thespian86

A friend of mine in New York told me a couple of weeks ago that he heard news that someone was trying to pen the score to Fight Club to adapt it into a musical. I thought he was joking until he told me people are kind of shopping the idea. Then I got word a couple of days ago from another friend that she heard from an old prof, now friend, that Trent Reznor of NIN fame is the one doing it. It might be all rumors but all I have to say is WTF? The already tried to ruin High Fidelity for me. I know a lot of people won't be interested in this but I can't believe this could be true. I love theatre but anything written by Chuck Pahalinuik should not be adapted to show tunes. What do you think?

edit: Decided to google it and I got confirmation from Chuck himself. Here's a couple of links.

http://www.aintitcool.com/?q=node/17882

http://www.pastemagazine.com/action/...h_trent_reznor

Apparently this has been in the air for four years now. Scary. Of course that totally makes sense. Seems Fincher is involved too.

__________________
EX: Whats new?
ME: I officially love coffee more then you now.
EX: uh...
ME: So, not much.

Martian

I don't use a lot of smilies. Regardless, I think the only appropriate response to this new is:

__________________
I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

Cynthetiq

I mentioned it to Skogafoss and she was like WTF, then I said, Trent may do the music, she was like,"I'll want to see that!"

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Willravel

OMYGODOMYGODOMYGOD!!

Why?

thespian86

I know right? It's completely out of left field for me. I can see the cross over for some films, like the aforementioned film High Fidelity which deals completely with music. Although, I don't think you can compare how fucked up fight club is to anything that has ever graced broadway as a musical (except maybe Legally Blonde).

__________________
EX: Whats new?
ME: I officially love coffee more then you now.
EX: uh...
ME: So, not much.

Willravel

How about we make the Matrix musical or Memento?

Martian

Yes! All of the agent fight sequences replaced by interpretive dance routines, Morpheus leading the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar in a 'Wake Up Neo' show tune, heart-wrenchingly reprised as a solo by Trinity in the finale... hell, this thing practically writes itself!

And given that the Wachowski brothers have aptly demonstrated a complete lack of shame with Speed Racer - the Movie, I think it stands a real chance of actually seeing the light of day.

__________________
I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

Baraka_Guru

[Anything] + "the Musical" = It's over


The same thing goes for anything that gets a weekend feature in the Toronto Star.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Willravel

I would have thought so before The Producers. And Rocky Horror. Le Mis wasn't bad either. And Little Shop of Horrors.

Baraka_Guru

Okay, fair enough....I stand corrected:

[Just about anything] + "the Musical" = It's over

I was more or less referring to recent trends....

The Producers (2001) (originally a musical comedy film)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1973) (originally a stage musical)
Les Misérables (1987)
Little Shop of Horrors (1982)


What have musicals done for us lately? Not that I'm well versed in musicals; maybe I'm wrong. Is there any recent production that was well made?

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Shauk

huh, apparently i'm the only one who thinks this is a cool Idea.

Willravel

I'm not a musical kinda guy so I'm probably not the person to ask.

Cynthetiq

I go to the theater quite a bit, hopefully I see one show a month at least.

The Lion King
Little Mermaid
Mary Poppins
Legally Blonde
Young Frankenstein
Spamalot
Hairspray
Phantom of the Opera - currently longest running show in it's
Footloose
Cry Baby
Xanadu
Shrek The Musical - recently announced

They all have their roots in movies being the original material.

The Disney shows all gross over $1M each every week.

What have they done lately? They rake in almost $20M every week alone just in NYC Broadway ticket sales. That doesn't include how much money is made from tourism, hotels, restaurants, taxis. Then there is the labor, the stagehands, orchestra, actors, ushers, they make money and pay taxes.

This is why the stagehand strike at the end of last year was so disasterous.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Baraka_Guru

Oh, sorry. I meant artistically. But good for Disney and everyone else involved in the NYC Broadway industry.

Do any of those shows have any artistic merit?

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Cynthetiq

Lion King was lauded for it's use of stick puppetry.

Spamalot won several Tony Awards.

I'd say that artistically it's in the eye of the beholder. There are some shows I go to where it's really apparent the cast if just phoning it in. Is that still artistic?

I recall my first broadway show ever The Magic Show with Doug Henning. I was too young to really understand what I was watching, but it got me interested in live theater. Annie the 1977 original, got me very interested in musicals. I was lucky to see Yul Brenner in The King and I just before he died at the Pantages Theater in LA. When I first moved to NYC in 1991. I wanted to go to the theater, but didn't think I could ever afford the tickets until a girlfriend of mine introduced me to TKTS, the Theater Development Fund which offers 50% tickets to same night performances. I saw Smokey Joe's Cafe. Since then I have made a concerted effort to see live theater as often as I can.

If any of these shows as crappy as they could be, inspire just a handful of people to want to see theater, it's well worth the efforts.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Martian

Apparently Spamalot is quite good, although I suppose the artistic merit of Monty Python is debatable.

'Artistic merit' is a vague term and strikes me as somewhat elitist.

Also, a nitpick - Phantom of the Opera was adapted from a novel, not a film. There were film adaptations as well, but so far as I'm aware they all use the original Leroux novel as their source.

__________________
I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

Cynthetiq

I didn't realize that about Phantom. I figured it was based on the Lon Cheney film. Ironically of that list I have only seen Phantom and Spamalot.

I only saw Phantom about a month or so ago and while the sets were neat, I didn't really care for the music nor the play.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Martian

I read the book years ago in French class, and was actually rather horrified by the musical when I finally got around to seeing it. What happened to the Persian?

I have yet to see a musical by Andrew Lloyd Weber that I've liked, although granted I've only seen two.

__________________
I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

ColonelSpecial

I like just about all Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals. To add to the OP, my friends are talking about making Jurassic Park:The Musical. Should be a chomping good time!

__________________
"Mommy, the presidents are squishing me!"

"Using the pull out method of contraceptive is like saying I won't use a seat belt, I'll just jump out of the car before it hits that tree."

Sara

Willravel

Phantom and Cats? Yeah, they're all kinda like that. I've seen Joseph, Evita, Sunset... the only thing he's made that I even come close to liking was Jesus Christ Superstar.

It should be noted that my mom loves musicals, which is why I was exposed at all.

Charlatan

Evil Dead the Musical was great and so was Top Gun the Musical...

Brilliant! and I hate... HATE! musicals.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

sadistikdreams

thespian86

Hey, I was in CATS and I'm with you.

And artistic merit? There's always things like RENT which pretty much helped inform masses, upon masses, upon masses of teenagers about AIDS, Homosexuality, Drug use, Death, Love, Sex. It's a pretty moving piece. I went to see Spring Awakening when it first opened because a friend is friends with John Groff. That was a pretty incredible piece. Even something silly like Avenue Q, which is this incredible satire and the music is so well written and the lyrics so witty. Broadway isn't all jazz squares because, to tell you the truth, most of us hate performing in those ones; some are there to tell a story. Have you ever seen the opening dance number to West Side Story; holy shit. I can't dance, well I guess I can but not well, and really hate to, but that always makes super pumped, and I can't explain why. Yes it's artistic. In fact, it's a culmination of several different passions that just tend to flourish together; music, visual art, dance, drama, etc. I think it's an art form; just like films or books, there are always cheap and hollow ones that are very popular.

__________________
EX: Whats new?
ME: I officially love coffee more then you now.
EX: uh...
ME: So, not much.