THE TENS: 10 musicals, upcoming or otherwise, that may broaden Broadway's appeal
10. The Addams Family
MANILA, Philippines - The classically kooky clan finds itself on Broadway this month, Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia and Nathan Lane playing Gomez. We’re not sure about adding lyrical accompaniment to that theme song, though.
9. American Idiot
Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong has come a long way from flashing his genitals during gigs. Now, we’ll get to see a lot more from the frontman, range-wise, with the rock opera adaptation of his band’s Grammy-winning album, baring the same Bush-era buffoonery but on Broadway. Trilled with such theatric intensity, a song like 21 Guns finally sounds as epic as it should.
8. American Psycho
Packed with the coarse ground meat of sex, drugs and cold-blooded murder, Bret Easton-Ellis’ ‘80s-era novel translated into song (and possibly, dance) will be like stabbing the very nature of the musical and turning its guts inside-out. The fact that Duncan Sheik is composer kills us a bit too.
7. My Little Pony Live: The World’s Biggest Teaparty
Duo-maneuvered ponies trotting onstage and snout-syncing numbers from Dreamgirls and Wicked. As musicals go, the gays will surely love it.
6. The Nutty Professor
If Legally Blonde the Musical is out there for the white chicks, then, this’ll be good for diversity, right? But without one dude playing eight characters in fat suits of varying girth, we don’t know if this’ll be as good a belly buster as the original.
5. Cocktail
Tom Cruise’s bartending bonanza from the ‘80s — with the classy tagline “When he pours, he reigns” — being turned into a musical makes us want to have a stiff drink. Still, songs from its soundtrack like Kokomo and Don’t Worry, Be Happy do need to be further immortalized.
4. A Run-DMC stage musical
If Sinatra and Ray Charles are getting their way on Broadway soon (two upcoming musicals on the maestros and all), mashing rap with song and dance shouldn’t be as strange as, oh, that little team-up they had with Aerosmith back then.
3. Julie Taymor’s Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark
Yeah, we never thought the webslinger would become a websinger, either. Despite a $ 50-million production price tag and scheduling conflicts with past potential cast members Evan Rachel Wood (Mary Jane) and Alan Cumming (the Green Goblin), this quite-bold-and-heroic feat in Broadway musical ideas is still sticking like spider spooge. Of course, having Bono score the thing kind of helps.
2. Björk and Michel Gondry collaborate on a “scientific musical”
That’s what they said.
1. The Book of Mormon
Adapted from South Park’s “All about Mormons” episode and directed by Avenue Q’s Jason Moore, this musical isn’t quite Jesus Christ Superstar. But we guarantee you’ll be laughing religiously at least.
