Currently packing them in in the West End. And, apparently, Canada and Germany as well.
Doctor Strangelove
Featuring the showstopper “You Can’t Fight in Here (This is the War Room)”, the tender ballad “My Precious Bodily Fluids” and the inspirational “Mein Fuhrer, I Can Walk!”
I recall one critic described Godfather III as “not a movie, but an opera,” so why not go all the way and turn all three movies into a Wagnerian trilogy.
You got your basic love story (Michael and Kaye), interesting villains and a struggle of good vs. evil, so there’s enough material to work with.
Plus there would be one final chance to cast the right actress instead of Sophia Coppola.
I’m thinking the Coen Brothers would do a great job with The Maltese Falcon. John Goodman as Kaspar Gutman, Johnny Depp is Joel Cairo, and I’m thinking Hugh Laurie would make an excellent Sam Spade.
What about Star Wars? Somewhere in there we’d have to get Bill Murray singing: Star Wars, nothing but Star Wars…, and I’m sure we can recycle some of the musical numbers from that Christmas Special.
And while it was a gag reference from The Simpsons, now that they’ve remade The Planet of the Apes once already, the musical can’t really be too far behind.
*I hate every ape I see,
From chimpan-A to chimpan-zee…
…You’ve finally made a monkey,
[Yes we’ve finally made a money,]
You’ve finally made a monkey out of meeee!
I love you, Doctor Zaius!*
I’ve heard that there’s a version of Hamlet done at one of the theatre departments in one of the NYC schools, called Hello, Hamlet!. I want to see that.
For Musicals that haven’t been made yet, I’d rather try to pick WTF titles that just would seem wrong to set up as a musical - just to see if it would be possible to make things work.
So, my suggestion would be The Caine Mutiny. Queeg tap-dancing with those ball-bearings just needs to happen, dammit.
[QUOTE=SampiroThe Elephant Man
Breakaway hit is “I’m Not an Animal, I’m a TENOR!” and “I’m a Big Boy and I’ll Sleep How I Wanna”[/QUOTE]
In the Jeff Golblum comedy movie The Tall Guy (well worth seeing), his character gets the lead in such a musical, called Elephant! and ending with the tearjerker “In Heaven There’s an Angel With Big Ears”.
Anthony Burgess wrote in one of his autobiographies how he worked on a musical to be titled “Will!” which would have been sort of a proto-“Shakespeare In Love” done as a Lionel Bart-style romp.
(for those who don’t remember Lionel Bart, he was best lampooned by Monty Python in “Every Sperm is Sacred”)
As prolific as he was, Anthony Burgess still wasted much too much of his life on this kind of shit.
This Island Earth
“I’m Gonna Build an Interociter”
“The Battle Hymn of the Metalunans”
… the possibilities!
Hell, do the whole original trilogy. The world needs a singing Sarlacc (voiced by Ron Taylor, perhaps?).
Also, Bridge Over Cold and Deep Waters
Harold and Maude
Smokey and the Bandit
Beverly Hills Cop
So I Married an Axe Murderer
I actually liked the Edward Scissorhands ballet, so maybe that would make a good musical.
Any of the Star Trek films, as long as Shatner’s still alive to do a couple big production numbers.
♪♫Picture yourself in a ship on a planet
With pointy-eared Vulcans and Ron Howard’s brother♪♫
Full Metal Jacket. Bonus points if Ermey participates.
Aliens
“Much as I may hate to be morbid,
I don’t want to be Xeno ordure.
I say we nuke them from orbit,
It’s the only way to be suuuure…”
The Great Escape with songs like, 30 Days in the Cooler, Can You Dig? Papers, Please and Every Man in Camp Loves Tom, Dick and Harry.
**Bridge On The River Kwai ** would have great numbers like The Colonel Bogey Boogie, It’s lonely in the Box Without You, A Happy Worker Is An Efficient Worker, The Bataan Death Waltz, and Stop Calling Me Obi-Wan!
There have been attempts. The first musical version ran on Broadway… for two nights. It was revamped a couple of years ago and ran waaaaay off B’way (i.e. New Jersey) with Estelle Parsons & Eric Millegan in a limited run that got better but still mixed reviews.
I think FRIED GREEN TOMATOES could be a helluva musical. I like the idea of characters from different eras singing duets and restoring some of the hysterical material cut from the book.
In an interview with Mel Brooks he said that there were talks about musical versions of Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles and (his remake of the Lombard/Benny classic) To Be or Not to Be, but I can’t find where any are beyond talks.
Another pic of mine Reversal of Fortune. Songs include Good Morning Newport, The Cherry on My Sundae/Diabetic Duet, I’ll Never Leave My Wife For You (But I Think I Know a Compromise), Above or Bulow, Wheedle Deedle Who’s Got the Needle?, Dershowitz Superstar, Oh You’ve No Idea, and Klaustrophobia & Bulowmia. The musical takes certain liberties of course; Klaus ends up in a gay wedding with Dershowitz while Sunny comes out of the coma to walk him down the aisle.
And of course the Harry Potter movies/books would be perfect for musicals.
Good Morning Voldemort! (there’s the kneazle who lives next door!)
Thestral Gavotte
Under the Stairs (to the tune of Under the Sea)
It’s gonna be hard to sing “Cho” to the tune of Maria, though, so we’ll change his first girlfriend to Parvati.
Young Frankenstein is opening on Broadway in the Fall. It’s already begun previews in Seattle & the marquee is up at the Hilton Theatre in New York.