I studied Ui when I went back to my local FE college to improve my grades.
We saw a very good pro production of Ui in the West End. No musical numbers but the set for the final big speech was brilliant
Aside, but anyone remember Elephant! - a spoof musical based on the life of the life of Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, in the film The Tall Guy?
Somewhere up in heaven there's an angel with big ears!
I so wish someone would stage a concert version! Hilariously bad and very recognisable from the little clips you see in the film.
The souvenir mugs featured in the film were recognisably made by Dewynters - if you have a mug, poster or other souvenir from a big show of that period you will recognise the style. We actually wrote to Dewynters and asked for one but sadly they were all destroyed.
The musical version of Trainspotting in the West End has been given a drubbing by critics. Now over here critics don’t have anywhere near the same influence as on Broadway so we can take their opinion with a grain of salt. The fact is people who hear about it say it is not a good idea for a musical. Given some of the shows with dark themes have been great, and Show Boat, the show we regard as the first modern musical had themes of racism, alcoholism and broken families, are they any subjects not suitable to be made into a musical?
Honestly, anything overly bureaucratic or heavy on paperwork sounds impossible to adapt—imagine a high-energy dance number about tax audits or supply chain logistics. Check out the (advertising link deleted - la vie en rouge, Purgatory host) to see our latest features and activate your initial welcome reward.
Though, knowing modern theater, someone would probably still try to win a Tony for it!
It is definitely true that complex topics challenge traditional storytelling, yet theater has a long history of turning unexpected subjects into compelling art. Perhaps a clever creative team could eventually make even the most unlikely themes surprisingly entertaining for audiences.
The H P Lovecraft Historical Society has an opinion on the matter, claiming that 'A Shoggoth on the Roof' dealt with subjects never meant to be made into a musical. However, following the example of Lovecraft himself, they went ahead and did it anyway.
The H P Lovecraft Historical Society has an opinion on the matter, claiming that 'A Shoggoth on the Roof' dealt with subjects never meant to be made into a musical. However, following the example of Lovecraft himself, they went ahead and did it anyway.
Botched sex alignment ("sex change") operation leaving a 1" stub of a penis. Oh wait.
There is one old Ken Dodd (remember him?) song which would, if only slightly changed, be just right for this show. It was the greatest gift that he possessed.
Botched sex alignment ("sex change") operation leaving a 1" stub of a penis. Oh wait.
I know Hedwig had a revival on Broadway a few years ago but that is still a good if a bit niche reference.
The often wondered what certain groups thought of Hamilton particularly the line “emigrants get things done”.
Botched sex alignment ("sex change") operation leaving a 1" stub of a penis. Oh wait.
There is one old Ken Dodd (remember him?) song which would, if only slightly changed, be just right for this show. It was the greatest gift that he possessed.
Botched sex alignment ("sex change") operation leaving a 1" stub of a penis. Oh wait.
There is one old Ken Dodd (remember him?) song which would, if only slightly changed, be just right for this show. It was the greatest gift that he possessed.
Honestly, anything overly bureaucratic or heavy on paperwork sounds impossible to adapt—imagine a high-energy dance number about tax audits or supply chain logistics. Though, knowing modern theater, someone would probably still try to win a Tony for it!
There's a song about (government embassy) bureaucracy in Chess which is quite good.
"The Beautiful Game" is an awful musical. Not because there's anything fundamentally wrong with a musical about the Troubles, but because it's crap.
I know we've had 'The Producers' but I don't think anyone has mentioned 'Cabaret' yet. 'Tomorrow Belongs to Me' etc etc. I don't like musicals (though I like jazz, and particularly old jazz standards, which are mostly numbers from musicals...go figure as they say in those kinds of scripts) - but I like that one.
Honestly, anything overly bureaucratic or heavy on paperwork sounds impossible to adapt—imagine a high-energy dance number about tax audits or supply chain logistics. Though, knowing modern theater, someone would probably still try to win a Tony for it!
There's a song about (government embassy) bureaucracy in Chess which is quite good.
"The Beautiful Game" is an awful musical. Not because there's anything fundamentally wrong with a musical about the Troubles, but because it's crap.
Yes Cabaret is fairly dark. The show is darker than the film. I think the film is second string.
I would say The Beautiful Game (called The Boys in the Photograph in some places) is flawed but has some great moments. I think it needs a good re write. Either play up the troubles more or play up the humour.
Honestly, anything overly bureaucratic or heavy on paperwork sounds impossible to adapt—imagine a high-energy dance number about tax audits or supply chain logistics. Though, knowing modern theater, someone would probably still try to win a Tony for it!
There's a song about (government embassy) bureaucracy in Chess which is quite good.
"The Beautiful Game" is an awful musical. Not because there's anything fundamentally wrong with a musical about the Troubles, but because it's crap.
Yes Cabaret is fairly dark. The show is darker than the film. I think the film is second string.
Politics is sometimes sighted as not a fit for musicals but there have been so many. Hamilton at the moment, also US 1776. Stephen Ward and Made in Dagenham in the UK to name a few.
Various horror stories have been turned into successful shows. Tanz der Vamipre in Germany, though the US version tried to make it less serious. The German style gives it the camp it needs. Evil Dead the musical was in a small theatre and there was so much fake blood that they created a splatter zone in the first couple of rows. Of course those seats sold out fast.
Politics is sometimes sighted as not a fit for musicals but there have been so many. Hamilton at the moment, also US 1776. Stephen Ward and Made in Dagenham in the UK to name a few.
I would add Fiorello!, about Fiorello La Guardia, Tammany Hall and New York City politics.
Honestly, anything overly bureaucratic or heavy on paperwork sounds impossible to adapt—imagine a high-energy dance number about tax audits or supply chain logistics. Though, knowing modern theater, someone would probably still try to win a Tony for it!
There's a song about (government embassy) bureaucracy in Chess which is quite good.
Humorously I literally came here to say that after I just watched it yesterday.
I will note that it's not the paperwork that makes it humorous as much as the way they treat it. But of course I think that's probably exactly why anything can be a good musical. Because it's all in how you treat it.
The musical version of Trainspotting in the West End has been given a drubbing by critics. Now over here critics don’t have anywhere near the same influence as on Broadway so we can take their opinion with a grain of salt. The fact is people who hear about it say it is not a good idea for a musical. Given some of the shows with dark themes have been great, and Show Boat, the show we regard as the first modern musical had themes of racism, alcoholism and broken families, are they any subjects not suitable to be made into a musical?
Honestly, anything overly bureaucratic or heavy on paperwork sounds impossible to adapt—imagine a high-energy dance number about tax audits or supply chain logistics. Check out the (advertising link deleted - la vie en rouge, Purgatory host) to see our latest features and activate your initial welcome reward.
Though, knowing modern theater, someone would probably still try to win a Tony for it!
It is definitely true that complex topics challenge traditional storytelling, yet theater has a long history of turning unexpected subjects into compelling art. Perhaps a clever creative team could eventually make even the most unlikely themes surprisingly entertaining for audiences.
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Of course there is the musical from over fifty years ago which literally hit just about every then-taboo they could think of, including crossdressing, transsexuality, cannibalism (Meat Loaf!), drugs (“He thought you were the candy man”), gay sex, and other stuff, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. ❤️
Oh, and Hair dealt with a lot of then-taboos, too! But I’ve not seen that one yet…
Of course there is the musical from over fifty years ago which literally hit just about every then-taboo they could think of, including crossdressing, transsexuality, cannibalism (Meat Loaf!), drugs (“He thought you were the candy man”), gay sex, and other stuff, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. ❤️
In junior-high, early 1980s, there was a girl who talked about THRPS movie a lot(eg. pointing to a photo of a couple on a language-arts grammar poster: "They look like Brad and Janet"), but admitted that she had never seen it herself and was getting all her information about it from her older sister(*).
I also attended an arts-camp in junior-high, where Rocky Horror, along with Fame, was a big deal with some of the other participants. And in high-school, I was socially adjacent to some of the crowd who'd attend screenings on long weekends, but never went myself.
I finally got around to watching it in the early to mid 1990s, on a borrowed cassette on my mother's VCR, and remember thinking I could kinda understand why it had bombed prior to the emergence of the cult. It also occured to me that I'd never heard any of the movie's devotees mention the fairly prominent RKO motif, and most of them would likely have had no understanding of the cultural significance of that.
