Welcome! The purpose of this thread is to talk about all things related to the wonderful world of musical theatre. Each week (or so) I will post a thread with a topic/question for everyone to respond to. This is also a great place to mention any new musicals you’ve discovered and/or general recommendations for other musical fans. Heard/seen any good shows lately? Have any theatre news to share? Tell us about it!

The other day I learned that someone is making a musical with songs from The Avett Brothers’ album Mignonette. I’m a fan of the band, so I read into it a little. It’s called Swept Away, which also happens to be one of my favorite song of theirs, and it is apparently about a shipwreck in 1888. Sounds interesting enough (you can read a little more about it here), but what I’m most interested in is whether or not it will work. This certainly isn’t the first time someone has decided to make a musical adapting someone else’s music, and we all know that the quality can vary. Will Swept Away be good? Who knows. Just because I like The Avett Brothers certainly doesn’t mean that I’ll like this musical. Which brings me to this week’s topic: musicals featuring popular music…is the only way I could think to describe this! But you know what I mean. What musicals do you like, or dislike, that adapted someone else’s music? Is there any secret to success for these musicals? Or something that will doom them to failure?

And, just for fun, here’s “Swept Away” by The Avett Brothers: