| re: One more thing.. | |
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Posted by: |
John_Galt (brandonmartin@dailyuprising.com) 08:13 pm UTC 09/17/09 |
| In reply to: | re: One more thing.. - Scaramouche 07:54 pm UTC 09/16/09 |
| I agree that it might be a good idea for Jim to let someone else write the book -- contingent on his approval. But, there are problems with Jim just doing "lyrical tweaks" on existing songs and then bundling them into a new musical: First, I want new material from Jim -- not musical theater recordings of songs that have already been recorded better by better vocalists and musicians in a studio setting. Second, there should be a strong connection between the score, lyrics, and book in order to achieve the synergistic goodness of a great show -- you probably have to start with the story or at least the concept and write music and lyrics that work with that. Sometimes, one line unnecessary to the theme can throw an audience out of the story state. (I understand that you can do something like Mama Mia or cabaret-style shows where the story is an excuse for a concert, but I'm not sure I really enjoy those in the same way that I do a show where the material seems more integrated.) At any rate, I've long thought that Jim's drive to do musical theater might be undermining his productivity. (I bet he hates the word productivity as applied to creative endeavors.) My guess is that Jim is a songwriter and record producer who always enjoyed and frequently tried his hand at musical theater, but never developed in theater the way he did as a songwriter and record producer. Superficially, it makes sense for him to get into musical theater today because he's gotten a bit long in the tooth for a record producer, theater can be very lucrative, and theater interests him creatively, but that doesn't change the fact that he developed his phenomenal talents in a different area. When I was a younger attorney, I believed that there'd always be a time where you could just switch your hat from one practice area to another with a little extra work. The problem is that there's a lot of background knowledge, understanding, and skill that is developed in an area during that early stage of getting your feet wet. Simply being a brilliant lawyer doesn't make up for the fact that you paid your dues and built your strengths in a different area and don't have the foundation in another one. Smeg may be correct in hypothesizing that Steinman is blocked or unable to write new material for physical or psychological reasons. But, I can also imagine him spending huge amounts of time on the theater aspects of things and less time on songwriting as a result. At any rate, I'd love to see new songs and recordings from Jim in a show or independent of a show, but I could do without musical theater if it meant new songs. -=John Galt=- > > The MTV movie already proved Jim hasn't got enough in him > > to make Wuthering Heights into a musical. > > The MTV film was a lacklustre effort by everyone > concerned, and the only one who deserved a bonus was > whoever scouted the locations. > > In regards a musical, if Jim simply handled lyrical tweaks > and let someone else write the book, then I don't see > problems with getting WH staged. > > > > He recycled a couple of his own songs that didn't really > fit and then farmed out the rest of the work to someone > > else... > > Yeah the music and CD seemed a bit of rush job and nothing > much worked. > | |
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