"The Fly" as a musical? Help me, help me ...
- By Ronald Panarotti
- Published 07/3/2008
Ronald Panarotti
A New Jersey resident, I became hooked on the genre after seeing the original Star Wars at age 6. From that moment on, I was a movie fan for life. Sure, life as an adult sometimes reminds me I can't go home again (prequels, anyone?) but I love watching and talking about movies -- at least when I'm not at my day job working for a newspaper. I've also had movie reviews published on Web sites like Associated Content and IMDB.
I was reading somewhere just the other day that someone in France is planning to make a musical out of David Cronenberg's 1986 version of "The Fly."
Dear God. What is pop culture coming to? (Even scarier was a comment by one of my co-workers that a similar treatment may be in store for "The Toxic Avenger.")
Now, don't get me wrong. This is not meant as any disparaging of the source material. Cronenberg's masterpiece, like Carpenter's "The Thing," is one of those rare remakes that tremendously improves on the original. "The Fly" is a great movie. But that is all it should be -- a movie.
What's next, "The Elephant Man -- The Musical?" (I'm sure they could easily get Michael Jackson to do the music for that one, and he'd probably lend them John Merrick's skeleton for authenticity's sake.)
Maybe I'm missing something here. Maybe this is another case of something that initially sounds like a horrible idea but that, if handled in just the right way, will turn out to be surprisingly fun, entertaining and even worthwhile.
But I have to be honest and say that horror movies don't strike me as lending themselves to the spawning of Broadway musicals. (Sure, "Phantom of the Opera" has been made numerous times as a movie, but it is the romance underlying that story that makes it ideal for the stage. At heart, it really isn't a horror tale, at least not as it has been told on Broadway.)
But if this works, I'm afraid that someone will next get the idea of trying "Scanners" as a musical. That could be a problem -- if only because they'd have to be really clever in depicting that exploding head...
Dear God. What is pop culture coming to? (Even scarier was a comment by one of my co-workers that a similar treatment may be in store for "The Toxic Avenger.")
Now, don't get me wrong. This is not meant as any disparaging of the source material. Cronenberg's masterpiece, like Carpenter's "The Thing," is one of those rare remakes that tremendously improves on the original. "The Fly" is a great movie. But that is all it should be -- a movie.
What's next, "The Elephant Man -- The Musical?" (I'm sure they could easily get Michael Jackson to do the music for that one, and he'd probably lend them John Merrick's skeleton for authenticity's sake.)
Maybe I'm missing something here. Maybe this is another case of something that initially sounds like a horrible idea but that, if handled in just the right way, will turn out to be surprisingly fun, entertaining and even worthwhile.
But I have to be honest and say that horror movies don't strike me as lending themselves to the spawning of Broadway musicals. (Sure, "Phantom of the Opera" has been made numerous times as a movie, but it is the romance underlying that story that makes it ideal for the stage. At heart, it really isn't a horror tale, at least not as it has been told on Broadway.)
But if this works, I'm afraid that someone will next get the idea of trying "Scanners" as a musical. That could be a problem -- if only because they'd have to be really clever in depicting that exploding head...
