Or will the fact that (part of) it happened in NYC make it feel “too close to home” for Broadway in the forseeable future?
My thinking: We have musicals set during or that somehow reference the American Revolution (1776), the Civil War (The Civil War), WWI (Oh! What a Lovely War), WWII (South Pacific, Cabaret, et al.), Vietnam (Miss Saigon) and the Cold War (CHESS). Also related, Stephen Sondheim wrote a musical about the nine people who have attempted to assassinate U.S. presidents (Assassins).
It’s perhaps useful to note that except for South Pacific and CHESS, the musicals were 10 years or more removed from their settings, and that Assassins was written just under 10 years after the assassination attempt on President Regan and nearly 30 years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
So, given all that, how long do you think it will be until we see a musical about 9/11? Bonus questions: will it play on Broadway? Will it primarily be about the events of 9/11 themselves, or about the aftermath and war(s), or just a romantic drama which happens to be set during the events…or something completely different (like Assassins)?
Well, there have already been a few dramatic movies about it; I don’t see why there wouldn’t be a musical before long.
Also, there’s a musical about the Titanic sinking: The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Granted, 9/11 was intentional while the Titanic was not, but I don’t think that makes a difference; I suspect there will be a musical about it in my lifetime (I’m 35).
Ya, and it will be set in the midwest. It’ll be about a boy, his dog and the boy’s penchant for paper airplanes with the underlying subtext of the chaos theory. Oh yeah, it’ll have Uwe Boll at the helm.
To the extent that the Iraq War is a result of 9/11 (:rolleyes:) I have been hard at work the last four years on a rock opera based around the initial invasion, focusing on Baghdad Bob.
I’ll let you know if I ever get it booked anywhere. I’ll be the talk of the dinner theater circuit…
Try to Remember that kind of September
When the Towers reigned above the skyline.
Try to Remember that kind of September
When the photo was just a newspaper’s byline.
Try to remember that kind of September
When there was no fear in the airplane’s fly line.
Not quite the same thing, but there is at least one musical theatre song about 9/11, although if you’re not listening carefully to the lyrics, you might miss it. The song is called “Goodbye / Boom Boom,” and it’s from the musical Elegies by William Finn.
It’s exceedingly sad. I can’t seem to find a link to the lyrics, but it’s nicely done.
Yes, the hacks of Broadway will eventually turn their attention to any important, wide-scale shared human experience, no matter how unsettling or tragic, and set it to music. It’s virtually inevitable. I’m sure I’ll live to see it (I’m 42).
I saw a televised concert performance of Verdi’s Requiem, sung in an outdoor venue with Ground Zero prominently featured in the background. There were enough audience seats set up to accomodate the full number of victims, but the chairs were all empty.
That’s as close to a 9/11 musical as I ever want to witness.