thestar.com: Look around. If you want to go to a big musical over the next few months, you’ve basically got four choices: the Mirvish productions of Rock of Ages and Mamma Mia!, the Dancap production of Jersey Boys and the Stage West version of The Wedding Singer.
I’ve seen all of these shows — either here or in their original incarnations — and they’re a highly entertaining quartet of musicals. Each one seems determined to give audiences a good time.
But what kind of a good time? Ah, that’s where there’s a little bit of a rub. The Wedding Singer is the odd man out, mixing an original score with an adaptation of the much-loved Adam Sandler film. And even though the songs are ostensibly brand new, they try their darndest to sound like they were written in the 1980s. Still, the final result is an engaging entertainment. via ArtsJournal
4 comments:
As much as i love some of these "jukebox musicals" i agree with this critic. Though I love the musicals Jersey Boys and Mamma Mia, and similar show Moving Out, musicals create a whole new genre of music that is constantly developing just like the rest of music in the world. Just as many of the songs we hear now are ripoffs of songs from the past, so too are the musicals. I only hope the musicals, as well as music itself, will bounce back with some originality.
I don't think their should be too much concern though, people have been copycats forever. Every now and then someone creates something new and people will copy it and recreate it for years - but eventually someone new will come around for us too.
I think this article states the pretty obvious fact that the more commercial endeavors done by theaters who produce big shows and musicals do better with more mainstream material that he refers to as 'jukebox musicals', although the situation with unoriginal musicals is reflective of pretty much all theater, movies, TV shows and entertainment in general. But even though there are some theaters that stay safe and use proven recipes for success and major profit in re-inventing popular concepts that have worked in the past, there are still a lot of very unique and compelling musicals out there like the new musical coming out that is made by the producers of south park.
I agree with mary about how something new will be coming soon.
I think the jukebox musicals are a great way to get people into theater. People talk about the lack of creativity about having an existing song in a new musical. Why dont people talk about how people use pre-existing story lines. I feel like that is so much more unoriginal.
Personally I love jukebox musicals. I love the idea of taking a ba ds songs and using them to create a new story that tells a tale while using songs that everyone knows and loves. It takes these songs that puts them into situations that not many people would think of. I think that some of the worse ideas of a musical are when ideas are taken from hollywood. Move musicals are a really bad idea.
Any times cone a does things that theater cannot do and if people go into a theater ezpectjng to see the same thing they saw on the screen they will be sorely disappointed.
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