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11-06-2001, 09:00 AM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Jul 2000
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| |  Unlikely Musicals | |
Okay - imagination time. What book would be unlikely to make a good musical, but in the outer reaches of imagination, you would envision it?
I wrote on another strand: Quote: Quote: MNM wrote:
How about Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ
says MNM hazarding a guess (not owning a copy as it was never made into a musical...)
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I'm working on that. The main song thus far is 'Who wouldn't want to be like me' with a follow-up refrain near the end of the story 'Who would want to be like me', then the big finish returning to 'Who wouldn't want to be like me'.
Of course, it gets horribly confusing at times...
| So, your turn! |
11-06-2001, 10:27 AM
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Well, Atilla! leaps unbidden to mind. The big production number would of course be "Atilla" in the style of "Oklahoma!" -- can't you just picture the boys in the dance troupe! and the ingenue would sing "Atilla is my Honey."
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Inside every old person is a young person thinking: What the hell happened? |
11-06-2001, 10:28 AM
|  | Glamorous Hollywood Star! | | Join Date: May 2001 Location: Hollywood, California by way of Birmingham, Alabama
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Joseph, my manager, is busy negotiating musicalization rights to all of the following works of literature as I see potential starring vehicles for my talents...
Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho
Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs
Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising
The Marquis de Sade's Justine
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Simarillion
Then there are those works which have been musicalized already such as
Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind
Chaucer's The Cantebury Tales
Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon
Phillipe de Broca's King of Hearts
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey
where the audience often wonders why?
MNM 
__________________ MNM, coming to you live from Chateau Maine, high in the Hollywood Hills.
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11-06-2001, 10:28 AM
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The Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary, Edition 3 |
11-06-2001, 10:33 AM
|  | Geeky goof | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Boston, Mass.
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Tolstoy's War and Peace (which might be better as opera)
anything by Tom Clancy
anything by John Grisham
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Ailsa |
11-06-2001, 11:17 AM
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C'mon, guys, anyone can make a list. Tell us what the big number would be, or who would play the lead, or who would write (or provide the inspiration for) the music....
Don't you think the Starbucks memoir, Pour Your Heart Into It, would work well set to the music of Bach's Coffee Cantata?
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11-06-2001, 12:41 PM
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Yes, at least one song title.
Like from War and Peace, the big Ballad of the Frozen Frenchie could be a real show stopper... |
11-06-2001, 12:56 PM
|  | Curmudgeon | | Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: State of Confusion
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I vote for ... The Oxford English Dictionary
and see ...something like: Sesame Street Does The Producers. A musical in 26 parts, with dancing, singing ...letters? words? Of course, it would have to be for adults only if we leave in the naughty bits. There could be a kid's spinoff (an abridged version, so to speak) that might be a popular teaching tool for elementary school English classes.
Song: the great love song would be that old one that goes: "It's only words, but words are all I have..to steal your heart awayyyyy."
I'm sure MNM would have a brilliant idea about appropriate costumes.
Last edited by AdaDavis; 11-06-2001 at 01:28 PM.
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11-06-2001, 01:02 PM
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Oh, good -- a Chorus Line format might work well. You think?
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Inside every old person is a young person thinking: What the hell happened? |
11-06-2001, 01:15 PM
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One - single definition
every little page she turns...
One - single definition
ev-er-y thing that she learns... |
11-06-2001, 03:08 PM
| | Glamorous Hollywood Star! | | Join Date: May 2001 Location: Hollywood, California by way of Birmingham, Alabama
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Wierd Al Yankovic already came up with the title song for 'Jurassic Park' to the tune of 'Macarthur Park' so all someone needs to do is sit down and finish the score.
On my picks - American Psycho needs to be a chamber show with an upbeat Cy Coleman score. I would play all of the female victims or parts (or parts of victims), each of whom would have a lovely operatic ballad on the anomie of modern culture before being dismembered. The Silence of the Lambs would offer me as Clarice Starling, FBI trainee extrodinaire and would have a dark Sondheimian score, full of jailhouse duets for me and Hannibal such as 'Fava Beans' and 'First Principles'. Red Storm Rising would cast me as mother Russia, an enigmatic allegorical figure, set to a bombastic Boubil/Schoneberg score. It would be Broadway's biggest spectacular with multiple helicopters landing on stage and live ammunition drops over the audience. Justine would have me in the title role, wearing a simple little Gaultier made of black leather stips and rivets, supported by an enormous chorus of hard bodied youngsters wearing even less. It should appeal to the tired businessmen crowd. The Simarillion would be an operatic spectacular, too large for any current Broadway house so we'd have to rent Yankee Stadium. I would play Morgoth and, through the clever use of David Copperfield's illusions, I would be able to defeat and destroy most of the elven world.
MNM
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11-06-2001, 03:35 PM
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Quote: Originally posted by kurt_messick
One - single definition
every little page she turns...
One - single definition
ev-er-y thing that she learns... | Oh! that is wonderful!
You've just inflicted my earworm du jour.
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Inside every old person is a young person thinking: What the hell happened? |
11-06-2001, 04:22 PM
|  | Swashbuckling Picaroon | | Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Sailing the Seas of Limburger Cheese
Posts: 277
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Quote: Originally posted by MrsNormanMaine
Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs | Ah, but Mrs. Maine, what would Broadway be without the likes of Sweeney Todd?
(Answer: easy to clean up after)
Improbable musicals can be as fascinating as a train wreck... i.e. "Elephant!" from The Tall Guy.
