It's sort of like trying to do Miss Saigon without doing the helicopter. I mean, sure, you can, but that's lame sauce and people will be disappointed. There are a bazillion shows out there that don't require a gigantic plant or a helicopter and are equally amazing. Don't set yourself up to fail.
Sorry - I have to disagree with you here. Little Shop is about the plant. Avenue Q is about the puppets. But ( IMHO) Miss Saigon is NOT about the helicopter.
Sorry, I think there's a story in there... I can hear the Don LaFontaine voiceover now....
"In a world, ripped apart by war, a love story evolves. On the night when Saigon falls, a love story begins...
"Helicopters" a new, Disney animated film adapted for Broadway by the folks who brought you Spiderman.
I thought this was the beginning of an interesting discussion, so I moved it out of the Audrey 2 thread so it could have it's own life.
I'll add this: I recently saw the new national tour of Les Miserables. They have removed the revolve and added a lot of video projection. In the end, although many scenes looked much cooler now, I was left missing the revolve and the transforming barricade. It was especially interesting to see that during "Do you hear the people sing?" the choreography had been carefully modified to preserve the exact same marching look, but this time it was done in place instead of sideways on the moving revolve. Thus the revolve has become part of the art and the new design had to compensate for it no longer being there to preserve the art. Weird twist huh?
So what do you think? Where should we draw the line between the script and the set? Is it a good or bad thing that people talk about Miss Saigon and the first thing they talk about is the Helicopter? What about Phantom and the Chandelier?
What's the worst example of a show that is about something other than the script? I nominate Starlight Express! I don't think I've ever heard a song, and I've never seen the show, I've certainly never heard someone say you have to listen to the music from Starlight Express, but I've seen the roller skating pictures! Heck, they were on the cover of the Parker and Wolf book when I was in college.
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