Gladiator The Musical
No, it's not a joke. It's real. And I saw it last month. One night only. Tickets not available. You only hear about it because you get a call because you know somebody who knows somebody.
It was a workshop, of a full fledged musical, staged with no set and minimal props, mostly for Dreamworks executives and others of note. Ridley Scott was in the audience as well, invited to see what had been done to his masterwork in the small theater in the valley where the evening was staged.
I was there because an old friend of mine played (brilliantly) the Oliver Reed part of Proximo, and stopped the show with his song. And in the musical Proximo's part if beefed up and he goes all the way to the end.
The book is incredibly faithful to the movie, they work with Hans Zimmer's existing score, and the the songs are quite good.
It's a remarkable testament to good writing, the structure of the piece is so sound.
What was most amazing, from a back stage point of view, is that the cast of thirty some odd broadway professionals had 12 days to learn lines, rehearse and put the entire show on its feet.
Though purportedly Ridley Scott mumbled something to the effect of 'they should have left well enough alone...', I thought the whole production to be quite good.
As a writer who is used to writing material on spec and tossing it to the market place with fingrs crossed, I was most impressed that in many ways this was a spec. musical, in that if Dreamworks passed on funding it, the producers would have to find funding elsewhere (they had already okayed the concept).
Well, they kicked ass apparantly, because the show is now scheduled to open on London's West End.
What's next. Star Wars?
A very hollwood moment.
It was a workshop, of a full fledged musical, staged with no set and minimal props, mostly for Dreamworks executives and others of note. Ridley Scott was in the audience as well, invited to see what had been done to his masterwork in the small theater in the valley where the evening was staged.
I was there because an old friend of mine played (brilliantly) the Oliver Reed part of Proximo, and stopped the show with his song. And in the musical Proximo's part if beefed up and he goes all the way to the end.
The book is incredibly faithful to the movie, they work with Hans Zimmer's existing score, and the the songs are quite good.
It's a remarkable testament to good writing, the structure of the piece is so sound.
What was most amazing, from a back stage point of view, is that the cast of thirty some odd broadway professionals had 12 days to learn lines, rehearse and put the entire show on its feet.
Though purportedly Ridley Scott mumbled something to the effect of 'they should have left well enough alone...', I thought the whole production to be quite good.
As a writer who is used to writing material on spec and tossing it to the market place with fingrs crossed, I was most impressed that in many ways this was a spec. musical, in that if Dreamworks passed on funding it, the producers would have to find funding elsewhere (they had already okayed the concept).
Well, they kicked ass apparantly, because the show is now scheduled to open on London's West End.
What's next. Star Wars?
A very hollwood moment.
posted by Phil | 8:58 PM
1 Comments:
Few people thought Les Mis would work.
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