Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
CMU School of Drama
Monday, November 28, 2011
Bowie Shoots Down Report of Musical Based on His Songs
NYTimes.com: The idea of a stage musical shaped around the songbook of David Bowie may sound like a beautiful moonage daydream, but it apparently won’t come to fruition unless the godfather of glam rock ch-ch-ch-ch-changes his mind.
Read the guardian article over the weekend and couldn't believe it. Bowie is very protective over his work. He was super pissed when they used a Lou Reed song with background vocals by Bowie in the film Velvet Rope. That wasn't even a Bowie song. So reading this makes a little more sense. And on a personal level I'm glad Bowie didn't approve a jukebox musical. It would probably be terrible. The range of Bowie's career is so vast and wide to put them together to try to tell a story wouldn't work. But there's a hidden danger here as well. Bowie wrote most of the album Diamond Dogs as a musical version of the novel 1984. If you listen to that album you can hear it. And, unfortunately, it sounds like a crappy musical. So maybe Bowie shouldn't approve a musical of his work even if he is involved.
Well, I think I will never say no to a David Bowie musical. Someone should do this for Playground sometime, I would be so pleased. It is certainly better than a Green Day musical any day and look how successful that happened to be. Although I wouldn't say that it would necessarily make Great Theatre, it would be an entertaining show that could probably have a lot of crazy and dazzling design. And since his songs ARE so different, as Matt said, I would have to disagree and say that put together and juxtaposed in unusual ways, they could probably tell a pretty excellent story. There's a lot of potential in that. I think. But as it is a giant sell out I'm not actually surprised that Bowie declined the offer in reality.
I would definitely pay money to listen to David Bowie's best songs live, and if they're woven into a good story that would be a bonus. However, I can't really blame Bowie for rejecting the idea; the story sounds pretty silly and a bit forced. The premise sounds like the writer simply took a bunch of songs that reference locations or characters and threw them together. I don't expect this to actually happen anytime soon.
This whole issue is very interesting because the people who were featured in the Guardian article seemed very confident that they had the rights to do this musical. Now, either they were pulling the reporters leg, or there is a breakdown of communication somewhere. I feel this article highlights the need to get all deals in writing as soon as you make them. If the company who wanted to do the musical could produce a contract that had been signed by someone at the Bowie company, then any claims of being false could be better disputed. I look forward to finding out if a contract will surface.
Interesting to see the back and forth that takes place when journalists have to take back what they've said in previous articles. Judging by what I read of the Guardian article, it seemed like the people in the article as well as the writer of the article seemed pretty confident that this was a done. I wonder how things got so convoluted that it got completely turned around from. It'd be interesting to see the discussions that took place leading to the original article being published, but nobody is perfect, and mistakes are made. Just funny to see when the public actually gets to see those mistakes front and center.
Wow, so which is it? I have already queued up “Labyrinth” on my Netflix and David Bowie shoots this down? I think this is a bad idea but I would totally do it if I was Mr. Bowie. The only thing that I can imagine is that David Bowie has ENOUGH money OR the musical will cut into ticket says to his upcoming world tour. Or and this one is a long shot, he is an aging rockier with a huge EGO and a HUGE amount of artistic integrity. I am surprised. Long live David Bowie., I hope they get working on a musical based on the works of Billy Idol now.
Please disregard my comment on the previous article. I am not excited to see how this production will play out because it does not exist. However, this article does, as everyone else has pointed out, make much more sense. I did not realize that Bowie was so sensitive about the use of his work in other mediums but considering the facts that his music has never been featured in a stage musical before that makes sense. One would expect Bowie of all artists to be willing to have a stage musical about him.
While I can understand why Bowie would be hesitant, it is too bad there will not be a Bowie Musical. I can see a Bowie musical being very popular as long as it did not travel too far in the direction of Starmites. Futuristic space can become cliche very quickly and be more detrimental to the original songs than supportive.
Also, the quote from the author makes it sound like perhaps there was a misunderstanding since he was in contact with David Bowie's managing organization but not with David Bowie himself. I wonder if he wrote it before getting permission or proposed the idea then was going to write it once he had the okay.
I would absolutely be ecstatic to see a David Bowie musical. I too am really confused at the apparently gross miscommunication between David Bowie and his people and those set to put on this musical. I'm rather impressed that they could be so geared up to do this musical only to be told that they don't have the rights. I hope there's a follow up article that delves into the negations that did or did not happen and hopefully we'll find out what happened behind the scenes. Since this is sadly not going to be a reality I too think this should either be a playground piece or someone needs to approach David Bowie about being involved in doing a show that incorporates the body of his work or both. I love David Bowie and think that'd there'd be a lot of potential for a well-done musical that could surpass the success of American Idiot while having a more fleshed out plot.
9 comments:
Read the guardian article over the weekend and couldn't believe it. Bowie is very protective over his work. He was super pissed when they used a Lou Reed song with background vocals by Bowie in the film Velvet Rope. That wasn't even a Bowie song. So reading this makes a little more sense.
And on a personal level I'm glad Bowie didn't approve a jukebox musical. It would probably be terrible. The range of Bowie's career is so vast and wide to put them together to try to tell a story wouldn't work.
But there's a hidden danger here as well. Bowie wrote most of the album Diamond Dogs as a musical version of the novel 1984. If you listen to that album you can hear it. And, unfortunately, it sounds like a crappy musical. So maybe Bowie shouldn't approve a musical of his work even if he is involved.
Well, I think I will never say no to a David Bowie musical. Someone should do this for Playground sometime, I would be so pleased. It is certainly better than a Green Day musical any day and look how successful that happened to be. Although I wouldn't say that it would necessarily make Great Theatre, it would be an entertaining show that could probably have a lot of crazy and dazzling design. And since his songs ARE so different, as Matt said, I would have to disagree and say that put together and juxtaposed in unusual ways, they could probably tell a pretty excellent story. There's a lot of potential in that. I think. But as it is a giant sell out I'm not actually surprised that Bowie declined the offer in reality.
I would definitely pay money to listen to David Bowie's best songs live, and if they're woven into a good story that would be a bonus. However, I can't really blame Bowie for rejecting the idea; the story sounds pretty silly and a bit forced. The premise sounds like the writer simply took a bunch of songs that reference locations or characters and threw them together. I don't expect this to actually happen anytime soon.
This whole issue is very interesting because the people who were featured in the Guardian article seemed very confident that they had the rights to do this musical. Now, either they were pulling the reporters leg, or there is a breakdown of communication somewhere. I feel this article highlights the need to get all deals in writing as soon as you make them. If the company who wanted to do the musical could produce a contract that had been signed by someone at the Bowie company, then any claims of being false could be better disputed. I look forward to finding out if a contract will surface.
Interesting to see the back and forth that takes place when journalists have to take back what they've said in previous articles. Judging by what I read of the Guardian article, it seemed like the people in the article as well as the writer of the article seemed pretty confident that this was a done. I wonder how things got so convoluted that it got completely turned around from. It'd be interesting to see the discussions that took place leading to the original article being published, but nobody is perfect, and mistakes are made. Just funny to see when the public actually gets to see those mistakes front and center.
Wow, so which is it? I have already queued up “Labyrinth” on my Netflix and David Bowie shoots this down? I think this is a bad idea but I would totally do it if I was Mr. Bowie. The only thing that I can imagine is that David Bowie has ENOUGH money OR the musical will cut into ticket says to his upcoming world tour. Or and this one is a long shot, he is an aging rockier with a huge EGO and a HUGE amount of artistic integrity. I am surprised. Long live David Bowie., I hope they get working on a musical based on the works of Billy Idol now.
Please disregard my comment on the previous article. I am not excited to see how this production will play out because it does not exist. However, this article does, as everyone else has pointed out, make much more sense. I did not realize that Bowie was so sensitive about the use of his work in other mediums but considering the facts that his music has never been featured in a stage musical before that makes sense. One would expect Bowie of all artists to be willing to have a stage musical about him.
While I can understand why Bowie would be hesitant, it is too bad there will not be a Bowie Musical. I can see a Bowie musical being very popular as long as it did not travel too far in the direction of Starmites. Futuristic space can become cliche very quickly and be more detrimental to the original songs than supportive.
Also, the quote from the author makes it sound like perhaps there was a misunderstanding since he was in contact with David Bowie's managing organization but not with David Bowie himself. I wonder if he wrote it before getting permission or proposed the idea then was going to write it once he had the okay.
I would absolutely be ecstatic to see a David Bowie musical. I too am really confused at the apparently gross miscommunication between David Bowie and his people and those set to put on this musical. I'm rather impressed that they could be so geared up to do this musical only to be told that they don't have the rights. I hope there's a follow up article that delves into the negations that did or did not happen and hopefully we'll find out what happened behind the scenes. Since this is sadly not going to be a reality I too think this should either be a playground piece or someone needs to approach David Bowie about being involved in doing a show that incorporates the body of his work or both. I love David Bowie and think that'd there'd be a lot of potential for a well-done musical that could surpass the success of American Idiot while having a more fleshed out plot.
Post a Comment