More Movie Musicals On The Horizon

It seems the movie musical's resurgence in popularity has everyone in Hollyood scrambling...

I'm not sure which has me cringing more: John Waters writing the sequel to the movie musical Hairspray (with an eye on the cast of the 2007 film to reprise their roles) or Emma Thompson authoring the screenplay for the remake of the Lerner and Loewe classic My Fair Lady.

Meanwhile MTV is planning to revamp Rocky Horror Picture Show and Kenny Ortega is bringing Footloose back to the movie houses. It should be interesting to see how the Broadway incarnations of those films impact the remakes...

And over at Universal, Marc Platt is planning the film remake of Jesus Christ Superstar and Wicked's move to the silver screen (which, if you ask me, will ultimately be the one to beat).

In case you were wondering, I am still on the fence as to whether or not this movie musical mania is madness or euphoria.

UPDATE: I neglected to mentioned the upcoming film of Sondheim's Follies, which has Aaron Sorkin in the unenviable position of adapting. And, of course, there is movie musical wiz Rob Marshall's adaptation of Nine.

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Related Articles:

John Waters to Pen Sequel to Hairspray Movie Musical

Academy Award Winner Thompson to Pen Screenplay for "My Fair Lady" Remake

MTV Plans Remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Wicked Film and Jesus Christ Superstar Remake on Platt's Plate

Take A Look In These Big Blue Eyes...

Capitalizing on the success of Hairspray, Broadway may have another winner with Cry-Baby, the latest musical adaptation of a John Waters film. Recent headlines indicate that the quirky 1950s musical will take residence at the Marriott Marquis, recent home to The Drowsy Chaperone, which sadly closed before I was able to honor the tickets I had in hand for February.

Photos of newcomer James Snyder are included in both of the articles that I read but this photo in particular caught my eye:



While James is a newcomer to Broadway, my introduction to him was via the definitive recording for bare: the musical. When I saw the above photo, I thought: “WOW! Those eyes are really blue!” I didn’t recall his eyes being that blue when I watched the DVD that accompanied the recording.

I then recalled a post I read from an online friend of mine about a lyric change in “You and I” in the bare recording. The lyric that several of us have become familiar from the sample CD is: “feel the beat of my racing heart and you’ll understand”. However, in the studio recording, this lyric has been changed to “take a look in these big blue eyes and you’ll understand”. So I thought, maybe James Snyder has really blue eyes and that’s why the lyric was changed.

But guess what!?!


So I’m befuddled. And I agree with my friend, the “racing heart” lyric says so much more. But I will save those observations for my very overdue review of bare.

Regardless of the color of the eyes doing the crying, I am very pleased to see that Cry-Baby has had good out-of-town notices and I will definitely make a point of seeing James in his Broadway debut. I was an early Johnny Depp fan thanks to 21 Jump Street so I have recollections of seeing this film on the big screen. Depp’s recent award-winning turn in the title role of Sweeney Todd has several people referencing his early days in a rock band. Similar references were made when Cry-Baby was released in 1990, since he did his own vocals as the Elvis-influenced bad boy of Baltimore. His vocals and the musical numbers must’ve been all right because somewhere I have the soundtrack on cassette. And since I have the soundtrack to Xanadu on vinyl, that could be a good omen for Cry-Baby…