Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Across the Universe

We watched Across the Universe last night... by which I mean I watched, and Leah half watched and then fell asleep.
Overall it was pretty bad, and sort of Leah's worst nightmare (she generally hates musicals that aren't Annie). I actually enjoyed it!
I couldn't help but wonder how the generally dangerous idea of writing a story around pre-existing songs might actually be pretty amazing, in the hands of a Tom Stoppard/Umberto Eco level genius. Of course, these guys generally busy themselves wrapping stories around things like Shakespeare's entire canon, or the history of western civilization...
It also seems like the (quite profitable, I assume) trend of turning much-loved music into musical theatre is probably going to continue... and that begs the question: Which music from my generation is destined for the stage/screen treatment?

This question is sort of frightening.

5 comments:

Leah said...

Nirvana "Nevermind" - The Musical.

Picture it.

ButterPeanut said...

"Automatic for the People" - The Musical.

also, the newfound fact that Leah likes Annie is going to make me feel so much better next time I listen to pop and think, "Oh, I would be ashamed to play this in front of Leah and Trent."

Trent said...

Lisa

Never fear - I listen to loads of pop (good and bad)... Leah owns albums by Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and even Avril...

And I'm going to start work right away on Automatic for the People, the Musical.

Leah said...

Yeah, I'm shamelessly ALL about the pop.

SK8RBOI all the way.

Unknown said...

Weird. I HATED Across the Universe (and I typically LOVE musicals!). I thought it was cheesy and lame and a genuine spit in the face to the Beatles and their brillance. I guess I'm okay with regular musicals that were written for those purposes (to be cheesy and lame) but I've always held the Beatles in a different category ... a better category.

ABBA was born for this kind of thing but not the Beatles. :(