Now I know I’ve talked about Next To Normal before but I just recently had the opportunity to check it out for the first time down at the Ahmanson in Los Angeles and let me just say…it’s amazing. This show has it all. From the moment the show begins you are immediately entranced in it and the character, you can’t help but feel and connect with each one of them.

Next to Normal is a rock musical with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt. Its story concerns a mother who struggles with worsening bipolar disorder and the effect that her illness has on her family. The musical also addresses such issues as grieving a loss, suicide, drug abuse, ethics in modern psychiatry, and suburban life.

I also took the time and did the research to find out that Rob Reiner wants to make it a film. I think that it has a great book and score to be translated into a film. Check out the article I found below.

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Rob Reiner wants to bring the award-winning Broadway musical ‘Next to Normal’ from the stage to the movie screen. That news should fill you with the same feeling that accompanied the announcement that Chris Columbus was making a film adaptation of ‘Rent’ back in 2005: a feeling that falls not-so-comfortably between “anxious” and “dread.”

Before further elaboration, it must be reiterated that Reiner has made a jaw-droppingly eclectic list of classic movies that should make most filmmakers green with envy, such as ‘This Is Spinal Tap,’ ‘The Princess Bride,’ ‘When Harry Met Sally,’ ‘Misery,’ ‘A Few Good Men,’ and ‘The American President.’ Great films, the lot of ‘em. However, something happened to him in the ‘90s. Something that caused him to enter some sort of rut, because we got films like ‘Rumor Has It,’ ‘The Bucket List,’ ‘Alex and Emma,’ and ‘Flipped.’ It doesn’t even feel like the same filmmaker.

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What do you guys think? Can this be made into a film? Did you guys like the show?

Keep dancing,

Admiral Eo

It’s not going to happen but I felt that this old bit of news was relevant to both this blog and this weekend as The New Harry Potter film opens up to theaters world wide.

I have two huge loves. 1) Movies. 2) Michael Jackson. Thats why this piece of news gets me all giddy inside. Here is a bit of news from Perez Hilton and JK Rowling.

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J.K. Rowling says she was approached by Michael Jackson to turn her Harry Potter novels into a stage musical.

But the author turned him down because she was convinced that the musical wouldn’t be a success.

Even though she has agreed to many merchandising deals and even a theme park, she told Oprah Winfrey that there were many things she rejected. She said:

“Michael Jackson wanted to do a musical. I said no to a lot of things. For me, I love the films, I love the books, and there’s elements that I love around it… like the theme park. But I only wanted to do it because I knew it would be incredible.”

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Well, their you have it. I personally think it’s a good thing it didn’t happen but it does make me wonder what it would have looked and sounded like.

Well, at least we have Michaels new album in December to look forward too.

Until then, keep on dancing.

–Admiral Eo

Ok, so I don’t know a single soul who doesn’t LOVE the goonies film. It’s a classic. Apparently with the release of the 25th Anniversary DVD/BluRay, the powers that be announced they were working on a Goonies Musical for Broadway! Amazing idea right? Here is the interview with Richard Donnor:

“Hopefully we’re doing this as a musical on Broadway. It took forever to get on Broadway. It was a long, long process but it just got a lot shorter because there’s a great writer/producer (Tim Long) who does musicals on ‘The Simpsons’ which are classic. He just delivered a treatment on ‘Goonies’ as a musical and it’s friggin’ great.” — Richard Donnor

Not much but it’s something. I’m in. This is something I need to see!

Until then, keep dancing!

Admiral Eo

Well hello folks, welcome to this weeks blog.

We all know the films Scary Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie and so on. If you don’t know about them I put a link up just below, if you do know about them don’t even bother giving it a view. Did you know about the off-broadway show that spoofs musical theater? Unlike the films I listed above its a very funny show.

I regret putting up that youtube link.

