Saturday, July 21, 2012
Xanadu
Pittsburgh City Paper: In 1980, a movie called Xanadu opened on a Wednesday and closed by Friday. Concerning an artist who starts a roller disco with help from a Greek Muse, the film featured Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly and music by Electric Light Orchestra. Xanadu was so bad it inspired the creation of "The Golden Raspberries" (a.k.a. "The Razzies") — awards given annually to Hollywood's worst.
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3 comments:
Usually plays go from the stage to being put on a film set. Xanadu is not like this however, it was a film first and I think its really cool how Douglas Beane adapted to the stage, while keeping the show on rollerskates and all the other quirks of the show. Its success is understandable, but because it came from a terrible movie taken out of theaters in two days, I applaud Beane for his inventiveness.
It is rather ironic that a such a movie as Xanadu, noted specifically for being terrible, would become a cult classic, much less a Broadway musical hit. Nevertheless, it is somewhat understandable-- bad is bad, but really bad is just amusing. Perhaps Xanadu in particular in its theatre reincarnation became popular because of its cult following, or maybe simply its reputation as a terrible movie
-- but either way, it's quite impressive that the Douglas Carter Beane was able to maintain all of the elements of the original within a live show setting and also up the humor at the same time.
Xanadu is definitely a difficult play to produce. Everything from design to acting must be carefully done but the way the play is written is definitely helpful in this aspect. I have read a lot of comedic plays that I failed to find funny until I saw them onstage but Xanadu was an exception. It is quite ironic how the fate of the movie is completely opposite of the play's but maybe it's because of the change of times and audiences. Either way Xanadu is a difficult play to produce and I wish well to the Theatre Factory and their upcoming rendition.
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