(*) This was a pretty common strategy with the underaged posers(guilty myself, I'm sure). In Grade 5, our split class took a field-trip somewhere, and when the bus passed a theatre advertising Hair on the marquee, a bunch of the Grade 6 boys started clapping for it. I assume someone had an older brother who'd seen it and told them how cool it was.
Watching TRHPS on the small screen is not to watch TRHPS at all. It wasn't just a movie it was a Happening, or rather thousands of Happenings, one for each screening. The cameraderie of a bunch of freak geeks shouting in unison, who know the movie by heart and dance the Time Warp in the aisles, is an experience that cannot be replicated on the small screen. Watching it on a TV is just sparkling musical.
Watching TRHPS on the small screen is not to watch TRHPS at all. It wasn't just a movie it was a Happening, or rather thousands of Happenings, one for each screening. The cameraderie of a bunch of freak geeks shouting in unison, who know the movie by heart and dance the Time Warp in the aisles, is an experience that cannot be replicated on the small screen. Watching it on a TV is just sparkling musical.
Oh, I'm sure that's true, and my discussion of watching it on TV is meant to sound somewhat bathetic.
I will note, though, that the cult was not originally part of the experience as envisioned by the creators, so the film, in and of itself, can't really be defended artistically on the grounds of audience cameraderie.
That said, the film was probably made before people could have imagined movies widely watched on VCRs, so, yes, if nothing else, that alone would argue against considering small-screen viewings as authentic.
The repertory theater in Edmonton used to have BIG-SCREEN showings of TRHPS, but with a NO AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION rule, so that, in the words of their guide book, "non-cultists can see what all the fuss is about". That would give you the full experience as intended by the creators, minus the grassroots Happenings that audiences later added to the experience.
I like RHPS on the small screen. I’ve never really been into audience sing-alongs for musicals, much less throwing stuff at the screen. (Never been to an interactive RHPS, so maybe I’m missing out…)
I like RHPS on the small screen. I’ve never really been into audience sing-alongs for musicals, much less throwing stuff at the screen. (Never been to an interactive RHPS, so maybe I’m missing out…)
You mean you've never been to an audience-participation screening of RHPS? Funny, because I would've guessed you had, because, as per @mousethief, I kind of assume almost all Rocky Horror fans nowadays are cultists.
Is small-screen the only format you've seen it on? Have you seen live productions of the play?
I like RHPS on the small screen. I’ve never really been into audience sing-alongs for musicals, much less throwing stuff at the screen. (Never been to an interactive RHPS, so maybe I’m missing out…)
You mean you've never been to an audience-participation screening of RHPS? Funny, because I would've guessed you had, because, as per @mousethief, I kind of assume almost all Rocky Horror fans nowadays are cultists.
Is small-screen the only format you've seen it on? Have you seen live productions of the play?
Nothing live or in a theatre, no, just on a TV screen. Have you seen it? It’s enjoyable, at least to me, without people throwing stuff at the screen.
I like RHPS on the small screen. I’ve never really been into audience sing-alongs for musicals, much less throwing stuff at the screen. (Never been to an interactive RHPS, so maybe I’m missing out…)
You mean you've never been to an audience-participation screening of RHPS? Funny, because I would've guessed you had, because, as per @mousethief, I kind of assume almost all Rocky Horror fans nowadays are cultists.
Is small-screen the only format you've seen it on? Have you seen live productions of the play?
Nothing live or in a theatre, no, just on a TV screen. Have you seen it? It’s enjoyable, at least to me, without people throwing stuff at the screen.
Yes. As I said in my original reply to you, I watched it one time, on a VCR, by myself in my mom's living room. I was pretty take-it-or-leave-it on the whole thing.
I also mentioned in that post the arts camp I attended for a coupla summers in the early 80s, where lots of people were into Rocky Horror. A lot of them were also into Fame. When I finally got around to watching the original movie Fame circa 2010, I found it interesting that at one point the characters attend a midnight cult screening of TRHPS. I guess the cult screenings had become canonical quickly enough to be included in another movie released in 1980.
Watching TRHPS on the small screen is not to watch TRHPS at all. It wasn't just a movie it was a Happening, or rather thousands of Happenings, one for each screening. The cameraderie of a bunch of freak geeks shouting in unison, who know the movie by heart and dance the Time Warp in the aisles, is an experience that cannot be replicated on the small screen. Watching it on a TV is just sparkling musical.
