point
As opposed, I guess, to the shrill and humorless who must appear to defend their queen any time there's even a whiff of criticism and then has the never to sling the words "whiny losers" at others.
Cartwheel
Broadway Star Joined: 6/24/07
#16re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:39pm
Yeah. As opposed to the haters who must show up to trash him and derail every thread where his name is mentioned.
#17re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:42pm
hmm... the last original thing??
curtains?? that was surely original (as far as i know)
#18re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:44pmDrowsy wasn't based on anything either if I am not mistaken. But shows like Curtains and Drowsy are few and far between.
"All our dreams can come true -- if we have the courage to pursue them." -- Walt Disney
We must have different Gods. My God said "do to others what you would have them do to you". Your God seems to have said "My Way or the Highway".
#19re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:45pm
exactly, and look at how long they lasted :/ quite unfortunate
but I must say... i had the wonderful chance to see Curtains and i LOVVVVED it!
The material was great, so was everything else!
#20re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:49pm
Umm originality? Most of the "most loved" musicals in the history of theatre are not original.
Oklahoma? Yeah, that was based on a little play called Green Grow the Lilacs.
Gypsy? Yeah, that's based on a book, based on a real person.
My Fair Lady? A little play called Pygmalion.
West Side Story? Romeo & Juliet
Les Miserables? A book of the same name.
Showboat? A book
South Pacific? A novel
Sound of Music? A memoir by Maria von Trapp
Into the Woods? famous fairytales and a book from the 60s
A lack of Originality ISN'T NEW.
#21re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:55pm
Two things:
CATSNYrevival & EricMontreal - Word. This topic has been discussed to death.
Avenue Q was an original musical that has run for over 5 years and won the Tony for Best Musical.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#22re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:57pmCan you call truly Avenue Q an "original musical" since it's a parody of Sesame Street? While it's not based on it there is source material.
"All our dreams can come true -- if we have the courage to pursue them." -- Walt Disney
We must have different Gods. My God said "do to others what you would have them do to you". Your God seems to have said "My Way or the Highway".
#23re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:57pmit's original but a large part of the concept is based on Sesame St. and the story of a person looking for purpose in their life isn't exactly unheard of.
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#24re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 1:00pm
Cartwheel, your little picture, while cute, doesn't really apply since my comment was already the pot calling your kettle.
I expect dumpy middle-aged women to be smarter than this.
#25re: What happened to originality?
Posted: 11/26/08 at 1:26pm
Can you call truly Avenue Q an "original musical" since it's a parody of Sesame Street? While it's not based on it there is source material.
Yes. An original musical is one that contains an original book and an original score. While the concept for the show may be based on Sesame Street, the show itself is original material.
it's original but a large part of the concept is based on Sesame St. and the story of a person looking for purpose in their life isn't exactly unheard of.
Boiling down the plot to its bare minimum doesn't really make it less original. It's like saying Curtains is not original because it is a murder mystery.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
