Playbill: Have you heard the news? As of January 1, 2023, the landmark Broadway musical Show Boat has entered into public domain and its copyright has expired. But what does that mean? Can anyone now rewrite/adapt/revamp Show Boat? What if you want to create a remix of "Old Man River"?
3 comments:
This is a really interesting article. To begin, of course, Show Boat (or at least the original Broadway version of Show Boat) is now in the public domain, which is really exciting for the entertainment world. But more so than that, I think that the significance of this article is that more and more pieces of work are going to lose their copyright in the years to come, which I believe will have its ups and downs. The expiration of copyrights will let theater and film industries draw on previous works and create new out of old, but there's not a doubt in my mind that there will inevitably be legal problems. For example, the article says that Concord Theatricals will still act as publisher, but the process to avoid going through Concord is outlined - and it's extensive and complicated. As more copyrights expire, its important to artists looking to use these types of works to be careful legally.
I found this article really interesting. Copyright laws themselves have intrigued me because of the different rules of what you can and cannot do with a piece of media and when you can or cannot do it is always very specific. And I find it interesting to see how that affects how people interact with media. I would be interested in seeing how people can rewrite or revamp Showboat using its originally published pieces, especially if it is not as palatable to current audiences as the people at Concord say it is. Part of me wonders if the people at Concorde are just saying this so as to deter people from attempting to revise and rewrite the original. I am also interested in seeing if anything happens with Showboat like it happened with The Great Gatsby where within a few years of it being out of copyright there were multiple books or pieces of media that look at the story from a different point of view. I guess only time will tell.
I think as these older musicals’ like Show Boat, South Pacific, and Carousel, just to name the ones mentioned in the article, lose their copyright laws, it will be a good thing. Although the rules behind it are incredibly complex, look at the 2019 adaptation of Oklahoma! These musicals in my opinion, as a white cis woman are still important. History cannot be rewritten but it can be looked upon with fresh eyes and seen for what it really is. With the right perspective, and in this situation likely not my perspective, these musicals can be adapted to show what they really are. I think it is problematic to say that Hammerstein was well intentioned because yes his intention may have been to shock audiences but shock does not mean well intentioned. It is a white man writing a musical in a position of power over black actors who were not even allowed to sit in the same place or stay in the same hotels as white actors and not have the same opportunities as white actors (which they still do not) completely under the control of Hammerstein in order to keep a job which would support their family and ideally break them into the business of their dreams. That is not well intentioned, that is control, and it is a control that still exists today. Maybe with the right creative team that can be broken down.
Post a Comment