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The Book Is Singing!

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Happy Monday All,

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was pretty good.

The Tonys were last night, so in honor of that and some things I've thought about...I've got a question...

Lately it seems like everything is becoming a musical? Now, don't get me wrong...I love musicals. In fact, some of my favorite movies are musicals. However, I never thought so many movies, and books would become a musical. I mean, I don't have a problem with it, I love musicals, but it makes me wonder what story is next? 

Cases in point regarding books and musicals:

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy became a musical in the late 1990's.

I recently learned that back in 2000, the book by Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre became a musical.

Jekyll & Hyde is based off of the book by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Some people aren't aware that Phantom Of The Opera is based off the book by Gaston Leroux (I read the book before I saw the musical, and I ended up reading the book like 2-3 times).

Wicked was a book by Gregory Maguire before Idina Menzel donned green make up and belted out Defying Gravity.

But now the newest thing is pop culture...including movies (that are less than 60 years old) and comic books...

Sister Act is a musical. Based on what I can tell it seems to follow the movie's storyline pretty well.

Here's the comic book one:  Spider-Man is one of my favorite super-heroes. Not too long ago I found out there's a musical being made centering around the Spider-Man story. I've heard some of the music, which sounds good. So, we'll see what happens.

Now, maybe I'm living under a rock or something, but recently I found out Ghost is becoming a musical. It looks like it's following the movie's storyline and has good singing, so I could see it doing well.

So...what books would you like to see become musicals? If you're a writer, would you want to see your book as a musical? (Somehow I'm no sure I can picture the hero of my novel, Surreal, dancing across the stage...but, hey, anything's possible!)

Have A Melodious Monday!
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Anonymous said…
I can't see any of my books at musicals...
Monday, 13 June, 2011
Nancy Kay Bowden said…
Wow, Bethany! I had no idea GHOST was being turned into a musical. (I can "see" it, however!) I love musicals, but my WIP would have to be a play or movie. It's too serious. That said, my novel's "soundtrack" that I write to, via iTunes, has 52 tunes on it. :)

Maybe I'm being cranky, but I'd really like to see some NEW musicals. Story lines I haven't see or read before. Seems like producers often play it safe to fill seats. Well, maybe not always. There had to be risk with The Book of Mormon.
Monday, 13 June, 2011
Bethany said…
Tess,

Perhaps someone else' books? Thank you for dropping by :-)
Monday, 13 June, 2011
Bethany said…
Nancy,

If you click on the word GHOST it will take you to the musical's website. There are musicals that deal with serious issues and dress it up with light-heartedness. "Carousel" had a man who had anger issues and hit his wife--but then you see he's not all bad in the song "My Boy Bill" and the lightheartedness with "June Is Busting Out All Over". "Oklahoma!" has some serious themes to it with some lighthearted numbers. I think it depends on how the musical is written. Thank you for dropping by :-)
Monday, 13 June, 2011
Stephanie Faris said…
I'm still a little shocked about South Park's creators winning so many awards...for a Mormon musical? I saw the South Park episode about it (it was so high-profile, how could I not) and found it very fascinating. I can't believe I'm saying that about an episode of South Park!
Monday, 13 June, 2011
Anonymous said…
I think they over-do turning things into musicals, but maybe only becaus e there are very few "Lerner and Lowes" out there...a lot of lyrics are not very good.(Ionce took an 'Homorable Mention' award for lyrics in an international competition).
As for any of MY work being made into a musical, not likely but as my sister would say,"Don't throw me in the briar patch", Br'er Rabbit quote from the Uncle Remus stories ('Song of the South'that all of you are too young to remember)He said it to the Fox, when that was EXACTLY what he wanted him to do, so that he could hide and get away. My sister would mean "OK, well, I'm not really happy about my work being turned into a musical, but since it would be a hit and make money, go ahead and do it!" Tonette
(btw: Bono and The Edge wrote the Spider Man musical)
Monday, 13 June, 2011
Bethany said…
Stephanie,

I was surprised, too. I honestly thought everything was going to go to "Anything Goes". It's been so highly publicized all over the place and I didn't even know anything about the musical "The Book of Mormon" until I saw the Tonys Sunday night. Goes to show anything can happen. Thank you for dropping by :-)
Monday, 13 June, 2011
Bethany said…
Tonette,

Too cool about your winning Honorable Mention. Yeah, I knew about Bono and The Edge writing the Spider-Man musical. They showed one of the songs on the Tonys, it was actually pretty good. Thank you for dropping by :-)
Monday, 13 June, 2011
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