Here is a synopsis I found online that best describes the show:

The show is a cabaret revue sharply spoofing show tunes, characters and plots of contemporary and current Broadway musicals. Forbidden Broadway has mocked popular shows like The Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, Les Misérables, Annie Get Your Gun, Hairspray, The Lion King, The Music Man, Miss Saigon, and Rent, to name a few. It also targets famous Broadway actors, writers, composers, directors, choreographers and producers, including Carol Channing, Kristin Chenoweth, Bob Fosse,Elton John, Jennifer Holliday, Mel Brooks, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, Mary Martin, Michael Crawford, Idina Menzel,Ethel Merman, Ann Miller, Mandy Patinkin, Stephen Sondheim, Harvey Fierstein, Barbra Streisand and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Forbidden Broadway is a four-person show, with two men and two women that has run for over twenty-five years. Forbidden Broadway has released eleven albums, as well as one entitled Forbidden Hollywood, a cast album of the show of the same title by Alessandrini. Like Forbidden Broadway, Forbidden Hollywood is made up of parodies, except that it targets movies rather than musicals. The New York and Los Angeles based companies of both “Forbidden” incarnations have served as a workshop for rising talent to hone their skills. Alumni include Jason Alexander, Brad Oscar, singer/impressionist Christine Pedi, actor Bryan Batt (of AMC’s “Mad Men”), Spamalot’s Michael McGrath, Chloe Webb (Sid and Nancy), Ed Staudenmayer (Fame Becomes Me), Barbara Walsh (Company, Ragtime), Ann Morrison (Merrily We Roll Along, LoveMusik) and many more.

Until next time, keep dancing.

–Admiral Eo

I thought for this week I would try to find the worst musicals of all time. I came across a website that listed the 10 worst and I thought I would share the top five from the worst ten. Why? Well, now we will know what show to run away from. Ladies and gentlemen, these are the best of the worst.

Lets get into it.

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1 CARRIE (1988)

This atrocious adaptation of Stephen King’s novel — taken by the Royal Shakespeare Company to Broadway where it folded after 21 performances — remains the primus inter pares of the musical flop. King’s story of a menstruating schoolgirl with telekenetic powers and a mad religious mother was served up with a ghastly gloop of rock-pop and fake blood. It was hailed as “a resounding mistake” in England and duly went on to be ferociously panned in New York, losing a neat $8 million.

2 WHICH WITCH (1992)

The brainchild of Benedicte Adrian and Ingrid Bjornov — members of Norwegian pop group Dollie Deluxe — this “opera-musical” was a cod 16th-century tale of thwarted passion that culminated in the young Italian heroine being burnt at the stake as a witch. King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway visited the Piccadilly Theatre to lend their support to “the most heavily panned London stage musical in a generation” — but it folded after 10 weeks. “Flops don’t come much floppier,” said the Telegraph. Nul points.

3 BERNADETTE (1990)

Described as “one of the most bizarre and spectacular failures in London musical theatre history”, the show — naively expected to pack out the Dominion — was based on the story of Bernadette Soubirous, a young peasant girl who had visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes in 1858. It was written by a piano-tuner and his wife, financed by readers of the Daily Mirror and an ex-chauffeur and, astoundingly, the Pope blessed the cast. To no avail: it lasted three weeks.

4 THE FIELDS OF AMBROSIA (1996)

A jaunty, taste-free US musical about capital punishment, set in the deep South in 1918. The hero, a state executioner, falls for a German femme fatale he’s due to fry — and eventually sings the finale from his own electric chair. The Daily Mail described it as “the biggest turkey, the floppiest flopperoo, the greatest slice of ham to hit the West End stage in years”. It didn’t last a fortnight.

5 JEEVES (1975)

Even Andrew Lloyd Webber has had his off-days. Riding high after Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph, the composer turned to Alan Ayckbourn to help bring the comic charm of Jeeves and Wooster to the stage, but the “heavy-handed affair” was denounced as “like a dream of all the Wodehouse novels combined in the ultimate ghastly weekend”. It lasted 38 performances.

— find the entire list here.

These are bad. I mean really really bad. I mean 10 cent hooker bad.

Until next time, keep dancing.

–Admiral Eo

As you all know we have been talking about the Spider-man Musical for sometime now, but recently in an interview on ABC news Julie Taymore had so much more to talk about.

