In the NY Sun today, Eric Grode asks why “good rock songs make for bad musicals and vice versa.”

Of the seven jukebox musicals to reach Broadway in the last five seasons, four draw upon the work of indisputable pop legends: the Beach Boys (”Good Vibrations”), Elvis Presley (”All Shook Up”), the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David (”The Look of Love”), and John Lennon (”Lennon”). These have also been the four worst shows, although “All Shook Up” did have its moments. (And to be fair, “Lennon” tied one musical hand behind its own back by ignoring Lennon’s Beatles songs.)

The better pieces, by contrast, have used the catalogs of ABBA (”Mamma Mia!”), Billy Joel (”Movin’ Out”), and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (”Jersey Boys”). The ticket to jukebox-musical success on Broadway, it would appear, is to forgo the top tier of talent and go for the B-plus-list. Never mind the Sex Pistols, here comes the Buzzcocks.

It’s entirely possible that the producers of the Lennon, Beach Boys, and Bacharach-David shows didn’t care as much about putting together a good product, simply assuming the music would carry the day. But more than that, I believe certain songs lodge themselves so deeply in the listeners’ psyche that no amount of restaging can convince audiences to hear them anew and connect to them in the context of the show.

Later:

Viewed through this context, the upcoming crop of jukebox musicals takes on a very different feel. “Hot Feet,” constructed around the works of funk-R&B stalwarts Earth Wind & Fire, rises up a notch or two by dint of the band’s engaging but spotty track record. By contrast, the quality of Bob Dylan’s and Johnny Cash’s better material casts a pall over “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and “Ring of Fire,” respectively.

He goes on to hope that his theory is wrong, and that Twyla Tharp achieves success with “The Times They Are A-Changin’.”

RWB doesn’t know enough about Broadway to have a theory about all this. My taste would run to Rodgers and Hart revivals rather than any of this new-fangled stuff. Of-course those writers composed their songs specifically for musicals—and the songs then found additional life through popular singers and jazz musicians. He may well have a good point about modern pop songs that have already lived in other contexts, and planted themselves in people’s brains, not generating the required effect in the context of a musical play. The one thing I’d say about Dylan’s songs is that they have demonstrated a great pliability. As he himself has illustrated during the course of over 40 years of live shows, his songs can be sung in a variety of ways, and different emphases can bring out different angles. It’s going to be interesting to see what Tharp pulls off. The first performance is January 25th. I can’t wait to see the set list.

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