Variety: "Warner Bros. Theater Ventures is steering its second show this season to Broadway, producing golden-oldies pop tuner 'Baby It's You!' with American Pop Anthology in a run that opens at the Broadhurst Theater in the spring.
Monday, January 24, 2011
'Baby' gets Broadway birth
Variety: "Warner Bros. Theater Ventures is steering its second show this season to Broadway, producing golden-oldies pop tuner 'Baby It's You!' with American Pop Anthology in a run that opens at the Broadhurst Theater in the spring.
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7 comments:
These sorts of announcements make me long for a day when new musicals with original scores dominated the West 40s. I have seen a number of "jukebox" musicals (I define this as a show featuring songs that are not intrinsically related, and therefore exclude shows like "Tommy" or "American Idiot" from the category), and on the whole, I just don't enjoy them as much. I think it's because the material has to be stretched to fit the songs together, when with an original musical each song is crafted to fit where it does in the show, in a certain order, and serve a certain purpose. There are still people out there writing new exciting musicals (such as Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk, who just released their first album on iTunes compiling songs from a number of their shows), and I think people should be doing more to get work like theirs into Broadway and Off-Broadway houses.
^ I just wanted to comment on the fact that Kerrigan/Lowdermilk's compositions are really interesting and I'd be interested in seeing a fully produced Samantha Brown off-Broadway or somewhere similar.
As far as jukebox musicals go, it does disappoint me that there haven't been that many good musicals with original music on Broadway lately. Even some of the original shows that transferred from off-Broadway have been pretty disappointing. However, what's truly devastating is when a show written by legends such as Kander & Ebb simply can't find its audience and closes prematurely. With the increasing costs of putting on a production, it's unfortunate that gone are the days when Sondheim would write a show every two years featuring a full orchestra, or being able to see a show with Michael Bennett's name attached.
Although Warner Brother's is not producing the best theatre right now, such as Elf & Lestat, I think this musical will at least be entertaining and a crowd pleaser. Especially since it revolves around the history of rock n' roll and includes popular oldies. People LOVE this type theatre. Just look at Jersey Boys. It reminds people of a different time, and even though the music is not for everyone is just feel good music.
I'm happy that a company with the size, power and fiscal resources like Warner Brother is venturing to Broadway which will help bring in new audiences to shows such as Elf and perhaps it would lead audiences to view other shows they wouldn't have otherwise.
My only concern is that this could change typical Broadway productions, I wouldn't want to see too many Elf-style productions, if these are more profitable it could make Broadway too commercial and loose a lot of the theatre artistry it has now.
I love the genre of music that this musical will feature. I hope that jukebox musicals do not overtake Broadway, and I hope that Warner Brothers uses its resources to produce original shows with original scores, but for the time being this is fine. Hopefully Warner Brothers will invest elsewhere after this show. While it'd be great if there were more artistically challenging shows on Broadway, show's like this do keep people employed.
I agree with Becca in that I wish that Broadway was producing more original musicals. I must admit, though, that I love Jersey Boys. I don't just love it for the music, though. I find the story of the group to be very interesting, and the book is hilarious. I think that jukebox musicals that write a story around a group of songs don't work as well. They seem less genuine to me. This show does look fun, though, and hopefully it will be something that draws more people in to the theater in these hard times. (This goes along with Scott's point about keeping people employed. People in the theater=money in the bank. Hopefully shows like this will help keep Broadway afloat.)
Proven with the show Jersey Boys, crowds do like shows that bring them back to their youthful years. Though I wouldn't regard this as ground breaking theatre, I think its a smart application of both business and the arts to produce a successful show. In addition, however, I do have to agree with Becca, from a music stand point, the application of 'jukebox hits', is an exact science. Here we risk the danger of the music being stretched the wrong way; this could make or break the show. Either way, I wish them luck with the production.
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