This is what Julie Taymor had to say:

We do have the origin story…In writing with Glen Berger, the playwright, we’ve tried to craft something that’s a little different than what you’re used to…Our Doctor Osborn is more of a conglomerate of Doc Ock [and] of Osborn — he’s not a businessman…He’s a real scientist, who’s a real southerner — he believes he’s going to help combat the world as it is, environmental disasters…He believes that he has to prepare people, so he’s creating through DNA transfers and this and that, the ability for humans to protect themselves when the tides rise and global warming. It’s very current. It’s very very now, even though we do blend periods.

Spider-man the Musical is the most anticipated Broadway Musical of the year. I think that they could have something very special on their hands with this production. What do you guys think?

–Admiral Eo

Well folks, a new Peter Pan show has hit the stage (I think this is about the 4th Peter Pan Stage Show I have heard of) and it looks nothing short of amazing.

Thanks to “theaterinla.com” for the scoop! Here’s what they had to say:

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The tale of Peter Pan has been adapted many times including the Walt Disney animated film and a Broadway musical. However, it was not until this 2009 production, presented by threesixty entertainment, that a production was performed in London’s Kensington Gardens, where Barrie was first inspired to create him and where the original statue of Peter Pan has stood since 1912. This 21st century Peter Pan mixes history and magic in equal measure to present a Peter Pan story for adults and children alike.

In Costa Mesa, tickets to see Peter Pan start are $30 to $70. Premium ticket packages are also available, and include admission to the performance, drink voucher, souvenir brochure, Peter Pan audio book and Peter Pan memorabilia. Tickets go sale to the general public on Sunday, July 18. They will be available at OCPAC.org, at the Center’s Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling 714–556-2787.

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This looks spectacular, nothing short of amazing.

What do you guys think? Will you buy a ticket today?

–Admiral Eo

Season 2 is on it’s way and I thought I would post the first few official production images from the upcoming second season.

Lets be honest, GLEE is fun, campy, and in a way it’s incredibly smart. I honestly can’t wait to see what the writers have in store for us this season. The rumor I hear is that we may even get a Britney Spears episode. I don’t think I’d hate that.

I guess we will just have to wait and see. September 21, 2010.

Keep dancing,

Admiral Eo

So I thought for this post I would take the time to talk about the Indie-Movie Musical. These days we don’t get very many musicals anymore. Their was a time in the world when musicals were coming out just as much as comic book films today. But, just as the comic book franchise is, it was over used and run into the ground by bid studio corporations. Instead of taking care and pride in the franchise the kept birthing new movie musical films until people just didn’t care anymore. Even Disney gave up on the musical for a moment with the animated film classics. With the success of Chicago, Moulin Rouge and of course High School Musical (yes even high school musical, the third installment alone grossed over 250,000,o00) people are starting to fall back in love with the genre again.

Now I have to say that we don’t get as many studio musicals anymore, however have you researched the indie-musical genre? It’s pretty impressive how much time and care is put into making these fine films. Here are a few examples from my research on the topic. (not in any specific order)

1) ONCE — Holy crap have you seen this yet??? You should. It won an academy award for goodness sake. For a film that cost about $100,000 to make, it grossed over  $20,000,000! Thats not to shabby if you ask me.

2) West Bank Story — This film is so campy and fun that I just love it. You can tell by the title it’s a creative take on the classic film, West Side Story. Give it a looksy, you won’t regret it.

3) When the Kids are Away — Director Jon Chu’s student thesis film (Director of Step Up 2 & 3D) that sets the bar for student films. It’s a very impressive campy short with a plot that is very creative.

Well their you have it. 3 great shorts to check out as soon as you can. I’ll try to keep my eyes open for the next short musical to blog about.

Till next time, keep dancing.

–Admiral Eo

Ok, so it’s not a real musical but it’s a hell of a fun watch. Check it out for yourself and tell me if you honestly didn’t enjoy it a single bit.

Ok, ok, fine. But I don’t care who you are, you WILL LOVE these next set of lines.

If you didn’t enjoy that you don’t have a soul.

I know, its another slow week in the world of musicals but I promise to have something semi-interesting in the Broadway world for you next week.

Until then, the Admiral is signing off.