After reading this I am totally convinced that Joss's next project should be bringing OMWF to Broadway - or at least Off Broadway.

angel fan | April 20, 09:34 CET

I read somewhere that people were trying to turn OMWF into a stage production but it died.

BuffyIsLife | April 20, 09:42 CET

Yes, BuffyIsLife, as was mentioned on Whedonesque recently, Fox put a stop to that. Those bastards.

Anyway...

Wow, the Lestat musical sucked that much? Elton John, Bernie Taupin, Anne Rice, and Lestat...I was looking forward to that...

UnpluggedCrazy | April 20, 10:04 CET

I tweaked your headline to make it more meaningful for RSS subscribers. Good find btw. If anyone is interested, here's a Variety article from 1998 about the Joss Whedon animated Dracula musical which in the end didn't happen.

Simon | April 20, 11:10 CET

I think the problem with a stand-alone production of WMWF is that, besides the Fox winged monkeys, it really can't be stand-alone. To get it all you'd have had to know about what happened in the almost-100-hour saga before the dancing demon arrives. If you could fit that all into a five or ten minute prologue, you're a better writer than I am, Gunga-dude.

[ edited by dreamlogic on 2006-04-20 10:06 ]

[ edited by dreamlogic on 2006-04-20 10:08 ]

dreamlogic | April 20, 11:54 CET

Exactly, dreamlogic. It'd only appeal to existing fans and so from a financial POV probably not too wise.

The great thing about OMWF is the way the songs don't feel contrived (once you've accepted the basic conceit) and really develop story and, more importantly, character. Viewers coming to it cold wouldn't see any of that and so you'd be left with clever but apparently empty songs about people no-one knew or had any reason to care about.

(plus, part of the appeal for me at least was seeing the cast doing something so new and unusual, watching professional Broadway performers might not have the same feel)

Saje | April 20, 13:50 CET

Yes, part of the joy of the musical was seeing both the actors and the characters they portray sing and dance. It was a double whammy. We knew that neither Nicholas Brendon nor Xander Harris sang and danced so it was an added dimension for me to see that NB could pull it off and that Xander thought it was kinda cool.
It was nice to see this article's writer really did his homework- calling Joss a Sondheim buff.

Lioness | April 20, 15:27 CET

Seeing a stage production of OMWF would be so great. Why does FOX always have to ruin things for everyone?

Ameer | April 20, 17:16 CET

OMWF gets the most glowing review - actually I think it got the only good review.

What I found interesting is, when I read the song quotes Joss's lyrics sounded the best, and those were the lyrics from Sweet's song (who was not a vampire). If the article had quoted lyrics from Spike's song the lyrics still would have been more interesting ( and less corny) than any of the other vampire lyrics quoted form the other productions.

Passion | April 20, 17:53 CET

Okay, they've left off the one really great vampire musical, the Rocky Horror (in its original incarnation, later the Rocky Horror Picture Show).

Sample lyrics:
Don't get strung out by the way I look
Don't judge a book by its cover
I'm not much of a man by the light of day
But by night I'm one hell of a lover
I'm just a sweet transvestite
From Transexual, Transylvania

I LOVED that show.

Also, Studio 360 has an audio story on the sexy appeal of vampires in literature, with a too-brief illustration using the Buffy and Angel "When I kiss you" exchange from Reptile Boy. I wanted to post it on the front page but for some reason I don't have any link to the form for front page stories. (I also don't show any links that allow me to edit my own posts. If anyone can help with this I'd be grateful). Anyway the link to that story is here.

barboo | April 20, 18:47 CET

You can all be glad you missed something called "The Count that Counts" that ran for, I don't know, three nights in L.A. in the seventies. Trust me on this.

[ edited by bobster on 2006-04-20 17:01 ]

bobster | April 20, 19:00 CET

Oh, but the article missed the crescendo of the 'Garlic' song from Dance of the Vampires:

"Garlic, garlic/ It's why we're so well hung!"

That, right there, that's wit.

Three years later, the badness of that show still terrifies me.

RambleOn623 | April 20, 19:27 CET

barboo you should now be able to post links and edit your own comments.

Simon | April 20, 20:48 CET

Yes the Post Story and edit links are there now. And just in time for my birthday. Thank you Simon.

barboo | April 20, 21:34 CET

To do OMWF as a true Broadway musical Joss would have to write a complete new first act that leads the audience into OMWF as the second act. As written now, OMWF is only a 40 minute show and Broadway shows run about two hours including a 15 minute intermission. So theoretically you could create the set up that gets the audience to care by the second act. The lead up to Act II events would just have to be told differently than the way the story developed over many TV episodes.

angel fan | April 20, 22:06 CET

Simon...very interesting Variety article.

Funny how none of those projects except for Angel ever came through. ...Though Grampire sounded terrible, and that is perhaps a good thing.

UnpluggedCrazy | April 20, 23:42 CET

To be honest, I don't think Once More With Feeling would work on its own as a musical. The interesting thing about it is that it isn't even a season opener or a finale, but a mid-season episode which, plot-wise, has a few revelations but mostly develops the main arcs of the season. It's a transitional episode and as such, I think it would be very difficult to make it work as a stand alone musical.

Of course Joss frequently proves people wrong, but I do think he's more focused on his future projects right now, like Goners and WonderWoman, and I personally would rather see him involved in a Spike movie or something rather than re-working OMWF for the stage, which would only be accessible to a few of us. And I think a large part of the episode's appeal was the characters and actors involved, and I think it would be difficult to find people who we could believe as Buffy or Spike or Giles, because most of the actors have moved onto other projects.

But it is definitely one of my favourite episodes of Buffy and I have to say that I never doubted Joss. At the time OMWF was aired, I wasn't really part of the online fandom, but I did see the UPN teaser, the first time I became aware of it, and I was so blown away by it, and couldn't wait to see the episode. Such a well crafted, enjoyable, and interesting episode, which was entirely believable within the fantastical setting and very poetic, Shakespearian.

Razor | April 21, 00:15 CET