I also mentioned in that post the arts camp I attended for a coupla summers in the early 80s, where lots of people were into Rocky Horror. A lot of them were also into Fame. When I finally got around to watching the original movie Fame circa 2010, I found it interesting that at one point the characters attend a midnight cult screening of TRHPS. I guess the cult screenings had become canonical quickly enough to be included in another movie released in 1980.
TRHPS came out in 1975. It was a movie adaptation of the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show, which premiered in London in 1973 and ran for almost 3,000 performances. It opened on Broadway in 1975, but didn’t last long.
The audience participation, counter-dialogue at midnight showings of TRHPS started at the Waverly Theater in NYC in 1976. By 1978, it had spread to at least 50 cities, and by 1979, to 230 cities. I, who was living in small town eastern North Carolina, first became aware of it in early 1979; there was a theater in a college town about 20 miles away that showed in. I got to college (not the town 20 miles away) in the fall of 1979, and there was a theater near campus that showed it every other weekend.
There was a revival of The Rocky Horror Show on Broadway last year. The cast and others who staged the production found themselves needing to make adjustments because audiences wanted to participate as they do at midnight movies, and that hadn’t been part of theater productions.
As for Fame, it came out while I was in college as a music major. We loved that movie. I still love it.
TRHPS came out in 1975. It was a movie adaptation of the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show, which premiered in London in 1973 and ran for almost 3,000 performances. It opened on Broadway in 1975, but didn’t last long.
The audience participation, counter-dialogue at midnight showings of TRHPS started at the Waverly Theater in NYC in 1976. By 1978, it had spread to at least 50 cities, and by 1979, to 230 cities. I, who was living in small town eastern North Carolina, first became aware of it in early 1979; there was a theater in a college town about 20 miles away that showed in. I got to college (not the town 20 miles away) in the fall of 1979, and there was a theater near campus that showed it every other weekend.
Yep. That about matches my understanding. Thanks for filling in the details.
I don't know if I knew that the show had bombed so badly on Broadway before being made into a movie. I wonder if Hollywood had already bought the rights before they realized how badly it was gonna do on stage.
As for Fame, it came out while I was in college as a music major. We loved that movie. I still love it.
Yeah. It really did seem to have a hold on the imagination of kids who aspired to careers in the arts. At that arts camp, we got to/had to sing I Sing The Body Electric in choir class.
TRHPS came out in 1975. It was a movie adaptation of the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show, which premiered in London in 1973 and ran for almost 3,000 performances. It opened on Broadway in 1975, but didn’t last long.
The audience participation, counter-dialogue at midnight showings of TRHPS started at the Waverly Theater in NYC in 1976. By 1978, it had spread to at least 50 cities, and by 1979, to 230 cities. I, who was living in small town eastern North Carolina, first became aware of it in early 1979; there was a theater in a college town about 20 miles away that showed in. I got to college (not the town 20 miles away) in the fall of 1979, and there was a theater near campus that showed it every other weekend.
I don't know if I knew that the show had bombed so badly on Broadway before being made into a movie. I wonder if Hollywood had already bought the rights before they realized how badly it was gonna do on stage.
Given that the show opened on Broadway on March 10, 1975, and that the movie was released August (UK) and September (US), 1975, after being filmed in 1974, I think it’s a safe bet the rights were bought before the show opened on Broadway.
As for “how badly it was gonna do on stage,” did you miss that it ran for almost 3,000 performances (around seven years) in London? It also ran for nine months in LA before it opened on Broadway, and it opened in Australia 1974, before Broadway, and ran for three years. The short first run on Broadway was an exception.
TRHPS came out in 1975. It was a movie adaptation of the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show, which premiered in London in 1973 and ran for almost 3,000 performances. It opened on Broadway in 1975, but didn’t last long.
The audience participation, counter-dialogue at midnight showings of TRHPS started at the Waverly Theater in NYC in 1976. By 1978, it had spread to at least 50 cities, and by 1979, to 230 cities. I, who was living in small town eastern North Carolina, first became aware of it in early 1979; there was a theater in a college town about 20 miles away that showed in. I got to college (not the town 20 miles away) in the fall of 1979, and there was a theater near campus that showed it every other weekend.
