Welcome to the Musicals Thread, the Avocado’s space for anything and everything related to musical theatre! Every month I’ll post a discussion prompt, but please feel free to comment on other topics, from new discoveries to old favorites. If you have ideas for future prompts or would like to write a feature for the thread, let me know!
A couple of weeks ago some interested news dropped concerning the long-awaited Wicked film adaptation: Director Jon M. Chu tweeted that the story would be split into two movies released in consecutive years: https://twitter.com/jonmchu/status/1518983750042136577?fbclid=IwAR1q9m8ak3YRMZ9Yzl3VtSjMQhWn_h4NWvo5x9jomSTEyyIh113UplciH_I
I quite enjoyed Chu’s work on In the Heights and so am trying to stay optimistic, but I had (and still have) mixed feelings when I first heard. Two-parters aren’t new and can work well, but the format somehow seemed inappropriate for a musical in particular, and I can’t quite put my finger on why. Most are split into two acts anyway, and as for having to wait longer than a fifteen-minute intermission to continue, the TV series Galavant proved that singing and serialized storytelling can go together beautifully. Each medium – prose, film, theatre – has its own strengths and weaknesses, and good adapters know them and adjust the material accordingly. But do the restrictions on a story first intended for the stage hold a greater sway over its content? Live entertainment has to work around the limits of human endurance – not just the patience of the audience but the abilities of the performers. Shows are trimmed and adjusted to ensure that all of the necessary beats are hit within two to three hours, and ideally it will feel like nothing is superfluous or missing.
And this isn’t even touching on the separate but related issue of sequels. Books and movies are planned as or turned into series all the time, but the only example of an entirely new adventure supplementing an existing musical I can think of is Love Never Dies. A variety of factors – the variability of a show’s run, the availability of the actors, the financial risk of mounting even one show, the much more limited distribution opportunities – preclude it, but if it were logistically viable, would a theatrical version of the cinematic universe phenomenon pack the same punch artistically?
What do you think? Could any musical benefit by being performed, adapted, or expanded into two parts? Are there any that warrant a sequel? Why or why not?