To write a really good bad play.
I've just been reading about the development of Gutenberg! The Musical! which is about the invention of the printing press with movable type, not Steve Guttenberg, the star of the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movie It Takes Two which I saw at least five times in one year, which happened to be the year that I was eight.
The author, Scott Brown, said that the inspiration for Gutenberg! The Musical! came from the new musicals his co-author, Anthony King, had to watch for his internship in NYC.
Here is his description of the shows much like the show I hope to write one day:
These shows … well, to say they were simply "bad" is to miss the point. They were, many of them, brilliantly bad. They were knockoffs of knockoffs of knockoffs. Most of them shared more DNA with the musical mega-spectacles of the '80s than with classic, golden-age shows, and even that DNA was seriously degraded. Others were frighteningly original in their awfulness: the worst subjects mated with the oddest executions, yielding the most unintentionally hilarious results. Even better, they were tremendously self-important, overblown and underbaked, puffing under the weight of their own hubris. They were the very best kind of very bad art.
And they were passionate. The readings themselves were wonderfully surreal: There was something magically, inspiringly absurd about watching actors (and occasionally, the authors themselves) attempt to illustrate the awesome scope of these productions in rehearsal rooms and church basements, describing dazzlingly cumbersome stage effects with nothing but mime and stage directions.
They're basically what would happen if Evil Dead was adapted as a musical. Wow. That would be a great musical. I'd love to write Evil Dead The Musical. Oh, no wait... it's already been written. So--suggestions for the most ambitious musical of all time? (Such as a Victor Hugo epic that spans fifty years? Oh, no wait... that's been written, too. Darn.)
1 comment:
There's an Evil Dead: The Musical? I never knew, my life will be complete when I see it.
A musical about the life of Steve Guttenberg would be fantastic though, it would be a sweeping rags to riches epic about a young bit actor who somehow made it big in the 80's by playing a straight man thrown into various wacky situations with robots and police academy's. Michael Winslow could play himself and provide comic relief with his brilliant sound making skills, he could also double as a foley artist.
Of course the story would have to end in the 80's otherwise it would be a rags to riches to rags story, and then it would be a tragedy. The tragedy of course would be him realizing he hit rock bottom when he did voice work in "Law and Order: Criminal Intent: The Video Game." He would then sing a dirge regarding his career.
This should be done, it really should
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