I don't know if I knew that the show had bombed so badly on Broadway before being made into a movie. I wonder if Hollywood had already bought the rights before they realized how badly it was gonna do on stage.
Given that the show opened on Broadway on March 10, 1975, and that the movie was released August (UK) and September (US), 1975, after being filmed in 1974, I think it’s a safe bet the rights were bought before the show opened on Broadway.
As for “how badly it was gonna do on stage,” did you miss that it ran for almost 3,000 performances (around seven years) in London? It also ran for nine months in LA before it opened on Broadway, and it opened in Australia 1974, before Broadway, and ran for three years. The short first run on Broadway was an exception.
Sorry. Overlooked that detail of the chronology(ie. both the movie and the Broadway production in 1975).
Personally I don't like musicals at all. The more recent they are, the more likely I am to dislike them.
I'd be delighted if all topics were excluded from them.
Personally I don't like musicals at all. The more recent they are, the more likely I am to dislike them.
I'd be delighted if all topics were excluded from them.
Why delighted? People can enjoy different things. I’m not into westerns or war movies but other people can like them.
Personally I don't like musicals at all. The more recent they are, the more likely I am to dislike them.
I'd be delighted if all topics were excluded from them.
Why delighted? People can enjoy different things. I’m not into westerns or war movies but other people can like them.
Somehow I can’t imagine “Charles Manson” on Broadway or anywhere else.
Manson was actually a pretty major pop-culture staple from at least Helter Skelter onwards, with made-for-TV movies, and punch-lines everywhere from Mad Magazine to serial-killer chic in the 90s, Guns N Rose's recording one of his songs, Marilyn Manson etc.
So I could actually imagine someone doing a Manson musical, but it might be more in a Fringe sorta milieu, rather than, say, dinner theatre. And maybe wouldn't focus directly on the murders, but life in prison, alt-reality where he's POTUS etc(*).
(*) Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is a relatively light-hearted take on Manson, but portrays an alt-history in which the Tate-LaBianca murders are averted.
Apparently, a sci-fi infused Manson musical from 2008.
Seems geared toward ironic appreciation among the punk community, so probably doesn't really fit the theme of this thread, which I think assumes a more typical "Rodgers and Hammerstein"-esque idea of a musical.
The former cult leader who is currently serving a life sentence in a California prison is getting the musical treatment in Hamburg, Germany. The play follows Manson’s failed musical endeavors and the crimes and killing spree of the Manson “family,” as his followers were known.
“Charles Manson: Summer of Hate – The Musical” opened Friday, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Watching TRHPS on the small screen is not to watch TRHPS at all. It wasn't just a movie it was a Happening, or rather thousands of Happenings, one for each screening. The cameraderie of a bunch of freak geeks shouting in unison, who know the movie by heart and dance the Time Warp in the aisles, is an experience that cannot be replicated on the small screen. Watching it on a TV is just sparkling musical.
Oh, I'm sure that's true, and my discussion of watching it on TV is meant to sound somewhat bathetic.
I will note, though, that the cult was not originally part of the experience as envisioned by the creators, so the film, in and of itself, can't really be defended artistically on the grounds of audience cameraderie.
However the film as envisioned by the creators was a failure. What made it the success it became is exactly the immersive experience.
The repertory theater in Edmonton used to have BIG-SCREEN showings of TRHPS, but with a NO AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION rule, so that, in the words of their guide book, "non-cultists can see what all the fuss is about".
All the fuss, however, is about the immersive experience, not the film itself, simpliciter. Non-cultists seeing it without the audience participation aren't seeing what the cultists see and feel and experience. The movie by itself would not have drawn me in for the score (roughly) of viewings I went to. It was, to abuse a cliché, being part of something larger than myself. With show tunes.
We often say that Rocky Horror represents a very British look at B movies and Little Shop of Horrors a very US view. There have been films of both musical. Little Shop changed its ending for the film. It fits a film format better than the original stage ending.
I know this may sound weird to some people, but I feel like watching RHPS when people are throwing things and the like would be distracting. For me, the movie is fun and quirky on its own without audience partici…
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I agree. A musical version of Arturo Ui - or something on a similar theme - could be really excellent.
We saw a very good pro production of Ui in the West End. No musical numbers but the set for the final big speech was brilliant
I so wish someone would stage a concert version! Hilariously bad and very recognisable from the little clips you see in the film.
The souvenir mugs featured in the film were recognisably made by Dewynters - if you have a mug, poster or other souvenir from a big show of that period you will recognise the style. We actually wrote to Dewynters and asked for one but sadly they were all destroyed.
It is definitely true that complex topics challenge traditional storytelling, yet theater has a long history of turning unexpected subjects into compelling art. Perhaps a clever creative team could eventually make even the most unlikely themes surprisingly entertaining for audiences.
https://www.hplhs.org/shoggoth.php
Also an array of Christmas albums!
There is one old Ken Dodd (remember him?) song which would, if only slightly changed, be just right for this show. It was the greatest gift that he possessed.
I know Hedwig had a revival on Broadway a few years ago but that is still a good if a bit niche reference.
The often wondered what certain groups thought of Hamilton particularly the line “emigrants get things done”.
Slightly changed? He knew what he was singing.
Not a diddy man then?
And the movie is about to get a 25th anniversary re-release in 32 cities in the US.
There's a song about (government embassy) bureaucracy in Chess which is quite good.
"The Beautiful Game" is an awful musical. Not because there's anything fundamentally wrong with a musical about the Troubles, but because it's crap.
Yes Cabaret is fairly dark. The show is darker than the film. I think the film is second string.
I would say The Beautiful Game (called The Boys in the Photograph in some places) is flawed but has some great moments. I think it needs a good re write. Either play up the troubles more or play up the humour.
Various horror stories have been turned into successful shows. Tanz der Vamipre in Germany, though the US version tried to make it less serious. The German style gives it the camp it needs. Evil Dead the musical was in a small theatre and there was so much fake blood that they created a splatter zone in the first couple of rows. Of course those seats sold out fast.
I will note that it's not the paperwork that makes it humorous as much as the way they treat it. But of course I think that's probably exactly why anything can be a good musical. Because it's all in how you treat it.
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Oh, and Hair dealt with a lot of then-taboos, too! But I’ve not seen that one yet…
Not sure anywhere else would have Dame Thora on their radar...
In junior-high, early 1980s, there was a girl who talked about THRPS movie a lot(eg. pointing to a photo of a couple on a language-arts grammar poster: "They look like Brad and Janet"), but admitted that she had never seen it herself and was getting all her information about it from her older sister(*).
I also attended an arts-camp in junior-high, where Rocky Horror, along with Fame, was a big deal with some of the other participants. And in high-school, I was socially adjacent to some of the crowd who'd attend screenings on long weekends, but never went myself.
I finally got around to watching it in the early to mid 1990s, on a borrowed cassette on my mother's VCR, and remember thinking I could kinda understand why it had bombed prior to the emergence of the cult. It also occured to me that I'd never heard any of the movie's devotees mention the fairly prominent RKO motif, and most of them would likely have had no understanding of the cultural significance of that.
(*) This was a pretty common strategy with the underaged posers(guilty myself, I'm sure). In Grade 5, our split class took a field-trip somewhere, and when the bus passed a theatre advertising Hair on the marquee, a bunch of the Grade 6 boys started clapping for it. I assume someone had an older brother who'd seen it and told them how cool it was.
Oh, I'm sure that's true, and my discussion of watching it on TV is meant to sound somewhat bathetic.
I will note, though, that the cult was not originally part of the experience as envisioned by the creators, so the film, in and of itself, can't really be defended artistically on the grounds of audience cameraderie.
That said, the film was probably made before people could have imagined movies widely watched on VCRs, so, yes, if nothing else, that alone would argue against considering small-screen viewings as authentic.
The repertory theater in Edmonton used to have BIG-SCREEN showings of TRHPS, but with a NO AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION rule, so that, in the words of their guide book, "non-cultists can see what all the fuss is about". That would give you the full experience as intended by the creators, minus the grassroots Happenings that audiences later added to the experience.
You mean you've never been to an audience-participation screening of RHPS? Funny, because I would've guessed you had, because, as per @mousethief, I kind of assume almost all Rocky Horror fans nowadays are cultists.
