New Musicals: Good, Bad, and Anna Nicole

By Julienne Bilker in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 19, 2010 8:40PM

Universal Studios

Let’s start with the good news:

Although no production timeline has been announced, songwriter Duncan Sheik and playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa are collaborating on a musical version of American Psycho. Before you cringe, let us state the case for this being an awesome idea: Bret Easton Ellis has given the project his blessing and will serve as a consulting producer. Sacasa’s got several playwriting credits to his name, and he’s also one of the writers on HBO’s Big Love. We loved Spring Awakening - a show which earned Sheik two Tony Awards (Best Orchestration and Best Original Score) - and we think the songwriter has the right idea for this project. “What could be more subversive fun than murderous bankers breaking into song?" Here's hoping for a musical bloodbath of a Carrie: The Musical nature, minus the abject failure.
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are working with Robert Lopez (Tony Award winning co-composer of Avenue Q) on a new musical, slated to run at New York Theatre Workshop in August and September. Although according to this NY Times article, the theater isn’t releasing details about the show, this Independent article from 2008 states that it’ll be about Mormons and star Cheyenne Jackson. Then again, the latter article also stated that the show would open in 2009, so who knows what the piece has morphed into by now. Either way: YES.

via movies.yahoo.com

Just when we thought a whole new generation of kids would associate Victoria Beckham solely with her husband and ridiculous “fashion,” the visionary behind Mamma Mia! is blessing us with a Spice Girls musical. Producer Judy Craymer is working with Simon Fuller and the “girls” (they range in age from 34-37) “to create a unique celebration of the band and its music, with its own flavour and joyful message,” that will ensure “the excitement, style and humour of The Spice Girls is well represented on stage.” It’s titled Viva Forever. Forever? Really? Sounds like a threat to us.
We already knew this was coming, but Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to Phantom of the Opera is still scheduled to open on Broadway. Love Never Dies (apparently our apt, brilliant title suggestion “The Phantom Takes Manhattan” was rejected), opened in London earlier this month to mixed reviews. According to the UK’s Guardian, “the score is one of the composer's most seductive,” (everything’s relative, we suppose) but the show lacks “narrative tension.” Although some changes will be probably be made before its fall opening in New York, it’s still “Phantom of the Opera 2.” In slightly related news, we recently discovered the existence of “The Cutting Edge 4” - The Cutting Edge: Fire and Ice.