In the spirit of Ken Burns, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, George Jones and/or Tammy Wynette.
There’s already a Kinks jukebox musical about them as a band (presumably heavily fictionalized - I haven’t seen it).
American Pie! The musical. Though I doubt Don McLean would let it be done.
Until the AI uprising, thank you very much Mr. Roboto.
At one point (maybe still?), David Simon, the creator of The Wire, was working on a musical based on the music of the Pogues. I think that could actually work very well.
If you’re going to do that, go right to the source: Leadbelly.
From the linked Wiki page, it looks like both Patsy and Hank have had Jukebox musicals (as well as mediocre to just plain bad biopics).
George Jones and Tammy Wynette would make a great Jukebox musical since most of their songs were about their turbulent relationship. And they haven’t had a biopic yet, either (and just like Cash/Carter in Ring of Fire, they have the perfect movie title among their songs: “Stand By Your Man”)
But sticking with the Ken Burns theme, let’s sub in Emmylou Harris for Patsy and Jimmy Rodgers for Hank.
It appears Billy Joel is doing one.
Could be interesting. Scenes From and Italian Restaurant, Piano Man, etc.
Which leads to the question, do we want a musical with a happy ending, or a sad one?
Happy ending - Dolly Parton, Marty Stuart, Emmylou Harris, Reba McEntire
Sad ending - Jimmie Rogers, Jim Reeves, Mindy McReady, Dottie West, Roger Miller
Tom Waits. Story told as your Average Joe in latter half of the 20th century.
I’d love to see one for the Collins Kids. They’re not as well-known as they should be, and this would raise their profile.
I’m surprised there isn’t one for Jim Croce.
Or Harry Chapin, but he could use a few more uptempo songs. Many of his songs are complete stand alone stories, so they might not fit into a bigger arc. But
[ul]
[li]Cats in the Cradle[/li][li]Taxi[/li][li]WOL*D[/li][li]Better Place to Be[/li][li]Mr Tanner[/li][li]30,000 Pounds of Bananas[/li][li]I Want to Learn a Love Song[/li][li]Circle[/li][/ul]
have a lot to sink your teeth into.
I see someone tried using their songs for a Desperately Seeking Susan musical, but I think a Blondie musical using just their violence-tinged songs (e.g., War Child, Rifle Range, Youth Nabbed as Sniper) could be interesting.
There was an off-Broadway show around 1980 called One Mo’ Time. It focused on a specific type of “dirty” blues, rather than a specific musician or songwriter. It was directed by Vernel Bagneris, and was intended as a raunchy counterpoint to the then-running Ain’t Misbehaving. Maybe some Chapin songs could be folded into a show with two or three other similar artists (Croce, Cat Stevens, maybe James Taylor)?
Paul Simon sure deserves a jukebox musical. So do REM and the Roches.
I can see “Better Place To Be” as the overarching story of such a musical. The Little Man (let’s call him “Harry”) sits at the bar and tells the Waitress his story:
Harry feels he is a failure, having never found what he is looking for (which, for now, is undefined). He is an ordinary working guy, who has had a variety of jobs: taxi driver (“Taxi”), dry cleaner (who knew “Mr. Tanner”), and truck driver (who listened to “WOLD” when driving and who knew the guy who drove “30,000 Pounds of Bananas”). He’s not very successful in life, and is estranged from his kids (“Cat’s in the Cradle”). We don’t know much about his wife, except that he doesn’t seem to have one any more, which is why, when he’s the midnight watchman at Miller’s Tool and Die, he takes up with the girl who doesn’t mind the dark (“She Is Always Seventeen”). When she leaves when he’s gone for food, he hits bottom, and heads off to the early-morning barroom to pour gin down his throat, and to pour out his troubles to the Waitress.
The theme plays throughout the musical–that little guitar noodling that intros “Better Place.” We wrap things up with Harry feeling like a failure, but realizing that he’s never done anybody wrong, and it’s the people he’s met–Sue, Mr. Tanner, radio hosts, truck drivers, his kids, and the girl who doesn’t mind the dark–who have made him the gentle and kind man that he is today, and that he’s not really a failure after all. He’s a little surprised when, after hearing his story, the Waitress propositions him, and Harry realizes that his story tells others that whatever their experiences, they are not failures either, and sometimes, what you are looking for is right in front of you.
I’ll say it again: Kilroy Was Here, the Musical. It already has the plot and the songs; it just needs dialogue and stage directions.
I think that The Manilow Musical could work. Start off with I Write The Songs, and point out that he did not write that song.