Is small-screen the only format you've seen it on? Have you seen live productions of the play?
Nothing live or in a theatre, no, just on a TV screen. Have you seen it? It’s enjoyable, at least to me, without people throwing stuff at the screen.
Yes. As I said in my original reply to you, I watched it one time, on a VCR, by myself in my mom's living room. I was pretty take-it-or-leave-it on the whole thing.
I also mentioned in that post the arts camp I attended for a coupla summers in the early 80s, where lots of people were into Rocky Horror. A lot of them were also into Fame. When I finally got around to watching the original movie Fame circa 2010, I found it interesting that at one point the characters attend a midnight cult screening of TRHPS. I guess the cult screenings had become canonical quickly enough to be included in another movie released in 1980.
TRHPS came out in 1975. It was a movie adaptation of the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show, which premiered in London in 1973 and ran for almost 3,000 performances. It opened on Broadway in 1975, but didn’t last long.
The audience participation, counter-dialogue at midnight showings of TRHPS started at the Waverly Theater in NYC in 1976. By 1978, it had spread to at least 50 cities, and by 1979, to 230 cities. I, who was living in small town eastern North Carolina, first became aware of it in early 1979; there was a theater in a college town about 20 miles away that showed in. I got to college (not the town 20 miles away) in the fall of 1979, and there was a theater near campus that showed it every other weekend.
There was a revival of The Rocky Horror Show on Broadway last year. The cast and others who staged the production found themselves needing to make adjustments because audiences wanted to participate as they do at midnight movies, and that hadn’t been part of theater productions.
As for Fame, it came out while I was in college as a music major. We loved that movie. I still love it.
Yep. That about matches my understanding. Thanks for filling in the details.
I don't know if I knew that the show had bombed so badly on Broadway before being made into a movie. I wonder if Hollywood had already bought the rights before they realized how badly it was gonna do on stage.
Yeah. It really did seem to have a hold on the imagination of kids who aspired to careers in the arts. At that arts camp, we got to/had to sing I Sing The Body Electric in choir class.
As for “how badly it was gonna do on stage,” did you miss that it ran for almost 3,000 performances (around seven years) in London? It also ran for nine months in LA before it opened on Broadway, and it opened in Australia 1974, before Broadway, and ran for three years. The short first run on Broadway was an exception.
Sorry. Overlooked that detail of the chronology(ie. both the movie and the Broadway production in 1975).
I'd be delighted if all topics were excluded from them.
Why delighted? People can enjoy different things. I’m not into westerns or war movies but other people can like them.
True.
Well, I was wrong.
Two women from Minnesota wrote one. It is now being shown at Edinburgh Fringe this month.
It is called Endometriosis the Musical..
So, any Shippies in the Edinburgh area looking for something to do this month, this one may be for you.
Somehow I can’t imagine “Charles Manson” on Broadway or anywhere else.
Manson was actually a pretty major pop-culture staple from at least Helter Skelter onwards, with made-for-TV movies, and punch-lines everywhere from Mad Magazine to serial-killer chic in the 90s, Guns N Rose's recording one of his songs, Marilyn Manson etc.
So I could actually imagine someone doing a Manson musical, but it might be more in a Fringe sorta milieu, rather than, say, dinner theatre. And maybe wouldn't focus directly on the murders, but life in prison, alt-reality where he's POTUS etc(*).
(*) Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is a relatively light-hearted take on Manson, but portrays an alt-history in which the Tate-LaBianca murders are averted.
Apparently, a sci-fi infused Manson musical from 2008.
Seems geared toward ironic appreciation among the punk community, so probably doesn't really fit the theme of this thread, which I think assumes a more typical "Rodgers and Hammerstein"-esque idea of a musical.
In 2014…
https://time.com/3458149/charles-manson-musical/
However the film as envisioned by the creators was a failure. What made it the success it became is exactly the immersive experience.
All the fuss, however, is about the immersive experience, not the film itself, simpliciter. Non-cultists seeing it without the audience participation aren't seeing what the cultists see and feel and experience. The movie by itself would not have drawn me in for the score (roughly) of viewings I went to. It was, to abuse a cliché, being part of something larger than myself. With show tunes.
…
… pation. (Sorry, I had to.)
I really need to see Shock Treatment sometime.