For those who do not know, a “Jukebox Musical” is a stage show written around one singer(s) hits, the most successful one being “Mamma Mia.”
So if you could get one singer/group’s works on stage, who would you pick? No fair picking anyone who already has been done.
I’d love to put together “PAX,” based on the songs of folk artist Tom Paxton. A lot of his songs are story telling and/or theatrical, and I think they would work very, very well. “Now That I’ve Taken My Life,” done as a dream sequence with bright colored lights and fast dancing, would be a show stopper.
If my late ex-husband #2 were here, I know he’d take Richard & Mimi Farina. I’m not sure how it would work, but I’m sure Erik could do it.
I know that “Dance of the Vampires” flopped on Broadway, but I wanna do a Jim Steinman musical anyway. Probably it would be called “Bad for Good,” not because that’s such a great title, but because it’s identified with Steinman. It would be a love/hate story about a bad boy biker and a biker chick. Absolutely no vampires, though. Gotta get Meat Loaf, of course. Karla de Vito would be great, too. If no Karla, I’d like Idina Menzel.
Jim Steinman rules, and you’re right about the grandiose, theatrical quality to everything he writes. Was his musical bad, or did it just not find an audience? My girlfriend recently introduced me to Phantom (the Joel Schumacher movie, which I loved), and in turn I introduced her to Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell, which amused her more than anything else. She did say that the songs would fit well in a Webber musical, and they should have collaborated on Phantom.
For other Steinman fans, here’s a musical clip from the forgotten early '80s movie Streets of Fire (which I really need to find a copy of): “Nowhere Fast.”
That’s a young Diane Lane lip-synching. This is one of my favorite songs, believe it or not.
Tanz Der Vampire, as the original version is known in Europe, has actually been very successful overseas in places like Vienna & Berlin. When it was transferred to Broadway, the show was retitled Dance of the Vampires and much of the book was completely re-written to be very campy and over-the-top. What had been haunting & gothic in Europe was now silly & way too campy. A lot of that had to do with Michael Crawford being cast in the lead as Von Krolock. After his wide success in Phantom, he did not want to play yet another dark tortured soul. Crawford had creative control over the Broadway version and basically forced the piece to be re-written as a comedy. It failed miserably, becoming one of, if not the, biggest financial flop on Broadway.
It’s sad because Tanz really does have some great music.
AC/DC. The story of a guy who grows up in a small town, goes out to find America, gets in a motorcycle gang and/or a rock band, learns nothing, dies, goes to hell, and gets tortured for eternity.
I’ve always wanted to try to put together a musical based on The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies. Lots of great characters in there (The Ding Dong Daddy of the D Car Line, Mister White Keys) and great big fun dance numbers like *Zoot Suit Riot *and Shake Your Lovemaker. It could be set in the Pink Elephant!
Tom Lehrer’s music. Many of these titles seem innocuous, IF you haven’t heard the lyrics.
Be Prepared
Bright College Days
Christmas Carol, A
Clementine
Elements,The
Harvard Fight Song
The Hunting Song
I Got It From Agnes
I Hold Your Hand In Mine
I Want To Go Back To Dixie
In Old Mexico
Irish Ballad,The
It Makes A Fellow Proud To Be A Soldier
Lobachevsky
Masochism Tango,The
My Home Town
Oedipus Rex
Old Dope Peddler
Poisoning Pigeons In The Park
She’s My Girl
We Will All Go Together When We Go
Weinerschnizel Waltz
When You Are Old And Gray
Wild West Is Where I Want To Be, The
If you wanted some crazy comedy, it would be hard to beat Ray Stevens. His novelty and humor songs, as well as a few serious ones, could make quite a show.
Others in the Country vein who might provide fodder for a different type of show:
Roy Orbison
Roger Miller
Hank Williams
And for some of the best lyrics ever written: Johnny Mercer.
You get:
“Country Boy”
“Bye Bye, Love”
“Wake Up, Little Susie”
“All I Have To Do Is Dream”
“Bird Dog”
“Devoted to You”
“Problems”
“Poor Jenny”
“Take A Message To Mary”
“Like Strangers”
“Always It’s You”
“Love Of My Life”
“Love Hurts”
“Raining In My Heart”
“Sleepless Nights”
“Brand New Heartache”
“Rocky Top”
I didn’t get to see the show, but I do have a copy of one of the last performances. And it was awful. And Crawford was awful. And the music was awful. I’m a Meatloaf/Steinman fan, but the reworkings of Steinman songs in DoTV was downright embarrassing.
As to the OP, I generally hate Jukebox musicals, but I think something moderately fun could be done with Journey songs.
Harry Chapin. Besides his wonderful regular songs, I’d like to see them do the one about 30,000 pounds of bananas smeared all over the highway in Scranton PA.
First off, an admission: What I’m proposing are not “jukebox musicals” so much as they are “composer anthologies”, with the big difference being that I am not attempting to find a plot, and am using the “singers on barstools” approach.
At any rate, composers that I am considering for this purpose:
There have been efforts to do these shows around Duke Ellington, but I do not know of any centered around his longtime collaborator, Billy Strayhorn.
Likewise, Clarence Williams, Spencer Williams and James P. Johnson all could have anthologies made of their work.
Harry Warren is somewhat forgotten, and could merit a revival of his work.
Frank Loesser and Jule Styne were active in Hollywood for years before their Broadway careers, and anthologies could be made out of their careers in Hollywood.
And, to go back to the 1920s, Vincent Youmans and the team of B. G. DeSylva, Ray Henderson, and Lew Brown were of importance. They could use this approach.
