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| re: Here's an interesting question | |
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rockfenris2005 03:22 pm UTC 03/16/11 |
| In reply to: | re: Here's an interesting question - Tremorlor 11:17 am UTC 03/16/11 |
> It might have fared better. At least the one critique > based on the Vienna version was way better than those on > DOTV. > However, the show would still have had the problem of > being foreign, no matter that the composer is from the US. > Patriotism was and still is flying high, so imports are > automatically bad. They tend to change things on Broadway, when they're already fine as is. I'm talking about "Starlight Express" which isn't all that great to begin with (I, personally, don't mind it) which they ruined on Broadway, and there was obviously nothing wrong with it because it ran for two decades in the West End. And then there's "Chess", which was a big success in the West End and as an album. They took it to Broadway and added spoken dialogue to what was supposed to be a through-sung piece. It should have been like the album, with maybe a couple new songs here and there. And "Jekyll & Hyde" which was originally a "Gothic Musical Thriller" and it was much darker. But when it came to Broadway, it was just "The Musical" and lighter, like they were afraid of what would happen if they made it dark? I'm sure there are other examples. But it annoys me because there was nothing wrong with the material and they shouldn't have toyed with it to the degree that they did. I understand a few minor changes, like the trio in "Phantom of the Opera" which was removed from the Broadway production, but when they start tampering with it, adding dialogue to a through-sung piece, or chopping up the songs and rearranging them into a complete mess... or adding in silly American humour that isn't appropriate to the material. > Still call it a weak excuse to turn it from gothic to a > comedy due to 911. Are those US minds truly that weak and > unstable that they desperately need crappy jokes in the > vein of American Pie and Scary Movie to help them heal the > scar of the two towers? But they can handle these serious films and theatre shows. And yet they have this thought process that nobody wants to see a gothic musical that should have opened in the 1980s. Why not? It's a form of musical theatre and it's closer to opera and operetta where musical theatre came from. Why should it be out of date? If the story has to be told that way, you don't make it into something that it's not. And when they did that with "Vampires", you could SEE the book and the songs at odds with one another. If they were going to use the new book, it probably would have needed a new score so that it didn't seem INCONGRUOUS. > > > If "Tanz" had been directly translated into English and > > produced on Broadway, would it have done better? Broadway > > seems to be against that style of musical these days, > > which is a pity, because I think they should embrace all > > forms of musical theatre. But I suppose if it had failed, > > we would all still be happy because they wouldn't have > > ruined it. | |
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