www.forbes.com: Lovers of the Broadway musical First Date will need to brush up on their Russian to watch the sequel.
Last month, the Broadway Moscow Theatre Company presented a sequel to the short-lived Broadway musical First Date. Named Lovers' Day, the new musical catches up with the original characters, who fell in love after their first date, as they now plan their wedding.
2 comments:
I found this article really interesting because I had never thought about international copyright battles before. It is pretty sad to me that even if the original writes of First Date decide to pursue legal action, they will probably be awarded less money than the amount they spend to fight this in Russian courts. I wish that the people who wrote this new show went to the original authors and worked together because clearly, they liked their show enough to make a sequel, so I feel like they would have wanted to get input from the original authors. I am also really just wondering why they wrote this musical as a sequel to First Date. It seems like they are really only taking the two characters from that show and writing a show about a couple getting married, but that couple is the couple from First Date. I have a feeling they could have written the same show with all of the same songs if they just wrote their own characters. I don’t really understand why they felt the need to take the two characters from this not very well known show to make this one.
As someone fascinated by entertainment law, I really enjoyed reading this article. I will admit I am not the most familiar with the original musical, “First Date”, but I do agree with Annika’s point that it likely could have been written similarly with new characters or the creators should have been in touch with the authors of the source material, especially since it is a recent enough show that the original creators are likely still with us. I am sure that their execution is wonderful, but if they get shut down for copyright infringement, they likely will not be recognized and remembered for the quality of their work itself. The article and the comments from audience members who attended this sequel did make me more interested in learning about international theatre. I think the point about not focusing on Western theatre is a very good one; it would just be better received when not in violation of copyright.
-Ariel Bernhard
Post a Comment