Comments on: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: The Musical & 10 Other Improbable Adaptations

By: wolfgang

wolfgang — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:48:02 +0000

How about ALIEN: The Musical? The tag line could be, ‘In space…nobody can hear you sing!’

However, I’m surprised that “Moulin Rouge” is not already on Broadway. That film screams BROADWAY…

By: Katherine

Katherine — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:32:05 +0000

I saw Jane Eyre: the Musical at my university! VERY well done – I loved it!

By: Christine (:

Christine (: — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:19:48 +0000

How about “Buffy: the Musical”, from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer tv series. Okay, okay, it wasn’t a full stage production, just an episode, but still…

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:26:41 +0000

Hmmm…let’s see

“Star Wars: The Musical” (perhaps with a nice opera-y bit between Luke and Darth Vader, about Vader being Anakin Skywalker and thus Luke’s father?)

“Twilight: The Musical” (where Edward sings longingly about how much he wants to drink Bella’s blood, and Bella has a song wherein she describes Edward using all the descriptions used for him in the book…oh, wait, never mind, we don’t want the audience committing suicide)

“Napoleon Dynamite: The Musical” (with a lovely song and dance from Pedro as part of his campaign)

Ooo! I know! How about “The American Revolution: The Musical”? You can get some great material out of the Boston Tea Party, I can see a nice percussive number being made out of the Stamp Act, and something low and mournful for winter in Valley Forge.

By: Seanette

Seanette — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:13:18 +0000

Terri, don’t forget the pep talk John Wilkes Booth gives Lee Harvey Oswald. Amazingly, I’ve seen JFK assassination theories that make the plot of “Assassins” look eminently reasonable. (Love the musical, though.)

By: Calli Arcale

Calli Arcale — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:11:05 +0000

One that startled me was “Highlander: the Opera”. Corny as it sounds, that was seriously the title, and it wasn’t played as a farce either. It was an opera set in the universe of the 1986 film “Highlander” and the later TV series (though I understand it followed the TV series continuity more closely). It did away with the Queen music, and instead had an entirely original operatic score, written by one of the composers of incidental music for the TV series. A concept album was done, with the hope that it would spark enough interest to get it actually produced, and there were clips available online. (Not a bad strategy; that’s also how the musical version of “Les Miserables” got started.) Musically, it did sound very good, but it was a bit jarring. AFAIK, it was never produced, so we’ll never know if it would have been any good. Mind you, it could’ve been very successful; doomed romance and a high body count are, after all, features of most great operas.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:58:50 +0000

Although it wasn’t an adaptation, Roller Derby: The Musical was the last cocaine driven show I worked on. After it opened to the most scathing reviews of any production I’ve been involved with (including the movie Leonard Pt.VI)the producer asked us “Is the show really that bad?” “Yes” we replied. “Well, why didn’t you say something before we opened?” “You were paying us and giving us drugs!”

By: terri

terri — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:14:31 +0000

No one has mentioned “Assassins” by Sondheim. Any show that has a duet between Squeaky Fromme and John Hinckley has GOT to be on the weirder end of the spectrum …

By: Hyacinth

Hyacinth — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:38:25 +0000

Oh, and thanks for the remark about CATS.
“Musicals have been made from stranger stuffâ€”think on the premise of Cats…”

I really thought that was the stupidest musical I have ever seen, and I have seem my share of musicals (my favorite is Starlight Express, which does not fit this article).

By: Hyacinth

Hyacinth — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:29:50 +0000

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: The Musical sounds like something from Mel Brooks… The Producers meets Cuckoo’s Nest. Now, THAT I could enjoy!