OK, bad ideas:
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Walden Star Wars: Attack of the Drones Ultima Online: The Musical |
11-06-2001, 05:15 PM
| | Glamorous Hollywood Star! | | Join Date: May 2001 Location: Hollywood, California by way of Birmingham, Alabama
Posts: 2,353
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Hmmm... Star Wars: Attack of the drones with an all bagpipe score has interesting possibilities... I wonder if I could rent the international space station as a venue?
MNM 
__________________ MNM, coming to you live from Chateau Maine, high in the Hollywood Hills.
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11-06-2001, 05:33 PM
| | Geeky goof | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Boston, Mass.
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For Clancy (sorry, couldn't resist):
It's fun to work for the Cee-eee--I-A
It's fun to work for the Cee-eee--I-A
Ailsa |
11-06-2001, 05:38 PM
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Posts: 9,648
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Also for Clancy (apologies to Abba):
Knowing me, knowing you,
aha
there is nothing we can't snoop
knowing me, knowing you,
aha
we can't tell you, this time it's true
knowing me, knowing you
its the job that I do... |
11-06-2001, 06:29 PM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Malden, MA, USA
Posts: 8,461
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Well, I must admit I wasn't very optimistic about The Scarlet Pimpernel until I saw the show (it was wonderful).
How about Death Be Not Proud the Musical with such classics as the Cat Scan Tango (a big production number in the hospital), Take a Letter to Einstein (paraphrasing Johnny's letter to and response from Ole Al), and Something Sort of Largish (when they discover the Tumor).
Something sickening, something sort of largish
Sweeps my body when I try not to tear
My heart feels so terrifiedish
My head feels so unclear
Something so largish
So I-can't-bearish
Settles in from limb to limb
Ack, those lyrics are awful but you get the idea.
Janice
Last edited by quasar; 11-06-2001 at 06:40 PM.
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11-06-2001, 06:38 PM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Jul 2000
Posts: 9,648
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My oh my...
I just had a vision of Augustine's Confessions being set to music.
Augustine, in his best Tevye-esque, dancing around (to the tune of Fiddler on the Roof's Tradition
Confession!
Confession!
...
Confession!
Confession!
Confession!
...
Confession!
Who, day and night, must scramble for a blessing,
Feed the parish sheep, and say the daily mass?
And who has the right, as pastor of the church
To have the final cup of wine!
The papa! The papa! Confession!
....
Well, you get the idea.... |
11-06-2001, 09:19 PM
| | Glamorous Hollywood Star! | | Join Date: May 2001 Location: Hollywood, California by way of Birmingham, Alabama
Posts: 2,353
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Or the Someone Left The Tree number from A Seperate Peace
There was someone in the tree
Till I made the branch move down
Without someone in the tree
Nothing happened here
It's the fragment of the bone
It's the dripping of the blood
It's the ripple of the stream
That is happening
I am hiding in the tree
Till they hear me call for help
If I weren't who's to say
That things happened here the way
That they're happening.
Someone left the tree.
MNM  (Big apologies to Pacific Overtures fans)
__________________ MNM, coming to you live from Chateau Maine, high in the Hollywood Hills.
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11-06-2001, 09:52 PM
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Posts: 8,328
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How about a musical based on the new Patriot's Anti-Terrorist Wiretapping Bill (or whatever that thing is called)?
Our hero and heroine, FBI agents, are in love. But working 20 hours a day at the wiretaps, they have no time outside of the office and are forced to multitask, exploring their passion while they listen in on the phones, as this showstopping number demonstrates:
There's a trace for us.
A line and trace for us.
Hold my hand, and I'll take you -- hear!
Hold my hand, and we're halfway -- hear!
Some line! Some trace! Some -- ah, dear! |
11-06-2001, 10:12 PM
| | Junior Member | | Join Date: Jul 2000
Posts: 8,328
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And then there's the musical based on Judith Miller's "Germ":
Malaria.
Malaria.
I just caught a germ named Malaria.
And suddenly that name
will never be the same
to meeeee.
Mah -- la -- ria.
Say it soft, and it's music playing.
Say it loud, and it's almost like praying ...
[Sorry. The bad taste filter seems to be out of order, and let this one slip through.] |
11-07-2001, 10:44 AM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Jul 2000
Posts: 9,648
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I'm overcome with emotion at all these entries.
(or perhaps it is a touch of malaria...) |
11-07-2001, 11:16 AM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Providence, RI
Posts: 1,701
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Fr. Franken...I mean, Kurt, you have unleashed a monster 
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Inside every old person is a young person thinking: What the hell happened? |
11-07-2001, 11:19 AM
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Posts: 9,648
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One can but hope...
Perhaps someday I'll treat you all to my special release CD of bad (and I mean bad) parody songs... |
11-07-2001, 11:55 AM
| | Geeky goof | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Boston, Mass.
Posts: 5,605
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Finally came up with one for Grisham. Effuse, effuse apologies to Elvis Costello here ...
Don't tell me I don't know what truth is
When you're old enough to know better
When you find you're suddenly a debtor
When your dreamboat turns out to be a rowboat
I'm a man with a mission in two jurisdictions
And I'm shooting for a lot of loot
Everyday, everyday, everyday I file a suit
Juror One she believes my case was really strong
Juror Two he thinks your argument was true
A negligible fee will take care of Juror Three
But we'd still better fix Jurors Four, Five and Six
Ailsa | |
